Good on ya mate!! Everyone needs to not mistake passion with anger etc!! Hope you enjoy the joint and look forward to hearing your take on matters and involvement in the chats!!!
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Tony what have you started
I like to help anyone with a 'Trol and a problem. I don't expect them to join my Club or any of the Forums I am a member of, indeed I don't expect anything in return. I just get a warm and fuzzy feeling for helping someone out.
I have invited people whose first post is about a problem on their vehicle to come around to my house and we have sorted it out. After genuine thanks I have never seen them since (cept on Forums) and refused any payment or gifts and simply asked them to "pass the help on to the next person they meet and we will call it square".
Ownership - In all most every case of manuals and Docs on here the publications are not "ours" and have been obtained from other sources for free. We do not own them legally or morally
Bandwidth - Easy, don't host 3rd party Docs, Post up the title, a brief review of what its about and the link to its source ( I know this isn't applicable to all Docs that are here)
Goodwill - I reckon trollman isn't far off in his appraisal. People who only want the docs will not come back after 25 posts 'cept to get more docs or will just get them elsewhere. The ZD30 Bible and the GQ manual links are available on at least 1/2 dozen other sites and forums for example. FAST is on at least 2 others and turned up here last chronologically.
Bottom line I think is the question are we here to form our own community with its entry requirements and rules or to share knowledge, experience, tips and foster goodwill to anyone who has a Patrol?.
I think the latter and then the former is the more better for it which is why in my replies to a new poster with a problem he gets an answer as well as a suggestion to post up an intro.
Agree on most parts and it looks like the best option is not to have the manuals at all.
The problem is the people think its their god given right to have the manual just because they join up. People should adhere to the forum rules and regulations irrespective of their thoughts and feelings.
We all try and help this forum community in some way or another, and thats what its all about.
There's lots of forums where you can't even download a picture if you're not a member or not havet sufficient posts, so as I see it this forum is pretty relaxed in the way it regulates the forum .
Way I see it, lot of forums have their rules and people should respect them.
Hiya NissPat... yeah no argument from me about that
I should add... I like the idea of a "request" by PM or whatever for the Docs just to keep a handle on lurkers and mal's but in the end AB's call on how he wants to proceed gets my support no matter what the decision
AB has said that he is going to look at the matter when he comes back from his Easter Break. As there have been quite a number of Posts in this thread he will have plenty of input to enable him to make a decision.
Most of the Posts have quite valid points and hopefully it will be resolved to the satisfaction of most members.
onya Bob x2
I am only new to this site but after reading this thread it is clear that there are a lot of passionate members.
I would have to agree that it is rude to just join, download the manuals and not contribute in someway.
Another way to stop spamming from people trying to reach the 25 post.
Is to keep the 25 post requirement but have 2 options when signing up.
1. Keep the original sign up as it is now.
2. Add an extra option, where for a small donation you already start with 25 post.
This would allow for the people who just wanted the manual to be able to download it without posting all the crap (I don't think this will breach copyright laws because the donation is not directly for the manual).
The second option may also motivate people to become more involved with the forum after they have the manual.