THSCC Forums

At the last Rallyx race on Sunday we had the most new faces I'd seen in years. As VP, I'd like to get these guys interacting with club members online to keep them engaged-- chatting with them I got the impression they were looking for social interaction as much as racing.

My preference would be to open up the online forums to everyone, which would make it easier for them to engage with other club members. IMHO the requirement to be a club member to be on the forums is an impediment to getting new paying members, and not something that other area clubs do (Triad, for example).

The conversion funnel that I see is:

1. Casual interest - attend one or two races
2. Interact online to get advice and develop a connection to the club.
3. Attend several races.
4. Pay dues to participate in year-end trophies and support the club

Its too much to expect people to jump to the end of the conversion funnel in order to get online, as that way you're only going to get people who are the most diehards, rather that encouraging new people. The goal of the club is to get people racing and interacting with each other, not signing official pieces of paper saying they're club members.

To work around this, I've been sending emails directly to people participating in rallyx, but that is a one-way communication. Since we spend most of our time not racing, it would be much better to get prospective new members interacting online with club members.

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"Build a man a fire and he'll stay warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll stay warm the rest of his life."
'93 Subaru Legacy DIRTBOMB
'98 BMW M3
2013 Rallyx Co-VP

I hate to do this, but...



In short, this idea continues to get zero traction each time it comes up. In addition to the deadhorse emoticon, we need a "Don Quixote vs. windmill" emoticon.

I have been told that our solution to this problem is to direct them to our Facebook presence (which is open to everyone) and that the forum is exclusive to members. I used to be completely in the "closed forum" camp, but have slowly moved over to the "open forum" camp. I also firmly believe that if we were to "go open" that we should totally relaunch the forum and leave the current private posts private (i.e. retire the old forum after the new one is up and running).

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 this goes "open", half of the comments posted here would dry up and I certainly wouldn't post up as much (which may be a good thing). This is more of a family setup right now and in as such I value responses from people here. I for one like the current setup of letting everyone post on FB and kept this forum as is....

Membership has it's privileges...

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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....

All this stuff is Marketing 101:

If your goal is to keep talking to the same, dwindling number of people as before, then keep things as they are. If your goal is to get more members then anyone in marketing would tell you to be as open as possible. The major way that people find information is through Google searches, and the more public discussion we have about autocross/rallycross, then greater likelihood there is of someone interested in those topics will find us.

The way to get people who are thinking about participating to take that next step is through engagement, and that means having as much communication with the public as possible. Instead of a private newsletter, each bit of information is put on the website ASAP. Instead of private discussions, you share your hobby with everyone who's interested.

For example, instead of keeping rallyx news secret in a members-only newsletter, I just sent a report on the latest rallyx race out in email to everyone interested in rallyx, not just members. For everyone who was thinking about racing again, this keeps the concept fresh in their mind, more likely to race again, and more likely to eventually join as a member.

Increasing engagement also means communicating with people in the ways they prefer, which means Facebook for some, but that's just one option, not a panacea.

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"Build a man a fire and he'll stay warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll stay warm the rest of his life."
'93 Subaru Legacy DIRTBOMB
'98 BMW M3
2013 Rallyx Co-VP

I think that sums it up pretty nicely. My observation is that pre-economic bust we couldn't beat people away with a stick. The problem was event registration cut offs and the spectacle of turning people away at the bus. There was absolutely zero reason to try to promote the club, or attract new members and in general had an anti-publicity stance for fear of being painted in a bad light (i.e. made to look like illegal street racers, etc.). I think that outside of Facebook, things are mostly like they were during that time period. One thing that we did have was an open email discussion group that didn't require membership, but that was supplanted by the forum (which did require membership given it's "premium" billing) Since then, while I don't have the numbers, I am sure membership has dropped and we know that attendance is not like it was. There is also the reports that many of the next generation are just not interested in the sport. So it is also going to be an uphill slog to stop the "greying" of the membership.

This topic comes up about once a year and consistently it seems that a majority likes the status quo. Especially with respect to the forum. If there is any middle ground it is around the potential for a forum that is both open and closed at the same time. One in which there is both public and private areas. My concern around that concept is that I personally don't want to have to manage a complex forum. Some of my frustration is why I am also not the primary admin anymore.

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.

I think I've mentioned it before, but in regards to the forum, why not keep one area as "member's only" but open up the rest of it to the general public (after they complete a basic registration process)??

I'm on several other forums that operate in this way, and it seems to work just fine.

I'm all for keeping our own little clubhouse atmosphere, but if we really want/need to get new members, an online forum would certainly not hurt.

