Thoughts on making electric vehicle threads useful to those asking for help?

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Zenith63

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Not sure if this is the right forum for this, if not apologies, but it's a meta-AAM discussion so it seemed like the best spot.

Think we all agree AAM is a trusted source of truth many many people in Ireland come to for help with their life-changing finances right through to which dishwasher tablets to buy. It troubles me however that it is now virtually impossible for people to come here and ask simple questions about electric vehicles and get answers from others with experience, without the thread devolving into circular off-topic megathreads unrelated to the original query.

This thread is a good example. The post now has over 200 replies, all mostly irrelevant to what the original poster asked for help with and they stopped responding back on page 2 of 11. Depreciation of cars is a very real and concerning consumer issue for people but this thread has become useless on that topic.

Another example is @Slim's EV diary (https://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/electric-car-diary.226526/), which I understand many have found useful because Slim gave balanced feedback on their experience. Leo has had to clean this thread up two or three times in the past and last week Brendan had to take this 170-reply monster out. It's still 200 replies deep, mostly off-topic and is now locked because of the hassle moderating it. So no more balanced feedback from Slim.


My view is that there are umpteen places on the Internet where people can go to debate whether EVs are the future or not, their views on Cobalt mining, Lithium abundance, particulate matter emissions etc etc but there are precious few where they can ask questions and get honest answers from other people living in the same country as them so seeing similar issues/benefits. AAM is that place for so many other consumer topics, can we find a way to make it that place for the 25,000 people who are buying electric vehicles in Ireland every year?



Thoughts?
 
Zenith63 said:
... can we find a way to make it that place for the 25,000 people who are buying electric vehicles in Ireland every year?
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It will certainly become that if contributors are banned or discouraged from mentioning the drawbacks of electric vehicles.

Me, I'd prefer not to see AAM become an advertorial platform for any product or range.
 
My thoughts? There is no "truth" on the internet or social media which forums are.

Forum comments are like Amazon reviews. You want to ignore the wholly positive and wholly negative comments. But those in the middle that mention both pros and cons are likely more accurate.

The forums ignore feature is a useful filter of noise from a thread.

The global motor industry and EV market is in turmoil at the moment. There is a perfect storm of factors in play. I would be wary of predicting anything at such a volatile time. Also Ireland has it's own micro market that operates a little differently.

Everyone uses their cars differently so look at vehicles from their own perspective..
 
I agree with @Zenith63 - should be possible to ask for advice or recommendations without descending into political debate.

Even this thread is being pre-moderated?
 
T McGibney said:
It will certainly become that if contributors are banned or discouraged from mentioning the drawbacks of electric vehicles.

Me, I'd prefer not to see AAM become an advertorial platform for any product or range.
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Absolutely! To be clear I am certainly not advocating any of that. There is as much zeal on the pro- and anti- sides of this topic, both sides bear responsibility for these threads ending up the way they do.

Acknowledging as much and that we have 25,000 people a year buying these yokes, how can we allow AAM users ask questions and get help without discussion of their problem being stifled by the two sides going off down the same rabbit holes time and time again, mostly talking passed each other?

I know the moderators have lives to lead and do this voluntarily, so I'll accept a 'feck off' in response :), but if I had a magic wand what I would like to see tried is:
  • Threads on this topic are moderated more heavily, with replies required to strictly provide helpful answers to the poster asking the question and everything else deleted without any need to provide explanation
  • This must apply to pro- and anti- zealous posts equally. Anything suggesting EVs save the world or are better than petrol/diesel cars in all conceivable ways should get the chop
  • This only needs to apply where somebody is asking for help/input. If somebody else wants to start an open-ended debate of the pros/cons of EVs then game on, though I think it should be moved to Shooting the Breeze so it's not stuck at the top of everybody's Unread feed for weeks, they're just not that interesting
  • Slim's diary thread unlocked so he can keep documenting his experience and the first person to mention Cobalt mining or EVs smelling like unicorns in there gets a solid hiding at the next AAM Christmas drinks
 
can we not just have a EV help thread, where people can come and ask questions and it doesnt get derailed by the usual FUD and misinformation and also have a why EVs are the worst thing in the world and the people who want to go can go wild in that?
 
@Zenith63 - I applaud, in the hope that such can be done, but we've proven time & time again that these rabbit holes keep appearing regardless of how we hope to manage it :)

I would love such a discussion thread to be in place for EVs - my OH is thinking of purchasing one, although I'm not in favour of so much money being spent, esepcially with the new EV models coming in next year and my perception of the current high cost of purchase, which I expect to come down, I would still like to have relevant information on EVs - once it's leaving personal opinion out of the thread, and instead be peoples actual experience.

