Mr. Vanos

Please vote on whether you would want to split the CL203 (C Sports Coupe) from the current W203 C-Class Forum. This would in turn create a new forum specifically for the C Sport Coupe.

Rick

This has been approached several times over the last two years. The concensus has always been that there is enough technical, aesthetic and just plain fun information that applies to ALL styles of the C Platform.
When a "new" moderator proposed this as a way to 'clean up the forum' and 'separate the rif-raf' he was summarilly shot down, and the issue was dead.
A second drive to do this raised the ludicrous question: "Would you then also separate the wagon and C240 owners?"
Historically, this approach has never been popular.
I mean, lets look at 'separatism' objectively....
Nero tried it...he's burned in his own hell. Ceasar tried it...they named a salad after him and that's still combined before serving. Hitler tried it...you know how that one ended. Most recently, Lott suggested it...and committed political suicide.
Does the addage: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." ring any bells?
Just my humble opinion...'nuf said...

TimmyC230boy

I think it would cause the C sedan forum to be pretty much dead. But it's not my site and I wont tell you how to run it, I do think they should remain the same though

David N.

I'm against a split.

The w203 (coupe and sedan) will not generate enough traffic alone to sustain their own seperate forums. What you'll end up with is two forums that eventually die from no traffic.

Creating a coupe forum will not bring back the members you lost to other coupe-only forums. You have to realize that these people left in the first place not because they wanted their own coupe forum, but because they grew tired of the attitude here, as well as the outrageous level of censorship which is displayed.

As for SoCal:

He had a different sense of humour than most, and he was much more honest with his feelings. But, I don't see anything he did that warranted being banned.

JMHO.

ViKTORiOUS

I think you should split it up, put the C-Coupe owners under the Coupe category, i mean it is a coupe isnt it? The C-Class forum is under the sedan category, it seems most logical to split it up.
Just my two cents...

avlis

I think instead of splitting the C-coupes and C-sedans you should have a forum specifically for C-Class performance/electronics/exterior modifications. It seems that a large number of C-Class members are interested in these topics but don't want to go to a general "performance" forum. There are also a large number of members that are interested in C-class topics but dont want to wade through dozens of "HID", "Clear Corners", "Exhast tip" threads.

speedfrk

With the new C230 sedan coming as well as the new C320 coupe, I think it is better to keep them together since there will be more engines shared across model lines than ever before. Lots of opportunity for good information exchange. For example, it was good to find out that C32 AMG swaybars fit the coupe and other C sedans.

BlackC230Coupe

I personally think that if the fourms were separated that they would both do fine, obviously it will not be as crowded as in the one big W203 fourm but it would be more specific on each of the cars. If the people from the sedan want to read about the Coupe its not to hard to click a couple buttons. The only reason i think people dont want it split is becasue it was not done from the start, and alot of coupe owners became friends with sedan owners or vic versa.

Or the worst thing is if they were split and neaither did good, would it be possible to combine them again?

KWiK

Do not split the forums.

I think all cars of the same chassis should be in the same forum. To me, that would also include the AMG models as well.

BlackC230Coupe

so would you want the 2003 CLKs in this fourm to? Since Its based on the W203 chassis?

KWiK

Just because they used the 203 chassis as a starting point doesn't make it a 203, that's why MB called it a 209. I do believe all 203s should be in one forum. That would include C240/320 sedans, C230 Coupe and the C32 plus whatever Cxxx flavors they have available in the rest of the world.

session

The reason for his ban was a general hostility towards all members. There may have not been an individual act that provoked the ban, but his attitude was, needless to say, less than friendly.

This forum needs to uphold a sense of community and civility, a context in which SoCal/MacPhisto obviously chose no part of.

Accord

The only censorship we have on MBWorld is the word filter which blocks out profanity and we do not allow blatant advertising, that's it.

kineda

Blatant advertising? You guys wouldn't even let me link my personal website in my sig (www.kineda.com)??? It's not a business and has nothing to do with cars. I've never seen a site that was so strict on sigs. VWvortex gets way more traffic and has way more members than MBworld does, yet they seem to be way more lenient on such things.

btw.. for an honest polling.. you should have each member post what they voted for since it's way too easy for the mods to edit and change the numbers in the polls. oh wells.. to late for that now.

JeT

I don't think there is any need for knowing individual votes...its in MB.org's interests to conduct an honest pole...if they alter the numbers contrary to the true majority view then members will simply leave. And don't forget, they are not obliged to conduct a pole either.

Outland

Agree 100%!!!

