Opening up this forum..

As a 'newbie to this site, but being an 'enthusiast' since I was 15 years old, I'm really surprised at the low level of input this forum receives.
As a non member, I browsed the areas of the X1/9 Owners Club web site that I could access without having to become a member quite regularly.
Without stepping on anyones toes, or trying to tell senior admin or members how to run their forum, surely it would be better to 'open up' the forum to 'registered' non, as well as fully paid up members.
This would result in a much higher posting traffic from experienced X1/9 owners and previous owners who just cannot justify paying £25 a year to access the boards.
As a bonus, there may be much more interest in the club meetings and get togethers, as it will be available to a much wider audience.
Changing the format slightly and allowing 'outsiders' in and contributing to this forum can only be good.... it will probably get no extra input at all in reality, but then again it may blow away the 'tumbleweeds' that cross my screen when I open up the 'index' page ...

Please dont lambaste me for my comments.. its just a suggestion

Personally I agree, but it's just not the way the club is run at this time.

It's been discussed many a time over the years since this forum was created and it always come back to the fact that this club is run by the members, for the members. The information, help and advice available on here are alone worth the £25 membership fee.

allowing 'outsiders' in and contributing to this forum can only be good

Hmmm, not strictly true - some open forums have terrible problems with spamming and nuisance members, which I believe we experienced when the boards were 'open-to-all'.

Just my view.

Hi I dont think the forum should be open to non paying members BUT there may be a case for say £10 "internet only" membership ?

Personnaly I think the £25 membership is worth it for access to the website. The technical etc help I have recieved over the last 5 years has saved me much more than the £25 quid, but everyone has a different view of value for money.

I can’t help but agree with all points, but I think the website is missing a huge community of X1/9 people who for there own reasons don’t want to be a club member.

You only have to look at the major posters on the web site, they number about 20 or so, where as some of the other sites, few that they are seem to have constant traffic with interesting posts.

Some good points of course, the idea of a 'cheaper' subscription for internet forum access only, if workable would no doubt increase useful post count.
The point about nuisance members is also true, but you will encounter that wherever you go... how ever, I dont personally think that the X is a car desired by the local 'yoof' and would be more an issue over on the saxo/pug sites.
Many possible members are put off by the £25 annual price tag.. I was for many months after I purchased Custard, but I believe I also have had MORE than my subscription fees worth of information that is freed up with the Search function etc.
It is a difficult one for sure.... then again there has been three replies to this thread already today, so maybe I'm under estimating the membership traffic through this site.

sure there are good points and bad about opening up the board...it would mean more work for mods for sure to keep the unwelcome away..but at the end of the day, if someone joins and ya dont like what they say..dont reply to their post..these people soon get bored and bu**er off.....

i think a happy medium is needed...open forums can atract total idiots who just wanna cause trouble, but i sometimes feel this 'closed members only' forum is a we bit masonic in its attitude...one of the forums i use, and indeed was a founding member of, live4cars, has an open area and a members only area..worth thinking about???....you could keep the members only bit for those of us who have stumped up the entrance fee and have a general x1/9 section for all others...the forum could become very busy then..and dare isay it...profitable.....

biggbn wrote: but at the end of the day, if someone joins and ya dont like what they say..dont reply to their post..these people soon get bored and bu**er off.....

Exactly ..


A couple of other forums I use have this same type layout, which is great and easy to navigate (unlike XWeb) and they use a two tier system whereby upstanding respected members (those that regularly contribute to both the forums, meetings and club meets) have access to more restricted information affectionately referred to as the 'No Twats Chat' and 'No Twats Tech' where certain tuning modifications and services etc are shared among the hardcore, but not considered necessary for the public domain.
Moderator status is given to regular trusted members, who can edit or remove offending posts.
Every September, registered members are reminded/encouraged to donate what they 'think' the forum is worth to them via Paypal or cheques/cash at meetings etc for the server .. this wont be as reliable as getting the money in first obviously, but its something to think about.

When the site was born the number of hits was out of this world.god Knows how many hours Bones and others over the years have taken in keeping this site open.
But as always there is a but .

The club lost a very valuable Magazine Editor one year due to non members moaning and complaing about the magazine !
You can say that this is all water under the bridge but if your opening up the club web page and attacking some one who is giveing up their own time for this club then prepare to suffer the problem this causes.

surely only members would get the magazine tho...??....

How about the forum being open to all but only members can post. If there are posts which are not suitable then moderators would delete them. If they continued then they would be sin binned and would have to reapply to access the forum.

OR

lets just talk about the cars,how we use them and how we keep them on the road.

I think having one section for members and one restricted area for non members is a good idea and worth at least a trial period of say 3 months ??

I agree more with Stuarts thinking The club however also needs members to continue to renew each year. If you can use the forum with out paying could this lead to a decline in fully paid up members? The club forum is one of its unique selling points that encourages us to renew each year.

What i like the most about this forum is the quality and relevance of the posts to the x1/9 and club events. I think im right in thinking also that most members actually have an x1/9. Some other forums seem to be all over the place in terms of topics and agendas. Just my thoughts for what its worth.

Les