What Does "Off-topic / Other Cars / Everything else Discussions" Mean Anyway???

[ChinoCharles]

I closed MadDog's thread because I made the determination that nothing was going to come out of it. I say that meaning no offense to Tony, who is an awesome member and a good person, but the point of the thread was "what can we do to make Yarisworld more exciting." The answer is nothing. We can't install a ferris wheel on Yarisworld. It is only as exciting as the subject matter. This forum in particular turned into kind of a hang out spot about 18 months ago for a lot of us (me included) and I think since then discussion has become less and less Yaris-centric, and I'm starting to think it isn't such a good thing. I spend way too much time replying to threads like this. This thread is a direct result of the off-topic section getting out of hand.

Two things. One, if we do close your thread don't take it as a personal attack. 95% of threads I close are due to a later post and not the OP. Second, and I've said this before... threads are expendable. If I see a thread that I predict won't end well, I'll close it before things get out of hand. After 2+ years and 8,000+ posts here, I have a pretty good understanding of when that will happen and the other mods do too.

Actually, you are actually providing a good counter-argument, which is maybe some people on here aren't mature enough to participate in adult discussions!

I wanted to highlight this comment and speak on this a bit. If YOU (all of you) want to be mature, do this... save me and the rest of the mod staff a heap of trouble and stop posting politics on Yarisworld. This isn't the place. Our membership is ENTIRELY too diverse for this kind of discussion. We have 50+ year old right wingers paying almost half their income in taxes arguing with 20-something dems who just got done spending 8 of their formative years watching the media demonize George W. Bush. Maturity is realizing why the previous scenario doesn't work.

Final thing I want to say... you guys are one hard group to moderate. Without naming names, I'll say that some of you are entirely too vehement about posting your personal beliefs. It baits other members into pissing matches, a phenomenon I myself get caught in as well. I'll be the first to admit it. My beliefs are as strong as anyone, but after the election I generally stopped posting threads about politics as that cycle taught me its a bad idea on these forums. Its cool to get caught in some banter every once in a while and get IBTL, but we have a few members that are just SO persistent in their posting of subject matter that has nothing to do with the car. Go back and look at the threads you've created. If a majority have nothing to do with the Yaris, you should reconsider your place on this forum.

As of yesterday, political threads are no longer welcome here. Moderators will decide what is politics and what is automotive economics. Don't bother "calling us out" if you think we closed something that isn't truly political. Again, threads are expendable. A good forum atmosphere isn't. If this isn't something you can stomach, I apologize, but that policy isn't changing.

If you want to revitalize Yarisworld, walk into your garage and start brainstorming.