I have to agree with BH-FLASH about cencership on this forum

[Johnny Ray]

Paul...are you sure it's the MOST useless graphics card feature? I heard from somewhere, not sure where, about a new card coming out with a "render subjects nude" feature.

What use could this be?

John

:~)

[Buckaroo99]

People have a right to free speech ,but not free access to private boards. This is a public forum ,but a private owned board run by Ant. Ant pays the bill and can run the board how he sees fit. It's like a newspaper can refuse to run a ad it thinks is in poor taste. If censorship does occur it's Ant's god given right.

[Kruzin]

It's all outlined in <A HREF="http://forums.murc.ws/cgi-bin/ubbmisc.cgi?action=getannounce&ForumNumber=4&Start =2451510.99&End=2455198&Session=" target=_new>Holly's Forum Survival Guide</A>

[PaulS]

He has a point though. The soap box forum is not where you would look for complaints or a complex defence of a particular view, it is mainly a forum for messing around. The best place to publicly air a grievance still seems to be the Matrox forums, or maybe the Matrox newsgroup.

Paul

[Snake-Eyes]

Not to beat on anyone, Ant, but I have to agree with both PaulS and KoalaBear33 about the SoapBox thing. The first thing I think of when I see the "Soap Box" is something negative, where people grandstand, mainly about things that p!ss them off (rants and flames come to mind mainly). I try to avoid those kinds of forums in most cases. Fortunately, having been here since before you established the SoapBox forum here, I know that's not the case here. Newbies might not.

A miscellaneous or general discussions forum doesn't give me the same negative feelings right away when I first see their names.

You might want to think about either renaming the SoapBox forum, of of creating one more forum for general discussions. Either would take care of the stygma thing.

Anyway, you and the moderators are doing a good job all the same (<kissy kissy>- gotta keep the ol' nose lubricated. JK, LOL). Keep up the good work. I do sometimes wonder if maybe the moderators make a bad call on what to move where, but usually it's a judgement call, and rarely have posts been locked out completely or removed, so nobody has been hurt by it too much.

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Ace

[Rags]

The first thing I think of when I see the "Soap Box" is something negative, where people grandstand, mainly about things that p!ss them off (rants and flames come to mind mainly).

Exactly!!! IF someone were looking for complaints, logic would dictate that they look in the soap box then. What he had was a complaint that had zilch to do with Gaming and Matrox Hardware. He posted his message in such a way, ie CAPS, that his post would be considered flame, flame bait, or a pissed off rant---So, therefore Soap Box material. I am sure that if it were written in such a way that it was an INFORMATIVE post, then it would have had a home at Matrox Hardware.

Rags

[Targon]

Going back to the original point, the job of a moderator is to PREVENT threads from turning ugly, and to keep the message boards both useful and fun. People who come on and start with flame-bait posts are the sort that need and deserve moderator involvement. Off-topic posts don't get closed, they get moved, and as you have seen, a reason and where the thread was moved to are ALWAYS provided on here. You will notice that negative posts that are well spoken, and lend themselves to discussion, rather than argument/flame are generally NOT moved. We see it all the time when there's a driver problem. I don't think that Ant, or the moderators even get the recognition they deserve for how well run these boards on.

[motub]

Awwwww, come on guys!!!!

Lemme have 'im....!

I've been so.... lonely...{scrape snick scrape snick}

Pleeeeeeeeeease...????

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Holly

[Jorden]

Holly: Go have a look at him, and when you think he's not worthy (Muppet's Tonight, John Goodman )just use the nylon way to flame him
<like: gth you ah ;-)>

To answer anyone who wants TSB to be renamed: Why oh why should we name our "General Rant" to the same as you were adjusted to in your last videocard forum?

Ant's invented these fori and when I first came here I fell in the middle of a very speedy thread, one updated about every minute.. I liked that, especially because at that moment it was a thread in MHW that wasn't Matrox HardWare related at all, but just a Fun Thread !!!

I do miss those times, that we can add a fun thread to MHW on a Friday... Either Ant or Kruzin would let us to, if we ask nicely, properly.

But to start any thread with a rant about what is wrong with this videocard would get you flamed, BBQ, roasted and gnawed down to the bare bones at any fori, be it MURC, 3dfx, nVidia or whatever your love is.

My love is obvious, dual way. And if and when you're here longer you'll know who my other love is next to my G400 DH 32Mb

Jorden.

[HollyBerri]

Oh, by the way...

So, I don't see why the admins would keep locking any thread that says anything bad about Matrox and its cards.

They don't lock the threads ... they move the threads and close them on the (incorrect) forum they started on. The threads remain open in their new location, but of course cannot continue to receive posts in the wrong location. Aside from not wanting to propagate off-topic threads, it's confusing to have cross-posted threads.

Threads are usually only closed if they're insulting or abusive to the membership and have no redeeming value whatsoever.

Also telling people to go and look in the Soap Box forum is ludicrous! Accurate information is better spread on general forums (in case you didn't know).

Errr... bet you get your stock tips on usenet as well... "Accurate information" as you mean it, comes from Matrox Graphics, Inc. This is a user-to-user help forum. Because <u>we want to help other users get their cards configured properly</u>, not to help users make their buying decisions-- that's what reviews and hardware news sites are for. Our technical information is almost always accurate, whatever forum it appears on.

Or did you mean to say that your <u>issues</u> with Matrox's products are somehow more "accurate" than the huge majority of forum users who find their card to be everything they wanted (and more)?

Like <u>that</u> attitude is going to fly around here... yeah, right.

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Holly

[KvHagedorn]

KoalaBear, when I started coming to these forums, EVERYTHING was in Matrox Hardware.. It was just the general discussion forum as well. It hasn't been too long ago that TSB was created, so I think the moderators have just had to be a bit pursuasive to get people to take these discussions there. Once people have learned to post in the right forum, they will ease up (as I think they have lately, which is fine as long as the exceptions are rare)

This thread probably falls mostly into the area of site feedback, dont you think? I can understand why you wouldn't put it there, though, since it appears that no one reads that forum. (You are mistaken if you think that. Ant looks at that forum very quickly if someone has a comment about this site) Ant did respond pretty quickly and at length anyway, though he had to look elsewhere for your comments. Since you phrased your comments in a reasonable and civilized fashion, though, you have gotten a civilized discussion about the matter. See how far manners will get you?

As to the AGP4X question, my card flies fast as a Falcon in 1X even.. 4X is just a buzzword Intel is using now. Maybe these currently useless technologies will find a place once they release their IA64 processors.
<this thread should be moved to site feedback =)>

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Kind Regards,

KvH

[motub]

I'd also guess that Ant might have left it here as an instructive thread for those minis who *cough*don't read the FAQ.....*cough*

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Holly

[paulcs]

I think the moderators have been pretty fair about this. I've recently suffered the indignity of having a thread I started locked *on the Soap Box* and moved to General Hardware.

Another thread was locked and moved to Site Feedback, which is probably where this thread should go. I believe, in both cases and for the sake of consistancy, it was the right thing to do.

So it is possible to get booted out of the Soap Box and into the technical forums.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Jorden]

I think we should give KvH his Falcon speed, not to mention that this nylon thread should be in a bucket at all...

<or so to say, have Kruzin move it to Site Feedback... where else would it be at it's place??>
<Jord>
Jord.

[PeTe]

Well is it too hard to change SOAP BOX to General Forum if thats what people want..

Atleast i have maybe once looked at soap box and someone has point that he would like many people to read, he would post it to matrox hardware or general hardware.. ( atleast i read them once a day. ) And why would they do it.. because nobody reads forum named SOAP BOX. =)

Pe-Te