Ask the law

[grimm]

I'm not prevy to all the inner workings of what users have rights to what areas of the forums, but it seems that I can start a thread in the ask the law area, but I can't reply to a thread, this might be the case for other users as well, which in turn could be why there is no traffic in that area except for new posts? just somehting to look into.

[teh DIRT]

I was just about to PM you back but since this popped up I might as well explain here for the masses to see. Its definitly a question that comes up often and I sure do have an answer.

When the Ask the Law forum was first created it was our intention to have an official police officer monitor the forum and answer questions asked in there. This is a lot to ask of them already being that 99% of the people here aren't law abiding citizens (in a motor vehicle sense) and they have to answer countless questions about :"is my tint to dark" or "i got pulled over while racing, wtf?" On top of that there have been times where users aren't that friendly with the officers.

Nonetheless, they have agreed to help us out and answer the questions they feel they are able to. When the forum opened a few months back, anyone could start a thread and also post a comment on it. An issue arised where a lot of people were answering questions that our officers were meant to answer. While it is great that the members here want to help the other members, in this case it wasnt good...for 2 reasons.

1. An answer from Joe Scmoe aka 96turboracer (just an example) does not carry the same weight as an answer from 04crownvic (one of our officers) because Mr. Schmoe is not an officer, he was not trained for it and his answer has no real backbone. Even if it is the same answer as the officers, the officers answer is prefered.

2. We could allow everyone to post answers to questions asked in the Ask The Law forum, but then the officers who DONATE the little leisure time they have might feel unappreciated in the fact that everyone else thinks they can answer the questions that they were trained to answer. On top of that we try and get the officers to frequent here as much as possible, if they feel they aren't needed than they won't be here often, hence the slow answer rate.


Overall, I/we appreciate that everyone wants to help out eachother but it is in our best interest that we keep the Ask the Law forum the way it is.

Thanks
-pete

[CHAOS]

it really is a great idea for a subforum... thank god i havent had to worry about it too much.

[teh DIRT]

Yes it is one of the better ideas that we have had here, I can't count the amount of times I've heard people on other forums say that they joined here because of it. I agree that the turnover rate in the forum is a little slow but we only have two officers at the moment who might not be able to get to the computer everyday being that they are out doing us all a favor and keeping the law.

I would like to get a few more officers to join in the near future so that we could maybe have answers a little quicker, its something I will work on.

[TROLL]

and just to clarify, as explained in the sticky at the top of the ask the law forum , the forum is set up so that registered users (everyone) can start a thread, and reply to their own threads, but they cannot reply to others threads. only The Law can reply to others threads. this makes it so that you can ask a question and follow up on it but not confuse possible right or wrong or incomplete answers in anyone else's posts.
and for the record, we only currently have one officer on board, but if anyone else is interested, i only ask that you have legal experience as an officer, lawyer, or otherwise, and that you check the forum 2x a week and take the time to answer each question completely and fully.

[grimm]

well thanks for the clarification, and haha you caught my bryan, i didn't check that sticky out, which seems to of had all the answers i was looking for, but teh Dirt did a fantastic job covering it in more detail, which i appreciate. I think the idea behind that is great, I wonder if there would be a way to have users post their input but some how show that it's just an opinion and not a legal response. just an idea off the top of my head.

anyway thanks again

[CleanNeon98]

What Pete and Troll said above pretty much covers it...if I have some legitemate answer to someone's question, I usually PM them with a link, or contact them through AIM. I did that when a member posted a question about colored headlights, and I was just reading about them that same night.