Member requirements response

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ultraturtle
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Re: Member requirements response

Post by ultraturtle »

Copied from my "members only" post:
ultraturtle wrote:Biased, obviously, but I greatly appreciate the price of admission. I spent nearly two years obsessing over nearly every post while making the purchase decision while being locked out of general participation. Few trolls (just one or two previous Diamond owners). Thread drifts and hijacks almost non-existent until recently. In my estimation, this may be the finest forum on the internet, and my humble vote would be to keep it that way.
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Kai
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Re: Member requirements response

Post by Kai »

TimS,

thanks for all the ideas.

More mods? We did have multiple mods already but as things go, people sell their planes, lose interest, have other things to do (including me) and I understand that. As it is not a conscious decision to leave a forum but a slow process which sometimes we are not aware of, mods drop out slowly with no further notice. But the forum needs constant checking of all threads at all times. We do have a function here to "report posts" and encourage our members to use it and help us with the moderation work, but I would estimate it gets hit only a few times a year. So it stays all up to Chris who is doing an awesome job maintaining this forum.

Babble Function? Interestingly, this forum does not receive a lot of chit chat and if it accidently does without disturbing, it is o.k.

Most of the anti-spam bot functions you mentioned are already installed. We do ask Diamond- or aviation specific questions before being able to send the membership request.

Some of your suggestions include a very-time intensive checking of the posts. Chris cannot do that and it turned out that there is no need to do that as long as we have very reliable members. It turned out that the owners were the most reliable and yet the ones most in need to receive help.

Requiring real names? If this forum was not public, I would probably appreciate that approach but there must be a reason why a good number of our members have not registered their planes in their names. People who invest these amounts into flying are target to all kinds of interest from third parties and I do not want this forum to support those interests.

BKR: there were times we admitted also people "who were in the market" and it turned out that at least an estimated 4 out of 5 did not end up purchasing a Diamond but multiplied the moderation work. This thread is only one good example how Chris spends his time for nothing. You have received all the information you need to ask any question you might have. Focus on the questions you have regarding Diamond aircraft and which have not been asked previously and you will get reasonable replies.

Paying 20 bucks for admission? Chris does his job for the joy of being able to contribute to the safety and peace of mind of our fellow pilots. How many Diamond aircraft owners do you know who you can lure with 20 bucks to do anything? Those are the amounts people spend on a few beers to have the kind of discussions we are trying to avoid.

Are there non-owners members here? Yes, quite a few. Those who are profesionally related to Diamond aircraft (industries), those who have made a downpayment for a new Diamond and so on. They can be easily identified and their commitment is beyond doubt. FYI, in earlier stages of this forum years ago it was open to "pilots and owners" and some of the accounts belong to long time members of this community which are still active and it is good this way.

Now to a last note, BKR, we appreciate the wish to become members of our community, want our community to grow but it will not become a fanboy-site.

Thanks for all the helpful and supportive responses.
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dselder1962
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Re: Member requirements response

Post by dselder1962 »

Colin wrote:Yes, I believe the people on here without Diamonds once owned them.

In my experience a larger user population is more work for the moderators. Have *some* gate to entry (own the plane, pay $30, whatever it is) cuts out a lot of people that troll for attention or are there to sell something.

Since we HAVE the public forum where they can post, why is that not enough? You can read *all* the other content, ask questions in the public forum and then start contributing when you have the plane. What am I missing?
Hi Colin
I was using my experience that I don’t read the public forum, as I just concentrate on the 42 forum and occasionally hangar talk.
I am not sure how common that usage would be.
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dselder1962
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Re: Member requirements response

Post by dselder1962 »

Kai wrote:
So it stays all up to Chris who is doing an awesome job maintaining this forum.

This thread is only one good example how Chris spends his time for nothing. You have received all the information you need to ask any question you might have. Focus on the questions you have regarding Diamond aircraft and which have not been asked previously and you will get reasonable replies.

Chris does his job for the joy of being able to contribute to the safety and peace of mind of our fellow pilots.

