Where Have All the Posters Gone

[85vette]

[Shadow]

I've intentionally stayed out of this thread and my interaction here will be limited but...

Originally Posted by Psychotic Avian

...Sorry, pal, but I have to call BS on this one. You were indeed provided to opportunity to meet up. We even discussed this on the phone. You were worth my time to meet up as you helped me find some awesome specialty car insurance. You told me when you were going to be here and said you would call. Never heard from you. After your trip after I ripped you a new one and you explained why you couldn't meet as the timing was bad and I accepted that and excused you for this.
But, I won't accept the fact that you were not given the opportunity to meet up with someone other sites such as the Valley. Many of us have met up. Your statement is false and you should consider to retract it a bit in my opinion.

Your opinion is so noted, but my statement stands

Not meeting up with you was my fault totally. When I got to the Port of Miami it was, bang-bang-on the boat. Not a lot of waiting around as I expected.

When we returned, I didn't have service until I was half way out of miami on the gereatric bus

I'll get with you next time I'm down there.

And don't get me wrong. I've met up with a lot of people over the years from various groups, clubs, forums, etc. All good folks.

This particular forum however, has availed me of the opportunity to meet up more frequently with others from the local corvette community. We meet at Insty Lube, at the Hob-Nob in Bradenton when I'm there, have lunch when Thor or some of the others have work done on thier cars up here, and as we saw just the other day, even support each other during a crises such as the FireFighters death.

These are things that have not happened on other forums...for me. I did get together in the pouring rain for a fundraiser for Michael Holt in Vero, and have attended other such events to raise money for various charities, but it doesn't happen anymore for whatever reason.

BTW, happy the car insurance worked out for you Thats what these communities are really all about..friends helping friends

Posted by Rich Z

I must say that I find the timing of your last couple of posts rather intriguing, however......

indeed

Posted by ChaZ51

If a member wants to leave this site, then don't let the door hit their backside when leaving. I like this site!

I have never let any online forum get to me, or make me want to go home with my ball!

Couldn't have said it any better brother.


Posted by paychotic avian:

To terminate your membership based on ONE thread is ridiculous especially in a section marked as a "ranting room." What the hell do you think you will find in here? Grow up for crying out loud. We do get members like this from time to time who get upset over stupid ****. We simply say adios and wish them luck. The funny thing is MANY end up coming back, first as lurkers, and then they post again. My guess is you will be back, just like the others. We use this to say goodbye to those that wish to make themselves attention whores with Grandstanding Goodbye posts

.

A-Freakin' men!

[Shadow]

I'm probably going to regret this but I've regretted more...:

Posted by Yellow:

Sorry you had issues with some that you bumped into on CF (I seem to have those issues here). I must say there are more people I have met on CF, than any other board, that I know I can call on whenever I need them. They are very giving people and will go out of their way. It is a family. I have also found this with TBV (my corvette club), who has a section here. I must say I have not found that here. I am not saying this is a bad place, because it appears some have found that here, and I am glad.

There's always going to be personality conflicts and strife, power struggles, power trippers, attitudes and opinions, it's what makes the world go round.

I've never seen a site that didn't have some drama.

I can say that I too have met "more people" on CF (via the internet) than here. That said, I've had much more human interaction and local meetings HERE that I ever had there. Thats not a good thing or a bad thing...it's just "a thing" for me

I know for a fact, it's been demonstrated more than once, that I can call on the people here and get the assistance we need, be it raising $$ for a Deputy that's lost his belongings in a fire, supporting each other in times of death and anguish, or simply calling on Q manto bring me a breaker bar and socket so I can replace the damed serpentine belt whe it goes south

I've met with members from other counties and taken them home. I've had people come get me. Again, it's a family an one I cherish

I never reallly warmed up to TBV only because I can't make thier cruises and meetings. They're held in Brandon and I live in NW Hillsborough County. Have committments on Sunday mornings and usually up to my coulo in paperwork on Tuesdays. Not thier fault, again, just a thing.

It's a great group of people! When I can make an event, I do.

I must say I have not found that here.

Maybe look deeper?

As previously stated, many are members of multiple forums. I dont' get to the Valley as much as i used to but I still stay logged in a lurk

Posted by als2052:

How did we go from post #1, where are all the posters to post # 77? Maybe we should all take a big breath go back to first post and read it again...

BTW, Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there...

I agree!

