Hey everyone - you may or may not have noticed the announcement at the top of the DCMM forum here on NAM... but in case you didn't:

DCMM is moving to new forums!

We (the DCMM board) have tried to answer most of the obvious questions in the announcement (you can click the above link to see it), but there are certain to be additional questions that come up, so here is the place to ask.

The announcement may be updated with more FAQs as appropriate.

 

When I registered, the system would not allow be to leave the spouse info areas blank. I bypassed this by entering "N/A" in the required information and the system allowed me to register.

I assume there is a way to change this in the forum registration so that all single members do not have to be married to "N/A"



Thanks Brian

 

+1

 

Fixed!!. The only reason we need that info is for a couples membership.

Thanks for the catch!

 

I'd like to suggest something constructive new in light of this. My request would be a simple email to members, when a new event is added to the schedule. No details needed or anything, maybe just the title. As simple and easy as possible for the sending person to do.

Reason being, I spend 99% of my 'MINI time online' on NAM outside the DCMM forum. The DCMM forum was my link into the site, and I'd glance at it before moving on.

I expect to continue to use NAM for the communities size etc. And while my intention will be to check the DCMM site, I know I won't do it as often. It's human nature to check a site less often when it's content is less or changes less. With the smaller number of active users the DCMM forum obviously won't be as active or wide ranging.

Hence I believe some of us will see the DCMM forum a tiny fraction of the time we saw this one, whatever our intentions.

If the event coordinator or someone were willing to do a simple all hands saying 'new event' added please check calendar it would I think keep a number of us from unintentionally vanishing. :-)

 

Mark, if you go to the Events forum and select "Forum Tools", a menu will drop down with "subscribe to this forum", I believe that should email you whenever there is activity.

 

Mark - very good suggestion. As Jay noted above, you can "subscribe" to the new DCMM forums (in this case, Events) that you want to keep an eye on, and you will get email notifications that way.

I do want to make one thing clear for everyone - our intention is not to compete with or replace NAM. Not in the slightest. NAM still is (and likely always will be) the #1 place to go for technical discussion about MINIs. Many of us (myself included, of course) will still maintain a heavy presence on NAM.

The new DCMM forums are only intended to be a "local to DC MINI social & events" area. I think they actually will complement NAM beautifully for a lot of us. Yes, it does mean two separate logins and checking two sites... but just as there are a number of us (you and I included) who want to participate in the larger nationwide NAM community (and the corresponding technical resources), there are also a significant number of DCMM members who only come on NAM to go to the DCMM forum.

 

haha, you HAVE to... you're an ADminiSTRATOR...

P.S. - I LOVE how you spent all your time with Alan yesterday... maybe I should be dating Kattiya instead...

 

OK, this is getting a little weird...

 

Haha! What can I say... standing up a new forum involves lots of small details!

You'll be able to snag a lot more of my time very very soon.

 

Excellent!

Now go spend some time with your lady! Hahahahahahahahahha

Going to take the MINI on the Auto Train shortly for a two week visit with mine in sunny Florida. Top down motoring! Woo Hoo!

 

yea... listen to your peers!

 

JEALOUS!! Have fun

 

I registered for the new forum but am still waiting for my activation email.....

 

PM Sent.

 

Wonderful! I do have a question

Could we get a little more clarification on this?

" Please note that discussing upcoming event details is not permitted in the public area."

What will be considered public vs. private, especially when there is a link on the new page for public events? Will there be additional private only events happening that would be detrimental to the health of the organization if other people knew about them?

I ask for a couple reasons...

1. Personally, I liked being able to see just how much stuff was going with the club before I joined it. It provided a layer of transparency that helped illustrate the value I would be getting as someone who was brand new to both MINI's and the NAM world. So, again personally, it was the ability to see how much was going on that really made it an attractive community for me to want to join.

2. Building off of that (and being 100% aware that the new site is brand new) the Public Events page just shows the breakfast meet & greet events. I went to a few other Mini events before I ever showed up at a breakfast, partly due to schedules and times. Plus, many people have posted their personal laments that they can't reliably take time to attend Saturday morning events. If that looks like the one thing we do, these Saturday meetings, once a month - are we really stressing the value and camaraderie that comes from being club members?

