The VCA site is intended to be family friendly. So the smack talking should stay where it belongs which is on the VA site. Someone can be a gentleman and, on occasion, engage in smack talk. It is not the behavior that's wrong. It is where it occurs. Many, if not most, members want there to be respectful and informative discussions on this site. That is what the VCA forum rules have always required.
I don't buy the "family friendly" bit, if you're declaring venue to be "ok for smack talking", it's no longer smack talk as it simply becomes the normal tone.
The best community will allow for a mix of the good with the not so good, rather than attempting to force everyone into a certain mold.
This is a forum about a vehicle, the Viper, which is purchased purely for entertainment purposes. As such, the related forums need to accept that they represent an entertainment medium and not some kind of entity where people are gathering to solve a problem, and smack talk detracts from the problem-solving efforts.
That said, I do not have a problem with troll posts being moderated so long as they are actually troll posts and not someone with a differing opinion. As an example:
Example Thread:
My viper is is making an unusual noise from the engine bay. Any idea what could be causing this?
Response #1:
It's a POS dodge. There's nothing unusual about it.
Above, that response is trolling because it offers no insight, and only seeks to incite.
Response #2:
It could be a loose spark plug or battery connection.
While this post is not very helpful, it was not posted with the intent to incite and therefore is only stupid but not a troll post. It is wholly appropriate to reply to this respondent, inform him/her that he is an idiot, and then offer a more likely solution.
a) By shaming stupidity you discourage stupidity. He/She may get mad, but they'll just have to deal with it.
b) By combining shaming with a potential solution you efficiently enable useful threads without censoring posts needlessly, and expecting people to be someone they're not on a forum whose primary purpose is entertainment related.
c) Participation in this and other forums is entirely voluntary, and trying to please everyone ultimately results ******* everyone off.
Nobody wants to be part of a club that thinks it can dictate propriety in the name of sensibility, especially when said club exists for the sole purpose of engaging people who bought an expensive car JUST FOR FUN.
