Robert, first off let me say that I'm the one that sent Tony the e-mail about sponsors being moderators. My comments were not aimed directly at you personally, I've never meet you and don't know anything about you or your affiliation with your employer. My concern is should sponsors be allowed to be moderators also, I don't think so. Furthermore I was surprised to find that there are over 20 moderators on this board who are also sponsors, just rubs me in the wrong direction. I'm not going to vote in your poll and again I want to make it perfectly clear that my objections have absolutely nothing to do with you personally, it's an administrative issue.

 

Well ****. I guess welcome to the old crowd. I too recently turned 37. I thought it was over 50 but I guess times are changing.

 

Old enough to have a 25 year old son, but I did get an early start.

For those that are wondering what mods really do, well my last action was I think yesterday, I deleted post that was just trying to stir things up, not needed. Prior to that I deleted twice a non sponsor link, and pm'ed person to let them know if they want to push their wares please sign up and become a sponsor. Mostly in this section people behave, but once in a while language has to be corrected and things like that. I recruite many from other sites to come here to our site, and there are other things we do going on behind the scenes. Mostly things to make this a pleasant place to hang out.
Robert

 

I'd have to agree with the above post. As long as you are unbiased and perform your mod job in aneutral fashion, I see no reason why you'd need to go anywhere. I don't know you from Adam, but ya seem fair enough. The only potential problem I could see might be having to ban or censor a potential or current client, but hey, thats thier problem.

Stay where you're at

 

Hey 383, at 37 with 6 years prior service, as l;ong as your physical and background are ok, you should be GTG

And OLD my ****! I'm 49.

As far as the mod thing, I went back and read the entire thread, something I didn't do previous to posting.

First and foremost, at least here, being a MOD doesn't appeat to be a personality contest. I've been a mod on 4 other sites. The last one decided (because the club/shop was caving into it's own neck) to hold a "private vote" (no one saw the results other than a select few "inner circle" individuals) for MODs? Turned into a huge personality contest. The decisions were not based on section knowlege or MOD duties. They were baserd upon who "liked" whom and childish crap like that It was a very sad situation to say the least.

A MOD doesn't really "need" knowlege of a particular subject to mod a section. It's nice, but they're not the freaking SHELL ANSWER MAN, the are MODS, baby sitters, forum police, etc

If you suddenly started censuring posts from competitors or post containing info regarding your competition, then I'd say there was a problem. You're actually taking a bigger chance at losing business as a sponsor by being a mod. It's a hell of a risk, but one you've obviously handled well

As long as you can remain unbiased and don't mind the possibility as I stated earlier of pissing off a current or potential client, then why go anywhere. Keep the MODS an appointed position, based on site performance and not popularity or sponsorship and things will continue to go well.

Just my $.02.

 

My.02 is there has not been an issue or conflict. I think you've done a great job of
seperating/restraining your roles.The Nitrous section has always been a 'wares' based
section. You can generally guess at someone's post just by following a few threads.
My.02 is keep up the good work
Hawk

 

I didn't even notice the Nitrous Direct affiliation.
But I expect the other sponsor/members will be
enough of a Citizens' Vigilance Committee to keep
thing on the up-and-up, if'n you git uppity.

 

I'm here to learn about nitrous.

I'm not here to be a politician or read about the politics inside the nitrous industry. I'm not here to decipher who is affiliated with who. I'm certainly not here to pick through threads (like this one) that are completely off-topic and in any real world application, useless. I couldn't give two ***** less who moderates this forum, and I'm betting I'm in the majority.

This site is called LS1TECH for a reason. If I wanted high school drama, I'd head to a local friday night football game...

 

Just stick to the questions and inform of all options possible. That way there is no issue with pushing one company over another unless only one company offers the product.

 

I had a nice response typed out last night, then the site got busy and lost it moderate that!!!

At any rate, I dont see where being a mod gives you (or Al or the 18 other mods who are/work for sponsors) any real advantage in doing your job, I haven't noticed any real bias in your posts, and dont see an issue.

 

I openly admit that I was one of the outspoken people against mods being sponsors. However, since that time I don't think I've given it a second thought after seeing Robert conduct himself in an acceptably nuetral manner. He's done a pretty good job of continuing to help a great deal in this section without overly pushing his brand. With the group of outspoken regulars that we have here I don't think any of the mod/sponsors in this section will be allowed to get out of hand, lol.

 

Nothing against anyone in particular but I dont think sponsors should be mods. If nothing else it creates an air of foul play and a possible conflict of interest.

I think there are enough knowledgable folks on here that could step in and fill your mod shoes and you would still be around to help with your knowledge.

 

I feel Robert has done a great job and I see no issues.

I was the first to vote for him to join and go over see's. After 14 years of combined service I felt it would teach him right from wrong in his Moderating duties

OLD! I will be 39 in March. If my body did not slow me down I would still be going like I was 21

 

Robert, from what I have seen you conduct your self in a very professional manner. However, IMO the basic premise of having a sponsor also be a moderator is a conflict of interest. On the flip side of that coin while this is a forum it is also a business and I am sure will be run as such. While the ethical issues could de debated forever, whether or not this was a smart business move will be told in time. Democracy does not always apply to automotive forums.

Jim C.

 

I agree with you Joey; however, this is nitrous.There are times when it seems like we have had a bit too much of the "sans sulpher" stuff...there are also times when it gets so heavily technically based that my eyes want to pop out. Most of the time we all seem to wantg to help people with their nitrous related questions. Some folks like myself are so appreciative of vendors and manufacturers like Nitro Dave or NX that we go out of the way to tell people about our good luck with them. BTW - that's a two way street...i've gotten some faily ugly PMs suggestiong I tone down my rhetoric as well as some simple thanks for the plug.

anyway...

In the case of this thread, Robert seems to be asking for feedback that is directed to a specific group...we who understand the thread question. I'll bet you are pretty busy with Carolinarides.com and understand this better than many...but lots of people will seethis thread title and ask "what's all the fuss?"...some of us will immediately understand. I guess it could be gleened that the basic question is "Should moderators be allowed to sell products?" or "Should salesman of sponsoring products be allowed to moderate?". I'd side with Vinny @ 860 and say more of less "not a good idea"....i'd side with you and "say who cares"... Mainly, I side with Dave and say..."Robert, where do you get the time?"

 

Off topic: Happy birthday!

 

I haven't read what you all have said and I've been gone for a while so I don't know how things have been. But just in principle alone, sponsors should not be mods unless it's their own forum or they are mods in forums completely unrelated to their business interests. If this were a Nitrous Direct forum instead of a general nitrous forum, yes, other than that, no.

 

join the army and give me your job.

nah your doing great, you have given me a lot of really good info every time i ask something

 

LOL, Thats what I voted for. No offense, just a little fun. Don't let things get ya down.

 

dont join the army, join the airforce and come to offutt so you can help me wire up my 5177!!
I have read almost everything in this section concerning dry systems,installs, performance and....yup you guessed it just about everyone of them had roberts dry knowledge sprinkled on it. He backed NOS 5177s kit and he didnt work for them, so I see this no different.lol. Either way, I stopped reading so much because everytime someone asked a question each sponsor would come in and say....great kit "we offer such and such" followed by the next sponsor and the next and......