TDB participation

[Keith M.]

Re: TDB participation

Never Fakebook nor any other thing like it. No need for it...if forums were built out herein. Been saying this or trying for a while. Historically my comments were met with negativity, resistanve to change, budget, etc.Where are the chapter specific subforums on here? For sale items? And what is going on with the seeming prototype John created. It looks like a great start but have not heard anything about it. Where is a place for general announcements. To me the issue is not the TDB itself...but rather no place for all the non technical topics...like this thread for example. The programming languages I knew are long dead. Happy to volunteer some thoughts leadership and design input...when NCRS recognizes the need and commits to build the solution. You know where to find me when a team is ready to assemble.
Thanks
Keith

[Keith M.]

Re: TDB participation

Good insights Mike. As I mentioned earlier, my biggest priority would be to increase in person participation in chapter, regional, and national meets.

Agreed. But remember many folks are not retired, are busy raising families and whatnot. An online community, if it existed here, not Facebook or otherwise,..is all their best option. This is not just a matter of convenience but an enormous opportunity to bring NCRS folks all together in one place. A true sense of central online community...to augment all the great in person events that many can't carve out time for.

[Tom F.]

Re: TDB participation

I am not much of a contributor but I think the TDB is great. I enjoy following very much.

[Keith M.]

Re: TDB participation

I am not much of a contributor but I think the TDB is great. I enjoy following very much.

I agree. It has been an INVALUABLE resource for me for my restoration project. Nothing else like it and the great folks who help so much.

[Owen L.]

Re: TDB participation

I bet if you could poll the entire NCRS active membership, the percentage of those members who have a Facebook account would be negligible. I, and most folks I know, absolutely despise social media.

Leif, I agree with both sentences. But our own likes and dislikes are irrelevant if we are seeking to expand participation here and grow membership in general.

Social media (no matter the platform) does appeal to large groups of people, of which, many are younger than a lot of us. What are they getting on those platforms that is not here? One of the things that comes to mind is that social media is designed to be easily accessible on phones and tablets so lends itself to checking at all times and locations. I've tried to read the TDB on a phone but it's not set up for that and I find it much easier to access it from a laptop - especially when asking questions or replying. I can't stand trying to type out anything of length on my phone or tablet...

One of the problems of social media is that I think we see it as a single entity but in reality there is such a high number of different Corvette groups that the participants are highly diluted and scattered across the platforms. I tried following a few Facebook Corvette groups but the content I was looking for just wasn't there.

Tom Russo's comment in the other thread ties into my thoughts on this.

[Richard M.]

Re: TDB participation

All,

Let us please re-concentrate on ideas to objectively improve TDB participation, as well as ideas to increase membership. We can't compete with social media, so we need to find ways to capture interest without negatively impacting our Charter and our overall well being.

Rich

[George J.]

Re: TDB participation

Rich,
some of the posts that were deleted did address the very issue of whether changing the TBD is relevant to attracting people to its use. Personally, I like the format of this site better than others I am on, including FChat. The ads really make that site inferior to this one. One other, SteveHoffman, is not car related but might be using the same engine as this one, and it is hugely popular with the music community. These older programs, though not flashy, are very intuitive to use.

George

[Richard M.]

Re: TDB participation

Rich,
some of the posts that were deleted did address the very issue of whether changing the TBD is relevant to attracting people to its use. Personally, I like the format of this site better than others I am on, including FChat. The ads really make that site inferior to this one. One other, SteveHoffman, is not car related but might be using the same engine as this one, and it is hugely popular with the music community. These older programs, though not flashy, are very intuitive to use.

George

George,

If changes occur to our website shell it will be for several administrative reasons. Reason is that the costs, both monetary costs and volunteer effort(energy) costs could be reduced by changing it. We rely on volunteers to administer the site and their job is extremely difficult at times. What started as a simple process years ago, evolved into a very time consuming effort for a very small group of our IT supporter staff.

We don't see the efforts involved, only the resultant shell that we come to when we visit. It's a tremendous effort to create, maintain, and in particular, to modify it when updates are needed and new applications are required.

