alot of members with no posts...

i did a check and there are actually 74 members as of this post that have ZERO posts...interesting...what do we need to do to get these folks involved with the daily discussions ?? and only 7 of them have been on the forum since the first of July....

useless facts i guess...just looking through the members list...its kinda cool to see some of these stats...

IMHO Its summer and a lot of people aren't spending their free time on online forums. The other possibility is they aren't interested in wheeling or off road mods. What they may be interested in is technical maintenance items for their everyday use. I don't know but just taking a wild guess. But if we want more member participation on the forum we shouldn't put down the mall Crawler, in reality they probably out number those of us that go off road at least in the NC region.

I say we offer an incentive program. For every month you are in the Top Posters list (not the weekly one) you get a certain amount of money. I suggest the following amounts.

1. $10
2. $8
3. $6
4. $4
5. $586
6. $3
7. $2
8. $1
9. $0.50
10. $0.25

I don't know maybe they joined tto see what was on here. Maybe they are scared of pinstriping so they keep quiet so they don't get lured into the woods haha.

Brian wrote:

I say we offer an incentive program. For every month you are in the Top Posters list (not the weekly one) you get a certain amount of money. I suggest the following amounts.

1. $10
2. $8
3. $6
4. $4
5. $586
6. $3
7. $2
8. $1
9. $0.50
10. $0.25

Brian i see your typo....we know you meant to put $5.86....

i totally agree that alot of folks get on looking for tech advice...and the like...i rarely make fun of a mall crawler...as alot of them are clean and neat...(unlike my truck)...i do know alot of them will join only to buy or sell something...when i put my rear tire cover on for sale i was contacted by 3 people that had just joined...samething when i put the roofrack up for sale...at least 3 had contacted me and then all vanished...
admittedly i am a lurker on the blue room...i dont post at all over there because mainly the clics and flaming...if you say anything against anything over there you will be chastized...only reason i go to the blueroom is for ideas and tech...nothing more...

Got to agree with you, there isn't much negative on this forum which is one the great things about it & when there is something, as a seasoned follower here I know it is people who know each other just joking around. Looking at things from an outside new member view it is hard to read expression into typed words.

But on the bright side we are getting some technical advise even if most of it is mods for lifts or tires or different lights. Even the Mall Crawlers need new tires. One of the other issues I think is the Toyota is such a dependable vehicle that we don't have very many issues on these vehicles if we are just using them for daily drivers and not pushing the limits. Most of the FJC's are relatively new vehicles with most of them having less than 100K miles, just getting broke in compared to the American vehicles of the 70,s-90,s that would be worn out by now. Hate to say it as a union member & strong supporter of made in America but IMHO the Big Three did not have very good dependability in those years & I have become accustomed to the dependability of the German & Japanese manufacturing of autos. I have worked hard for my money to still be paying for a vehicle when it is not worth anything when finally paid off with a 4 or 5 year loan. So I started buying foreign autos in the early 80,s, went back & forth with American & haven,t been that happy with the American vehicles that I have bought. Everyone has had issues with less that 100K unlike the foreign ones I have owned.

i cant agree more with the fact that the Japanese vehicles are much more reliable..case in point my wife drives a ford edge...and in the 6 months that she has had it since NEW it has been in the shop 4 times and things are actually starting to FALL OFF the vehicle...

i think this forum is a tighter knit group of people than most ...we simply live closer to each other than most groups...and i think that has alot to do with how we interact...there is basically no flaming on this boards..and if there is its all in fun...i know of only one "arguement" and taht was resolved quickly and easily and all were closer friends than when it started...

It is unforntunate that usa makes less reliable rides. It does depend on what you actually buy. I just talked my wife into a sequoia instead of a suburban. Seemed like all the suburbans had cupped tires from worn ball joints etc. and oil leaks that had around 50-60,ooo on them. The sequoia cost a little more but had good alignement, no oil anywhere or trans fluid leaking. The interior also had held up way better. Now the americans do make good diesels. We have a e350 7.3 powerstroke club wagon van. It gets 21-22mpg hwy and about 16-17 towing my cherokee. We have had it for 3 years and it is now in the shop for the first time. It does have 280,000 on the odometer.

This thread seems to have taken a turn, sorry to the OP. I believe I made the turn. Continuing forward on the turn, I think for the most part what I have seen with coworkers US built from the recent few years the Big Three are making improvements. I hope they can compete side by side with foreign vehicles. Certainly the tools and know how are there, I think they just need to be less concerned of record profits and gain back our confidence with a good product.