Simple things like what charger to use / getting the best out of the EV / etc etc... Slim's diary was a great start, and ideally expanded for questions to be asked & answered.

To be fair, even though AAM is heavily moderated, the majoirty of those of us who have signed up to AAM are quite disciplined (most of the time) to self regulate our thoughts, but then ... "whoops, another rabit hole appears and all fall in..." happens on certain subject. Maybe an expansion of mods for certain topics ? Beyond mods, maybe Thread owner(s) who can rein people in or catch them before they fall into those mysticals holes...

Looking forward to seeing how things progress ...
 
Zenith63 said:
Another example is @Slim's EV diary (https://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/electric-car-diary.226526/), which I understand many have found useful because Slim gave balanced feedback on their experience. Leo has had to clean this thread up two or three times in the past and last week Brendan had to take this 170-reply monster out. It's still 200 replies deep, mostly off-topic and is now locked because of the hassle moderating it. So no more balanced feedback from Slim.
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Slim's EV diary is a great thread.

Although, it has been very time-consuming to moderate, I didn't close it because of the difficulty in moderating it. When I am cleaning out a thread, I close it, so that people don't reply to it during the edit which makes even more work for me. I forgot to reopen it.

I have just read it again and deleted a whole pile of posts.

I have reopened it and politely asked people to stay on-topic.

Electric Car Diary

I decided to revisit this thread owing to the thread on EV depreciation etc running on this forum. I hadn't realised it's exactly 1 year since last post here. It's been an interesting year with the EV. A number of negatives arose :- 1. Number of 'updates' requiring a visit to dealer, once 65...
askaboutmoney.com

Brendan
 
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Zenith63 said:
This thread is a good example. The post now has over 200 replies, all mostly irrelevant to what the original poster asked for help with and they stopped responding back on page 2 of 11. Depreciation of cars is a very real and concerning consumer issue for people but this thread has become useless on that topic.
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In general, we tend to moderate more heavily in the first page or two.

The OP asked a question.
He got a few opinions.

Askaboutmoney served its purpose for him. He does not have any need to come back. If there is follow up, e.g. if he gets legal advice, he will have to start a new thread unfortunately.

It's very different from Slim's Diary which is an ongoing multi-year project which needs ongoing moderation.
 
Blackrock1 said:
can we not just have a EV help thread, where people can come and ask questions
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Fantastic idea.

Would someone like to start this with some sort of FAQ which could be updated?

It does not have to be perfect. In fact, you don't even need to know the answers - just the questions.

And links to discussions on Askaboutmoney and resources elsewhere to answer those questions.

Brendan
 
Zenith63 said:
Not sure if this is the right forum for this, if not apologies, but it's a meta-AAM discussion so it seemed like the best spot.

Think we all agree AAM is a trusted source of truth many many people in Ireland come to for help with their life-changing finances right through to which dishwasher tablets to buy. It troubles me however that it is now virtually impossible for people to come here and ask simple questions about electric vehicles and get answers from others with experience, without the thread devolving into circular off-topic megathreads unrelated to the original query.
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I agree. And it is not just EV threads. I gave up following the various threads on the UK pensions and UB mortgages, they are simply to difficult to follow, even though both are relevant to me.

Off topic megathreads are not the only issue but perhaps this type of discussion could be pushed into the depths and in the main threads people be requested to keep to the question asked.
 
cremeegg said:
they are simply to difficult to follow, even though both are relevant to me.
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So do we close a thread after 4 pages? Presumably not.

If it's a topic that I am interested in, I will do an FAQ or summary. Maybe close the long thread and kick off a new thread with an FAQ or summary.

Of course that thread goes mad after a while as well,, but at least someone who is interested in UK pensions can get a good overview in the first post.

So maybe if you are interested in a thread, write an FAQ. Post it as a new post. And I will close the old thread and link it.
 
cremeegg said:
I agree. And it is not just EV threads. I gave up following the various threads on the UK pensions and UB mortgages, they are simply to difficult to follow, even though both are relevant to me.

Off topic megathreads are not the only issue but perhaps this type of discussion could be pushed into the depths and in the main threads people be requested to keep to the question asked.
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At least one of those threads asked a few multi faceted nuanced questions. I'm not sure how it can be contained to one question. Threads are organic, they flow and ebb.

Maybe start a thread with specific questions. Anyone you find distracting you could ignore them, at least temporarily. It's a useful feature. Helps focus on the replies you want to read. You can still click into ignored comments if you want. And you can turn it off afterwards.
 
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