Future direction of the forum

[KySerenity]

Everyone on this forum was a non-owner for its first months of existence, as no cars had yet been delivered.

During that time I visited two Lucid Design Studios a total of three times, and on those visits I got some questions answered but also found new ones arising. I found this forum a very helpful place to see whether other potential buyers had gotten different answers (which was often the case), developed different questions, or had formed a different opinion from mine on a matter of interest and why.

I have also been a Rivian reservation holder for almost four years and used the Rivian forum the same way. I have now owned a Lucid for almost a year but will probably forgo delivery of the Rivian (if I ever actually get a contact regarding my Launch Edition order from February 2019). Both forums played key roles in these decisions to buy and not to buy. I was lucky to have two Lucid Design Studios within reasonable driving distance of my home. Unfortunately, no Rivian showrooms are within hundreds of miles of my home. Many potential buyers of Lucid will not have a Design Studio within convenient reach. They need to have access to this forum to aid in their decisions.

The Lucid Air is a phenomenal car -- the best of the many, many I have owned over the decades. But Lucid has been no more immune to the early delivery issues every other car manufacturer, whether new or long-established, encounters. And these unusual times of pandemic and prolonged supply chain disruptions have increased those issues. Whether Lucid's fault or not, there have been production and delivery issues with the car that would be enough to put some potential buyers off.

If they're grappling with such issues, I'd much rather they have access to a forum such as this to help with their decision making than have them rely on the internet and press where so many reports are full of hyperbole aimed at generating clicks and reads rather than conveying a balanced perspective.

Will some trolls make their way into our midst? Yes . . . welcome to the internet age.

I have to agree with @hmp10 and @Neurio. Since joining, I read every new post on a daily basis. I attempt to keep my posts positive, beneficial to readers, and not derogatory of any member. I have learned a tremendous amount from my participation and would hate to be restricted from participating fully in the site just because I hold a reservation for a Pure and have yet to receive my car. The vast majority of all participants participated in this site before they became owners. I hope we can keep this wonderful site open to all.

 

[Keithmaj]

The staff and myself are all ears and welcome suggestions. In the end, this is still a forum and will be majorly public. We understand those types of topics can be mood killers, and if a forum member would like to avoid seeing those types of topics, we want to work on a solution to make the experience better. Negative comments are also helpful for Lucid to see and improve upon if appropriate.

Regarding gatekeeping, we are not sure how that is sustainable. Sure we can request proof of ownership, but how do we continually monitor that they still own the car? Also, there are many non-owners who have provided tremendous feedback and value to the forum.

We are brainstorming on the backend. Please post any suggestions you may have.

First of all, continued kudos are in order for all those who are Admins on this forum! As a long-time AT owner in waiting, I have found this site to be enormously helpful in providing end user information and networking. I appreciate any improvements to the forum but as already pointed out, one of the best attributes is for potential owners or owners in waiting to be able to interact with our early adopter owners. I value an owner's opinion and expertise much more than someone trolling so perhaps some stronger vetting upfront regarding current and confirmed order ownership would be helpful. There is a lot to be said about surviving the school of hard knocks! We need to make sure that interaction continues and not put in place any infrastructure that might discourage this type of communication. My only feedback on the forum infrastructure would be to clearly post more basic "how to best use this forum" guidance to a new forum member. Not all of the newbies are as forum savvy, so perhaps some guidance such as "search for an existing topic before posting", or "how to best use the filters", or "how to determine which thread is most applicable", etc., would be helpful in reducing duplication and keeping our threads on topic. If there is a more optimal thread for me to post a question or comment, I would certainly like to know and would strive to find it...

 

[Mr_rhythm]

Why not create a couple of new sub-groups (like general discussion, hardware/software) that include "Why I'm not buying" and other major topics that keep popping up?

 

[Mr_rhythm]

Why not create a couple of new sub-groups (like general discussion, hardware/software) that include "Why I'm not buying" and other major topics that keep popping up?

And of course right after I wrote this I caught up with Joe's comment about the new subsection. Thanks Joe!

