Here's my input.

Yes, we do allow off-topic posting in the Ford Forum, but only to an extent. If its a serious technical thread we'll limit it, but if its a thread such as "hey, look at my new rims" and it strays then we'll let it slide. Really its more of a gut instinct than a strict set of rules.

With that said, the reason I think it works so well is because we are generally an older more mature crowd. We don't really have anybody threaten harm or start shit talking or anything like that.

It comes down to the old premise of "if you want to act like a 5 year old, we'll treat you like one". Not pointing to anyone in particular.

And Ron, to your point about not banning theives, I don't think its TR's place to get in the middle of this mess. For instance, say I don't like you so I go on TR and say "at the last TRack day I saw Ron steal something from my car". Should TR ban you? I don't doubt that there are theives on TR, and I'm sure at least in the case of Chavez that they really were broken into, but you can never be 100% sure that what's being posted is in fact true.

I think TR has actually made some gains in this area. There have been a few threads that would be considered "shop bashing" that were let slide for a few days, one even being a TR vendor. Scott and I have also let similar topics stay open in Ford tech because this forum is about information, and someone's good or bad experience with a shop is information. What isn't tolerated is "don't go to Dave's performace because they are assholes". What can stay (until all parties have been able to present their side) is "Dave's performance shop charged me twice what they quoted and took a week longer than they said".

And as far as mods locking a thread vs deleting the crap, honestly, we're people too. We have busy times, we have cranky times, we have friends and people that we don't like. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that occasionally those factors don't play into what action is taken with a thread. Other things that factor into that is, what is the crap to content ratio of the thread. What is the thread worth to TR? (a thread showing a crappy looking car on Ebay may get locked if it gets too far off topic because its not something that drastically improves TR).