Personality conflicts and "forum wars" reared thier ugly head It's partially my fault and I accept the blame. As moderator, I should have known better and not let it go "there."

Gordon

[Psychotic Avian]

Originally Posted by Shadow

I've intentionally stayed out of this thread and my interaction here will be limited but...


Your opinion is so noted, but my statement stands

Not meeting up with you was my fault totally. When I got to the Port of Miami it was, bang-bang-on the boat. Not a lot of waiting around as I expected.

When we returned, I didn't have service until I was half way out of miami on the gereatric bus

I'll get with you next time I'm down there.

And don't get me wrong. I've met up with a lot of people over the years from various groups, clubs, forums, etc. All good folks.

It is all good.

I know the real reason you didn't want to meet up is you were embarassed to show me what POS Carnival Cruise ship you were going to sail on.

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by Psychotic Avian

It is all good.

I know the real reason you didn't want to meet up is you were embarassed to show me what POS Carnival Cruise ship you were going to sail on.

Actually, I just didn't want you to see me getting onand off the gereatric bus

[THOR]

Wow, an interesting read. I don't think Rick realized this would turn into some of the twisted dialogue here. His original question is valid and I've wondered the same. I check this site several times a day and some of the posts are days and weeks old. I don't think there's one answer for the lack of reponses. I will say that the old 80/20 rule seems to be in effect. 20% of the members are doing the work, writing threads, etc. for the benefit of the 80%. This old rule prevails throughout our society because we let it happen. Look around and you'll see that in almost any organization, etc., there's a few doing the work for the "masses". Just my .02 worth.

[Gannet]

Wow, what drama. Did I stumble on to the Oprah show somehow?

Since I probably qualify as one of the "lost posters" I'll make a couple comments. All said with a smile, so I hope no one will take offense.

The proximate cause of my absence is that Rich and I had a little disagreement. Since it's his ball, all I could do was go home, and I did.

But a contributing factor for my, and perhaps other's, lack of posting here is that the forum doesn't "move", as was pointed out above. The only portions that get much activity are, ironically, the non-Corvette subforums, such as this one. I'll make the same comment I made some time ago when this same question came up: there are way too many subforums here. Yes, it's nice to have everything "organized" so it's "easy to find". But the very fact of having to navigate all that makes things harder to find, imo. Where should a given topic go? An open question in many cases.

The larger problem with excessive subforums is that there isn't enough post volume here to make them "move". And so they sit. What's the point of logging into the forum twice a day and seeing that there are a handful of new posts, and none at all on the great majority of subforums? It's boring, it's not interesting.

On many of the subforums here the oldest post on the front page is several months old. In some cases ALL the posts are several months old. IMO such subforums should be closed, and combined into a larger subforum. For example, there was a comment above about the low (read: nonexistent) activity in the club subforums. They are promoted to club members but they don't come. What I suspect is that they come once, take a look, and decide there's nothing there. And they're right. What to do? Combine ALL the club subforums into ONE subforum. I would be happy to read about what's going on in Tampa, Naples, Orlando, even Tallahassee and St. Augustine. Those of you who know us know that we drive a LOT on weekends - distance is not a deterrent. But I'm not going to click through 27 or however many there are club subforums just to see what''s going on.

The same applies to the "tech" subforums, which is where I usually hang out. Those who know me know that I often have something to contribute in those areas (perhaps of questionable value, but hey, it's the Internet), and I genuinely enjoy it. But I'm not going to check 11 potentially "techie" subforums (I just counted) to find and possibly respond to a couple of threads a day.

I want to log in, quickly review pretty much everything that's going on that I might be interested in, make my contributions, and get out. That way it's fun. Right now it's almost like work.

I think the general rule of thumb should be that a subforum should not exist unless it is either so specialized that it cannot be combined (for instance Staging Area), or the topic of the subforum generates so much traffic that it would swamp a more general subforum. The reason is that each subforum MUST HAVE ACTIVITY or people won't read it. It doesn't matter how well non-existent content is organized.

If I were king I would think hard about this:

Collapse Feedback and Suggestion Box to one subforum.
Collapse Welcome Room, General BS, Ray's, Just for Laughs, Movie Reviews into one subforum.
Drop the Roadhouse altogether.
Collapse General Florida, Legal Issues, Police Blotter into one subforum.
Collapse On the Road, Events, and Caravan into one subforum.
Drop the News Feeds or combine them under the same parent subforum. These are not conversation forums, as I discovered.
Combine every subforum under General Corvette into one subforum, save News Feeds and NCM. Include Board of Inquiry and the 5 "company" forums.
Collapse all the club forums into a single subforum, and include NCM.
Collapse Corvette Classifieds and Flea Market into one subforum

You would go from 45 subforums down to 8. Right there, the average "velocity" of each forum goes up by a factor of better than 4. See what I mean?

