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Today marks the 1 year aniversary of CleanMPG. Thanks all for your contributions to this site. I think the site is pretty good and I can't wait to see how much better it will be in the future.

It's seemed more like ten months. Maybe it's because I'm getting older. :D

Awesome. High kudos, guys.
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_H*

Way to go CleanMPG!

Hi Tom:

___It sure was an interesting first year, wasn’t it! Remember my choice for hosts and how we were down for an entire weekend :o

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Congrats to all! (Whoever "all" is; I'm still learning the players.) Of the forums I frequent, this has become my favorite. Keep up the great work.

What are we doing well JimboK

What are we doing well JimboK
Two things come to mind. I'll do some comparisons to PriusChat, which until recently was my favorite. Nothing's changed there, and I still spend time there. Instead my focus has changed.

First is the emphasis here on fuel economy. When I first bought the Prius I wanted to learn about it, how it worked, and what modifications I could make to protect it and increase driving enjoyment. PC is a great source for all that. I had never heard of hypermiling. As time went on I learned about the car, got my mods done, and started to realize how much driving technique could improve FE. I then stumbled upon this site and started to (and still do) learn from the masters.

Second is the overall cordial tone here with somewhat of a "family" feel. The regulars are all polite and encouraging. Unlike PC, there are not a lot of off-topic posts, especially politics and religion. I would rather not have to wade through the fluff, and I choose not to engage in political or religious discussions. They're usually easy to identify in PC by subject, but not always. In a friendly discussion on fuel economy someone can drop a brief comment about George Bush (pro or con), and before you know it a full blown flame war erupts. I've seen none of that here, nor even a hint that any member is predisposed to flame baiting, intentional or otherwise. Finally, I've seen no trolls here. (How do you manage that?)

I see the character of the dialog here as a product of at least two things (apart from the character of the members): the relatively small number of participants, and the obviously excellent job done by you and the other moderators. (Who are they, BTW?) I know you'd like membership to grow, and with that growth comes increased opportunity for courtesy to erode, so I know your job will get tougher.

Thanks for asking, and thanks for making all feel at home!

Wow, didn't realize it'd been a full year. Congrats on your success so far and best wishes for continued success.

To Jim's comments on PC. I think it's inevitable that a site as large as PC has gotten (almost 20k registered users), and a site that's covered most of the issues regarding the Prius many times over in it's almost 4 years of existance that trends will change for points of discussion and interest. If not for the Fred's stuff there I don't think I could maintain my interest in the site...I can only hear the same questions so many times before I want to pull my hair out.

CleanMPG is growing and evolving just now out of it's rookie season. As it matures and finds it's place it too, I think, will shift some. As it grows in popularity, which I think it will, you'll see different personalities evolve as well. If you look at PC I think it's clear that 99% of the flaming/hostilites eminate from about 10 members...and it took 4 years to get all 10 of those.

But, back on task, congrats to CleanMPG and best wishes on it's growth.

And now I've earned myself a 2 week holiday from the "you haven't posted in a while" message!

I should add that Evan, Tony, and the other PC mods do a terrific job, despite those 10 or so (you sure that's all??) chronic antagonizers. I'm sure it's tough for a moderator to balance the free exchange of ideas with the need to maintain some decorum in a site that large. And I respect how professionally and patiently they respond, no matter how silly or repetitive a newbie's question can be or how easily its answer could be found by searching. Evan, I'm surprised you have any hair left! :)

JimboK,

Thank you for your kind words.

Credit starts with Wayne and Tom - the founders. Both are into hypermiling. Tom is more into the webmastering side, while Wayne is into activities and events. Initially I lent some advise and wished Wayne the best, but wondered if CleanMPG would be redundant. It did not take long to change my mind as the committment to hypermiling and other green issues is very high. The early members tended to be people with similar committment.

Many of us are known at other sites, so many trollers knew they would have a very short life here. Dwelling on religion and politics often becomes a fire fight, as there is always a few that either lact restraint or intentionally bait the discussion for "the joy of it". :( While I have opinions on those topics, I tend to avoid them if a few are going to be into ridicule and disrespect. Therefore, we try to go light on that here and when it somehow works into the board's theme.

I should add that Evan, Tony, and the other PC mods do a terrific job, despite those 10 or so....

