66 replies to this topic

[Shifty]

Am on hols at the mo so i'm doing this on my phone!!

We had several instances of fraud when sell ing non mini items, so the decision was taken to only allow mini stuff. Regarding current ads with non mini items, please remember that we don't read every advert placed. If you see an advert that doesn't comply, report it.

We have discussed an 'other automotive' section, this is still under consideration.

If you have an ad that you feel is mini related(ie show ticketd) and would like to adveritise it, drop me a pm and i'll make it happen.

Feedback from users about the new(old) sysytem is good and I am always happy to hear ways to improve it.

[Shifty]

Back off hols now so will do a bit of a better reply..

The feedback I'm getting from both sellers and buyers is that the new system is working well indeed, theres lots of items for sale and all seem to be selling well indeed.

I'm gonna jinx it here, but we've had no reported problems since its introduction, we've caught 1 scammer before he had a chance and to the very best of my knowledge everyone who uses it is happy with it??(unless you tell me different?)

I've allowed ads that don't quite fit into the exact scheme of things when people have asked(depending on the item), I certainly wouldn't stop anyone selling tickets or the like, all they have to is ask.

What are people asking for here?

- To be able to sell everything on here?

- To be able to sell anything car related?

I'm not keen on the idea of "Everything goes" to be honest, we have discussed the "other auto motive" section before. To freshen up the debate I've started up a new thread in the staff room.

Any other thoughts and comments are welcome, if you want to PM then thats fine.

[1995 MK2 IOM]

Back off hols now so will do a bit of a better reply..

The feedback I'm getting from both sellers and buyers is that the new system is working well indeed, theres lots of items for sale and all seem to be selling well indeed.

I'm gonna jinx it here, but we've had no reported problems since its introduction, we've caught 1 scammer before he had a chance and to the very best of my knowledge everyone who uses it is happy with it??(unless you tell me different?)

I've allowed ads that don't quite fit into the exact scheme of things when people have asked(depending on the item), I certainly wouldn't stop anyone selling tickets or the like, all they have to is ask.

What are people asking for here?

- To be able to sell everything on here?

- To be able to sell anything car related?

I'm not keen on the idea of "Everything goes" to be honest, we have discussed the "other auto motive" section before. To freshen up the debate I've started up a new thread in the staff room.

Any other thoughts and comments are welcome, if you want to PM then thats fine.

I completely understand what you are saying here Shifty, and I have no problems with the new system what so ever - I think its much better to be honest!

From what I understand what people are discussing, is the content rather than the overall selling section... I can't see what issues anyone could have with the selling section in so much as how it is set out etc. (I could be wrong though?)...

I think "Car Related" would be a good place to start from... see how that goes etc, I spend quite a long time looking through car stuff generally on ebay when i get bored etc... just in case there is anything I think... ooo I wouldn't mind having one of those... and lets be honest... at some point... there will be things on here that people do not need... and want to get rid of, that others on here would pay for... I recently got a solar charger from TMF... I haven't used it... I didn't really need it... but i know that one day... it will come in handy.

I can see your point on "anything goes" selling... but I also think that the above points could also be argued for this too.

I know from an admin. point of view, its more work looking after (probably) more posts to deal with in the for sale section... which I can understand that being a reason for not allowing non mini and non car related items to be sold...

I can see both sides of the coin, which i'm sure most other users can also see... but at the same time, we're a community and generally people sell things cheaper when they feel its being kept in a "community" situation... (often see things being sold in the for sale section and an Ebay for a higher price!) I feel that its a good way of keeping things within a community that is, at present only bound by our minis.

well that's my thoughts anyway...

Jason

[Shifty]

The bit that kind of narks me a little is that the suggestion that no-one was consulted about the the new for sale section!!

We had almost daily complaints about the old section, there were loads of requests to change it back!!

It didn't work properly half the time, so the decison was taken to move to a system based on the previous one.

When the changes were announced the response was excellent

http://www.theminifo...x...=175605&hl=

As a team we put a lot of work into making this area work and as a user of this area I'm very happy with what we've achieved.

[mk3 Cooper S]

Yes it is much better, even better than the original.

I would like a non mini section for automotive based items if possible?

[minimadjonesy]

as this is a mini forum the staff members wanted to keep the classified section mini based

Would have been nice if they had asked the members what they wanted!

i didn't know it was the members forum

from what i know it was started by 2 friends so that they could learn how to fix their minis and help other people like them and they paid for the running costs out of their own money

when the forum grew they asked others for help and when they could no longer pay the bills their selves looked for other options

at no point has the forum been owned by the members, unless you could tell me other wise

This is the exact reply i expected from a member of the team, and it makes me wonder that if your names not in Red or Green your considered worthless. Another forum went down the route of its admin and mods being more important than its members and over the course of a couple of months, the forum became extinct.