Back on subject, I don't know what else this forum could do to get more participation by reaching out to cover more interest. I wonder if a survey to new members on what they would like to see and what would keep their interest when they first sign on would be helpful? I know we have had a few surveys here in the past that covers this, but I am talking about an on going survey that the mods and other members could monitor. Just thinking with my pen here.......

dsbike wrote:

This thread seems to have taken a turn, sorry to the OP. I believe I made the turn. Continuing forward on the turn, I think for the most part what I have seen with coworkers US built from the recent few years the Big Three are making improvements. I hope they can compete side by side with foreign vehicles. Certainly the tools and know how are there, I think they just need to be less concerned of record profits and gain back our confidence with a good product.

Back on subject, I don't know what else this forum could do to get more participation by reaching out to cover more interest. I wonder if a survey to new members on what they would like to see and what would keep their interest when they first sign on would be helpful? I know we have had a few surveys here in the past that covers this, but I am talking about an on going survey that the mods and other members could monitor. Just thinking with my pen here.......

We have done surveys in the past, which have been helpful in determining member interests. Also, there is a thread dedicated to forum/group suggestions: http://forum.ncfjcruisers.com/f46-forum-suggestions-and-ideas

This of course is open to posts and review by everyone!

dsbike wrote:

Back on subject, I don't know what else this forum could do to get more participation by reaching out to cover more interest. I wonder if a survey to new members on what they would like to see and what would keep their interest when they first sign on would be helpful? I know we have had a few surveys here in the past that covers this, but I am talking about an on going survey that the mods and other members could monitor. Just thinking with my pen here.......

I could create a new survey and post it in the suggestions thread. We have done surveys in the past, which have been helpful in determining member interests. Also, as I said earlier, there is a thread dedicated to forum/group suggestions: http://forum.ncfjcruisers.com/f46-forum-suggestions-and-ideas

This of course is open to posts and review by everyone!

David, is low participation on the forum by a majority of the members an actuality? This thread was started by an observation and this is the first time you have commented. With my suggestion of surveys to new members I was thinking maybe an email that is automatically sent to a new member when they sign up for the first time. I don't even know if this is a possibility or if you already do this. Then again just because someone hasn't posted doesn't mean they aren't looking , they just may not have anything to say. I don't know just throwing out my thoughts.

dsbike wrote:

David, is low participation on the forum by a majority of the members an actuality? This thread was started by an observation and this is the first time you have commented. With my suggestion of surveys to new members I was thinking maybe an email that is automatically sent to a new member when they sign up for the first time. I don't even know if this is a possibility or if you already do this. Then again just because someone hasn't posted doesn't mean they aren't looking , they just may not have anything to say. I don't know just throwing out my thoughts.

Q: "David, is low participation on the forum by a majority of the members an actuality? This thread was started by an observation and this is the first time you have commented."

A: Well, this is kind of subjective. With this being a forum, open to the world, we have alot of registered users. The way I see posting trends and statistics in reports that I run breaks down the habits of registered users the following way:

Users may register so that they do not see banner ads that are visible to unregistered users. This is no secret to users of other forums and is very common practice. So we may have alot of lurkers who registered to skip the ads. I know that we have a good number of users that are registered, visit the site regulary, but simply have not posted or have posted a few times. Some registered users have only posted when events occur. Others have posted for the purpose of buying and selling of goods. There are many reasons why people register and each members has reasons for posting. Some are heavy users and some are light users. Some register only to avoid the ads but do visit the site regularly.

Looking at quick stats, I see the following:

a. we have 33 users with over 100 posts

b. we have quite a few new users (<3 months old) that are actively posting and are running their numbers up

c. I estimate we have a "core" of 50ish members that are active in the group.

As to why I had not commented, I watched the thread and figured it was taking care of itself. Then I saw the mention of the survey, etc and just made sure to mention that we have run surveys and that there is a suggestion thread already in place.

That is what makes this so cool is that we have more than just 10 or so members posting regulary, and we all get the feed back, help, and insight we need.

Thank You David, I figured you had been watching. I like your breakdown. 50ish core members seems pretty good to me for a forum that pretty much just pertains to 1 state, with great participation from SC & some from the other bordering states also, VA & TN.

Sooo, ten months later...

What are the stats looking like now?

FiJiKrawl wrote:

Sooo, ten months later...

What are the stats looking like now?

I'll see what I can put together