Anyways, just some typically long-winded thoughts, and offered with good spirit. I'm not looking for an argument. I wish everyone here well, especially RichZ, who, let's remember, does this whole thing voluntarily.

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by Gannet

Wow, what drama. Did I stumble on to the Oprah show somehow?

Since I probably qualify as one of the "lost posters" I'll make a couple comments. All said with a smile, so I hope no one will take offense.

The proximate cause of my absence is that Rich and I had a little disagreement. Since it's his ball, all I could do was go home, and I did.

Sorry but this is just bizarre to me. I have run forums for a long time, something like 12 years, and never in all that time have I ever had someone get so upset that I moved their thread from one forum to another that they took their ball and bat and went home because of it. In this particular case, Gannet posted a thread asking for input about dealerships in a particular locality in the General Corvette Forum, and I moved to the Board of Inquiry forum where I felt (and still do) that it would be more appropriately placed. That was the extent of the disagreement mentioned here.

For reference:
http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forum...ad.php?t=14662

Just wanted to clear the air about this in case the statement quoted left some impression that I was some sort of ogre bashing on one of the members of this site over something serious.

Originally Posted by Gannet

But a contributing factor for my, and perhaps other's, lack of posting here is that the forum doesn't "move", as was pointed out above. The only portions that get much activity are, ironically, the non-Corvette subforums, such as this one. I'll make the same comment I made some time ago when this same question came up: there are way too many subforums here. Yes, it's nice to have everything "organized" so it's "easy to find". But the very fact of having to navigate all that makes things harder to find, imo. Where should a given topic go? An open question in many cases.

The larger problem with excessive subforums is that there isn't enough post volume here to make them "move". And so they sit. What's the point of logging into the forum twice a day and seeing that there are a handful of new posts, and none at all on the great majority of subforums? It's boring, it's not interesting.

On many of the subforums here the oldest post on the front page is several months old. In some cases ALL the posts are several months old. IMO such subforums should be closed, and combined into a larger subforum. For example, there was a comment above about the low (read: nonexistent) activity in the club subforums. They are promoted to club members but they don't come. What I suspect is that they come once, take a look, and decide there's nothing there. And they're right. What to do? Combine ALL the club subforums into ONE subforum. I would be happy to read about what's going on in Tampa, Naples, Orlando, even Tallahassee and St. Augustine. Those of you who know us know that we drive a LOT on weekends - distance is not a deterrent. But I'm not going to click through 27 or however many there are club subforums just to see what''s going on.

The same applies to the "tech" subforums, which is where I usually hang out. Those who know me know that I often have something to contribute in those areas (perhaps of questionable value, but hey, it's the Internet), and I genuinely enjoy it. But I'm not going to check 11 potentially "techie" subforums (I just counted) to find and possibly respond to a couple of threads a day.

I want to log in, quickly review pretty much everything that's going on that I might be interested in, make my contributions, and get out. That way it's fun. Right now it's almost like work.

I think the general rule of thumb should be that a subforum should not exist unless it is either so specialized that it cannot be combined (for instance Staging Area), or the topic of the subforum generates so much traffic that it would swamp a more general subforum. The reason is that each subforum MUST HAVE ACTIVITY or people won't read it. It doesn't matter how well non-existent content is organized.

If I were king I would think hard about this:

Collapse Feedback and Suggestion Box to one subforum.
Collapse Welcome Room, General BS, Ray's, Just for Laughs, Movie Reviews into one subforum.
Drop the Roadhouse altogether.
Collapse General Florida, Legal Issues, Police Blotter into one subforum.
Collapse On the Road, Events, and Caravan into one subforum.
Drop the News Feeds or combine them under the same parent subforum. These are not conversation forums, as I discovered.
Combine every subforum under General Corvette into one subforum, save News Feeds and NCM. Include Board of Inquiry and the 5 "company" forums.
Collapse all the club forums into a single subforum, and include NCM.
Collapse Corvette Classifieds and Flea Market into one subforum

You would go from 45 subforums down to 8. Right there, the average "velocity" of each forum goes up by a factor of better than 4. See what I mean?

