Well Steve its nice to see you haven't changed. Your "like it leave" approach to everyone you disagree with or doesn't pay you money worked when you were the only board; however, now you are neither the only board or unfortuately the best. There are boards where all the vendors can be heard from whether they pay or not. The average number of post from people on this thread is way less than 500. What happened to all your over 2000 post members. THEY LEFT! Enjoy the newbies and all the repetitiveness.

The click you hear is me removing F150 from my favorites list.

noelvm

 

Jesus everyone relax.

How do you get that we(me) think we are better then anyone?

I could care less, what i was referring to was having to wade through other boards to see info that has been here in the past for awhile.

It has nothing to do with not wanting to meet the rest of the forum's users, i just want to look in one spot for info i like, and be amused by people that i know and have a simular interest as me.

I am sure i have missed a ton of great info by not reading the general board and other forums, but i really do not have the time to try to keep up to date on another forum and dig through pages or reading if i miss a few days.

I would like to suggest that there be a Lightning Community Board added. This board would be pretty much anything goes other then ToA violations.

You have a great thing going Steve and trust me we all appreciate it, but does it take that much to bend just a little to make us a bit happier? I think the Lighthing CB idea would go a long ways.

Silver what i posted was not a attack on your job, you seemed to take it that way. I was just mentioned a certain way that i enjoyed reading the boards, as i am sure as you mentioned there are others that don't feel the same. Moderation is a thankless job, but imho should also be done without emotion.

If we did do a Lightning Community Board i would think it would make your job a lot easier. If something was even remotley in question about being off topic you would have one spot you could stick it. Not have to decide where it should go. Of course you will still have trollings and what not to still deal with on the main L page, but there will always be those posts.

So in the end (sorry if you actually read all this) I am not a hater, i do love fords, and also my lightning. But please don't hate me because i want to stay in one spot.

Thanks
Jason

 

whew, that was some heavy duty reading done on my part. Anyway, the L forum (as it is called by the locals) is great to read. As of right now, I dont own an L, but will in the future so I read the posts and respond to a few. Concerning the off-topic posts, they are enteresting and would be hard to put somewhere else. Talk about off-topic, the whole exhaust wheel 2 sets of different forums for each isn't working. I respond and/or read all the posts, no matter what forum, for I have gotten some neat ideas there. Now class (hehe) what has all this discussion been about, not much in my books but a good question that leed to a discussion that has racked my brain and now I am going to bed. Just my take it or leave it, (if it were me, I would take the 2-cents and try and find 48 more cents so you could buy a pop)

 

Noel
There are only 15 people who have over 2000 posts

Most of them are still regular posters. It is a normal process for someone to get a new toy and while it is new spend LOTS of time working on it or being involved with it. As time goes on the mods are done and interests change and people check in less and less often. In some cases former menbers shy away because of the types of caustic contributions you have become famous for.

Ashenor, I was trying to make a point. There are always 2 sides to a story. There has been talk of subforums for Lightnings for years and Steve has declined so far.

To all,
The system he has set up is pretty easy to figure out, the fact that it doesnt meet everyones needs, all the time means it is reality rather than fantasy.

I do find it amusing that people think a volunteer moderator should be some type of emotionless, opinionless robot... Yeah let me sign up for that job, what fun.....

Doug

 

webmaster...

How about just ONE FOURM ... we'll call it Ford Truck ... post anything and everything no topic is off topic , just post anything you want . then it will look just like the Lightning Fourm so all the L guys will feel right at home .

Or , just delete anything that is off topic in that particular fourm ... don't waste time moving it , just delete it with no warning , no questios asked . not just the Lightning fourm , any fourm .

Or , just charge the L guys for the extra work and band width (j/k)

I miss the "search" ... I miss the "View New Posts" ... I'd like to see this site function as it should ... I look through this site almost every day. When I go to the Supercrew Fourm I expect to find topics on the Supercrew ... when I go to General Disscusions I expect to find off topic stuff .... That's the way is supposed to work , that's the way you get the most out of this site .... whats so hard about that ?

 

As if I could possibly add anything after wittom's, Doug's, and cowlady's intelligent posts,
There are a few other nice Ford Trucks sites out there, and I see far more posts moved and less tact in moving them than you guys have experianced here.
One post I saw where a guy asked about a Ranger in the 150 forum was locked and answered by the webmaster:
"Look at the title of this forum, and look at the model truck you are asking about. Please post in the appropriate forum"
I just laughed. If it happened on F150online, a member would have said
"Welcome to the fourms. You have a nice Truck there. I am not very familiar with that model, and seeing as how most of us here may not be, why don't you try posting this question over in the xxx forum" Other members would also post welcoming him (or her) to the forum, and some may even answer his question.

People not wanting to do as the webmaster of F150online politely requests are just being selfish. You are the reason why Steve has a moderator in here, and almost nowhere else. You are the reason search does not work. Yet you insist on being unsupportive, and some even threaten to leave.
Why don't you try thinking outside of your driveways for a minute?
There is a whole world out there, and for design far greater than my knowlege can comprihend, you are part of it, so why don't you get out of the Truck and take a walk down the driveway and meet some neighbors. There is intelligent life on the other side of that F150 Lighting badge.

 

Finally! Frankly, I am happy to see that you are taking your ignorance and attitude elsewhere. Despite what you like to think, we'll get along just fine without you.

Now let's once again get back on topic. As I noted earlier, please let's not turn this into an "us vs. them" thread.

A suggestion mentioned above, subforums, was an idea I considered a while back. While I thought it may be a good idea to alleviate the technical search problems, I'm afraid it will not.

