THSCC Forums

I fully support the idea, Richard.

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Brian

2010 K1300GT
2001 E39 M5
2003 540iT Sport

Ditto for myself over the years. I'm also surprised the see that this is not a landslide vote for opening up the forums. Lot's of good content here. Please keep posting up and vote if you haven't.

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Rodney

'08 Bullitt mustang, CAM 7
Autox VP '09-'10, President '11-'12, interim President 2nd half of ‘14
proud recipient of the Bowie Grey service award '12
Now just a guy driving a mustang....

I'm actually not voting on this, as I think the current executive staff needs to make an educated decision and act on with the best available information.

However, my personal opinion as an existing club member, already "in the know", is that I like the forums as-is. The commentary here lacks much of the noise found elsewhere on the internet. However, I'd also fully admit that like many other aspects of this club, my opinions are swayed by the "way it's always been" mentality.

Therefore, if the current administration believes that opening the forums to some degree will have a greater benefit to bringing in new membership and garnering participation from more reluctant would-be "customers", and there's an end-to-end plan to manage the transition taking into account the ongoing work and administration that is needed for whatever new methods are put in place, then I'm fully in support of their decisions. However, I would attest the following:

1) Anything that exists in the member forum areas today should stay private, per Richard and Brian's comments, above. There's little to be gained from opening up past content, and much more to lose.

2) Option 1 in the survey shouldn't exist. Staff areas were by definition a private area, used primarily to facilitate staff communications. None of us (past staff) should have to second guess what we posted in (virtual) private 6 years ago. I also believe that a similar private area should continue to exist, to continue to facilitate these communications, and provide a documented history of operations and discussions for future officers. Doing away with this only forces staff communications to email where future generations of officers won't be able to benefit from previous experiences.

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Dustin Fredrickson
-- I'm a nobody --

I voted no. What is there to gain by making the forum public?

If you guys are just trying to increase attendance to events you should do a better job of getting the word out on the other local club forums. The CCR posts about their events have been nice.

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Silver Honda
Green Ford
Blue/White Suzuki
Red Triumph
Grey BMW

"Never let life be shaped by fear of its end"

No, you're a towel!

I in no way am trying to ruffle feathers, but wouldn't suggesting that *we* go to other open forums to "get the word out" speak for itself that having an open forum would bring potential drivers in to see what's happening in our club?

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SCCA Solo Triad Award Recipient 2014
SCCA HSL National Champion 2012
SCCA DSL National Champion 2013
SCCA DSL National Champion 2014
NCR National Driver of the Year 2012
THSCC Heel of the Year 2011
Former Club Secretary
http://www.petscompanioninn.com

Which exist because we have made and exception to the membership rule to allow them to post here.

Richard

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

If you want to get more people out to events, there's no better place to promote than within your own demographic and reaching that is found on other club forums. Although, I've never met him, I applaud Eric Peck for posting their events on here and the other club forums. I've wanted to make posts on other forums (CCR, Triad, & SCR) but it's just kinda weird considering I'd be promoting our events, but if they wanted to do so on our forums... Well, it's a little different story. (except for Richard's exception with Eric, which of course was a good thing)

Just a little perspective from someone that wants to see the club flourish and personally, I'd love to see events with 120 drivers again to strengthen the club and increase the competition a little.

Our homepage gives more than enough info about our club, our events, and what we do. I don't think making the forum public will increase people's interest in the club. Only reason I go to other club forums is to check their solo schedules.

If we make the forum public we should make it read only for non-club members.

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Silver Honda
Green Ford
Blue/White Suzuki
Red Triumph
Grey BMW

"Never let life be shaped by fear of its end"

No, you're a towel!

+1. The downside to read-only is that some of the people who lurk as non-members might get the wrong idea from some of the posts, given the occasional harsh smack talking that happens here. At least for me, sometimes it's hard to tell when the line gets crossed. Wouldn't want to drive away potential members if they think they will get steamrolled/flamed if they post in the forums.

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

I don't see how making the forums read only addresses the social aspect of the world today. Which really is the point of forums, Facebook, etc.

Do the compromise. Leave the current forums as they are, onlu accessible by paid members. Then make some new forums which are accessible, both read and write, by anyone that registers, but we should use that for event information, and some discussion so that it doesn't look like the forums are dead.

Again, these are just suggestions, based on the assumption that something needs to change to get the attention of more people.

If we implement the above solution, I'll volunteer to admin it until the website revamp happens, or for a year, whichever comes first.

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In need of car.

I'm thinking along the lines of what Jason mentioned above. Leave the current forums as-is, and then make some new sub-forums that are publically accessible.


Several forums that I'm on are set up like this- they almost all have at least 1 "members only" forum where everyone wears one of these:

This a worthwhile compromise, but it seems to me the Facebook presence already addresses it. One more layer of redundancy may not be necessary...

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Steve Carter
1972 Datsun 240Z-- resto pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcartermd
2007 GPW Honda S2000-- STR 86

Agreed with Steven. I'm just not sure the world needs more forums, and I don't see much of a link to increased participation at events and having public forums. Or increased membership...if anything, it might cause the *opposite* effect on membership.


--Donnie

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My Blog

I volunteer to be the poster child for AutoX hate speech if this will help draw folks to our events.............

So far it would appear that my efforts have at least galvinized the few folks that actually still post here to a position of "us vs him", so I say let's continue forward.

I do remember when I first started with the club that I joined in part so I could read & post on the forums. Allowing non-members to read the forums will not necessarily cause them to join the club.

I think a realingment of the forums to offer a mix of public and member only forums would be in order. Our current Lounge forum could be opened up to include discussions of upcoming events. I mean what good is that forum at this time anyway? Nobady wants to discuss politics or religion with me so we might as well put the space to some good use.

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BenchWarmer Motorsports

another one of those damn LeMons heads

just another Chump

we are an Autocross Club Dammit............

The problem is that we don't have any real empirical evidence as to the impact of having an open/closed forum. It is just anecdotal and I think everyone has different personal experiences. Some just join, while others I think might be on the fence and just don't even deal with the hassle. I personally see the people who ask to join the forum but never join. I get a few emails a month for this, I tell them it is club members only, try to pump up the benefits of joining the club and then point them to the online PDF form used to join. I would say that few reply to that email. Those that do say they were looking to get information about a future event, but are not members. Very few follow through with joining and sending me another request to join the forum. These are the people who have interest, but view the club as a private society. For those that are not shy, they may go ahead and join, but I think there is a group of people who loose interest and walk away.

Years ago, I think we could afford to have a "only the strong survive" mantra in that if you can't "man up" and join then we are OK with loosing you (I am not saying this was an unspoken policy). But I think we need to promote not just membership, but interest in the types of activities that we do. More of a "if we build it they will come". I would focus less on driving membership numbers than on attracting people to events. If we are doing a good job with the events, most will join.

Prior to the forum existing there was (and still is) the THSCC Listserv (email distribution list). It was open to anyone who wanted to subscribe. It was in effect the THSCC "forum", but in email form. I definitely was part of that prior to deciding to join. The closed forum killed off that way to ease into the club.

Richard

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.