Accord

You're more than welcome to link to www.kineda.com in your signature.

I assure you that no moderators will edit this or any poll. Also, the MBW staff is actually in favor of splitting up the W203 forum, however it's what the members of MBW who will ultimately decide what happens, and right now it looks like we're not going to be splitting the forums as per the current poll results.

The Fly

But it also sounds like you censor/ban those that don't conform to your undefined "sense of community" and those that are not "friendly" enough. If that's the case, I have to agree with David N. on that.

Anyways, taking a poll is not the best way to decide what to do with your forums. People will always vote against splitting forums. If this site had a single, giant forum for all models, and you took a poll as to whether split it up into various models, the majority would almost certainly vote against the split (even though of course it would be the right thing to do). Board users tend to be resistant to any changes, for better or worse.

I think the cars are different enough, and have different types of buyers, to warrant separate forums. I think your polling supports it. It is surprising that only roughly 1/2 voted to not separate. That is a fairly low level of support, IMO.

BrabusCClass

This is one of the faster moving forums and I really like it that way. I think we should keep it together.

pocholin

I don't see why spliting it. Then again i don't have a c sports coupe.

KWiK

only a third voted to split the forums, that's even less support


Keep it as it is.

MB-BOB

Welcome aboard "The Fly." Yours is a very interesting post. Do you just adopt other's opinions as your own, or have you developed a sense of clairvoyance in your 10-days as a member here? Hmmmm?

I'll answer your question with a question, though. Do you remember the movie, “Star Trek, Wrath of Khan,” in which Spock said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one?” If so, then you understand the "sense of community" that exists here.

An individual member's need to disagree with other members is balanced by the reaction of that community at large. Hence, one's privilege to argue is respected, but it can also be outweighed by 30-40 other members who equally exercise their privileges to complain about a member's argumentative posts. To this extent, the "sense of community" is defined not by the staff at MBWorld, but by group concensus of the MBWorld membership... a very democratic process.

At the bottom right of every post on these forums, you will see a "Report this Post to a Moderator" button. At MBWorld, a member pressing this button sends an e-mail message to each and every moderator and Admin on this site. This process, along with the Private Message (PM) function, is open to any member who feels offended by any post. In short, if the MBWorld staff receives countless complaints about a member's posts from other members, rest assured that member will rise on the staff's radar screen. In contrast, if the membership doesn't complain about your posts, you are a well-accepted member of the community. Fortunately, the latter is almost universally the case.

We have had only 2-3 members (among 6,500) who have so annoyed large numbers of the membership that they demanded censure from the staff. But rest assured that such rare discipline originates, first and foremost, with the "sense of community" of the membership at large.

Mach430

Let me add... Just because someone complains about a post, does not mean that you have done something wrong. Go to the off-topic forum, I'm sure freedom of speech goes much further there than you think. Sure there are certain rules we must enforce, but none are without reason. **** is banned because we have several minors on these forums, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the content that MBWorld was designed to support. Constant personal attacks are usually met with mitigation, but there is nothing wrong with disagreeing with an other's post. The censorship that people refer to is the staff of MBWorld choosing to not allow non-sponsors to publically advertise their products. At first this may seem unfair, but when thousands of dollars have been spent by the forum owners in order to maintain and expand MBWorld, is it fair that another entity can come with sole purpose of soliciting sales to profit themselves? Thus, many choose to sponsor the boards because they feel that they can make money with their presence here.

Now that everything has been explained, let's get back on the topic of whether or not we should split the forums. The staff at MBWorld did not simply decide that it would be a neat thing to do. Over the past month, we have received over 100 PMs and emails of users requesting a seperate forum for the C Coupe. It is their requests and other's objections that have brought about this poll. The forum will only be split if it is deemed beneficial to the community, which is why we welcome and encourage your opinions.

Thanks,
Ben

marsshuttle

Hello Everyone,

I know I'm a pretty new member to this forum, and I must say that in the past few month's I've noticed that this is one of the best and fast moving forums. It's well organized and I've gained and shared so much information with the people in this comunity. As for the split I agree we should keep it together, but it really depends what works for the majority of the people in this comunity. Which ever way it ends up, there is always that search feature for those of us looking for a specific topic.

Just my 2 cents....

Cheers!

David N.

So far only 30 people have voted to split. If a split is of such importance to the people who email and PM you guys, then I sincerely hope they vote on this poll. Otherwise, I'll consider them to be nothing more than pains in the a$$ that have too much time on their hands.

Let this be the ultimate poll that decides this issue for good, so we can finally put this to rest and move on.