I have communicated with a few members to try and see what's behind these comments as they came as a bit of a surprise to me. I think it is a different situation to some of the incidents we have unfortunately had in the distant past which involved full-on aggressive, personal attacks and insults, resulting in members being banned. No need to get into the detail of those here.
This time it seems there are some who have openly participated in discussions by posting their personal view or opinion on a topic, only to be contradicted by another member who they feel has an 'elevated position' on the forum. By this I assume they mean members who are considered 'experts' because they have been around for a long time, are regular posters (no matter the topic), or put forward their opinion in a way that assumes some sort of superiority. As a result there is often a groundswell of support for the 'experts' view, whether it be technically correct or not. Eventually the original poster tires of being bullied in this way, feels intimidated and simply stops posting.
I think that's the gist of the current concern but please correct me if I'm wrong.
This forum is a cross-section of society. We have some members with superior intellectual skills, some who haven't completed basic schooling and education so have trouble with grammar and spelling, others with a physical or other disability, and those where English is not their first language. We have males and females, youngsters and oldies (like me), some who prefer the social rather than technical parts of the forum, some who have only come into the Mini scene recently and, of course, many with permanently grease-stained hands who could strip and reassemble a Mini gearbox with their eyes closed.
When you consider that most of us have never met each other in person and that we are constrained to using text and emoticons to express ourselves it is understandable that what we say is sometimes interpreted quite differently to what we meant.
All I can suggest is that we have a think about how our post will be interpreted before we hit Submit, that we treat other members in a courteous way and don't assume we have the answers to all the questions.
In my view Ausmini is the premier resource for enthusiasts of the Australian Mini. The knowledge among our members is amazing. With a little bit of common courtesy and respect we can all continue to get what we came here for.
Feel free to post here, PM me or one of the other moderators if you have a comment you don't wish to be made public, or come and introduce yourself to me at the MKO Show and Shine next Saturday so we can chat face to face.
Doug
