13 registered members online, 1323 elsewhere...

[ynkedad]

Good Idea Rich!

[gmjunkie]

Originally Posted by Krazy Horse

I'm a member at 3 other sites,but I stop buy 3,4,5,6,7,8 times a day to see whats new!!! I know a few of you people from other sites,but I go by a different name on them!! I like being incognito here for now!!! Some day I'll come out of the Closet!!

Ok just a Quick question.Say I want to come out of the closet.How hard would it be for me to get my user name changed to xxxxxxxx,no one here has it!!! Probly no one wants it!!! PS I'm a Corvettes Anonymous Member and Dealer!! My car dealership is not in Florida,although most of my cars end up there!!

[2Vettes]

Originally Posted by SteveK

I have to admit that I rarely ever look at the list of rooms.
I click on New Posts and view anything that catches my eye.
Now if I am about to post a new thread, I will look to see which room is the best fit.
I do like the tech support online idea..... give someone a reason to check us out

Steve, that's funny, because I do just the opposite. When I get on I scroll through the main page lists and open anything with posts from yesterday after I go to bed and today. That way I can see the posts that have been there awhile with no responses and I may want to add a post to one of them. If I look only at the new posts I miss some interesting conversations.
Rich, I too like the size and friendliness of this forum. I'm a member of several of the other corvette forums, but this one is the most personal, probably because it's "local".
At this point, I have no suggestions for changing this forum. I like it here and want to thank you for putting this together

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by Gannet

I don't think there's anything "wrong" with the forum. Here's my analysis of what's going on, for whatever it's worth.

When it comes to things online, size begets size. For example, there are at least 20 or 30 search engine competitors to Google. But they are all smaller than Google. So if you have to search, why not go right to Google, unless you have some strong reason to do otherwise? Same with YouTube, MySpace, Amazon, eBay, etc.

In the case of this board, there is a very successful and (generally) well-run 800 pound gorilla of a competitor. This board offers a better attitude, and the Florida-specific stuff, but other than that, most people are going to go where the mass is. More conversations, more replies to tech questions, etc. Since so much of the draw here is info on local events, the fact that we are now in the summer doldrums has a strong effect imo. Things will pick up in the fall.

Specific suggestions? Well, I have one that may seem counterintuitive: reduce the number of sub-forums, perhaps drastically. The problem here is insufficient traffic volume. We have many subforums that go weeks or even months with no new posts. That generates no buzz, and hence no reason to drop in and check out the buzz. Better to have a smaller number of subforums that actually get posted to. We could go as low as four: General BS, Florida-specific, Tech, and For Sale/Wanted. Well, maybe five, Ray needs to be kept locked up.

There have to be enough people in any given subforum to keep it active or there's no point in having it. If we take the people we have and get them all together in the same (few) rooms, the conversation will be livelier.

Another specific suggestion would be to keep up the effort on keeping the calendar updated, and perhaps making it more accessible. This is the one thing this forum has that other forums don't. It's a key asset; exploit it.

Just some thoughts. Your efforts are appreciated!

Yeah, no doubt in my mind whatsoever that traffic attracts more traffic. Larger sites are always going to have a greater attraction than larger sites will. Just the nature of the beast, I guess. But I'm not out to compete with a larger site at all. At least not in the classical sense. I do realize that ALL sites compete for the attention of the pool of members, but as for my thinking I want to overtake one site or another, no, that's not my intention at all. And because of the narrow focus of this site, I would be disheartened that another site would consider this one as a threat to it in any way. But I'm not that naive to believe that is not the case. Personally, I would be the first one to recommend to a member here that if they could not find the answer to the question they need answered HERE, to go to CorvetteForum for help.

Personally, I feel that I have been keeping this site down to relatively bare bones as far as number of forums is concerned. Some that exist now were put up by request of one or more members, or even a sponsor advertiser. And there have been other requests that thus far I am still mulling over whether the added complexity is worth a gain (that may not even appear). Unfortunately, the "right" way to do something like this is not normally apparent until in hindsight.