Remember, without the Members there would be NO FORUM!!!

Personally i'd like to see a 'non-mini' for sale section as its a bit unfair BINI owners can post but not sell their cars on here

A possibility could be for TMF+ members only to make it safer.

Darkscamp,

Bungles comments do not represent the views of the Staff in any way. Yes TMF was originally set up by two people and yes they still own it, but it is run by the Staff FOR THE MEMBERS you are not considered worthless at all! which is why (unlike the other forum you mention) we are still around

As such, we are currently in discussion to evaluate this request for the new for sale section. And as Shifty has stated above, we did consult everyone before the change and a poll was actually run, if I recall correctly, that overwhelmingly agreed that the old system was better, hence the current classifieds section.

We'll get back to you all with regard to the new section shortly.

regards
Jonesy

[1995 MK2 IOM]

The bit that kind of narks me a little is that the suggestion that no-one was consulted about the the new for sale section!!

We had almost daily complaints about the old section, there were loads of requests to change it back!!

It didn't work properly half the time, so the decison was taken to move to a system based on the previous one.

When the changes were announced the response was excellent

http://www.theminifo...x...=175605&hl=

As a team we put a lot of work into making this area work and as a user of this area I'm very happy with what we've achieved.

I fully understand what you are saying. and I also agree that the new system is much better.

I notice people have now gone very quiet when one of the admin have commented?! are you really that scary?! lol

I am not one to complain, and I don't consider what I am saying is a complaint in any way, (I like the new (old) system) it's more of an opinion of what I would like to see in the for sale section... just an opinion or recommendation I guess feedback on the system as it stands now...

Maybe this whole situation is like something i've been accused of in the past (by ex-girlfriends) "you don't want/miss it till its gone..." lol

Cheers

Jason

[Ethel]

I'm humbled by how much effort certain members of the forum's team put in to humdrum business of keeping it oiled on the rails. That goes for the for sale section, in any of its incarnations, more than any other. Of course, a forum is a collection of bums as much as, if not more than, the collection of the seats they sit on.

In this instance I think some have the cart before the metaphoric platitude.

TMF's members are closer to share holders, the admin & mods are the managers & staff. You can tell your workers what you'd like, but it would be wise to listen to their feedback as, in the end, you're relying on them to do the work.


Scammers, like spammers, will trawl the interweb looking for any opportunity. Restricting that opportunity to Mini related fraud will hopefully discourage the majority and at least we'll be operating on familiar ground when trying to spot any that do slip through the net. If we do widen the sales sections then you'd have to expect less help from TMF when things go wrong.

[Scallywag630]

I'm humbled by how much effort certain members of the forum's team put in to humdrum business of keeping it oiled on the rails. That goes for the for sale section, in any of its incarnations, more than any other. Of course, a forum is a collection of bums as much as, if not more than, the collection of the seats they sit on.

In this instance I think some have the cart before the metaphoric platitude.

TMF's members are closer to share holders, the admin & mods are the managers & staff. You can tell your workers what you'd like, but it would be wise to listen to their feedback as, in the end, you're relying on them to do the work.

Shareholder can sack managers and staff....


Scammers, like spammers, will trawl the interweb looking for any opportunity. Restricting that opportunity to Mini related fraud will hopefully discourage the majority and at least we'll be operating on familiar ground when trying to spot any that do slip through the net. If we do widen the sales sections then you'd have to expect less help from TMF when things go wrong.

But if all the safeguards are in place, and if Traders are allowed to sell non mini related items and services, why can't members?

[Mini Mad Drakeley]

how about a non-mini related section that you either have to have 250+ posts or 50+ posts with tmf+ membership so no one can just log on, sign up to tmf+ and scam people? just a quick question aswell, since conversions are so popular like the vtecs and bike engines, are they classed as non-mini related or mini related? if not a section in which parts that are possibly needed for conversions may be useful like engines, wiring looms, stuff like that cus then people wont be filling the bandwidth with posts trying to sell the likes of chess sets and it would be easier to monitor than a section thats allowed to sell anything

[Darkscamp]

as this is a mini forum the staff members wanted to keep the classified section mini based

Would have been nice if they had asked the members what they wanted!

i didn't know it was the members forum

from what i know it was started by 2 friends so that they could learn how to fix their minis and help other people like them and they paid for the running costs out of their own money

when the forum grew they asked others for help and when they could no longer pay the bills their selves looked for other options

at no point has the forum been owned by the members, unless you could tell me other wise

This is the exact reply i expected from a member of the team, and it makes me wonder that if your names not in Red or Green your considered worthless. Another forum went down the route of its admin and mods being more important than its members and over the course of a couple of months, the forum became extinct.