Anyways, just some typically long-winded thoughts, and offered with good spirit. I'm not looking for an argument. I wish everyone here well, especially RichZ, who, let's remember, does this whole thing voluntarily.

Sorry, but I simply disagree with your diagnosis that the problem with this site is the over complication concerning the number of forums. You may be right, of course, but I just disagree. Matter of fact, I would say that this site is probably overly simplified in most cases. Further, a number of the forums you are recommending being removed were specifically asked for by other members here. So in effect, I am asked to value one later recommendation over earlier ones without any compelling evidence that it be worthwhile, AND it has the likely potential to piss off those members who requested those forums when they find they are gone.

Yes, certainly I could just simplify the forum structure to try to make the site have the appearance of more traffic at the expense of being useful for later visitors and members actually wanting to find information they are looking for, but quite frankly, I think that would wind up being self defeating. This site is not here just to generate traffic. It's here to provide a useful meeting place for all who are interested. It's here to hopefully provide something they are looking for, which makes my job to try to make that as easy as possible for them to find. So that likely means segregated information in a format that they can easily determine where topics of interest would most likely be located.

If you look around, this site is actually much more simpler to navigate than a lot out there because many take a visitor to a front end that is likely very confusing to someone not experienced with such a page and in fact, it can sometimes be quite difficult to even FIND the forums. Here, you are taken directly to the main page of the forums, and every forum available is visible right on that page without having to select a generation of vehicle nor do you have to navigate through one or more levels of subforums that are not directly accessible from that main page.

Certainly, nothing will ever please 100 percent of everyone, but I believe the compromises I selected for this site are suitable for the target audience and the traffic now as well as in the foreseeable future. There will always be people who will think it is too complicated, just as there will always be people who think it is too simplified (in particular by wanting separate sections for each generation of Corvette).

Now, that being said, I will grant the point that the Corvette Clubs section has been pretty much a complete failure. I investigated as many Florida based Corvette club web pages as I could find, and in nearly all cases, NONE of them had an interactive forum available for their members. So I thought it would be a benefit to them to offer such a forum here, free of charge, for them to use for such a purpose without having to set up a forum on their own sites. Not only are those forums pretty much stagnant, for the most part, the offerings to the clubs themselves were basically snubbed without even the courtesy of some reply. But I tried it anyway. Perhaps it is getting to be time to think about reclaiming that screen real estate and subsequent bandwidth that is just going to waste every time the main forum page is loaded.

So yes, that section may very well go away for lack of use or interest. I had hoped the various clubs would see the benefit of having a public place where their members could interface with members of other clubs easily and perhaps generate more interest in their own clubs from remote members, but perhaps I was hoping for too much and the clubs just don't have an interest in such things. Be that as it may, I thought it was worth giving it a shot.

Anyway Dave, sorry to took my moving your thread as such a slap to the face and decided to just take off rather than discussing it with me to exchange points of view.

As for the rest, if this site fails to provide what you want out of it, then that's just the way it will be. Wouldn't be the first time I failed at something I wanted to try. But at least I was willing to give it a go.

[Psychotic Avian]

Originally Posted by Shadow

Actually, I just didn't want you to see me getting onand off the gereatric bus

Yeah, I thought that was very strange you took a f'ing bus down here to hop on a cruise ship. Considering the "discount" you received getting on that cheap garbage scowl I cannot understand why you didn't invest in a rental car. Cheap bastard.

[Psychotic Avian]

Originally Posted by Gannet

Wow, what drama. Did I stumble on to the Oprah show somehow?

Since I probably qualify as one of the "lost posters" I'll make a couple comments. All said with a smile, so I hope no one will take offense.

The proximate cause of my absence is that Rich and I had a little disagreement. Since it's his ball, all I could do was go home, and I did.
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

Your post WOULD have had relevance and appeared more genunie if you didn't perform one of those Grandstanding Goodbye posts in the thread that was linked by the admin. The real reason you left this site was because your thread was moved. Your other content is mostly an attempt to belittle this site because you simply were offended by the actions that the admin took towards one of your threads. A pretty petty gripe if you ask me. Yeah, there is SOME helpful information in there, but there is a sense of evil in the "suggestions" if you ask me. The reason I say this is the timing and what it took to get you to post this information.

The funny thing is those who make Grandstanding Goodbye posts such as yours usually come back, just as you did. And you will likely continue to come back as well.

It just makes me