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Another suggestion/unpopular opinion:

Newbies should not get infractions.

For example: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/inter...ml#post5034652

This person has 3 posts. So he is under the first 25 posts have to be approved criteria.
I dont really get the rationale of approving a post, then deleting the post, and infracting the member.
If you (mods) dont like the post, dont approve it, and PM the member saying "we dont really think the post is upto our standards", and hence we're not approving it. Infracting a member with 3 posts is a tad harsh.

Infracting newbies makes the forum feel unwelcoming.

EDIT: Doesnt that also mean the "Infractor" is disagreeing with the approver? Since the approver found the post good enough to be approved? Or is every single post approved? In which case whats the logic behind the rule in the first place?

My suggestion is that official reviews of old cars should not go under "Test-Drives & Initial Ownership Reports".

We should either rename "Official New Car Reviews" to "Official Car Reviews" and let all official reviews (new/old) be there.

Or we should create a forum "Official Old Car Reviews" and move all official old car reviews there.

By having new generation cars' reviews, old cars' reviews don't become unofficial. ;)

Dear mods and members, off late I'm seeing "memes" in threads too often. Being avid social media user myself, I get it that memes provide humorous take on the situation but when I see it in the middle of the discussion, it feels weird. We do have a dedicated thread for memes so why not post memes into that thread only. Please consider this suggestion.

Agree with you on this, Mukesh. Official reviews have a good, structured information about the car - and later collection of good data from owners. By placing these in regular reviews, these get lost in the crowd of reviews.

One suggestion :

Can the cookies saved from the website be used to direct the user to the last post they looked at in a thread? It becomes difficult if you get back to a thread, to go back to where you last were.

I have seen this implemented on a few forums. Canadavisa.com employs this functionality. It only works if one is accessing it after signing in to their account, but it's really intuitive. I can just pick up where I have left off in a thread.

Has anyone seen that the site is taking longer time to load? It takes almost 5-6 seconds to traverse between pages sometimes or to open a thread.

Today I got an error too while opening the website.

No such error /delay in loading seen. If it persists, do share again.

Same here. Since yesterday, it is taking longer than usual for the pages to load.

Note: I must add, the delays are intermittent, not constant throughout the day.

I just noticed a non-English Volkswagen advertisement.

The forum response is noticeably slow. Pages take about 10 seconds before showing up.

Off late, I'm really surprised or rather, taken aback at the content that's sprawling up on the forum.

The other day some BHPian (wouldn't prefer to call out) created an "April fools surprise" thread in the Indian Automotive Scene section of the forum. This wasn't it.

The forum is nowhere as strict with its moderation unlike before. These days, anything and everything makes its way to the homepage. Have lost count of the lame threads that are best stuck to assembly line or rather deleted altogether which saw the limelight of the homepage. Homepage is a section of any website which is reflective of the content that's on the website. The old timers are sure of some quality content as they know their way around the forum. Imagine a visitor going through the homepage. What sort of impression would it leave on a visitor? For me honestly, a few of those threads made me check if I was indeed logged-in on Team-BHP or Quora (another one that's gone to the dogs).

Also, there's one incident that happened with a fellow BHPian (again preferring to staying discreet) and how one of the mods created an issue out of nothing. This isn't the brotherhood and free spirit of Team-BHP that we were accustomed to. My childhood and the later part of teenage has been spent here (lurking around as a visitor or as a fellow BHPian) and in the wildest of dreams, I never imagined I'd get to see such a day on the forum.

+1

I have all the respect for the way Team BHP has grown but what made the forum grow is slowly loosing its steam. Threads which add 0 value are in abundance and more than the language, the content needs to be moderated. People are basically starting threads without doing their homework just on the basis of assumptions. If things continue like this then team bhp will be a click bait site. Many experienced old members have left the forum or they have been banned. There is a solution to every problem and just on the basis of forum rules, it’s unfair to ban information which adds value and let threads with 0 value stay on the forum. I have learnt a lot from this forum throughout my teenage and still do. But when I see posts off lately be it with respect to travelogues, technical issues or something as simple as RTO procedures, there has been too much incorrect information spread. Inspite of someone correcting the incorrect information, the original post remains and it’s a threat to readers. It’s high time, the way our forum has welcome the change with respect to increased traffic and popularity also acknowledges the issues it has come with and the rules are modified accordingly. There is simply too much ego portrayed for silly things. Hoping for the right change!

