[david85]

Well I thought that was the whole point of having a "chit-chat" section. We all have other interests after besides EVs all. I guess I just happen to like the members here, and don't really feel like signing up on a political blog and learning everyones quirks all over again.

The amount of traffic and discussion we have on the website is still dominated by electric car topics. I've lost count of how many are working on EV conversions at the moment.

[Astronomer]

Originally Posted by 1clue

If I were starting a forum on electric vehicles, there would be no "off-topic" section.

I agree to a point. There are some topics I'd be in favor of making completely taboo. However, I think an off-topic section (with restrictions) is a good resource for us to "hang out" and get to know each other on a more personal level.

It would be like if you invited a bunch of us over to wire up some batteries. If all we do is wire up some batteries, without taking a Diet Coke or pizza/beer break, that just wouldn't be as much fun. (It'd still be fun, though. )

Without at least a little personal interaction, instead of a community, we'd just be an information resource with no continuity, where people come only to solve an immediate problem, and then leave once the problem is solved.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I prefer more of a community.

Plus, I really enjoy the "Science vs. Made-Up-Crap" smackdown discussions!

[david85]

Originally Posted by TX_Dj

Well, that's the unfortunate thing, I guess. There does not seem to be a place that's active on this forum that the average user can investigate their own reputation points and comments others have made... But it does alter the scoring (the green squares under your post count). The scoring is done in a very technical way- users who have a higher reputation add more rep points when they give rep to another user, whereas users who have lower reputation add fewer points to the score. This somewhat prevents others from "cheating the system" because every user can only contribute so many points per day, and so many points based on their own reputation. Otherwise a dishonest user could register another account and just give themselves mega rep...

When you get a significantly positive or negative reputation adjustment from another user, it will send you a notice about the award. I'm not sure what the threshold is there.

Wait, I have seen comments made in each rep point on my user CP page right under the list of subscribed threads. The only difference I noticed from other forums is the user name of the rep poster is not there, but thats probably not such a bad thing. I do worry a little about what might happen with negative points on political/climate change/ or other heated topics. Hope it doesn't get too nasty.

[Qer]

Personally I like it as it is. It's good that there's moderators that kick people that can't stay on topic (*raises a hand*) over to chit-chat, but a forum that's all work and no play tends to get pretty BORING in my experience. You got to have an "Anything goes"-section for all those weird spin-off topics about boats, photos, kids, dogs, politics (oh no, I said it!), house, garden, work or whatever that just happens to pop up.

The only time a topic should be locked or people warned/banned is if they can't behave politely. If we can have a heated, but still friendly, political debate here (which has happened a few times already during the time I've been here) I think it's just dandy. That allows us to get to know each other better and increases the general friendly atmosphere.

However, the chit-chat could get divided into sub-categories for topics that keeps popping up now and then, like politics.

[1clue]

I'm not saying there should be no banter, I'm saying let's not try to change from diyelectriccar.com into anythingRemotelyInterestingToAnyoneWhoKindaWantsAd iyelectriccar.com.

Discussions wander, and anyone who has been on this site has read some of my posts. I'm not trying to be a hypocrite here, and if I were saying no banter then I would be exactly that.

I would like to say that most of my posts are at least not too far off the topic.

[Weird Harold]

Originally Posted by david85

That could be a solution, but from what I've seen discussions of perpetual motion, crude oil, and climate change seem to get at least as heated as politics (often one leads to another). Shurely those are not topics that should be banned.

Any topic can get heated if we let it get out of hand. I think the forum has matured enough by now to have enough long term members to step in and keep things civilized even if we are not all moderators/admins.

....all I said was two cup holders were not enough. Then World War III broke out.

[1clue]

Originally Posted by Weird Harold

....all I said was two cup holders were not enough. Then World War III broke out.

Actually, does anyone know if you can mount a fountain-style coke machine in an EV?

[TX_Dj]

Talking about off-topic.

[david85]

I hope we never loose that light hearted spirit

[Weird Harold]

http://www.theaircar.com/air-cars/the_air_car.html

Originally Posted by 1clue

Actually, does anyone know if you can mount a fountain-style coke machine in an EV?

I think this would work better than an EV. You wouldn't need the CO2 tank.