Mods/Admins - New Postings

[Hammer]

Dear Mods and Admins,

Since a new year has arrived with a new board for the most part, I would like you all to consider a new direction for this forum. I feel that the following rules for the Forum would make a difference in the quality of postings here:

Only members of the Net Registry should be allowed to post here, there is the CF for those that aren't members.
All members and visitors should have their profile correctly filled outOthers can visit and read all the posts they want, but if you want to add to this Forum, join the Club.

Thanks

[Tom]

I disagree with #1, I believe it would only reduce the number of replies and postings and therefore reduce the usefulness of this forum. I believe at one time there was a members only forum and it was eliminated. CF already has more postings and replies than this forum.

On #2, I don't pay any attention to the profiles so I don't care if they are filled out or not.

[guinnessdood]

It would be sweet to get more folks to "live" here rather than CF if they are ZR-1ers....One way to begin accomplishing that is to answer the CF questions on this forum and paste a link to the answer in the CF. CF may have some issue with that though...I don't really know.

[Hammer]

Only two posts to this in 7 hours. I know it's a work day, but maybe that's why the CF is the place people go now. Come on, chime in.

Maybe it's posted in the wrong place.

I'll be back tomorrow.

[bobbyhi]

Ok John, here is my $.02 worth.

There are times that I feel like you regarding only members can post. But in reality, there is competion from CF. I am a "lurker" at CF but my real "family" is here. Although I haven't met many of the members I feel that I can ask any questions and always have a good response here. I don't get that feeling at CF. Our members here, I feel, have a better bond with each other than at CF. I would like to see the profiles at least put the location of each member. There are still a few that don't have where they reside. This information is very helpful in answering questions that arise. Enough of this :blahblah: :blahblah: - got to get back to work. Rember that it is our quest to keep the KOTH alive!!!

[GrayZ]

It's be nice..if it was only zr1 members..JOHN>>BBUTT..
there wouldn't be anyone here...

i tried to get the boys to post more over here..

more than once...

how'd that make me feel??
they are still over there..in force...
and it's a great place...it's just well...this is ours...and i think we should
use it ...or we'll lose it....ya know? so i promise to post something
everyday...whether i need to or not...:mrgreen:

[93RubyZ]

I also agree that it's best to get this forum going more. I've seen people make the same post on both forums asking for help, and get significantly more replies on CF. That just makes it's more likely that they will go to CF first rather than here. Personally, since this is the ZR-1 site, I'd would prefer to have this be the more frequented board.

[Z Factor]

Dear Mods and Admins,

Since a new year has arrived with a new board for the most part, I would like you all to consider a new direction for this forum. I feel that the following rules for the Forum would make a difference in the quality of postings here:

Only members of the Net Registry should be allowed to post here, there is the CF for those that aren't members.
All members and visitors should have their profile correctly filled outOthers can visit and read all the posts they want, but if you want to add to this Forum, join the Club.

Thanks

We are always open to suggestions, and as you know the profile issue regarding location is now a required field to register. :thumbsup:
However not everyone would be willing to fill out all the fields in the user profile, so we might wind up losing some potential posters. Very few forums require all profile fields to be filled in and for now I think we strike a good balance in that regard. As to the majority of the members who are already registered and do not list their location, we cannot go back retroactively to require it. We have however run a few contests with the stipulation that to be eligible a location must be listed. Friendly encouragement from fellow posters can also help to get more people to list their location.

As to the issue of restricting the forum to ZR-1 Net Registry members only, I think we would be cutting off our nose to spite our face. For starters, we have new registrants who are looking to buy or find more information about ZR-1's and this is a great place to do so. Limiting their ability to interact and asks questions of the rest of us would only lead to them going to other sites. Furthermore the forum serves as a recruitment resource for membership to those who buy ZR-1's or are enthusiasts.

We would certainly like to find more ways to have people posting here rather than on CF, and any and all suggestions/recommendations are welcome. We have hit on a few good ideas over the years and hopefully we will continue to do so.:thumbsup:

:cheers:

[DaveK]

As one of the some time 'lurkers' I have to disagree with the first point. I don't have a Z yet - I plan to buy one soon (thought I had one lined up but that's a different matter) but until then the need to join is a little low key. To me making this a 'members only' forum would only likely discourage potential members/owners.

In terms of the profile I don't have a problem with making it as 'tight' as is required - though speaking from experience (I'm a professional web systems developer) - making sign up forms and profiles require too much information is another sure-fire way of putting people off. If the intention is to bring more discussion here I can't see those things helping.

