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Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

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Unimatic1140

Unimatic1140

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
Messages
9,924
Location
Minneapolis
Let’s face it, the reason this website was created was to give a face to our interest and hobby of washing machines, dryers and dishwashers. While most posts in the Super Forum are generally benign there has been a lot of posts over the years that cause escalations and cause my email inbox to fill up with complaints. While 99% of the time I look the other way, many times I roll my eyes reading Super Forum threads (the ones I actually read) thinking that they are inappropriate for the general content of this website. Also some of the posts not only are inappropriate for the website, but are inappropriate for the children that might have an interest in washers and stumble upon the site and we do want to encourage the younger generations to enjoy this hobby as well. I would just hate to think that a 14 year old who loves washers as much as I do would have his parents say he was not allowed to read this website because of stuff on the Super Forum <br
So with that said here is what I propose to do:<ul
<li>The Super Forum will become a members only forum. Anyone will be able to read and post in the Imperial and Deluxe forums but not the Super Forum
<li>Super Forum members must be 18 years old or older to join
<li>The Super Forum will be un-moderated and posts will only be deleted/closed in the most extreme cases (so extreme to the point that it should only happen once every five years)
<li>Members will be able to read and reply to all postings, non-members will only be able to read the Super Forum’s Yellow Index page but will not be able to read or respond to the actual Threads
<li>Since the thread titles will be available to the general public to read we will come up with a list of words that get replaced on the Index Page with *&%$ and then the real word used will show up on the title inside the thread
<li>The Super Forum threads and posts will be blocked from appearing in search engines such as Google or Yahoo
<li>In Super Forum posts the "Report post to webmaster" button will only send me an email, no matter how many members click on it, no posting will ever be automatically deleted
<li>The Super Forum will be open to any member of the Super Forum, members will not be banned
<li>The Super Forum new banner will read something like <br
<I>The Super Discussions Forum for topics relating to all other off topic discussion such as laundry detergents and additives, other appliances large and small, electronics, politics, religion, daily life issues or anything else you would like to discuss. The Super Forum can get quite heated and/or racy at times, read these postings at your own risk</I <br
<li>A fee based (such as .99 cents per month) Pay-Pal Subscriptions will be implemented to become a member <br
I'm open everyone's thoughts and feedback on this.
 
Robert, I think you have proposed a solution here that is fair and equitable to everyone. As a 'Members Only' forum, you will reduce the risk of offending the general public while keeping the spirit of this community alive and well.
I don't weigh in to discussions in Super forum often but I feel it should somehow be preserved to allow the community a place to express their opinions and ideas.
Kudos to you, sir!
 
Why do all the security work to block what can/cannot be seen? Just have it completely blocked and only available to paying members. If someone is so curious to want to see what goes on, let them pay for a single month and judge for themselves whether or not they want to participate.
 
"Why do all the security work to block what can/cannot be seen? Just have it completely blocked and only available to paying members. If someone is so curious to want to see what goes on, let them pay for a single month and judge for themselves whether or not they want to participate."

Programatically it will be easier to do it the way I described.
 
Robert, I think if someone does not post or behave appropriately, they should be terminated from the club.

I personally do not have a problem paying a fee, but then this is defeating the whole purpose of what the club started out as. I am sure a lot of other members do not have a problem paying a fee either. But the Super Forum is a great place to bring nice things to the table, recipes, picture threads etc. NOT politics, religion, or arguing. I think this may just add more fuel to the fire if you know what I mean.

This is just my opinion.

I will go with what you want.
 
Is there no way of just making a "Hot Topics" (politics/religion etc) forum like they do over there on gardenweb so all the smalls and recipes etc don't have to be tainted with it either. With a zero tolerance for it in the 3 regular forums.
 
I have to admire your patience Robert

when it all gets a bit (or a lot) heated when the kids dont play nice in the playground!

In principle I agree with your proposal but would suggest you keep "Super" available to all BUT that it is strictly appliance related - to include the wonderful kitchen & home restorations, refrigeration & ranges, small appliances, vacuums, TV, Radio and other audio equipment and cleaning/laundry products. And recipies of course! Basically anthing would could be of wider interest to an appliance collector.

I would suggest that you create a fourth forum if possible - "Soapbox" where political and other views can be aired and shared - I would simply keep this limited to paying members as you describe with them clearly accepting terms that the views expressed in posts are of the persons making the posts, exercising their democratic right to free speech, and not the views of automaticwasher.org in general.

That way, those of us who are only interested in appliance related stuff can avoid the "soapbox"

Finally, I do not agree with your $.99 membership fee - it is WAY too LOW! As others have already acknowledged you have created and maintained this corner of cyberspace for us at your own cost and, personally, I do not think it unreasonable for you to be compensated for the web space useage at the very LEAST. Personally I would gladly pay $10.00 annually (actually I would pay more, but I want to keep it reasonable for for others), even if I never looked at "Soapbox"
And as the other three threads, clearly focussed on appliances, would still be available "free to air" so to speak, then for those for whom $10 could be a problem, they can still make their valuable contributions.