Thanks for bringing this up. I found myself in the same shoes pretty often in the recent past, where I wished to just report the post or even the entire thread to be marked for deletion. Also off late as shared in the above posts, personal altercations on the smallest of the matter escalate way too fast. It is like we have lost our sense to be appreciative of other's perspectives. Every now and then discussions go on the line of "do you have data to back that up" "it is just my perspective" "it is a public forum and I am free to express" earlier such comments were usually limited or rather exclusive to the matters concerning one's butt dyno/seat of the pants stuff.

I remember a thread that had "Indian context" or something to that effect in the title, when one of the members pointed out that there is an existing thread in the matter, he was shut down by saying that its a general thread while this particular thread belongs to cars from the Indian market, and then the thread went on to bash vehicles left-right and centre before being shut down by mods after 3 or 4 pages of discussions. Needless to say, the thread neither added any value nor brought out any new perspective.

As for memes, I would have been on r/team-bhp / team-bhp Twitter instead of team-bhp.com if I was an avid meme lover. The impact of encountering a meme during discussions is jarring, to say the least.

While I understand why a downvote button has not been added till now, however now more than ever I feel the need for the same.

Based on the above, Can we have a downvote button if not for the posts, then at least for the thread itself.

I have said this before - we ought to get rid of the 'Thanks' button permanently. Trust me, it's going to be beneficial in the long run. I don't think I need to explain the effects of dopamine and how the 'Thanks' button here is no different from how rudimentary 'Likes' are being used on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube. This is the best way to curb the memes, starve the trolls, tone down all the sarcastic posts (yes, including mine), discourage fanboy hugboxing and bring out relevant, quality posts. And as for a way to mark an important post, we seriously need another marking/sorting system. The best threads in here are obviously some of the older ones which have run to around 50-100 pages. Going through them to gather just the minimal essential info is downright time-consuming, tedious and frustrating. Knowing how to use the search function only works if you know what specifically you're looking for. Although most people still have the patience to go through each and every post and page, this will change. A couple of years from now, a curious enthusiast will open one of our car detailing threads, see the number of pages, close it and scoot right over to YouTube. You either get with the times or get out, period.

This, exactly this! And it doesn't help when the incorrect post has tons of thanks and is on the first page whereas the corrective post will be at most times hidden or obscured.

This is the bane of today's opinion-driven internet. I don't think there will ever be a good solution for this. Even the strictest moderation has it's limits.

Good, gracious Lord, NO! Take back all I said about the 'Thanks' button. You can keep it or even make it golden in colour. But the day a downvote button comes to this forum, death knells will ring. Egos will clash, be hurt and it will rain bans and reported posts. Might as well prop up the funeral garlands while members downvote moderator posts.

Note to mods: I don't want to be that guy who only complains. As a matter of fact, I bet there are tons of us who use this forum extensively and wouldn't hesitate to offer their help in any possible way should the need suffice. Just letting you know.

Point taken, suggestion accepted & action taken. This was also brought up by Mr. Boss & V.Narayan in the forums are dying thread. We have now become a lot stricter with what new topics are allowed.

What you can do to REALLY HELP = Report any zero value thread :thumbs up. Help us maintain the forum's quality!

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/annou...t-quality.html

Well, it was eventually taken out of public view. Can't really blame Team-BHP for that. If anything, you must compliment the Moderation quality that it was closed once we saw it.

I reiterate that we have started clamping down harder on what new threads are allowed, and what aren't.

Thanks for the support & understanding :thumbs up