On the other hand if a 'members only' forum is required for some reason then go for it.

[Z R 1]

Being one of your newest members I was very put off reading the original post. I too am in the market for a ZR-1 and migrated over from CF to learn more about the Z and was hoping to find more/better questions to my question here. If I would have had to become a paying member to ask questions about the Z to help with my purchase I immediately would have and will look elsewhere! I had no problem with filling out my profile as much as I could. Being that I do not own a Z as of yet I was not able to complete that part about year, color, and such. It was degrading to learn you have members here that have the "if you are not a paid member of the club you don't belong here and your voice should not be heard" snotty type attitude. As far as only "paid members" being able to post yeilding better quality posts, well learn from this: As a result of this thread I am going to stay over at CF. You not only lost a fourm lurker/poster you lost any chance of a future paid member. I would think twice before you let your "paid" members post insulting proposals of the such! Please feel free to remove my profile as I will not be back!

[Z Factor]

Being one of your newest members I was very put off reading the original post.

Though I can understand you being somewhat put off by the suggestion, I think you are going a little overboard in your reaction to one persons idea.

I think you will find that there are many different points of view regarding how people go about things regardless of where you hang out. The common bond of our forum is the love of ZR-1's. Among us there are no doubt many different perspectives politically, spiritually, and varied ways of living our lives. That does not mean you should take such an extreme position by wanting to leave based on one opinion/view. The CF has many more posters and given time you will no doubt find some of them will also put you off. It is unlikely that you will find any forum that exactly mirrors your point of view, so to consider leaving over such things will probably result in you not finding a place to feel comfortable in.

As you can see if you read the responses, most of your fellow posters do not think it would achieve the results the OP would like to see come about. I would suggest you reconsider leaving with the understanding that the OP's suggestion regarding paid membership is not something we are planning to do.

Any suggestions you might have on how to increase participation on the forum will be welcome.:handshak:

:cheers:

[guinnessdood]

As far as only "paid members" being able to post yeilding better quality posts, well learn from this: As a result of this thread I am going to stay over at CF. You not only lost a fourm lurker/poster you lost any chance of a future paid member. I would think twice before you let your "paid" members post insulting proposals of the such! Please feel free to remove my profile as I will not be back!

Understand that it was ONE members post...and it was just his opinion. He is not making the rules he is merely suggesting some changes based on some recent posts that he has seen and didn't particularly care for. It is highly unlikely that the ZR-1 Net Registry Forum will ever become "exclusive" to members only. In most cases we welcome the posts of those seeking to uplift the ZR-1 or to find out more information about the ZR-1 or to get technical answers. If you are easily offended by posts from people...I guarantee you will find a much rougher crowd over on the CF. I'm a member there as well and I can definitely tell there's a difference between the way people post here (pretty polite) compared to there (pretty blunt).

[WB9MCW]

ZF I was gonna pm him to tell him I thought he took it the wrong way but he has his email blocked maybe u can let him know that it was just and idea and not an actual change. Good luck!

[Hammer]

Well gang here I am again, just like I said.

I must say the reaction to my OP was varied and one was quite unexpected. Sorry about that to all, I didn't mean any harm. As far as the explanations against "membership only" posts that several offered, I can certainly appreciate your points and they are well taken and understandable.

Maybe some of you that have been here awhile could give me (as well as other newbies) some reasons why the CF is the preferred forum. Seems this should be the logical place to reside if you own a ZR-1, but I see posts on the CF from people that do not post here. They are well known in the ZR-1 Community and I would be interested to hear their story on why they go to the CF. There must be a reason (or several).

Anyway, I hope this thread continues. Thanks

[Z Factor]

There is no need to apologise as you were only making suggestions. I think once Z R 1 has a chance to think it through he will realise it was not something that should cause him to leave. We all have tough days and maybe he had a lot of other things going on at that time.