Remember, without the Members there would be NO FORUM!!!

Personally i'd like to see a 'non-mini' for sale section as its a bit unfair BINI owners can post but not sell their cars on here

A possibility could be for TMF+ members only to make it safer.

Darkscamp,

Bungles comments do not represent the views of the Staff in any way. Yes TMF was originally set up by two people and yes they still own it, but it is run by the Staff FOR THE MEMBERS you are not considered worthless at all! which is why (unlike the other forum you mention) we are still around

As such, we are currently in discussion to evaluate this request for the new for sale section. And as Shifty has stated above, we did consult everyone before the change and a poll was actually run, if I recall correctly, that overwhelmingly agreed that the old system was better, hence the current classifieds section.

We'll get back to you all with regard to the new section shortly.

regards
Jonesy

I have to admit that i was having a bad day when i posted that and also dealing with the Man-Flu so comments like Bungles just tipped me over the edge. Bundling all the staff together in one generalising comment was not what i intended, it was more of a 'you know which members of the team you are' comment which could have been worded better.

I have noticed a lot more of one thing that really gets my back up, and thats members being told by mods/admins to trawl through many years of TMF topics using the dreaded/dreadfull search functionto find an answer close to what they are looking for, when it would be just as quick to answer it

I have literally in the last week signed up for another year of TMF and will be displaying the Scamp on the TMF Help For Heroes stand so in general i hope this shows i'm happy with TMF, just not some comments that i would have expected better of from the staff over the past few months. I know what you do is voluntary and takes up your spare time which is appreciated, but there seemed to be a status divide appearing and hopefully this can be nipped in the butt early. The very people that are repeatedly told how hard you guys work for free, would probably be interested in helping out mod/admin wise and giving up their spare time for free also but they have never been given the chance to do it. I mean its still a mystery to most of us how people are promoted or should i say selected for the roles they fill, and others who are also willing are overlooked.

i'll stop rambling on now because most of that would only probably make sense to people having a bad day and on day Nurse

[Bungle]

I have noticed a lot more of one thing that really gets my back up, and thats members being told by mods/admins to trawl through many years of TMF topics using the dreaded/dreadfull search functionto find an answer close to what they are looking for, when it would be just as quick to answer it

but sometimes there isn't a black and white answer

if the member or moderator post up some existing topics on this subject the op can then read up and make up their own mind or come back and ask more questions if they are still not sure

[Darkscamp]

I have noticed a lot more of one thing that really gets my back up, and thats members being told by mods/admins to trawl through many years of TMF topics using the dreaded/dreadfull search functionto find an answer close to what they are looking for, when it would be just as quick to answer it

but sometimes there isn't a black and white answer

if the member or moderator post up some existing topics on this subject the op can then read up and make up their own mind or come back and ask more questions if they are still not sure

and two problems are rarely identical so using the search function could be a waste of the ops time.

posting up topics would be helpfull to the op but many a time i've seen them being told to use the search function as this topic has been covered at some point in the last 100years. it is very rare that i see ops being directed to a relevant topic.

even i use google instead of the tmf search box as it comes up with more accurate results

[Bungle]

that i agree with and not being able to search for ECU etc is a pain

[Bungle]

I mean its still a mystery to most of us how people are promoted or should i say selected for the roles they fill, and others who are also willing are overlooked.

i can answer this question but it is only my experience

i was first asked to be a moderator in the early years of TMF by a member of the admin team i was friends with

i turned the job down as i thought i wasn't really needed as in those days the forum was small and the hand full of moderators we had did a good job with out me and i was only being asked because i was a friend

but i did point out that when the forum grew if there was a roll for me i would help, but ask as a admin not a friend

for the next year i did have access to the staff room and some moderator rights but not moderator under my name

(remember the first of the little comments under peoples names and the phantom editor)

the forum was still small and a lot of ideas were bashed out at local club meets and shows such as the the riviera run etc

when there was a short fall in certain areas a few names were thrown about looking at who used the forum and what time of day they were about but the 2 admin had the final say

when the forum grew a bit more and the regional sections came about was when i officially joined the team and i was asked by a different member of the admin team not the guy i was friends with

since then a lot more regional managers, moderators and admin have joined the team and all probably have their own story about how they were asked , they may or may not tell their story