Active Members: 999

yes we did.

It´s rather 999 inactive members, or?

This figure, IIRC is the total of users that logged in over a certain period - maybe 3 mths, maybe 6mths, maybe even longer.

On average, so Maik told me, we now receive >90% bogus registrations from all sorts of spammers and viagra sellers, mostly of robotic nature. As it seems the so called "Captcha" (this box with hard to read letters) in use upon registration has been cracked a while ago without a remedy in sight.
This is why there are way over 4.000 "registered users" - as long as we keep them in the database the same email address can´t be used over and again (as if it´d make a big difference to them). They´re not authorized to read or post anything.

All the other real 1.000 8er fans though...

I just checked a few of the system statistics. Forumwide there were near 10k postings and 950 new topics throughout the last year, averaging 27 postings per day. Sometimes I think it is rather quieter than these numbers suggest.

The forum system does not allow for a quick check from where the new registrations came lately, but I can tell you that throughout the period January 2011-2012 a total of 45839 users signed in, averaging 125 users per day.

I only wish not all of them were mute

Reinhard

I believe there are a lot of people who join and watch n learn from the threads or join to get some access to the info contained. I think that the forums are quite difficult to get used to for the mature member and I have dreadful difficulty logging on or even getting onto a page in English if I am not on my normal PC with the correct home page saved as a favourite.

I also feel that as the cars get older and into the realm of the classic car, we are likely to see more mature owners who always dreamed of owning one rather than the new blood who would rather have a Civic TypeR.

Probably ok for an 8 year old but I am from the pre-computer age.

Its also a catch 22 situation where the less people post, the less regularly the forum gets visited and so then even less people post.

27 posts per day may be the average but its gotta be 27 in the last 3 months looking at the forum recently.

I will still post my how-to's whether you like it or not and respond to questions when I know the answers but we need those questions.

No more telling newbies to "check the archives" as that is really very discouraging for posters and seems to stop any threads dead in their tracks.

8Tech.

Zitat von 8Tech;94851

No more telling newbies to "check the archives" as that is really very discouraging for posters and seems to stop any threads dead in their tracks.

8Tech.

This quote I feel is so true on so many forums and is something that must be kept in mind when trying to encourage new members like myself. I have been here for over a year but I only have a couple of posts.

Gareth

"check the archives" is anti social. ASBO.
how can a newbe know the archives exist?

I've been a member for 5 years and whilst I enjoy trawling through the wealth of info on here, I fear the "check the archives" response, so can only support the advice above.

The flow of information is forever changing. 8Tech does a wonderful job adapting to this, his replies with thoughtful text and wording makes the reader appreciate his work, this gains trust in the writer. I also fear the "check the archives"-answer, not just here, but on every forum i go to. As i said, the information changes constantly, a nice written answer with the writers current thoughts, meanings and insightful sources (often good archive-postings) on the issue is worth its weight in gold

A link to the "said" archive for the answer always helps, if nothing else

At the board meeting some forum changes was suggested, and some should have been in place already.
I have to stress that the forum is run by volunteers in their spare time, so we have to respect that thing takes time.
At the time of the meeting we were informed that a new version of the forum would be released soon, not much changes on the interface, but big changes on what runs in the background.
I do not know if that has been incorporated yet.

the registration has also been discussed, as it my be to hard, people have problems with the code words you need to fill in the box, and the activation mails are caught by spam filters.
Looking at Reinhard's reply 125 applicants a day, most from "bot's", sadly shows that we require such means to keep the riff raff away.

The age of the users are also a huge matter, not to offend anyone, but the average e31 owner is 50 +/-5 years, not exactly the prime group of internet forum users.

27 daily posts is probably correct, though bear in mind that the part of this site with the most activity is the German part.

I too hate the "search the archives" answer, there are only so many things that can go wrong with this car, so eventually we will run out of topics.
I would like to see a forum with some more "chit chat", rather than just a bunch of "I have an issue with.........." threads.

Currently the 8er board consists of 19 people, where as not all are active
US x2 (3)
UK x1
Norway x2
Sweden x2
Switzerland x3
Spain x 2
Austria x1
France x 2
Germany x 1 (2?)
Canada x 1

I would like to see one more person from the UK on this board to help the existing member.
There are also several countries that we would like to see joining the board as our goal is to grow.

I just realized that we haven't posted anything on the board from our last board meeting.

Fabrice from France is the current President as Fredi from Switzerland stepped down. I am the Vise President, Pelle from Sweden is the Treasurer, Martin and Christoph from Switzerland are our webmasters, these were the ones I remember off the top of my head.

The forum is shared with the D-A-CH (German, Austrian and Swiss) e31 club, this is a club with paying members, and this is why there are two German sections, one locked and one open.

Perhaps a thread should be created where member can come with suggestions to how they want the forum, on things you would like to see changed.
I myself believe that there are too many sub forums and want to reduce these.
As more Countries join a need for Country specific forums have emerged, and that is why we now have a French, Spanish and Scandinavian forum.
I do believe that the main forums should be in English as that is an international language.
On this site however there are users who does not speak English, and many who are not comfortable with writing in English, so the language barrier is a huge challenge for this community.