3. I've seen posted, and in comments from personal purchases from other NAM members, heard amazing things about the DC Metro MINI's forums and its content. While I don't know that any one group is the "ideal" for everyone, it sure seemed like a lot of people enjoyed being able to see what was going on with us - and having the ability to use people as resources for their own events. How are we benefiting our local MINI community and the community at large by making a private, pay-to-play forum? Where you must have paid dues to be able to read and contribute?

4. Why will the local DCMM presence on NAM need to be closed? Is it a matter of moderators for the presence there? Is it a contract particular? Is it a cost issue? Is it cheaper for the Board to maintain a private set of forums than to be on NAM? Again, from an openness standpoint, where is the benefit for our organization is a local group and as members of a collective whole?

I'm all for a members area in a private site, something that must be registered for. Those exist all over the place, for topics much more broad than MINI's. I have been more busy than I would have liked, and have not had the chance to be involved with DCMM anywhere near as much as I would have liked lately. I'm all for anything that is beneficial for the club, and I'm excited to see how the organization can grow. I'm just curious how the points above impact everything.

Thanks!

 

OK, but as long as the DCMM forums supports RSS feeds, this is manageable. I don't mean one feed for the whole board like some I've seen. I mean a separate feed for each forum. Being a google reader addict, I'd also love to see thread level feed capabilities.

 

The vBulletin software does support RSS feeds, but they are none currently defined. (They aren't defined on NAM either)

Certainly that's one feature we could enable, but we'll have to do some testing, as we haven't set it up before. Give us a little time though... we're only just unveiled it, and need to make sure that the existing configuration is smoothly operational for everyone.

 

As I am probably the lowest tech guy in a high tech world that's a member of

DCMM I just don't get it. My very first thought was that one of the members

of the board got really p...ed off at NAM for whatever reason and this was

the result. Are we not making this way too complex for something that just

should be fun? There are many MINI clubs that don't have dues/officers/etc

and they have great times. Somebody help me out here, please!

 

MrFalcon - thanks for the constructive feedback. This has also been brought to my attention by another member, so I can understand the concern.

We actually made some notable event policy changes at the last board meeting, but neglected to post them until today (I just posted them up - see this thread: Changes in DCMM event policy).

Hopefully the changes will help foster the type of "let's just have fun" attitude that we all ultimately want.

That being said, nothing is ever set in stone, and can be changed... however it's clear we need to have some discussion amongst the members about this. The best place to do that is in the Members area of the new forum. I'll be happy to start a conversation on that. Also, we have the annual meeting in March (details TBD), so that may also be a good place for some dialog. Rab - nobody on the board is ticked off at NAM. The board just decided that the club was ready to become self-sufficient... so we moved the web hosting to our own account, and likewise we are moving the forums to our own setup as well.

NAM is a fantastic resource, and I too have enjoyed the "transparency" we've had for many years here... but being on NAM has had some downsides as well. For obvious reasons, I'd rather not discuss those here, but we can have some valuable dialog on this via the new forum.

If the new forums are too complex - please say so and explain what it is that you find complex. Again, things are subject to change. We've tried to set up the new forums with the right balance of features and ease of use... but that doesn't mean we got it "just right" on the first try. There's a Site Feedback forum on the new forums, which is the best place for us to hash out these usability concerns!

 

I asked the same questions... What makes my MM group so great is that anyone with or about to get a MINI is allowed to go to an event, we have a great participation rate and people are willing to chip in... but each group is different...

 

Edge, thanks for your clarification on my post. I'm sure there is a whole lot

I don't know about the computer/technical aspect of the change but I hope

it can be explained to me down the road in layman's terms. As the old say-

ing goes "If the wife is happy, I'm happy.", the wife being the club.

 

Mostly this move to our own forum site is kind of like the child leaving the parent! It is time for us to be on our own.

I appreciate everyone's patience with getting this going, there are of course going to be glitches, and we hope to fix them quickly.

If you have other questions/problems, please don't hesitate to ask. These can be discussed in detail over on our forum, as well we can discuss them at the annual meeting too...which I hope to have a date/site nailed down this week.

 

Cool!

How long is the approval process to be able to log into the new site?

 

HAHAH! I hope not too long. I don't have that permission, but I am sure people will be on soon to admit you!