Trying to second guess the number of forums to have on a site is a frustrating exercise. There really is no right answer for everyone. Perhaps some of you here cut your teeth on the internet by accessing the usenet groups whereby any category of interest was basically a single forum to participate in. So this site, for instance, would have been something like rec.corvetteflorida, or something of that nature and ALL posts made would be in that single area with threads and subthreads. Basically someone viewing that section would have to scan each and every thread AND subthread to see if it held something of interest to them.

Then on the other hand, I could have created almost unlimited forums and subforums here. Which most people would be completely overwhelmed with, and it would take 10,000 actively posting members to make the site look even lightly traveled. So the trick is to try to strike a balance based on what you hope are logical categories with a minimum number of forums to produce a segregated approach to the information being posted (to make it easier to FIND that info later on). Ideally you would want to see each and every forum having multiple posts several times a day. That would mean you were right on target trying to guess at the correct balance.

However, even that has drawbacks. With increasing traffic, normally you will find that you reach a point where each forum now becomes overwhelming in the number of posts and the divergence of subtopics that crop up within that singular forum. If you have increasing traffic, sooner or later you will HAVE to expand the number of forums or created subforums in order to meet the needs of bewildered readers.

My goal when creating this site was to try to have a conservative approach to the number of forums here. My initial thought was to follow the structure of most other Corvette sites by having sections for each generation, which would have their own relevant forums for topics within those groupings. But after thinking about it, I decided I didn't want to do that. Why? Because when I would go to some of those sites, it seemed like there was a HUGE wall between those members with the C3s and the C4s, etc., etc. It was like each section was a completely isolated website. Since the main associative force of this site was FLORIDA Corvette owners and enthusiasts, I felt that putting in those arbitrary dividing lines would be damaging and very greatly limit the amount of discourse between ALL members here.

That could by necessity change in the future, of course, but I felt it was best to have us all relate to each other as Florida Corvette members, regardless of what generation(s) we had an interest in.

I'll try to get to those other replies later on tonight. Duty calls with the animals.....

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by Nytro

Your concern Rich isn't confined to just this forum, it is tough to recruit people and to get them to just post. I use to be an administrator on another Corvette forum and it also had a problem getting people to post. There are a few things to consider. First off is the forum friendly. This forum certainly is, which speaks volumns about the members here. Sometimes controversy can be helpful sparking threads but personally I think in the long run it's not good for a forum.

Well I certainly agree with that. Most of the population just loves a train wreck. And certainly every newspaper in the world has come to realize that conflict and bad news sells their product. While I am certain that controversial topics will pop up here and there, I am not really going out of my way to promote them. Certainly the Board of Inquiry forum here can get a fair share of that, but otherwise I think a more relaxed atmosphere will help keep the aggravation level here from tweaking my nerves. I already HAVE a site that does that, thank you very much....

Originally Posted by Nytro

The main drawback I see is that being a Florida specific forum it seems to leave out a lot of people that might want to participate who have no interest in Florida. I know you don't discourage people not from Floida to join, but there is no hook for them to join up and participate. There are advantages to people living in Florida to have their own place, but presently here, there are none to non Florida residents. Also, being just a Florida specific forum also will probably limit your advertising chances to recruit vendors. It is no secret that money makes a forum grow and be able to recruit members.

Not sure what I can do about it, based on the NAME of this site. No, I would never turn deny access from anyone anywhere else in the world, but I would imagine many would feel kind of like a fifth wheel here if they were from, say, Oklahoma. Setting up a welcoming forum for non-Florida residents would probably be a fruitless effort, I think. So how could I address this issue?

