MilitaryForums.co.uk

Grab a beer and read on
I posted the following in ‘General discussion’. Some of you may have missed it, or been deterred from answering the thread. I’d appreciate your ideas. The term ‘Wannabee’ may be seen as abusive, it isn't intended as such, we were all young wannabees at one stage, prior to going to Lympstone. Unfortunately a bunch of no-hopers have been using the forum and abusing the good will of members, especially since the commencement of Gulf War 2. The Playstation Kiddies have come out of their boxes! Read on and see what you think.

Jay (Beast, the site owner and creator) has received requests recently, from established members, to cancel their account names on the Forums. Fortunately they have all responded positively to requests to remain as part of the forum and allow a few changes to be implemented.

So why have people been asking to bug out? These forums are a rich source of amusement, information and create many friendships, as was illustrated by the Yomp in May. There is however a downside, which is apparently atypical of internet chat room facilities. There is, in this electronic age, a wealth of idiots who have only one thing in their tiny minds, and that is to insert their ignorance into other peoples conversations. Consequently an interesting, intelligent flow of topics can be completely wrecked by the utterings of a pimply youth who has neither experience or courage, but insists on expounding his theories on subjects he has no knowledge of.

Lately we have seen a whole host of these people removed from the forums. There are others appearing at regular intervals, especially as the exam period at school has ended and ‘Zit for Brains’ has time on his hands. The moderators have been talking about this situation with Beast (Jay), and have identified various ways to deal with this problem, protecting the users of the forums, and hopefully maintaining the characteristics of the forums.

The Mods are less tolerant now, people get one open and one private warning, at the same time. They are then removed from the forum if they contravene the usual etiquette/guideline. (Would my wife be offended if she read this) Jay has been working to upgrade the servers and systems. We have asked him to consider a ‘Core’ membership of users who would be charged £5 to be full and active members of a ‘locked’ forum, inaccessible to those who have not paid. There would then be a wider group, who do not pay, but have limited access to limited subjects. They would then be easier to patrol and erase. Committing £5 does not sound much, but the act of handing over personal address, telephone details and credit card info is a deterrent to the dorks we all want to see the back of.

As I’m sure most of you appreciate, I thoroughly enjoy these pages. I enjoy meeting new members and helping the lads who want to join the Corps. I was delighted to be asked to help with Moderation of the site. It is interesting work requiring patience and judgement, something my tired mind is often short of; but lately, especially since the advent of GW2 we have been dealing with youths whose only experience of combat has come from BBC and SKY news coverage and lashings of Playstation 2. These ‘wannabees’ to use a cruel expression, have spoilt OUR enjoyment of these forums with their inanities and general slobbish behaviour. It is about time we reclaimed the high ground. So stick with it lads and lasses, let us know what you think and don’t hold back!
The 'Full' members area would be viewable, but unavailable for posting by non-members. Thus preventing dipsticks from disrupting the flow of threads.
The site would of course remain available to ALL military types, even Percy and Crabs. (I must go and lie down now, I've thrown away a great opportunity)

It's not so much an exclusivity idea, more a return to the normal, without doomers. One of the main uses of the site, by young lads and girls wanting to join the services would be enhanced if members felt they were talking to somebody who legitimately wanted help, and was not just yanking our chains. Witness "Utrinique (Sic) Paratus", here are his final two posts before his account was removed.

Nope,a s you both fire the same weapons, that's what eyesight is for,a nd I guess so you don't get that blurr when shortsighted without correctiona nd accidently go pooping off rounds at your own men!Ooops.


Wilson, if you actually knew me you would know not to suggest that I need educating, I am educated, and well, I have scored well on all exams test etc. up to this point and in a months or so time I shall know how well I've done in my GCSEs. I am then studying at A-Level in a sixth form, which is harder to ge tinto than college. I also despise mopeds and those who ride them as THEY'RE the ones who need educating, in how not to be an arse. I also have ties to the military, my brother is right now in his sixth week of RM training, I know someone who is ex SAS and now guards the Alfyed (not sure of spelling) children, he is also an ex-Para an RAF wingcommander among others so I'm in good stead. I am preparing for P-Coy also even with these 2 eyars, I intend to be ready. I hope you're ready for PRMC & RM as believe me, knowing someone who has very recently done PRMC and is now training you need all the lcuk you can get. Even though I doubt you'll appreciate it, a tip, DON'T pay attention to the PRMC expectancies written in the numerous brochures

Rubbish such as the above is illiterate bullshit, it prevents people like me helping people like you. The rigorous moderating is to enable you to enjoy the site, not to dominate and damp the humour down. The issue of credit cards may be a problem as some of you are under 18 etc. I hope we may be able to resolve this once Jay has the main technical problems sorted. Jay pays for all the equipment, servers and bandwidth out of his pocket; the expansion of services costs money, hopefully this idea will recompense him to some extent.

So……….. what do you think? It may not help you, if like CGLees you are off to beasting country shortly, but for those looking to the future, it’s in your hands.

You'll find a crisp "bluey" winging its way to ya when the proposed changes take place! All this entertainment for the price of two pints... Cheap at twice the price!

