maybe something like this...?

1. Host should post the forum rules of etiquette, clearly stating what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior.  For example, anyone posting a copyrighted item must be the owner of the copyright or have permission of the copyright holder to post it on the forum. No filthy pictures of Mrs. Oz.  No bad language that would not let me read this to my Mom.

2. Host should track how long a forum member has been active.   After X years or a post count of Y with no complaints from other members having similar years/count of membership, that member is eligible to be a moderator.  Moderators are such members who volunteer to be moderators, upon approval of the host and other moderators they are granted additional forum powers; they can assist the site administrators in regulating the forum.  Moderators will have a signature identifying them as moderators.  Any forum member can send a moderator an email to identify a post which is offensive or breaks forum rules.  Having received a complaint, if the moderator agrees, they can suspend the offending member's ability to post to that topic.  In the case of repeated offences, a quorum of likeminded moderators can have all of the offending member's posts, and all posts relating/replying to that member, deleted;  all of their old posts and all replies to them shall simply contain a link to the forum rules of etiquette.  That action is to be permanent.

3. The suspended member shall have an opportunity to apply to the administrators for reinstatement.  The host administrators will judge whether the suspended member should be permanently banned from the forum.  If the suspended member is reinstated, they are starting over with a post count of zero. Attempts by a banned member to rejoin with a new name are in most cases easy to detect during registration, the administrators will set up filters for that, any banned member getting past that vetting will be either be a good forum citizen or not;  in which case, see above.

here is a quote from another recent thread...

"why dont you tell him what your real intentions are gtamini. pretending to be his friend while what you really are going to do is **** him. all this so you can look good at you government/taxpayer job. on day you going to pull thi stunt on the wrong person and your going to find yourself in a situation that you will nt be able to get out of.I hope to hear about it"

 

this is far more offensive to me than anything Robster has said. Coopertune was the only one to step in and say this was out of line. My point is that there are many issues to fix here. Robster doesnt bother me. If anything, i enjoy reading his posts and waiting for the equal and opposite reaction.

Honestly...you know what this whole issue is Jemal......its "first world problems". Really people...is this the biggest issue in your lives?  Its an internet forum!!!

I received word that something was happening, so thought I'd pop in and comment.  This quoted post struck me as particularly ironic.

Why would you realistically believe that you've been mistreated?  Do you seriously believe that 'imposters' just decided that you'd be as good a target as anybody?  And your behaviour had nothing to do with it?

All attempts to help you were ignored and ridiculed by the better knowing guru 'Robster', who has given more than his share of crap advice to legitimate questions. 

There are too many examples to list, but I know for a fact that I:

• Welcomed your newbie enthusiasm and encouraged you to read the Articles, Calver's Corner, Tech Pages and Haynes, as well as join a local mini club.  Yes, in my very first week of being helpful to you, I encouraged you to join the Arizona Mini Owners Club - or whatever they're called.  (I was dismissed and later ridiculed by you, because you're not going to read to learn anything that you already know.  LOL indeed...)
• minibitz offered a legitimate suggestion in response to your claim that the engine had lurched violently (juddered) which you immediately dismissed as absurd.  I then offered a quotation from a product available on this very website which stated the same as minibitz' suggestion.  You ignored that too.  Then, you go out and buy a carb needle, not understanding that a needle is not a jet.
• You woudn't listen when it came to your contact breaker points needing adjustment.
• You went on and on about not being able to find a Pertronix unit for your 59D4 distributor.  I spoon-fed a direct link to the product available from our host, still you twisted about not being able to find a unit.
• You believed that squirting WD40 on the clutch plunger would solve your clutch problems, claiming that you'd rinsed the throw-out bearing.  Last time I checked, my throwout bearing was under the clutch cover and not accessible without removing the 'wok' cover from the side of the engine unit. Or that using a bit of bicycle handgrip and soda bottle to repair the rod-change mechanism probably woudn't be the right way to go.  Never mind the fact that we (all) tried to tell you that you've got a verto slave cylinder for that wildly bent pre-verto arm, and could have actually guided you through a complete and thorough clutch refurbishment.  I remember one time when I typed a complete clutch replacement step-by-step from memory (I think ve9aa was replacing his clutch at the time), cheleker found one point that I'd missed - I forgot to place a small piece of plastic cling film under the master cylinder cap to reduce drips.
• Not to mention the weird spring observed holding your clutch arm at the moment.
• Or the miss-matched ignition leads.
• Or the fan on backwards.