+1

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2002 MCS, 2003 MCS Track Rat, 2003 Generic White Yukon, 2003 BMWk1200rs, 1973 CB350F, 02 996. 08 Cayenne Turbo
http://www.clinehallagency.com

+ another 1

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

Absolutely doable. The issues from my perspective...

* I believe there is an unwritten contact with current and past members that the current forum content is meant to be private. So we can't open up the current forum in my opinion. Or at least we can't open up the current forum in it's current state (i.e. we can't just make "The Lounge" open).

* We currently enforce a "real name" policy. I think one reasons that works is that it is a private forum. I personally (almost) always use my real name on any forum. I mostly do this because I don't think you can hide your identity online, but I can see some who would not be happy with using real names on a public forum. Additionally it would be a nightmare to try to enforce "real name" for the public (non-club) members. We are not Google. We don't have that type of resources. So in short, I think it will be the death of the "real name" policy (which is probably ok as well, but impacts the current username list).

* One of the #1 benefits of the real name policy is that it makes it much easier to match forum members to actual THSCC members. This is how we can determine who should get access and who shouldn't currently. So doing away with the real names will make this harder.

* All of the problems above are likely solvable via the right combination of forum software, membership management and maybe even some custom code. We crash and burn each time we try to do any type of membership management project. We use sticks and stones when it comes to membership management and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

* Not really an issue, but a general note... I would hazard a bet that the majority of forum members are unaware that the "For Sale" section is viewable by the public. This includes all of the crazy posts that I am sure people think are private, but are not when they reply to someone's "For Sale" ad. Unregistered users also used to be able to post in both the "For Sale" and "Visitors" section, but due to spam bots, we had to shut that down.

In short, I don't think we are capable of pulling this off without it being a real admin headache. (Yes that is a challenge as I would love for someone to prove me wrong!)

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.

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1990 Faded Reddish CSP Lite Miata
2002 Electron Blue Corvette Z06
2005 Mazda 6 Wagon
2003 Nissan Pathfinder DTV (Dog Transport Vehicle)

Richard,

I for one appreciate the "behind the scenes" efforts of everyone involved.

I can't address the tech aspects of the forum issues you raised, but I can suggest that if this goes forward, it *should* be fairly easy to create an archive section and then just put all of the members-only forum posts in there as of a certain point in time. This would preserve the privacy of anything anyone might not want to be seen by the general public, but still allow it to be accessed if need be.

I'd be glad to help, but beyond knowing how to navigate the interwebs, I'm clueless when it comes to forum admin/code/etc.

The cop out would be to spin up another forum instance that is public. However, I think we'd see an odd dichotomy grow where a lot of the longer term members just check out this private forum and a lot of new people (members or not) join the other forum and the lack of cross talk essentially violates our ultimate goal (as Michael mentioned a while ago).

Honestly I think we'll just sunset this forum and throw it in archive mode where you can log in and see old content but there will be no new posts and move to a new forum that have a few private subforums for members only.

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2011/2012 Autox VP
2013/2014.5 President
2013 Top Gun

2015 Fit

22R-EC => 4G63 => D16Y7 + D16Y8 => EJ255 + K24Z2 => K20Z3 + K24Z2 => K24Z2 + M54 => L15B

I probably didn't explain it very well, but that is pretty much how I see it working if it was to happen. My personal opinion is that it would quickly be apparent that nobody would be visiting any archived forum and that there would be little reason to keep it around. If I was to make another prediction, it is highly likely that any private forums would get little traffic over the long haul. Or it would be primarily visited by a select subset of the membership. But I could be wrong.

Conceptually doing all of this is not difficult. However actually doing it is another thing. Personally I think all it needs is a few people to do the work, and some support from club officers. No matter what is done, it is unlikely to make everyone happy, but that is also the current situation as well.

I don't want to be viewed as being overly negative. I view it as more of an honest portrayal of the challenges. I think a forum reboot would be a great thing.

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.

FYI, the rallyx race summary email to all participants has already paid off... A non-member and relatively new rallyx'er stepped up to chair the next October race. He'll need help, of course, but volunteering is the next step along the pipeline of developing a regular club member and frequent race participant.

I'm also trying to friend as many new racers as I can on Facebook, and I encourage everyone else on Facebook to do the same.

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"Build a man a fire and he'll stay warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll stay warm the rest of his life."
'93 Subaru Legacy DIRTBOMB
'98 BMW M3
2013 Rallyx Co-VP

Post the RallyX email content to FB? That may get some outside interest as well.

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