As for advertising, well there is a different way of looking at that, I think. Basically LOCAL businesses catering to Corvettes should really look at this as a targeted marketplace. In many instances, particularly concerning tuning and modifications/repairs, their most likely market is going to be people within easy driving distance. Sure some people MAY ship their cars across the country, but when push comes to shove, if someone is looking for a tuner, they are going to be looking for someone with the best reputation that is closest to them. Heck, any time I want work done on my cars, no matter what it is, if I can't find someone within easy driving distance to do it, it just isn't going to be done. So certainly those people who provide such services MUST realize this as well. This site has the opportunity to provide the most fertile field of potential customers for Florida business concerns of ANY of the Corvette sites out there, no matter how much larger they may be. I would think the percentage of those people HERE becoming a customer is MUCH MUCH greater than on a large nationally oriented site. Not only for parts, labor, and such, but even for SALES of vehicles. Any Florida Corvette dealer should view this site as a goldmine of potential customers at their fingertips. The only reason anyone would go out of state to make a purchase is because they were not given a viable choice. So if a dealer in Michigan can undercut a dealer here in Florida, maybe the Florida dealers should be asking themselves why that can happen. Why are they FORCING a potential customer to go through the pain in the butt of shipping a car here, or spending the money to fly out of state and then drive back home with it. Certainly those remote dealers are not getting better prices when THEY buy from GM, are they? The market is here, and quite likely the members of this site, so why not capitalize on it?

Originally Posted by Nytro

I think a lot has also to do with how a forum is set up. Not that there is anything wrong with how this forum is set up, but at the present time there isn't a lot to get a newbies interest. You could set up a section on the history of Corvettes, each specific model having a section about it. You could have a section on Corvette Concept Cars. Could have how to sections, as far as general maintainence, every day stuff, like white papers on tire rotation, oil changes, exhaust changes, I bet not everyone here knows how to change an air filter on a C5. Things like that. There are lots of articles you could get and post to get peoples interest. All it takes is time and design.

I have a folder with a bunch of stuff concerning concepts and model years. I will send it to you in an email, if anything there looks good to you feel free to use it. Also I belong to a very good Mopar site, maybe you want to check it out and see how it is set up and perhaps get some ideas. I will include it in the email.

Jeff

If I could impose on you, would you mind doing this for me? I'm getting into my crunch time with my animals beginning to hatch, so time is going to be getting in VERY short supply. You just tell me what you need in order to make it happen and that will be that.

Besides, I wouldn't want anyone to give me credit for work done by someone else anyway. If that is YOUR info, I would prefer that YOU post in along with the resulting credit for posting such helpful info.

BTW, got your email, but just haven't had time to reply to it. I'm also in the beginning stages of moving another one of my servers to a new data center, so things on my plate have been a bit messy lately.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by ynkedad

Hi Gannet, Hi Steve I sure miss you guys!

(1) ...This board does have a Better Attitude and offers FL specific stuff. But, why not JAZZ it up a bit. (See Below).

(2) Again, . But Reducing the Sub forums alone won't cut it imo.
I believe Reducing, Compiling and Replacing some of the Sub Forums, with other sub forums that keep things lively is the Key. Beg, Barrow and Steal from other forums if need be.
To do this, just look to see what's HOT, What do Members Want, Where do the majority of the members hang out, What's good for the Forum?
For Example: Ray's Ranting Room (thanks btw for suggetsting on keeping it ).
It's a Win Win Situation...People like to get crap off their chest and believe it or not, some people like reading about other peoples misery because, it makes them feel better. By having (adding this particular sub forum), it gives members a place to vent or come unglued BEFORE they do it in whatever sub forum they thought it was ok to do so in. Plus, those who choose NOT to read the whining of others (Mostly me ), Don't have to.


(3) Livelier yes, more confusing and harder to locate posts.. definitely.
IMO..Part of the beauty of this board is that one can find threads quickly w/out having to scroll thru a bunch of Hog Wash that doesn't interest or may Offend them.
There again, figure out what the members want and compile, Jazz up, and/or Replace unused forums with new ones.
Again, IMO...Making the forum "Member friendly", by giving them what They want and possibly Expanding is the Right Way to go. Downsizing alone is like "throwing in the towel" and committing Board Suicide.
All of My Blabbering left us right where Rich started...

~Ray

Well the problem with this is that everyone will have their own (often conflicting) ideas about what forums to drop, which ones to consolidate, and which ones to add. Giving everyone what they want is easier said than done. Suppose 10 want a forum for street racing and 10 feel it would be a problem for this site. How do I give both camps what they want?

