What happened to that cheapo EBay M100 (SOLD)

[Rambo]

A few days ago there was a car for sale on EBay that someone on here allegedly bought as a doer upper

I made a response, as did Dapinky, but the topic seems to have disappeared from the site. I believe someone offered £450 for it as it needed a lot doing to it ?? Anyone remember the car, H847 ATV ???

Have the mods deleted the topic??

Anyway, to cut a long story short I was interested in the previous MOT history, failures and advisories on this car and discovered this advisory from a few years ago

"steering stiff when vehicle stationary"

I think that's what's called stating the obvious rather than an advisory !!

[clemo]

It sold and the thread got edited / cancelled down ..

It will be interesting to see if it turns up on here soon ( as a car rather than in pieces )

[John_W]

Clemo,

Why do threads get edited / cancelled down?

Was this thread elimination deliberate as opposed to the random disappearances that seem to happen over the years that nobody can explain?

Not being stroppy, just trying to understand what goes on.

Luv,
John

[dapinky]

John,

I was asked (by the originator of the thread) to delete it, as it had served its purpose, and the vehicle was sold.

Whilst we would ordinarily leave such threads on the site for future reference (once they are marked as 'sold' they tend to fade into oblivion, but can be searched for on the forum), if we get a specific request to delete a particular thread, from the original poster, then we do remove it as a matter of courtesy.

This applies for any thread, not just in the 'For Sale' section.

We have found that by ignoring such requests, the poster can still go back and edit/delete their own posts within the thread, and thus leave the whole thing unintelligible and useless anyway, so this just keeps it a bit tidier.

[clemo]

John ,
I hope this gives you a bit of insight .

As pinky said really .
A post can be removed by the OP or a MOD . In many cases such as the price headline of a car for sale the OP removes the price ...
Sometimes they go a step further and remove everything and just leave it marked as sold . Which is a shame . In my belief the seller should leave the post for others to help gauge the value of their car. Within 6 months i move it over to the SOLD section where it stays for 3 pages ( not sure what that is in actual time , as auto delete eventually eats it )

The only slight amendment to the above you might notice is after time i tidy it up to ( SOLD ) . Just to make it easier on the eye in the for sale section . We do not add, remove or change text . ( and if we did other mods would see and question why )

EDIT - just reading that back . I once edited DanV's post for selling stripy . I was chatting to him on whatssap at the time . And another guy who was living in Spain and had ill heath . This was done via PM and i alway highlighted it as CLEMO EDIT.

OVERVIEW OF WHAT WE CAN DO .

We get a moderator control panel . which is a few little words by board index ( top left)
I tend to click on that every day at 06:00. From there we can activate new users , See any highlighted problems ( as in reported posts ) And see who has deleted posts .
It is all very open and simple to use . As for disappearing posts it is an odd one . As there is a section that shows what has been deleted . So if i deleted something the rest of the Mods can see it .I can leave a note as to the reason of why i did it and they can question why i did it .

The difficult thing that happens .. Here comes an actual example of what happen about 10 years ago. ( dammed if you do / dammed if you don't)

XXXX are being made for the good of the people . ( £1500 each)
1 person gets the hump with the designer / maker of said very large item about it not being personally delivered in time and goes on a very open rant.

Now freedom of speech on the site is something we always allowed .
But we know that the touch paper has been lit .
Do you leave it on the open forum and let it sort itself out ?
Do you remove it pending a quite talk behind the scenes and hope to solve the issue without dirty laundry .
Once you do remove it and put it in a holding bin awaiting further investigation , the original OP comes back screaming mods cover up / favouritism .
Add someone else that also saw it at 06:00 before we got to it into the mix and we get parts of the story reported . X said that about Y and it becomes a bigger problem .

In this case it was left in the open forum and everyone lost .The thread became huge , moral became low , the original poster got a barrage of insults from other users ( which causes a secondary issue ) and sold his car and left . XXXX decided that it was to much like hard work and doesn't make any more of these amazing items . This was of great loss to us all . Even now people are still wanting these parts . In my opinion we should have closed it down. We didn't because we felt very strongly about freedom of speech . I also felt very responsible that i didn't . I saw it first . I sold this guy a car and was also one of the people that pushed the designer to make this item.

2nd situation ( one that i got hauled over the coals for )

Situation arrises .
Seller is selling an item for quite a lot of money.
One person take a poke at seller for not being an enthusiast and just a dealer. ( stays out in public forum)
Words are exchanged and it starts to spiral . ( i am keeping an eye on it)
Private PM is sent to me by OP asking for it to be deleted .
I go to thread and read through to find parts of text have been removed . Thread now makes no sense and looks unfavourable towards one side ( both took part in the open ding dong)
I remove thread and leave a message saying i have removed and locked the topic . I get PM's accusing me of acting like a mod god ..