 

[TakeDuo]

I think my frustration stems from the “this party sucks” vibe with no additional comments other than some variation of “Lucid sucks” as a justification. However, this is the way of an open-ish, free speech platform.

Is a comment/thread voting system realistic? If, let’s say, a comment gets -10 votes, it auto flags for admin review or auto hides (could be shown if you click on it)? Not to censor but rather if the community of owners and soon-to-be owners feel it doesn’t move this forum forward, then it’s reviewed. We can use the “I know it when I see it” personal view to vote or set some rules.

I acknowledge this is a lot to put on admins/staff. The site is growing and will continue to do so as Lucid grows. As such, the “this party sucks” comments will inevitably grow accordingly.

I was pleased to see us surpass 2k members and it’s continuing to climb. It shows there is passion for the company and the car that’s spreading.

Of note…. The domain lucidsucks.com is available for the haters.

 

[Percentage]

This forum has been an amazing resource for me. I must admit, though, as an owner and fan of the car, I am getting tired of the “here’s why I’m not buying…” and “how do I get my deposit back” posts. I’m starting to hope for a bifurcated site with owners in one branch and non-owners elsewhere, with some sort of gatekeeping logic. Am I the only one with these thoughts?

I agree with you! I am tired of reading about the negatives vs positives.

 

[CLTGT]

I do not mind the "here's why I am not buying" threads as long as they are confined to a category by themselves. People have real concerns, generally speaking. Lucid could benefit from knowing some of these reasons if they choose to read the specific comments. I do not read every post. I ignore the one's that say "why I am not buying", but I do not discount their potential value to Lucid.

If you want a forum that only includes the positives and a regurgitation of the manual, well I don't see that as providing the potential value to Lucid that some of the "not so pleasant" experiences might in the longer term; nor do I see burying our heads in the sand with respect to some of the areas Lucid could use improvement providing value.

"The "how to" aspect is great for us owners. The value to Lucid of expressing our specific and more longer-term focused concerns cannot be understated. Everything Lucid is not all rainbows and butterflies (or whatever the saying is) and Lucid cannot improve or place priorities on improvements without feedback.

 

[joec]

I do not mind the "here's why I am not buying" threads as long as they are confined to a category by themselves. People have real concerns, generally speaking. Lucid could benefit from knowing some of these reasons if they choose to read the specific comments. I do not read every post. I ignore the one's that say "why I am not buying", but I do not discount their potential value to Lucid.

If you want a forum that only includes the positives and a regurgitation of the manual, well I don't see that as providing the potential value to Lucid that some of the "not so pleasant" experiences might in the longer term; nor do I see burying our heads in the sand with respect to some of the areas Lucid could use improvement providing value.

"The "how to" aspect is great for us owners. The value to Lucid of expressing our specific and more longer-term focused concerns cannot be understated. Everything Lucid is not all rainbows and butterflies (or whatever the saying is) and Lucid cannot improve or place priorities on improvements without feedback.

I don't think anyone here wants rainbows and butterflies. I think we all know exactly which posts are the main issue. (You do have that handy report tool. Just saying.) Everyone seems to enjoy the bug reports and suggestions for improvements, for instance.

And I even like the some of the threads where folks express why they went another way or ask for advice on whether they should cancel their res. I hope creating the new section will help folks who aren't interested in the "why I'm not buying" type threads pass those over if they want.

Personally, I live in the "New Posts" section and read everything posted here. But I'm supposed to. There's no reason for others to put themselves through page after page of stuff that isn't interesting to them.

We're going to try and make an effort to be a bit more "hands on" about threads that get off topic. I know, famous last words, and some of our best discussions have been on threads that were started for completely different reasons. But as threads start to devolve, we're going to politely suggest moving the conversation elsewhere. And when that doesn't work, we'll just lock any thread that's getting out of hand. I agree with whoever suggested that the mods here can be a bit less light-handed without becoming censors.

Mostly, though, I just want to thank everyone on this thread who has put in the time to make suggestions and express their concerns. You clearly care about the community, and we do value your presence here.

