Are we THAT boring?

[Rich427]

Originally Posted by RedRestoredRoadster

I just noticed you're in Ft Myers. My son and I spent last weekend there doing his baseball tournaments. They're big on baseball in that neck of the woods.

I did see your posts about being in Fort Myers, but I was out of town at that time and did not see them until I returned. Yeah, MLB is big down here. I live 5 minutes from the Red Sox facility (Jet Blue park) and about 10 - 12 minutes from the Twins practice complex (Hammond Field). Plus, there is the City of Palms Park (the old Sox training area) near downtown.

Ice hockey is also big down here with the Florida Everglades of the ECHL. Yeah, I would not have figured that either until I moved here. Who would have put SW Florida sun and ice hockey together?

The great thing about Fort Myers, is that you are not far from most things. The beach, Sanibel, Captiva, Bonita, Naples, etc. Very nice place to live and play.

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by Rich427

Rich,

I have waited a few days to see if anyone would jump in to answer your question, but so far no responses. I would not be comfortable to hazard a guess on why other people have left this site. I wish I knew. But I will say that the only time I became uncomfortable with the site was a few years ago when we had a young guy and a young girl (don't remember their names) that were having problems with the first shop that you eventually took you Z to up in the panhandle. I know those people were young and probably did not interface well with the criticism that others on this site may have given, but I was not comfortable with the interaction (in both directions) on the posts that was describing their problems. The fact that it made me uncomfortable, just meant that I avoided those posts for a while, but it did not drive me from the site.

I also thought that Shadow (I don't know the guy and would not if I bumped into him) was a big contributor to this site. I don't understand, nor is it important to me, what caused the rift that took place where he left the site. But it seems to me that when Shadow left the site, the activity also seemed to go down. That is just a perception on my part.

Other than these couple items, again, I have no clue why the activity on this site has become so poor. But, I will say that the activity on most of the Vette sites that I frequent is not near what it used to be.

I hope this helps, even if it just spurs some conversation!

Rich

I guess that "young couple" you are referring to is Chris and Kelli Harwood. So that whole saga with then screwing me over made you uncomfortable? Perhaps others too? Interesting.... I supposed the experience I had with Aaron Scott had the same effect? So people here would prefer to just not read about such things at all? Is THAT the mistake I made? Not realizing that people only want to read "happy times" posts and things that only make them smile?

I guess my attitude has always been that the truth is the truth, no matter what. If the truth being made public harms someone, then so be it. It's not the airing of those truths that were the problem, it's the facts that those truths disclose that are the real issue. But perhaps "Corvette people", or maybe simply limited to "Corvette people in Florida" really would rather remain oblivious to such issues. I've always wondered why the Board of Inquiry forum here is a ghost town. With my own experiences, I was beginning to think I was the only one who ran into some bad apples in the business, since apparently no one else was suffering at the hands of people who appeared to do them wrong. On one of my other sites, the Board of Inquiry forum I have there is by far the most popular of the forums on the site. Is the relationship between customers and businesses who take advantage of them really that different between the reptile related business and Corvettes in Florida type affairs?

I guess that in itself would be an interesting topic to dissect.

But the truth is, I noticed things took a definite nose dive here when I was going through all that crap. Not really sure why, but maybe that does explain it somewhat. I thought perhaps people were just embarrassed at ME for being too darn hard headed to just throw in the towel and admit defeat, rather than detailing one disappointment and injury after another here. People just couldn't bear watching ME getting screwed over time and time again. Or perhaps that I was just too damned dumb and/or stubborn to cut my losses and quit.



And as for Shadow, we just had too many disagreements and subsequent confrontations about how this site should be run. When it became apparent that he was going to start up his own site with the help of another member (which DID, in fact, happen), I decided he could no longer be a moderator here with that conflict of interest, and that made the attitude issue even worse. Yes, he did provide a lot of posts here, but I run several sites and have personally witnessed other sides get torpedoed QUICKLY by rogue moderators who cop an attitude about the admin/owner. I am not saying that Gordon would have done anything of that nature, but I'm sure the owners of such sites who had one or more moderators DELETE as many threads as they could before being stopped, thought the same thing. I just could not take that risk. So I did what I had to do.

But in retrospect, maybe he was correct and I was wrong. Certainly I can't say I know better than he did looking at the state of this site right now. But then again, his own site has died on the vine, so who knows? Maybe this idea of a Florida centered Corvette site was just a poor idea from the very start.