 

Maybe it would. You could always make Lightning O/T forum, and have it directly link to the general discussion forum

To me it seems that the biggest problem is that alot of Lightning owners are friends as well as a big close group. Since we have everything we need in thread it makes it much more convient for all of us to interact constantly. And I am sure that most of us would think that if we are forced to post in other forums here it would hurt or detract from what we have going now.

If you look at the general discussion forum, there is another group like us, friends who want to just chat and post some funny stuff.


And Noelvm is right about 1 thing, there have been an increasingly number of duplicate posts about things that have been discussed. Doug has an excellent FAQ which links to many threads, which any of them of can easily be dug up out of the depths to discuss again and add to. If that would happen the number of new posts would drop and I'm sure that would be a good start to alleviate some of the server problems occuring here.

 

Let's do whatever we've got to do to get the Search back. Those that just read one Forum may not miss it but, I read all 56 Forums and this site is less than what it was without 'Search'.

Will posting in the Forum the thread pertains to help?
If it will, let's do it.

Here's another suggestion. How about some housecleaning?
I know we're about to reach 20K membership and membership counts are to webmasters what advertised HP ratings are to auto manufacturers but, of our 20K, 8K haven't posted in two years. Why not send out a mass e-mail asking members who have not posted in two years for a positive response or a sticky someplace asking for a response from members still here who have not posted but do not wish to be deleted? Removing 8000 members and the threads they started can only help the Search indexes.

I only mention this because Steve has asked for suggestions. The bottom line is this is Steve's 'cyber house'. Who would really go into someone's house stand up and say,
"oh, so it's your way or the highway"?

Also, this whole 'Us verses Them' thing is silly. I don't check to see what someone drives unless it pertains to the thread and have never considered 'L' owners to be second-class citizens for lack of a backseat or stakepockets.

I wouldn't even be able to post in 'Gen Disc' if they knew I rode the bus.

 

I think this was discussed once before and I posted my thoughts. There are a few good "L" guys and there are a few idiots there too and those idiots don't help situations like this.

This is the deal, this is F150online.com !!! This site pretains to F150's, it doesn't matter what year, shape or size. It doesn't even matter how fast OR freakin' slow you go. You come here to find solutions to problems, to help others, get ideas on something you want to do and to talk with others who have the same interests as you !!! (F150's)

Steve created this site with forums to keep this simple and neat. You have a problem with stereo equipment whether OEM or aftermarket then you go to the audio section, NOT the general discussion OR Lightning forums !!! Why is this SOOO hard for some people to figure out. If I had a problem with '94 F150, I wouldn't be going to the Lightning forum to find help, I would go to the "Pre '97" section.

Furthermore, if I understand this correctly, it is due to the Lightning forum that we have lost our "Search" options. If this is true then why does everyone else have to pay for their misuse. Also, if they are the cause then you should shut the Lightning forum down for awhile. Everything that they talk and don't talk about is pretty much covered in another forum here on the site. They have a problem with the supercharger, you go to the supercharger/turbo section. Tire issues, go to the aftermarket - wheel and tires section.

Oh and one last thing, the ONLY reason that the Lightning forum has so many post and topics is because alot of the posts are duplicates OR they belong in another forum where they belonged in the first place.

Steve, you have something awesome going here, please don't let a few members screw things up for everyone else that is here. It should be pretty simple, if they don't like it, then they leave !!! End of conversation !!!

Have Fun & Keep on Truckin'
Dean

 

Steve bought an F150 a few years ago and saw a chance to put together a website about his new truck.

On the web the more members/pageviews you can get the better your site is... up to a limit that your server can handle.
So now we need to walk a tight rope between members/pageviews, speed, function server capacity and cost.

To say that the Lightning Forum is the reason the search is down when no one knows why the server is unstable including the Application vendors is like saying traffic jams are caused by the cars and we should just close the roads to cars to eliminate the problem..
Guys like me who drive trucks would enjoy it but the majority drives cars and might complain..

A novel idea would be for the membership to show thier appreciation for Steve efforts by complying with the few directions he provides.

Doug

 

"A novel idea would be for the membership to show thier appreciation for Steve efforts by complying with the few directions he provides. "

I have not seen anyone ever say they don't appreciate. But as you seem to just like to say no to any change, Steve and a lot of others at least seem to enjoy a debate on how to make things better.

We are all thankful to Steve for giving us a place to post, but that does not mean we forfeit our rights to form a opinion on things we like or would like to see.

 

Doug is in a tough spot. He doesn't set policy he just enforces the law. It would not be appropiate for him to debate here as it could be perceived as dissension.

You really don't know how Doug may be pleading your case off-line.

 

Several good suggestions have been made in this thread and I think I have stated productively and professionally (with the exception of the personal attack) why, technically or otherwise, I do not feel that they would work in our particular circumstance.

An opinion on how to improve our current situation is not, to quote Ashenor earlier in this thread:I am always open to opinions, I am not open to directives or openly antagonistic replies.

I want to state this again...let's NOT make this thread an "us vs. them" discussion. It is not the "fault" of Lightning owners that search is not currently active on these boards. It is, IMHO, a deficiency of this forum software, MySQL and/or our hardware setup to handle tables as large as our searchindex has grown. (before it is suggested, more hardware is not an option due to economics, or lack thereof)

It may be considered the responsibility, however, of Lightning owners to help out the rest of the F150online community (if they so desire) by following our simple requests. That seems to be what the great debate is about...some want to help, some see it as a slap in the face.

 

Steve have you ever setup a donation program? I know a lot of sites don't like to do this, but most people are willing to donate5-20bucks to help out with server costs and upgrades.

Could add a small tag under there name like community supporter or something.

That is a bit off topic for this post, but just a idea.

I have been checking out the general forum the last few days and its pretty good and there seems to be a lot of nice people. But i would still like to see some sort of 2nd L board

Thanks. to everyone that has keep this post civil and offered idea's