For example, we don't have a "Mobile" version any longer. It became news to me recently, that when updates happen, we actually have to pay fees to activate these changes. These fees are required for both Apple and Android Apps Stores. This gets expensive, so the Mobile version has been discontinued.

We will have to try to accept what the management team recommends, implements, and supports for our site software. We may not like it, but we'll get used to it.... if and when it should happen.

Rich

[Harry S.]

Re: TDB participation

As mentioned in the past, much of the heavy lifting performed by the volunteer IT team is in support of the Chapters, Regionals and Nationals. All the Registrations, membership, membership contact information, judging points, Helpdesk for everything is somewhere handled on the website. There are probably 100 items I left out. All these functions supported me when I was Chapter secretary, judging chairman and chapter chairman. The workload is overwhelming. Just think about the amount of programming effort needed to add the 5-Star judging award or the Concours Judging Programme.

Thank you, Gary, John and Rob.

[Owen L.]

Re: TDB participation

All,

Let us please re-concentrate on ideas to objectively improve TDB participation, as well as ideas to increase membership. We can't compete with social media, so we need to find ways to capture interest without negatively impacting our Charter and our overall well being.

Rich

Rich,
Without understanding participant preferences for social media (or Corvette Forum), we can't know what to do to improve or market this site. I'm not suggesting the TDB turn into a social media style site but we need to know where the TDB sits in the digital-information pool. Have these analyses already been done?

[Keith M.]

Re: TDB participation

An online community provided by the organization for its dues paying members for the numerous non-technical Corvette and organizational discussion opportunities does not strike me as a tall ask. My personal view is that such capabilities would bring the whole of NCRS together in a way that has never happened in the entire history of the organization. If you provide it, they will come. Just my vision for making a great organization so much greater. Thanks for reopening the thread.

[David H.]

Re: TDB participation

[QUOTE=Owen Lowe (20119).... but we need to know where the TDB sits in the digital-information pool. Have these analyses already been done?[/QUOTE]

Owen

As a member-only web site, I think we really don't sit in that digital-information pool. We do know traffic here is down. We do know traffic on CF's "Factory Correct Restoration" forum is mostly nonexistent - traffic on most other CF forums is significant.

Why, is a matter of speculation - this thread and "Re: Board of Directors Meeting Elections and Appointments" have suggested a variety of reasons.

No answers, just observations.

Dave

[Terry M.]

[Michael J.]

Re: TDB participation

I agree attracting younger members is a big problem. I had heard discussion of how including newer cars in flight judging, like the C5s and now C6s, would attract younger people. But in my observations at regional meets of late, it is the older people who had campaigned C1s and C2s and C3s who are bringing in the C5s and C6s.

I guess I go to my experience in the Mustang Club of America. We had a national near my home in New Mexico last year I entered my '64 1/2 K code coupe in. There were over 200 cars entered in an outdoor venue and most of the people were under 60. Is it because the Mustang is a cheaper, more common car? Is it because MCA has 15 classes for judging that covers most every conceivable Mustang or interest? Hard to know, but their 60th Anniversary National sold out in 3 weeks after announcement with 400 registered judged cars.

[Richard M.]

Re: TDB participation

rich: I applaud your taking the time to undertake this project. thanks for all you do for NCRS. mike mccagh

Rich,
Without understanding participant preferences for social media (or Corvette Forum), we can't know what to do to improve or market this site. I'm not suggesting the TDB turn into a social media style site but we need to know where the TDB sits in the digital-information pool.

Have these analyses already been done?

Owen, I'm not aware of it being done, but unsure if it would benefit. In a recent Poll of popularity(unsure their criteria for capturing this data)... showing 15 Corvette related websites, corvetteforum.com was #1. We didn't show up on that list.

I have more to write but have some issues that will take me away for a while but I'll try to check back in later if I can. My Wife needs my time for appts, imagery, etc.

Rich
P.S. I neither closed, nor reopened this thread. I refrain from doing that and leave that up to the other Admins if needed. I'm just trying to keep things in perspective so it can continue. This is why I commented to please keep things on track and in particular, civil.