Thanks once again for all your efforts
Al
 
The fur will fly!

Great Idea Robert.

I'm in. Less babysitting for you if you don't have to establish rules and enforcement.

Nicer even is that the new and improved will not be searchable by Google and such, and not be archived. (But I will still behave!)
 
I think Al has a nice suggestion. A fourth forum for only the heated discussions and perhaps some less heated that don't have anything to do with appliances. It would make discussions about detergents, blenders and whatever still free available to everyone. What would a washing machine forum be without talking about detergent. If you make people pay for discussions about such items they might end up in the wrong forum because non-members of the super forum might still want to take part in such discussions.

I'm all for a separate part for political discussions etc. We are a special group and a lot of us want to share opinions on non-appliance related topics. Members will have a choice, be a member and run the risk of being annoyed or keep out of it.

Al, Robert was suggesting 0.99 per month, not per year. As from another continent and not using Paypal a lot and not sure if Paypal let me do automatic payments I would prefer to pay an annual fee. A choice of various payments would be great I think.

And for the rest, Robert, you really are a doll for still keeping this website online despite all the time and energy it costs you. I wouldn't want another webmaster than you.

Louis
 
I agree with the others. Keep the 3 forums for what they're supposed to be for, and create another for all the folks that want to discuss sex, politics etc and let them pay for it. Or just get rid of the Super Forum altogether.
 
I agree...

I like the idea of a fourth forum for the 'hot' topics. The Soapbox... I like it as there are those of us who post Super forum topics like ranges, refrig's, blenders and those wonderful food topics. Otherwise, the rules you propose are fair and ok with me as applied to a fourth forum. Thank you, Robert!

RCD
 
Discuss-o-Matt

My 10cents would be to keep the yellow forum as described when you set it up...
"
The Super Discussions Forum for topics relating to all laundry detergents and additives, old and new, as well as off topic. conversations such as other vintage appliances and vintage electronics, etc."

Like members here have said, I know for a fact that senior people in organisations, as well as schools and media PR access these pages, along with families & joe public!!!....at the same time I cringe every time I see some of the stuff thats gets discussed....

And if you really want to set up a 4th area for all other discusions let members pay for your work and charge accordingly, not peanuts, make it worthwhile....but seriously I think you`re causing yourself a whole load of heartache with that one!!!
 
robert, you are the one who

puts his time and money into this site, it's your site, i would do it however YOU want! you have the vision of what you want the site to include and make possible.

personally i wouldn't even have a forem for 'non appliance related' topics but that's just me. and i'm a guy who only goes to the mailbox once a month or less, has no cell phone, and rarely even answers his house phone! i'm not the most "social" being anymore so i'm not into chat rooms, discussion forems and all that. i find discussions of politics, religion, and gay rights and non gay rights all completely boring! and i'm a gay as they come!

like said before i'm here for the appliances! and i agree 100% about your views on kids visiting the site. i would have loved this had we had it when i was a kid! the closest thing i had was an occasional magazine ad or brochure.

and i'm all for a membership fee too! i would make it 5 bucks a month. that's less than a porn site! if we can afford to buy em, ship em, fix em, and scour the web for parts we can easily afford to give you 5 bucks a month to help keep the site running! it would offset your expenses and keep the general site open and fee for anyone who may want to visit.

it's a great site, i'm sure you'll get it all worked out the way you want it!
 
Robert, the fact that you are even willing to go to the trouble is something I really appreciate. You don't need to be spending the time and energy to accommodate those of us who can get carried away sometimes. I am, however, leaning towards a 4th forum for the hot topics rather than having the G-rated off-topic items lumped in with more heated discussions but truly, whatever is easiest for you. What you are doing is beyond gracious.

Ralph
 
Love the idea of splitting Super into 2 forums, the new Super and the SoapBox. I would gladly pay $12 a year for access, maybe more, even though I'm more interested in the non-soapbox forums.

Even though it would be harder to implement, I like the idea of having the SoapBox forum completely closed to non members. If we are concerned about putting our best foot forward, lets keep our unmentionables in our pants, so to speak. I'd bet anyone underage would be able to suss out the meaning of any word that was obscured. I tend to think that the tone is sometimes worse than the words themselves.

I would love to see some sort of "tag" in the existing forums, so that you could choose a "type" of post. Look at fark.com for example. In the New Super forum, you could scan down the list of posts and see them tagged as things like Recipes, Small Appliance, Detergents, and so on. In the other forums, how about New Toy, Found For Sale, Help! and so on?

I know. I am full of ideas that make work for Robert. I like the site any old way he sets it up, for what its worth. :-)

Also, PayPal is pretty flexible as a payment proccessor. You can use it like a virtual credit card terminal, if you have the right type of account, so Robert would have a lot of flexibilty setting up payments and subscriptions. Also, you don't have to be a member of PayPal to submit a payment, you can use use a credit card.
 

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