 

[HariK]

It is asking a lot of discipline from those who want to post something negative while the current owners and those who are committed owners are interested in how to use the car and focus on constructive feedback. I for one think that we have way too many threads with cross posting. It is too much work for the moderator(s) or admins to sort it out. As a retired owner waiting for the car in the very near future, I can volunteer to help in sorting the mess as an "assistant" but not sure how. That said I hate censorship. To begin with I suggest that we archive very old and now irrelevant posts such as those about UX 1.x.

 

[johnjbarton]

We're on track according to Godwin's Law .

 

[SCOOTERSD]

I don't think anyone here wants rainbows and butterflies. I think we all know exactly which posts are the main issue. (You do have that handy report tool. Just saying.) Everyone seems to enjoy the bug reports and suggestions for improvements, for instance.

And I even like the some of the threads where folks express why they went another way or ask for advice on whether they should cancel their res. I hope creating the new section will help folks who aren't interested in the "why I'm not buying" type threads pass those over if they want.

Personally, I live in the "New Posts" section and read everything posted here. But I'm supposed to. There's no reason for others to put themselves through page after page of stuff that isn't interesting to them.

We're going to try and make an effort to be a bit more "hands on" about threads that get off topic. I know, famous last words, and some of our best discussions have been on threads that were started for completely different reasons. But as threads start to devolve, we're going to politely suggest moving the conversation elsewhere. And when that doesn't work, we'll just lock any thread that's getting out of hand. I agree with whoever suggested that the mods here can be a bit less light-handed without becoming censors.

Mostly, though, I just want to thank everyone on this thread who has put in the time to make suggestions and express their concerns. You clearly care about the community, and we do value your presence here.

I agree. I have found all of the different topics (both positive and negative) to be very helpful in my decisions regarding Lucid and my purchase. My test drive told me everything I wanted to know about the capabilities of the car and how fun and comfortable it is to drive. This forum gave me a running account of where the car and company is in the development and production cycle - including the ecosystem that will support it in the future. For the most part the discussions have been respectful and informing. I found it pretty easy to avoid both the posters and the subjects that were neither of those. Many thanks to all that have provided this invaluable resource. Hopefully I will be a full fledged owner by the end of the year……

 

[Ned]

I get the definite impression that the moderators here are only interested in people saying good things about Lucid and the Lucid cars. Negative comments of any substance are not tolerated. When people point out problems, for example, it is referred to as "whining" or "complaining", or is referred to as not being "constructive." I recently criticized Lucid's advertising and the moderators went so far as to lock out the topic. Users did backflips trying to spin the English language and even went so far as to voice the opinion that I am unfamiliar with America advertising if I expect advertising that is not false, deceptive, or misleading.

I fail to see how this benefits owners and potential owners. I am of the opinion that if Lucid is made aware of both the positive aspects and the negative aspects of its company, their cars, their advertising, etc., that benefits Lucid and the owners. In other words, discussing the positive and the negative are a good thing. Perhaps if Lucid sees that its owners are unhappy with certain aspects of their cars they will address these issues. On the other hand, if only the positive is discussed it causes this site, and the company, to lose credibility. It also says to Lucid "you are doing everything correctly" when in fact it is not.

I can deal with the negatives, delayed features, etc. But what I can't deal with is attempts to hide these negatives, delayed features, etc. And censoring negative comments diminishes credibility.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I"ve learned so much here. The negative posts make me sad: if they have the car and it disappoints that's one thing, but if they don't have a car I just ignore them and don't read their posts. It's not that hard...just inconvenient.

I confess that with all good intentions and knowing I'm a beta-tester, I have lost my ship a time or two in the midst of posting about silly things like "why won't my key work?" (answer: read the owner's manual) or "where is the radio frequency-tuning knob?" (locked in the glove box ). I regretted my posts once my emotions settled, but can't edit/delete them now. And, I cross-post because I'm too lazy to sort through a search. I'm that guy. Sorry.