So there is 2 examples of what happens of we do get involved or don't get involved .

There is a 3rd that happened about 8 years ago behind the scenes and almost broke LEC . It was that serious .
We must never go anywhere near this again . Almost unbelievable that 1 user could do that much damage .

So with that in mind we do what we do in order to try and keep balance and a form of order . Mostly these things are dealt with behind the scenes .
Sometimes Bollox is the right answer in the face of scrutiny as if you don't it can take you down and make you not want to be part of it any longer.
In other cases an open and public point of view is the answer required and quite often you will see certain Mods say " with Mod head blah blah blah "

We mods are enthusiasts first , and still are . Only by time and the fact we where daft enough to say yes to DOUG and SY when the site upgraded from the old reddit style forum has put us where we are . Some of us drafted in for wisdom , wit and all the bits in between.


As for the whereabouts of missing posts it really is an anomaly . The moderation control panel is a very transparent thing . But things do go missing . More so a few years ago when we had a different host and server .


I hope this shows you better as to what goes on ,

All the best Clemo

( not after the worlds smallest violin BTW )


Probably worthy of a mention is that when LEC was formed these cars where fairly new . So the requirements of a forum was different .It was about the upkeep of a current(ish) modern car .(I bought mine when it was 6 years old) . back when factory parts were available. Many others on here bought their car direct from the factory . In later years LEC has turned into upkeep of classic cars where parts are scarce . In that time prices have changed that reflected the type of owner , which in turn changed the style of thread topics . There was a time ( as mentioned above ) when prices dropped right out and we went through a bit of a muppet stage . Anyone could own an elan but couldn't afford lotus prices to repair it . Which lead to many of the cars that we have today being broken for spare parts . So in a strange way i suppose we should be grateful to that period . Though some of these owners were quite destructive to both their cars and other forum users .Now we seem to have gone through that period and come out the other side . Owners now have a better understanding of what they have bought and what is required to keep it on the road . And whist some LEC members might not be the kind of people we would go down the pub with , others have made long term friendships and these cars have brought us together .

A forum is nothing without the people that join and make it possible and 1000's have passed through the doors keeping it alive. So even if we have heard a question before we don't delete it or lock topics even if they get to old ( like some forums ).

[epipete]

Interestingly, and whikst I understand the reasons Clemo and Pinky give, it's a shame really because such 'sale' threads often contain condition aspects about the car which is lost when it is deleted.

There is a recent post from a guy who has bought a Cat C, I myself own a Cat D, and it is possible that some information during the long life of these cars, and others, may have been recorded on the forum but is lost to posterity. I certainly searched for information on mine when I got it with no joy.

On the other hand there are other cars on here that have a comprehensive history file should they ever crop up for sale 'Stripey' is an obvious example.

A comprehensive SE list must be the solution

[John_W]

Dave, Dave,
Great replies, thanks.

Pinky's reply was perfectly on the money as a response to my question.

Clemo's reply went into zen mode. I fully agree with everything you said. I recognise cases 1&2, but not 3. I think that the moderators on this site are great, and I respect them because I know them. It's a responsible, difficult and probably thankless post - there is no way I would accept the position. I have never seen a post or decision by a moderator that I have disagreed with. Over the years there have been several unpleasant situations which the moderators have dealt with in a mature, dignified and adult manner.

It's a shame that the for sale post couldn't have been left "for the record", as epipete says. But if the originator requested it to be removed, there's really nothing else that could have been done.

Thanks for the replies.
Viva LEC!
John

[Rambo]

It's a responsible, difficult and probably thankless post - there is no way I would accept the position. I have never seen a post or decision by a moderator that I have disagreed with. Over the years there have been several unpleasant situations which the moderators have dealt with in a mature, dignified and adult manner.

I totally agree with you John. It must be a difficult and thankless task So thanks to all upstairs....administrators, moderators, kitty fiddlers....... for what they do for this fantastic forum

PS You'd make a good moderator John because of your knowledge, sensibility and tactfulness I will recommend you to the deity upstairs

[John_W]

Barsteward.

[Steve A]

It's a responsible, difficult and probably thankless post - there is no way I would accept the position. I have never seen a post or decision by a moderator that I have disagreed with. Over the years there have been several unpleasant situations which the moderators have dealt with in a mature, dignified and adult manner.

I totally agree with you John. It must be a difficult and thankless task So thanks to all upstairs....administrators, moderators, kitty fiddlers....... for what they do for this fantastic forum

you know who you are, keep doing what you're doing

[Rambo]

Barsteward.

Guidelines for Mods have changed John so you're probably safe ? One of the main prerequisites is that you need to be able to drive across Cambodia on 2 wheels fuelled only by cheap beer and waccy baccy to even be considered













And called Dave, not John

[Tuga2112]

What happened to that cheapo EBay M100 for sale ??

You mean this ?