Hi everyone,
Myself and the moderators are starting to get a number of P.M.s regarding obtaining access to the Programming VZ Clusters thread.
A number of regular forum contributors (especially the dozen or so that have been contributing to the wealth of information to the thread),
have requested that the thread be moved to the contributors forum area.
What Does This Mean ?
The Contributors section is an area where if a member contributes something significant (I.E. an EEPROM Binary or an unknown EEPROM location, Can Bus Information, or some information that has not already been published before), then a member can request access to this section. (If they do not have access already).
How Can I get Access to This Section ?
Very Easy...
To gain access to this section, simply post up a dump of an EEPROM from a device, explaining where the dump was obtained, and some details about the EEPROM dump.
(I.E. Submit a dump of YOUR VY or VZ cluster to the forums, and you will be eligible to gain access to this section).
NOTE : Do NOT (I REPEAT) DO NOT post a copy of an EEPROM that you have already obtained from this website, and claim it to be your own.
Members may find that the lifetime BAN from the website that will swiftly follow may be of some inconvenience.
Likewise, helpful members (I.E. members that post helpful replies regarding questions raised by other members), can also get you access to this section.
The idea is to GET involved. (Having a handful of generic posts does not count either !)
Why is the CarModder Website Doing This ?
To put things very bluntly, most of the information available on this website is a collaborative effort.
The more people working on a problem, the quicker a problem can be resolved.
Likewise, it seems that a very small minority are continuously contributing their findings to the community,
whilst the vast majority of "Members" are content to kick back and use the hard work of others for their own personal gain.
Sadly, more and more contributing members are telling us that enough is enough.
CarModder WILL ALWAYS give preferential treatment to those people that are helpful, that are WILLING to contribute, and willing to put in the time and effort in to learning and trying stuff out for themselves.
If these PREFERRED members wish to limit the access to this information, then our options as moderators of this website are,
1) DO NOTHING - And Keep this information open to everyone, (And in the process pissing off the ONLY members that are contributing to the forum, to the extent that they no longer share information and leave)...... OR
2) Assist these PREFERRED members, move the section to a limited access area where members that have been contributing to the wealth of knowledge here, have unlimited access to this information.
This is TOTALLY UNFAIR ! I was planning on contributing, but now I WONT !
Yes, it is totally unfair !
It is unfair that this website has over 46000 members, over 16000 images, 17000 posts, 389 documents, and only around 40 members that have contributed to this colossal effort.
It is unfair that these contributing members are constantly bombarded with P.M. requests, for favors, free information, free software, cheap parts, cheap services, and other things from people that they have never heard of, do not know from a bar of soap, and people that will never likely return the favour themselves in the future.
We are not asking for much... just contribute and be active.
We are not asking for member donations (Hey access to this website IS free as in beer),
We are not asking you to do something that you would not normally do.
(I.E. if you want access to programming information, or EEPROM locations, the LEAST you can do is upload or share what you SHOULD already have).
PLEASE think about these points raised above !!!!
I am seriously thinking of locking this whole website down to making the whole website an INVITE ONLY site.
PLEASE Dont make this decision easy for me to make !
Regards
Matti (Website Founder and Moderator)