Regarding your question about CF's popularity compared with ours, it is a complex problem that does not have a simple solution. For starters the volume of people posting in all sections of CF make it one of the busiest car enthusiast forums on the web. Believe it or not many people don't even own a vette yet post in the OT and PRC sections because of the volume. There is also plenty of bleed over from other Vette sections into the ZR-1 section which accounts for some lively discussions/arguments about who's Vette is better/faster. All that coupled with long term ZR-1 posters makes it place to get more responses (informed and misinformed), but also with a decent dose of attitude.
For the most part our forum has a much narrower focus with only ZR-1 enthusiasts making up the bulk of posters. While CF does have posters who do not come here, we also have exclusive posters who do not like the atmosphere over there, be it the restrictive rules, heavy handed moderation, or the cliques with their pompous attitudes. As to the dual citizenship posters :wink: , many of them are in the habit of going to CF first. If they either post questions or answer threads there first, they are much less likely to then duplicate it here. Believe me when I tell you that I have asked many forum members why they post more over on CF and what could be done to increase their participation here. Even when we have implemented some of those changes some still wind up posting over there more than here. If we can get them in the habit of coming here first, it would go a long way to solve the dilemma.

Our goal is to increase participation here as much as possible, but I suspect CF will continue to have it's share of ZR-1 posters no matter what we do.


:cheers:

[DaveK]

I see no reason for an apology either. I think I understood the intent of the original post and saw no harm in raising it for discussion - I think someone leaving on the basis of that is a little extreme. I have a great deal of respect for people on the forum and have recieved numerous useful hints, tips and assistance from so many people (John included) I couldn't thank everyone enough - and all this before I even own a Z!

Oddly CF probably gets more posters also because it has a high black colour content - that always seems to be taken by people as a site with 'attitude' regardless of whether the content/moderation/posters actually allow or display that. One of the odd quirks of people psychology I guess. Plus if people have been visiting somewhere for a while it's very hard to get them to switch. The best way is to give them something they want but can't get anywhere else.

[Jeffvette]

I'm one of the guys with dual citizenship. If somebody has a question here and on CF. I'll answer in both places, or I may answer here first and then on CF say I posted over here. You forget there are about 6 Corvette boards that are pretty well surfed. The registry forum is different, we try to be good citizens, we have our moments for the most part we get a long because we realize we are here due to the LT5.

Getting people away from the CF will be tough, as the amount of content in the other sections is what keeps people over there.

[flyin ryan]

i'm taking the 5th & staying out of this. i got out of the local corvette club because they were having meeting's to decide when they would have the next meeting:blahblah: , after a while i was like...do we ever get to go for a cruise or...i thought this was supposed to be about enjoying the cars. i'm going to keep it that way. no need for ruffled feathers.

[rkreigh]

the forum has been open just like the listserve and free since the start

we don't really want to restrict it as folks that are interested in learning about the ZR-1 and then potentially joining the club might not do it. sure I want more folks to join, we have more fun, but we're not really about forcing anyone who doesn't want to and sharing experiences shouldn't require the membership IMHO.

thanks for the suggestions, it's something that we've thought of. we also just discussed just merging over to corvetteforum, but to be honest, I want to be able to offer deals on parts and group buys and all kinds of stuff without all the "supporting vendor" costs and hassle that is in place over there.

plus, we don't have as restrictive a rules, just play nice and nothing you wouldn't show your mama (but it can be a hot mama):censored:

as for getting more postings, YES!!!! I'll do my part as prez to encourage it. I'm more of a forum guy than a list serve but I do both.

what I will do is announce (push) things with the listserve, so plz sign up, it will continue to be free, and then also post static content (pull) over here so we can reference material without having to keep the mail or search archives.

both technologies have advantages so I vote we keep em both, free and public.

good topic. thanks.:thumbsup:

[Peaven]

As one who has recently started to frequent both boards again (long story), I think that this board should remain open to non members. We don't have nearly as much traffic here, and the more participants the better IMO....for now anyway.

[flyin ryan]

i feel this is the ZR-1 Haven:worship: , end of the day, & whatever is in the best intrest of the site i'm for.

[WB9MCW]

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o128/wb9mcw/Wow-FREE.jpg



FROM THE DESK OF THE ZR-1 NET/REGISTRY PREZ~~~~~~~~

"THE ZR-1 FORUM AND THE NET ARE FREE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC"

NOW SOME OF U DUAL CITIZEN GUYS OVER ON CF RELAY THE MESSAGE TO "Z-R-1" AND TELL HIM THE GOOD NEWS AND TO COME BACK TO THE PARTY OR HE WILL MISS ALL THE GREAT VETTE BABES PIC'S SAYZ WB9MCW

[Z Factor]

ZF I was gonna pm him to tell him I thought he took it the wrong way but he has his email blocked maybe u can let him know that it was just and idea and not an actual change. Good luck!

His PM is working if you really want to send him a message.

:cheers:

[WB9MCW]

really yep i will give him the link to the ron k and my last post then...