And to us board leader members, perhaps we should spread some information from the last board meeting to the members, and create a "suggestions" thread.

I will be totally honest...

I have been with the 'clube31' for 8 or so years.... I used to be quite active but since the last change with the 'locked' sections I can't be bothered. I go to read a post and it tells me to So if I have to pay for this I won't. If everyone contributed a small amount then surely this would be better....

I have supported this site from the early days and even after getting ripped off from a forum member still I was here supporting others....

Sorry for the rant I just hate the elitist way some things are done...

Good day.

Likewise still here. had forgotten all about the scam with the lights, i was fortunate enough to get mine.

Stuart

I have noticed that Schnitz, good to see you are lurking around though.

Lights.... hmmm... I did buy a set of you some years ago, still in the box they came in though, and I seem to remember sending the money

the locked section is for the club members, and I would like to see everyone getting reading rights to the whole site, but maybe not writing rights in the club section.

A suggestion was made to make the whole forum a pay site, but I fear that that would scare old users of, and pretty much prevent any new users from joining.

But like I said, perhaps we need a "suggestion box" for the members to "complain", because if no one say anything nothing will change.

Noggie it wasn't you and the lights.....

http://www.8er.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5921

We had a member who arranged some HID conversions long time ago. I paid good money for 2 sets but only received 1 set. He basically said it was not his problem as he was the middle man!!

Don't get me started

Zitat von schnitz850;94880

Noggie it wasn't you and the lights.....

http://www.8er.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5921

We had a member who arranged some HID conversions long time ago. I paid good money for 2 sets but only received 1 set. He basically said it was not his problem as he was the middle man!!

Don't get me started

Alles anzeigen

Did not think so

Must have missed that one back then, and I don't plan on "getting you started".
Sad to hear it never worked out.
I too lost some money on a guy at Bimmerforums who was going to sell me some windows, took my money, and I never saw the windows, he had shipping issues he told me and wanted to return my money, I paid 150 or 200 usd for them, and over a period of 6 months or so I got back 75usd in 3 25usd down payments.
The guy was banned from the forum as some others had huge complaints about other parts he sold in the US.

Anyway, good to see you are back, as I from time to time has wondered what happened to you.
I also miss Tony on this board, to bad he sold his car.
Come to think of it, lots of the UK forum users that were pretty active back in 2006-2009 are "gone".

I will not pay for car forums but I will give a donation that i feel is appropriate this is due to past experience (as I have many cars) that the ones that ask for payment cannot answer your queries when asked??? This is due to the actual people who know the answer have left and gone elsewhere as they are very knowledgeable with their product and to be honest do not need forums????

As with most people they will pay for an answer if they need it is not free, but do not expect them afterwards to supply answers or any input for free it works both ways?????????????????

Gareth

Zitat von Garethf;94890

I will not pay for car forums but I will give a donation that i feel is appropriate this is due to past experience (as I have many cars) that the ones that ask for payment cannot answer your queries when asked??? This is due to the actual people who know the answer have left and gone elsewhere as they are very knowledgeable with their product and to be honest do not need forums????

As with most people they will pay for an answer if they need it is not free, but do not expect them afterwards to supply answers or any input for free it works both ways?????????????????

Gareth

May have provided too little information above.
The suggestion was to make this a club site, meaning that each member would be a club member in their respective country.
You would pay 15-20 Euros a year to be a member of the UK e31 club, which was using this site as it's official site.
But then someone in the UK will have to make this club first, and my impression is the UK community is not what it was and in no way organized.
This is pretty much the situation most places.

Germany/Austria/Switzerland, France and Spain have clubs like these, and all use this site as their club site.
There is a club registered in Sweden, and there will soon be one here in Norway too.

Personally I do not believe that paying for access this site is the right thing to do.

I see no reason why most of it should not be free, and then you may pay to get further access.
Many years ago there was a Gold membership, that gave you full access to everything on the site, including a membership in the D-A-CH club.
This was a one time payment of 100 euros, and you were a member until the money ran out.
I am a member, and this gives me access to many things, a lot is in German, but with Google translate I'm able to read it.

To run this site costs money, and I think the server cost was about 1000-1200 euros a year.
Since we currently share the server with the D-A-CH club, they are in fact paying for this site.
As of today we should have money to run this site for another 5-8 years, but then what?
Is it fair that some pay for this, and others don't?

The Question came up since the French and Spanish clubs are charging a members fee, and that some of that money would be given to this site to run it.
It's a simple "why should we pay and not others?" question.
A legit question for sure, but if users from other countries, where no club exists had to pay, I think this forum would see a lot of people leave, and very few new ones join.

Perhaps a donation arrangement should be re-opened?

Zitat von Noggie;94871

Fabrice from France is the current President as Fredi from Switzerland stepped down. I am the Vise President, Pelle from Sweden is the Treasurer, Martin and Christoph from Switzerland are our webmasters, these were the ones I remember off the top of my head.

Martin is the first Treasure (I pay the Bills)
Pelle is the second Treasure (Control Martin)

Cheers

Martin you are so right.