It goes on and on - we tell you what we observe in your VVS videos or substandard photos and you scoff, ridicule, ignore and claim that nobody's helping you.  The only thing you choose to hear is 'read your Haynes'.  Boo-Friggin'-Hoo.

Heck, I even tried to spark up a casual conversation once by mentioning that I used to drive from Tucson to Yuma every Monday, worked out of a conference room at the Shilo Inn once apon a time ago.  I still have contacts in Yuma; year-round residents, in fact.  I don't get out there often enough anymore, sigh...

You're not the only one with a psychology degree, drop the victim act; you could actually learn something.  Remember, Coolsterr/Pacific Luke and the other name :Γ , the classic mini is a bit more complicated than a Morphous scooter.

 

My opinion to Jemal's query - Lifetime bannishment.  It's Don's sandbox and some 'members' choose to be jerks.  No jerks allowed.

The one thing you have said that i agree with. I still say if someone was impersonating me on a forum and i knew of it i would deny it right away and contact the moderator/s. You have exposed yourself to typing with good pronunciation and English and sometimes not so much so that excuse does not fly with me Pacific Luke (another one of your screen names).

the Modern Vespa forum has that function.

members click a certain dislike button, after it reached a maximum number of  dislikes, the account will automatically gets dissolved. no one person could be blamed and will have a guilty feeling,,,Proboards bandwidth is capable of that function too. 

i know im a good person, and as charlie brown once said, " you can never put a good man down"

 

is it c. brown or c. chaplin??

1.  I do have a problem with having my email address made public to the forum or the website in general.  Its a spam issue really and I'd rather avoid it.

2.  I would propose that rather than an email or contact info... make it mandatory that ALL other profile fields are filled in... then checked at least looked at by the webguru.

3.  Mandatory real names in the profiles of all users.  I use my last name as a username.  If it looks odd... delete the freak.

4.  As for Robsterroloroosterdude... delete the Roloster account and leave the original.  If he has been the victim identity scam on the forum... it will become clear.  If he is simply an idiot... then that will be clear to.  

5. Advice for Robster:  I have owned my Mini for 20 years... and even now still don't feel confident enough to provide much techical advise about them!  We all love Mini's... but please LISTEN to what some extremly experience owners/racers/builders are telling you.  I'm in the Canadian Airforce... and one of the things I tell junior officers is this "keep your ears open and your mouth shut" (you might learn something).

6.  I still love the forum...

Rich MacEwen - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Roloster is 100% a fake account created to continue the winding up of people started by robster's posts.  I have seen no place where robster claims to have created other user names.  I believe him on that regard.

However, he has certainly behaved in a churlish manner in other ways, such as throwing the accusation of racism about like a kid with a sparkler, ignoring the advice of others, and posting snake oil solutions as if they were the be all and end all of technical advice.

I don't support draconian measures to deal with posters like this, but if emails are bing posted, how about an address at minimania tech for users to suggest the bannination of pests.  If a certain username is suggested by several members, they get one notice and then a hammer drop.  You wouldn't have to watch all posts, but it would allow for a discreet version of auto moderation.

A quote from user name "robster"

"for the sake of the members and newbies, with a heavy heart,  i voluntarily suspend myself from this forum.  i will be reading posts on technical side but will not reply or post anything anymore."