So I thank Joe and his team for providing a place for the obvious, but also a place to vent the powerful emotions some of us feel.

thanks to all

 

[SDHacker]

I get the definite impression that the moderators here are only interested in people saying good things about Lucid and the Lucid cars. Negative comments of any substance are not tolerated. When people point out problems, for example, it is referred to as "whining" or "complaining", or is referred to as not being "constructive." I recently criticized Lucid's advertising and the moderators went so far as to lock out the topic. Users did backflips trying to spin the English language and even went so far as to voice the opinion that I am unfamiliar with America advertising if I expect advertising that is not false, deceptive, or misleading.

I fail to see how this benefits owners and potential owners. I am of the opinion that if Lucid is made aware of both the positive aspects and the negative aspects of its company, their cars, their advertising, etc., that benefits Lucid and the owners. In other words, discussing the positive and the negative are a good thing. Perhaps if Lucid sees that its owners are unhappy with certain aspects of their cars they will address these issues. On the other hand, if only the positive is discussed it causes this site, and the company, to lose credibility. It also says to Lucid "you are doing everything correctly" when in fact it is not.

I can deal with the negatives, delayed features, etc. But what I can't deal with is attempts to hide these negatives, delayed features, etc. And censoring negative comments diminishes credibility.

The only time I've seen threads locked is when users start getting personal in their back and forth. Political issues, personal attacks, things of that nature need to be shut down if the users can't control themselves. I have never seen the mods lock just based on "negativity". I've seen plenty of threads where people rant about something (and they don't own the car) they perceive as a failing on Lucid's part and others join in while others defend Lucid but the thread continues because no one went around attacking another poster. Did the thread you started go there?

 

[HariK]

Here is an idea to collapse the number of threads. We can take a poll of members on the threads which are important to them and those which can be archived. I think we have enough threads already. When someone wants to post something new, a pull down menu opens up with category and sub category to post in. If a new thread is suggested, it can be added.

 

[Joe]

I get the definite impression that the moderators here are only interested in people saying good things about Lucid and the Lucid cars. Negative comments of any substance are not tolerated. When people point out problems, for example, it is referred to as "whining" or "complaining", or is referred to as not being "constructive." I recently criticized Lucid's advertising and the moderators went so far as to lock out the topic. Users did backflips trying to spin the English language and even went so far as to voice the opinion that I am unfamiliar with America advertising if I expect advertising that is not false, deceptive, or misleading.

I fail to see how this benefits owners and potential owners. I am of the opinion that if Lucid is made aware of both the positive aspects and the negative aspects of its company, their cars, their advertising, etc., that benefits Lucid and the owners. In other words, discussing the positive and the negative are a good thing. Perhaps if Lucid sees that its owners are unhappy with certain aspects of their cars they will address these issues. On the other hand, if only the positive is discussed it causes this site, and the company, to lose credibility. It also says to Lucid "you are doing everything correctly" when in fact it is not.

I can deal with the negatives, delayed features, etc. But what I can't deal with is attempts to hide these negatives, delayed features, etc. And censoring negative comments diminishes credibility.

Do you mind sending me the thread that got locked? I'd like to review it. I did a quick skim at your past post history and was unable to locate it.

 

[Bobby]

…where is the radio frequency-tuning knob?" (locked in the glove box ).

Nice!

 

[Bobby]

Well, we have gone a couple days with a CarPlay rant.

 

[Joe]

This is a balancing act that we are trying to solve. Overall we want a good user experience here but sadly will not be possible to meet everyones needs.

So far we've implemented a new forum for those cancelling, negative experiences, etc and if you'd like to avoid those topics, then you can ignore that forum. But it is still available and not being censored as we don't want to censor information here. The good, the bad, and the ugly should be expressed.

I do agree that there is a lot of cross posting and redundant threads. We will look into trying to do better and welcome anyone who is interested in helping. If interested, send me a direct message.

We will continue to monitor this new implementation and tweak as needed. It is quick and easy to click Report on a post that is in the wrong section or you feel is inappropriate for the forum and the team can review it. Please remember there are 5 of us and anywhere from 300-500 posts posted per day currently on the forums so we may miss some stuff.

 

[TakeDuo]

Nice!

My man @Bobby starts a fire and comes back with “nice” .