Just an example - Yesterday afternoon I caught a spammer at PriusChat posting and within a couple of minutes Tony had it removed. :)

Congrats on the one year milestone. I've really enjoyed getting into this site more an more. Like JimboK, I too am spending more and more time here rather than PC. I still spend a lot of time on PC, but for different reasons. This site has been a wealth of information. In the month and a half that I've been a member and regular reader I have increased my milage about 20%. I hope to be able to improve that even more come warmer weather, as well as spread some knowledge to others as well.

Thank you, not just to the mods, but to everyone. We all help make this site great!

And now I've earned myself a 2 week holiday from the "you haven't posted in a while" message!

Maybe I should remember to disable it.

Maybe I should remember to disable it.
Your call, it's not something I can't live with but at the same time I'm more of a lurker at this site...some people are just more comfortable doing that (not me, normally, but some people). I feel comfortable contributing when I have something to contribute, but I don't see much point in posting just b/c a message is encouraging me to do so.

I suspect most people are that way...I can see having such a message to get a new member to 'break the ice', but once someone's been here for a couple months they're either posters or their not and that message isn't going to change that one way or the other....and you probably don't want it to...if someone's posting drivel just to satisfy the message that doesn't really better the site.

Congratulations, and I echo most of the commednts above, with one addition:

cleanmpg functions so well that I had the impression that this site was much older than it is. I had no idea it was only a year.

I also agree that the respectful attitude between members and between members and moderators here is a huge plus. Someone (me included!) may have an opinion that is a bit "out there" but it is respected as that person's opinion, without attempts to discredit it.

I came here with MIMA from **************. I still read there but inactivated my membership due to the over-moderation there. Writing something takes time, and if someone's going to declare a post off-topic and edit it there's no point in wasting valuable time. Especially when the post is actually smack on the forum's topic and the real problem is some unexplained (to the members) concern of the moderators. Even without editing, the tendancy of moderators to comment on every thread and every post needs to be restrained a bit to avoid stifling free discussion and eventual lack of interest.

I also follow one other site on a completely different topic. Considering that it's unmoderated the amount of annoying content is surprisingly small. However the occasional posting wars erupt and do get tiresome, but one can simply stop reading the threads. Also annoying is topic drift, and some of them get hijacked quite far. Either one bypasses useful info because the title seems uninteresting but doesn't indicate what's actually being discussed. Or one is interested in the topic and finds that something annoying is being chewed over.

Anyhow, these problems are largely avoided here. Congratulations on a really useful site!!

Errr, could someone please explain for me why IC is asterisked out and Prius Chat (PC) is not? Did I commit some undocumented sin by mentioning it here? Or is this sin documented in the agreement somewhere?

Thanks!!

lightfoot - be assured that you are in excellent standing at CleanMPG.

....I came here with MIMA from **************. I still read there but inactivated my membership due to the over-moderation there. Writing something takes time, and if someone's going to declare a post off-topic and edit it there's no point in wasting valuable time. Especially when the post is actually smack on the forum's topic and the real problem is some unexplained (to the members) concern of the moderators. Even without editing, the tendancy of moderators to comment on every thread and every post needs to be restrained a bit to avoid stifling free discussion and eventual lack of interest....

If you visit there you might conclude it's the most overmoderated site you've been to. :( The sties they have run members to (including CleanMPG) have been censored there.

Errr, could someone please explain for me why IC is asterisked out and Prius Chat (PC) is not? Did I commit some undocumented sin by mentioning it here? Or is this sin documented in the agreement somewhere?

Thanks!!

At one time, we responded in kind to them by censoring them, but perhaps it's time to reconsider as we are not like them.

They tend to censor sigs there as well. I find no reason to allow their site to get free hits from cleanmpg when they go out of their way to prevent the same.

I mean it is ridiculous to not even allow someone to put a link in their sigs. This is the only site that has been censored in this way and likely will probably be the only. If they ever calm down I might consider removing the censorship of their site name.

They have more to lose than we do in my opinion. The car is no longer produced and the membership has no where to go but down. I wish they saw the value in being part of the larger alternative vehicle community, but they seem to want to be the only pie in the diner and want to ensure there is nothing else on the menu.

I'm sorry if it is an inconvenience for anyone.

I hope our site continues to grow and we never have to do this again. I really didn't want to do it, but I felt there had to be a voice out their telling them they are wrong for that policy.

The last I intend to say is IC acts as though they have a captive audience and free to "play God" - sucidal. They are making themselves irrelivent.