.........sooooo

oh, thats the reason why you said one username one ip address, well well well, now you are suspecting that i am those impostors huh??? ill bet my while manhood, i categorically deny that they are me... im i that fluent in english??  that can spell a big difference. 

i never reacted on them because  i dont wanna feed the troll, the more you notice their foolishness the more theyll be active. 

but i am tracking them right now thru my coworker who is an it expert. at least he knows something about web thingies. 

Well then please explain to myself, Mini Mania staff and other board members i am sure would like to know (especially if we are expected to accept you from this point forward) how come you never defended yourself when these names first appeared and in fact stated that you had to change your user name as you were at work using a different device or words to that effect ? Just seems suspicious to me.

Jemal what you aren't understanding is by allowing rogue members to spew hatred onto other members you do in effect treat people that way. In person you wouldn't but online you do.

ok im going to lay it low this time, i will minimize my comments and unsolicited advice, so as to avoid being accused of disrupting a nice thread. 

i will only limit myself in postin questions which i think this forum can answer/ only questions about my Mini nothing else.

Now as for these impostors like rooster/ roloster etc, i have nothing to do with them, hack and wack them if you want. just dont connect them and their nasty comments to me and my name.

remember i am here for my mini solutions not to socialize.

i will continue to support MM and its business, and will advertise them by word of mouth on every mini car show i go.

i rest my case, no more hanky panky messages from me. only pure mini questions.

 

 

 

Hmm, I'm not sure if the 'poll' feature still works...

And 94t, I don't see the point in making me and Don cartoon characters... we'd NEVER treat anyone like that.  I have ALWAYS maintained civility (with very few exceptions with Coopertune, and that was always a bit tongue-in-cheek!)....

Can we try to remember that this is all free, and all opinion!  Does anyone still listen to Rush Limbaugh?  Is any one FORCED to?

I agree, constant disruption IS annoying... I'm working on it!

Yeah I don't think giving feedback is a bad thing. I know for a fact a lot of people dislike this forum because of the reasons listed. They can use that info to their advantage or ignore it. It also occurred to me Todd you have mm in your back yard and probably have made a relationship with them that most of us don't have. You seem to take the criticism personally at least. Now imagine yourself delivering your engine there, they happily greet you, and a guy named henstoothmotorsports walks in. He calls you fat, dumb, says your wife is a tramp, and you smell bad. You can't believe the guy has said these things and ask Jemal and Don if they heard it too. They nod yes but don't seem to care and let the guy keep insulting you. That's what this forum is at times. Do you continue to do business with them or go elsewhere?

Can't agree with that Todd. Jemal asked for opinions and has received a lot of different ones and on a forum when you ask for opinions not all the answers are going to be the ones you want to hear. If anything Don and the gang should be reading the posts and listening to the fact that some members are leaving and doing business elsewhere because of a number of things including lack of moderation. If there is a disruptive influence on the board he/she should be warned and if they continue to disobey the rules dealt with accordingly and yes i understand this may only be temporary until they come up with a different identity. I enjoy coming here and posting but when you get the constant BS interruptions on decent threads people stop posting and it does get old and yes i am guilty of previously answering some of these at first in a helpful way but later mocking him for the stupid posts.

roaster and roloster needs to get banned.... they're only here for fun, they dont own any mini.

the only mini they own is the thing between their legs.., minus the balls

Definately in favour of more transparency if it stops eejits like Roaster ruining a good Forum by his stupid inflamatory comments.    Roaster has had his fun.....give him the Hook.....or the Big Toe.

 

How about a MM users Poll.....to vote whether he should be barred, or allowed to carry on?

ok norm, will do

robster,

If you are sincere then you will listen and heed the advice that we are all trying to give you: back off, settle down and listen more, talk less, please.

Norm

i promise to behave if you can only give me serious advices, for my serious mini problems. afterall thats all we're here for right? im not here to flirt with sexman or whoever. 

im an honest , full of ideas , dynamic Classic mini owner.