A Plan For A Successful Future

Mike

Well-Known Member
This is all hinged on us getting our ads back on the forum, which I am confident will happen. If not, then gotta come up with a plan B.

From this point on, we are going to have to be more refined in our actions within the main areas of the forum. By main areas, I mean all areas other than the Miscellaneous forums category. If the forum falls within the miscellaneous category, we can be a little more loose, much like we have always been.

The biggest changes within the miscellaneous category will be stricter policies on personal attacks. I've seen more of this on the forum than I care to, and it is time for things like that to come to a halt. We talk about being adults, and I feel we should act like adults as well.

The word censor is site wide, so there is no dividing that up. I will work on something for those who are obsessed with seeing profanity rather than asterisks though. Don't get in a hurry for this though, could be quite some time down the road.

The kicker:
We have just blocked a big portion of the website from not only the google adsense, but from google search as well. Everything in the miscellaneous category is being delisted from google's search engine as of tonight. Within a couple days, that process should be complete and all of that content will no longer be bringing traffic into the forum.

What I really NEED from you guys and gals: (This is really important)
To make up for the losses we will incur by removing ads and removing search traffic for a big portion of the site, we have got to increase our focus on building content and promoting activity within the main trucking areas of the forum.

This is done in a few ways:
  1. Create Threads
    Each new thread is a new page to be listed in the search engines. Referring to the trucking related forums here.
  2. Answer New Questions
    People come here looking for help, if you have an answer, please offer it up. If all you can think of is something rude or degrading because you think the original poster is an idiot, then walk away from the thread rather than insult the member.
  3. Respect Each Other (This goes for new members also)
    It's not a newbies fault that he/she is a newbie. It's not their fault that they don't know as much as you know. People need to feel comfortable in making a post without being treated as if they are stupid. Again, if you don't have something positive to contribute to the person, just ignore them. Purposely embarrassing someone, only drives them away as well as many others who see this being done to others. It gets to a point where people become incline to say nothing as opposed to risk being ridiculed on a public forum.
As we grown and become a large community, we can become less and less dependent on places like adsense. We have a lot of growing to do, however, to get to that point. I know we have a very strong core group of members who can help us achieve this.
 
Fair enough, Boss.

Coupl'a suggestions.

We see a lot of the same questions coming up. How about some of those very common questions get thumbtacked so the next person with the same question can find it easily and, if they have a more refined question along the same basic lines, they can add to the existing thread? This would curb the aggravation of repeatedly answering the same question fifty times a week. You're just as active here as the rest of us, so you know as well as I do what falls under this description.

Eliminate the Resources section and bring those topics to the general forum. There is a ton of excellent stuff tucked away there that is not only appropriate, but is downright interesting. It doesn't make sense to keep it out of public view.

Curb the general company-bashing. I'm just as guilty as anyone else. It's one thing to post factual negatives to a company and quite another to simply say the company is full of morons or the company bites just because it bites. Back it up with facts. This does not apply to the banter in the non-public section, as long as it doesn't turn malicious.

If a member doesn't know the answer to a question, just keep quiet. Somebody here does know the answer. They'll be along to provide it. It's a lot easier to give a correct, researched answer the first time than to correct a wrong answer and start all over. We all have some kind of expertise. If we stay out of each others' way, we will be in a better position to offer it.

Some social stuff should be left public, to demonstrate the type of community we have. Stuff like the support some of our members have gotten through difficult times and the teasing we issue each other. This lets potential new members know we do care about each other and we have fun, too.

That's about all I have for now.
 
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I would actually like to further institute the resources section. Bascially, creating articles, and referencing some quality posts within them. This way, when a generic question is asked, the member can be referred to the resource, which will eventually be completely categorized. It will also soon be brought up to date in regards to being compleltely responsive with mobile devices. I'm not doing any site updates yet until our ad situation is fixed.

I will make it where guests can see that we have off topic forums, but they will need to register to see the content. At least for now. Only the miscellaneous category is blocked. Everything else is visible.
 
I've been tempted to type up a nice informative post explaining that no, you can't get a trucking job with six DUI's in the past year, and save it in a text file on my desktop & just copy & paste from it every time somebody shows up asking that question.
 
We see a lot of the same questions coming up. How about some of those very common questions get thumbtacked so the next person with the same question can find it easily and, if they have a more refined question along the same basic lines, they can add to the existing thread?
This would curb the aggravation of repeatedly answering the same question fifty times a week. You're just as active here as the rest of us, so you know as well as I do what falls under this description.
Even if you thumbtack it, you will get people that'll come in and ask the question over and over again...It's the nature of the beast.


Curb the general company-bashing.

No one will ever stop laughing at SWIFT....No matter how hard you try.


If a member doesn't know the answer to a question, just keep quiet. Somebody here does know the answer. They'll be along to provide it. It's a lot easier to give a correct, researched answer the first time than to correct a wrong answer and start all over. We all have some kind of expertise. If we stay out of each others' way, we will be in a better position to offer it.

The purpose of a forum is discussion....Who's to say that any one person has the right answer?
I have seen lots of people give a completely wrong answer to a question because they think it's right.
Again, that's the nature of the beast.
How're you gonna get the posters that are wrong but think that they're right to "keep quiet" as you say?

If we stay out of each others way....You won't have a forum, you'll have a blog.

The fine line that must be walked includes some disagreement and even a little dissension, otherwise you have nothing.
The key is to keep it fairly civil while allowing it to remain lively and interesting at the same time.
 
The purpose of a forum is discussion....Who's to say that any one person has the right answer?
I have seen lots of people give a completely wrong answer to a question because they think it's right.
Again, that's the nature of the beast.
How're you gonna get the posters that are wrong but think that they're right to "keep quiet" as you say?

In general, but, especially on the intraweb, the fastest way to get a right answer is to give a wrong answer.

amedia.moddb.com_images_members_1_383_382878_someone_is_wrong_on_the_internet2.1.png

I can't say for sure, but, that stick person may be nekid....
 
In general, but, especially on the intraweb, the fastest way to get a right answer is to give a wrong answer.

View attachment 13249

I can't say for sure, but, that stick person may be nekid....

Not only that but the "coming to bed" implies S-- and that's baaaaaaaddddd!!!!!!;)

As for the good/bad advice issue; there are many old sayings like broken clocks being right twice a day, etc that are true. Over the years I've learned more than a few things from people who others consider idiots. As long as they are actually doing the thing I will listen. If nothing else I can figure out not to do what they said.;)

And for the "flame' issue, I assume you meant Tazz and Me. I can't speak for him, but I wasn't thinking of the posts there as "personal attacks"; I just assumed he was "giving me a hard time" just for the sake of being Tazz. Shoot, I grew up in an environment where anything that didn't involve blood on the ground was considered "just goofin". But I can see where some immature Liberal pantywaist would get all scared and upset.

So, for the sake of the site I will tone it down or leave if necessary.
 
Nothing here is geared toward anyone in particular. we have a boatload of flame wars on this forum. Flame wars kill a thread, and they can be done privately via the conversation system once it gets to that point.
 

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