Are there non-owners members here? Yes, quite a few. Those who are profesionally related to Diamond aircraft (industries), those who have made a downpayment for a new Diamond and so on. They can be easily identified and their commitment is beyond doubt. FYI, in earlier stages of this forum years ago it was open to "pilots and owners" and some of the accounts belong to long time members of this community which are still active and it is good this way.
.
Kai
I have obviously unwittingly poked a wasps’ nest.
All I was trying to do was get some info for a good guy who is an active and knowledgeable member on the COPA site, as I still am. I announced to them all that I was selling the Cirrus to buy the 42, and Jeff has been in touch a lot about my experience. There was also interest from others on the site but he is in the market for a plane and I wanted him to experience this great site. I was quite keen to dissuade him from buying a Cirrus.
I didn’t know you had to be an owner, as that isn’t mentioned in the guidelines which I did read before joining. When he told me he couldn’t join I thought there must be a mistake so told him I’d post here to get clarification. I knew there were many members who were not current owners.
So to your points:
I absolutely appreciate the work that Chris does, and his commitment to safety.
I am sorry you feel that this thread is requiring him to spend his time on nothing. Perhaps if the guidelines mentioned this clearly I wouldn’t have had to post.
So I was dearly hoping that his initial reaction that this is “exclusive and elitist” was wrong.
All the best
David
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Kai
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Re: Member requirements response

Post by Kai »

David, correction : it's not about this thread but BKRs response. My bad.

Now, to another point it is stated quite clearly that we admit owners and DAI staff only. It has been beaten to death and hence my response.

Read: ucp.php?mode=terms
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Re: Member requirements response

Post by TimS »

Kai,

If you guys decide to have a group of mods, count me in. I would also suggest a hidden forum for mods only for discussions.

One more idea, allow people to register but limit them to the "public" space until they own a plane, or are nominated by a mod to greater access. In the public area, create a forum specific for potential owner questions.
The registration makes people feel like they belong. And the public area could have less intense management/oversight. So it is a little more wild west.

Tim
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Chris
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Re: Member requirements response

Post by Chris »

BKR wrote:Chris:

Yes. There was a link to the public forum.

This was the email statement.

“Currently membership in our forum is restricted to owners of Diamond Aircraft.”

Not saying it was ugly in any way. It was just matter of fact and a “no”.
For the full context, this is the actual email from my Sent folder.
Hi B----,

Thank you for your interest in DiamondAviators.Net and apologies in the delay of this response. Currently membership in our forum is restricted to owners of Diamond Aircraft.

Even as a non-member / renter, you should still be able to access the Public Forum portion of the site to post any questions that haven't already been answered in existing threads, and you should have access to read posts from any of the forums. If you would like to provide more input to your membership application, please respond to this email.

--Chris
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BKR

Re: Member requirements response

Post by BKR »

This really isn't a big deal either way.

But the fact that the moderators keep responding to me and then deleting my responses show why this conversation is needed. If the public forum is for the non-member public to interact with the forum community, then censorship isn't necessary unless someone is using abusive language, etc. The community should decide. If the community doesn't respond to a nonsensical post in the public forum then it's dead in the water. If the post sparks debate, shared ideas, and other perspectives then a forum's purpose is achieved.

Kai and Chris have responded to me twice now and then deleted my response back to them. My responses have not been abusive or rude. They have only been expression of ideas. If they're bad ones, no one will respond. If debate and conversation happens around then, well....maybe that's a good thing.

Now, clearly this post will be deleted as others have so in essence I guess my audience is Chris only but I'll try again.

Kai: There are plenty of fan-boys on here.....of other airplanes. Aerostar's and Baron's most recently. Not sure why a Diamond airplane fan-boy wouldn't be a welcomed addition.

Chris: It's hardly a public forum when you're censoring reasonable posts.

Thanks. And my name is Bryan, no need to hide my name. I'm a real person, pilot, and future diamond airplane owner. No shame here.
BKR

Re: Member requirements response

Post by BKR »

Figured, predictable. This is described as public forum. Shouldn't advertise it as public if you're not going to allow reasonable conversation. At this point, it's comical to me that you're deleting my responses while retorting openly in the public forum. Maybe cowardly is a better word. I'll move on and let your diminishing active user base keep you occupied. Diamond pilots are searching for a community. They may not all be like you or share your thoughts. Facilitating that community doesn't equate to censoring it or controlling it. Take care and fly safely.
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Re: Member requirements response

Post by Chris »

This is going nowhere fast. Closing thread.
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