I agree with Dibble. Close the board to the general ducati riding public and you won't have much of a board any more. It's only new blood coming in that keeps the board interesting instead of it becoming a boring talking shop. I can't imagine anything worse than the same clique of people re-running an endless red vs yellow debate or 916 vs 999 yawn.
OK that might be an exageration, but the fact is that by restricting the people you allow to post, you also restrict the amount of interest and some people have a very narrow range of views.
I also agree that some people forget that this is NOT a public forum, but a service paid for by people like me. For myself, I'm quite happy to see people posting up adverts as long as they don't take the ****.
In my opinion, people like Nelly get it dead right. He makes the occasional plug for Cornerspeed, and throws up the occasional deal - but in my view he more than 'pays' for that with the free advice that he gives people on lots of technical questions. Fair exchange of selflessly given advice for the odd plug - I don't mind that at all.
I don't want to see commercial organisations posting on here unchecked, and I don't like to see thinly disguised traders taking advantage either, and to be honest the 1 post newbies who use their first and only post to advertise a bike (even Yamaha's FFS) without any intention of adding any value to the life or spirit of this club really **** me off, but that's just my opinion. On balance I would much rather bite my tongue and let those types of posters continue to use the forum than close it off and let it stagnate into mediocrity - this board has often been highlighted as a real jewel amongst motorcycles forums so if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it.
Jools
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