Aye,
wilson

I think it is a brilliant idea El prez and I will be willing to pay the £5, even though I am young I have been on this forum 2 months and I have learnt alot about the royal marines that i didnt no before, also that I have made good friends here.

Also i think we should get rid of these walters because they wont think the £5 is worth paying. It will work well!

Great idea.

Bird

Couldn't you have a system where we could pay by post?

i think it is absolutley spot on because this forum has taught me so much the short time i have been a member and even though i dont have a credit card i would be willing to send money by post if this would be possible?
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK LADS


mark

Could we have a system where members applications are simply authorised by the mods, without the need to pay? (I suppose it depends on how many active members there are currently as to whether that is viable.)

What would happen if a member pays their 5 quid, and turns out to be an arse anyway? Are they still banned? They may feel they are entitled to post as they have paid their money. By simply vetting user applications (ie. people can still join, but are then banned if they start spouting BS), at least you still have some control over who can post...

Just my two penneth,
Joe

El Prez - There's a difference between people going on the wind up and people talking about things they know nothing about. I don't have any time for people deliberately trying to take the piss, but the people who talk about things they know little about is a grey area.

I recently started a thread and you wrote 'another crap post.....'. It was a totally over the top response and I was taken aback by it. It probably was a bad thread but it wasn't meant to provoke anyone. I was just trying to start a discussion.

I hadn't wrote anything provocative beforehand so I don't know why you inserted the word 'another'. As it was, I bit my lip and thought a bit more about what I was going to write in future. This is a very professional forum and I don't want to start any trouble in it.

However, there would have many people who would have started to take the piss big style after getting a response like that, and you would have no one to blame but yourself if it happened.

Also, this forum has a area entitled 'joining the marines'. Therefore you will expect many people who are a lot younger and more inexperienced than you who will probably (and innocently)ask daft questions. You shouldn't come down hard on them as you do. If you want a forum for people who know everything about the marines then start one. As far as I can see, this isn't one so don't try and make out that it is.

I agree to that to an extent but El prez has helped me and taught me quite a bit about the marines, but maverick I can see where you are comming from.

Bird

I'm a Communist, Wealth is of no value, Tokens of gold are no longer needed.

*gets back to creating a revolution*

Sticky, I appreciate the comments (BTW, I am not suggesting that this is an attempt to charge for the knowledge that is available here).

I have been a contributor to various internet messages boards since 1995 (and dial-up BBSes pre-WWW)! During that time I have seen many of the problems that are sited here as reasons to charge for entry to the board. I have also seen many different ways of trying to deal with these problems. The one board that charged for access died a death within about 4 months.

I don't personally believe that charging for membership will achieve what is desired, mainly because the uptake of members (other than those who are already here) will be zero. Any transient visitors who feel they wish to contribute will simply not pay (I certainly wouldn't have joined if it had cost anything, and it's not through lack of funds). One of the strengths of boards like these is that anyone can actually contribute ... the alternative is for it to become a closed community. The fact is that people will drift away from it though - but with no new members to replace them.

I am a moderator of two message boards myself (non-military related). Moderation is made fairly simple for me because I "own" one of the forums (there are about 30 or so in total). I have the rights to delete and censor within that forum only. Other moderators, who are designated super mods, can make amends anywhere (these are folk who usually check the boards several times a day -- I only read at home in the evening). Anyway, that system works quite well as there are around 20 mods who can keep an eye on things, and the work of keeping trolls off the boards is evenly spread (that may not be the case here as there are only a handful of mods).

I personally think a better way of filtering the losers out from the rest is to have a form that needs to be filled in for access to be gained. The details of this form would be emailed to the mods (or available via the web) and the form would ask questions such as:

Age
What are your interests?
Why do you want to be a member?
etc.

If someone takes the time to fill those questions in properly, it will be obvious that they are going to contribute something worthwhile. However, if the answers to the questions are along the lines of:

COS I WANT 2

then we know to reject the application.

I suppose I am saying I don't think charging will solve the problem as it will stop the flow of new members and alienate those that can't pay - 15/16/17 year old lads who are looking at joining the Services - people who should be encouraged.

Joe

Im more than happy to pay a fiver even though I may not be using this forum much in the coming months.

I have gained alot of usefull information which gave me a huge advantage on my PRMC free of charge. I am very gratefull to Jay for providing this service and feel I owe him something. THANKS JAY!! :kissing2:

I am also very gratefull to the Moderators who do a VERY GOOD JOB!
and to everyone who has something worth saying.

If i can improve the service for everyone by paying a fiver, I am more than willing to do so.

Likewise, I'd pay no problems ... but, are you willing to pay because you're already a member? Would you be saying that if you'd just found this site?

I have obtained all of the info i required regarding the PRMC (as the corporal said to me ''crime is getting caught, do whatever you can to gain an advantage over a situation'')
I would now like to remain part of the banter and also do my bit by dishing out advice where needed.
I cant speak for new members, the info is there for people who want it, and for people who want more; its only a fiver away as they say.