And what types of forums would make things livelier? Yeah, I could put up a X-rated Corvette Babes forum, and that would very likely liven things up quite a bit, but is that the direction WE would really want this site to go?

I have been running forums for about 11 years now. I have learned the hard way that you just cannot please everyone. And in many cases, if 5 people give an opinion of a change that needs to be made, 4 people will likely get their feelings tweaked over their recommendation not being selected. Even though it would be obvious that ALL of the recommendations could not be feasibly done and some obviously directly opposed to other recommendations offered.

For every successful message board site out there, there are probably hundreds that have failed and gone away, or just floundering waiting for the plug to be pulled. Certainly I have had my share of those as well....

Knowing the danger that lurks, I am trying to keep THIS site from becoming one of those failures.......

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by SteveK

I have to admit that I rarely ever look at the list of rooms.
I click on New Posts and view anything that catches my eye.
Now if I am about to post a new thread, I will look to see which room is the best fit.

I do like the tech support online idea..... give someone a reason to check us out

I, too, would like to have a handful of experts here that we can all go to. But what do I offer such people to get them to avail themselves of their services here? Believe me I have tried with some, but obviously I am failing in that endeavor. I try to field some questions myself, but I DEFINITELY am no expert. I try to help if I can, but I do realize that this just isn't good enough for those people who have technical questions that they REALLY would like to have answers to. So in not getting them here, they obviously will go elsewhere to get them.

So how could this problem be resolved?

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by Rich427

With our membership over 1300, I think it is a lot easier to join the forum today and just fade into the sunset. I also think that the larger the forum becomes the more intimidating it maybe for some to start to post, so they don't and they just become a lerker.

Here is a suggestion that might make it easier for the new member to break the ice. After they fill out whatever it is they are going to fill out and hit enter, is there a way for the system to automatically jump them from the registration page to the Welcome Room with a note that says welcome to the Florida Online Corvette Club, please make your first post by introducing yourself to the rest of the members? Don't make it mandatory but I would bet that most will post something and maybe get into the swing of things. Most of us that are active on this site always respond to the new members posts in the WR. I think this would be better than one of us spotting a new member in a subforum and recommending that they go the Welcome Room to say hello to everyone! Just a thought!

Rich

That's not a bad idea at all. Have to look into what it would take. At the very least, I think I could put a link in the welcoming page to the Welcome Room forum with an invitation to introduce themselves there.

As for this site being intimidating, honestly, I have never looked at it that way. Matter of fact, I have been on site with hundreds of THOUSANDS of members and over 10 million posts and just not felt that way. So I guess I just don't have the proper perspective to even think about looking at this site in that manner.

How could it be made LESS intimidating? Color change?

Honestly, I would think that when this site was basically just me talking to myself, back in March of 2006, it would have been so unintimidating that hundreds of people would have registered just to talk to the poor lonely soul (me!) here all alone!

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by Krazy Horse

Ok just a Quick question.Say I want to come out of the closet.How hard would it be for me to get my user name changed to xxxxxxxx,no one here has it!!! Probly no one wants it!!! PS I'm a Corvettes Anonymous Member and Dealer!! My car dealership is not in Florida,although most of my cars end up there!!

Just send me a PM and I'll take care of it for you.........

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by 2Vettes

Steve, that's funny, because I do just the opposite. When I get on I scroll through the main page lists and open anything with posts from yesterday after I go to bed and today. That way I can see the posts that have been there awhile with no responses and I may want to add a post to one of them. If I look only at the new posts I miss some interesting conversations.
Rich, I too like the size and friendliness of this forum. I'm a member of several of the other corvette forums, but this one is the most personal, probably because it's "local".
At this point, I have no suggestions for changing this forum. I like it here and want to thank you for putting this together

And yes, this does point out an obvious danger. Trying to change the site to accommodate more people might very well alienate others who are happy with it as it is.

So maybe my question asks the impossible: How do I get those members who have registered here to become active and participate within this site without destroying whatever it is about it that makes the regulars here want to stay?