Oh well... When I first created this site, I was simply posting my own stuff for quite a while before anyone found this site. Maybe I'm just hoping for too much to think that people would be interested enough in my own interests to want to join me here and talk about such stuff. I had no misconceptions about this site ever being a money maker for me, and that certainly hasn't changed. So perhaps MY attitude needs to change and just not give a rip whether anyone else hangs here or not. I post things that interest me here, and if no one else has a similar interest, then so what? I'm retired, and fact of the matter is that I really don't HAVE to give a crap what anyone else thinks about what I do or think. So perhaps just treating this as my own personal blog with participation by others completely optional might be the best perspective I can take of it.

I happen to enjoy Corvettes, and I enjoy living in this state of Florida. I find this soothing to have a place to talk about such interests. Not sure what I was looking for anyway in thinking more people coming here and interacting with what I like would mean to me.

So screw it. Best thing is apparently that I just stop caring about it.

That way I can just stop worrying that I'm some kind of failure at running this site, hoping that it would be "successful". "Successful" in this context meaning that a lot of people participate here and enjoy being here. So apparently my expectations are just faulty and need revision.

Heck, I feel better already.......

[Rich427]

Originally Posted by Rich Z

I guess that "young couple" you are referring to is Chris and Kelli Harwood. So that whole saga with then screwing me over made you uncomfortable? Perhaps others too? Interesting.... I supposed the experience I had with Aaron Scott had the same effect? So people here would prefer to just not read about such things at all? Is THAT the mistake I made? Not realizing that people only want to read "happy times" posts and things that only make them smile?

No, you getting screwed over by the Harwood's did not make me uncomfortable at all and that is not what I was referring to. I did not say "young couple", that is your interpretation of what I wrote. What I said was a young man and young woman (meaning two different people with two different events that had problems with the Harwood's. I just went back into the Board of Inquiry to try to help out and the guy's tag was Fatbum. I cannot find the reference to the young woman, but she was not associated with Fatbum, just another person that had a problem with Harwood and his wife. Anyway, the interaction with some of the people on the site and a pretty immature person in Fatbum, that is what made me uncomfortable. It had nothing to do with you specifically, or your problems with Harwood. Maybe uncomfortable is not the appropriate word, ...I just did not want to interact with that drama on the posts. I do think it was important to listen to the complaints about the Harwood's establishment, but due to the kid's immaturity and him being really pissed because he was getting screwed over I think a lot of people were missing the kid's point and that the Harwood's establishment was not very reputable.

I also was not asking for an explanation on what went down between you and Shadow, I was just making an observation that I believe that the site was more active when Shadow was involved. Again, I don't know Shadow, I just think that the activity slowed after he left.

The only reason I posted a response to your message is that you asked for feedback. I waited a few days to see if anyone else would weigh in, but since no one did, I posted two reasons why I felt there might have been an issue. Am I right, ...hell I don't know, but those issues did not drive me away from the site. Could they have driven others away, ...again hell if I know.

[Rich Z]

Sorry, I misunderstood who you were referring to.

Chis Harwood fooled a lot of people, and many of those people who were fooled defended him for a lot longer than he deserved. And yes, his participation here, and the associated fallout, definitely negatively impacted this site on many levels.

[mickeystoysz16]

Originally Posted by Rich Z

Just out of curiosity, I checked some stats on this site. Right now we currently have 3,975 registered members. That's after I deleted ALL spammers yesterday.

Of those 3,975 members,

• 2,328 have NEVER made a post here.
• 3,498 have not logged back into this site within the past year.
• which, of course, means that only 477 registered members have even stopped by within the past 365 days.
• only 136 members have posted anything within the past year.
• only 89 members have posted anything within the past 6 months.
• only 24 members have posted anything within the past month.

A while back someone said that the reason they don't post here is because nobody posts here. Seems to have become contagious.

Cool! Finally I am the 1% of something

[85vette]

Evwe one must be out hunting wabbits.....cause it's awfwe quiet in here.....(said Elmer Fudd)

[Rich Z]

Most people get bored of typing posts into a black hole. Heck, I've been feeling the same way lately.

[Rich Z]

This place would probably be really jumping if I wasn't blocking all the spammers who are trying to get in here...

[mickeystoysz16]

Well at least this site is still around.

RIP Z16.org

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by mickeystoysz16

Well at least this site is still around.

RIP Z16.org

I guess they didn't have enough participation to warrant keeping the site running. It happens.

It's actually pain in the butt battling spammers all of the time. Especially if the site is also a financial drain as well. The excitement of running a site based on your passion for the topic matter alone used to be enough of a REASON for keeping a site running. But that evaporates quickly when the place becomes a ghost town and the owner feels that heck, no one appreciates the site enough to stop by and participate, so why bother?