Just asking.

Mark

 

Or should I have asked if members care if IB cares.

Mark

 

Newb asks obvious question,whats IB?

 

IB= Internet Brands, owners of this site.

Mark

 

I wonder if it takes some form of monetary incentive, like becoming a vendor, is the only way to get a response from IB

Mark

 

Maybe you're being a little too subtle, Mark.

Let's try a different approach.

HEY, Internet Brans, owners of this message board, Mark asked you if you care. Well... DO YOU ??????

Maybe that'll get someone's attention.

 

I think all they care about is money because I tried getting a hold of them also and got the same response. I didn't have a winning lottery ticket to attach to my email.

 

If even half as many members posted to these 2 threads, as have viewed them, there may be some kind of response, but then again maybe not They don't even respond when you ask a question using the Contact Us feature. Just to busy counting, or not counting, money I guess

Mark

 

Might this have something to do with why so many of our long time board members have disappeared over the last year, or so ?

The entire board environment has changed, and not for the better.

One change in the last year or so has been the way threads are now posted. Threads that are general MINI topics are now very often posted in Second Generation Forums or First Gen Forums... or they're posted in regional club forums. All this segregation and elitism.... really sucks !!

 

I agree, and have heard the same thing from other NAM members. Check out the new link in my sig

Mark

 

 

Isn't it called diversity now which still makes me ?
I thought talking to myself was bad but quoting ones self would be a step above that.

 

Diversity would be okay. No... I don't see it as a diversity issue. This used to be a fun, close-knit community. There weren't 100 different sub-forums and people didn't post general questions in their regional forums or on the forum for their generation of MINI.

At this rate, I can't imagine this board will survive another two or three years. And if it does, those who stick around will deserve what they get.

Almost all the changes I've seen on this board in the past two and a half years have been in the wrong direction.

 

Actually people often did post the sub forums and regional forums, there was also a moderating staff that moved a lot of stuff around to keep it fresh. Now, you can count the active moderators on the hand of an armless person. Sure there are now lots of admins but the mod staff has dropped the ball so far it would some serious deep drilling technology to find it. Why...There has been ZERO direction from the top. After Mark's contract ran out and IB took over totally they have done nothing except create 3 new admin positions.

IB defines the term tilting at windmills. Conversations with the Community Manager (Adrian Harris, IB_Adrian, Adrian.Harris@InternetBrands.com) have gone from just annoying to humorous. He listens but interjects almost nothing to a conversation. IB is such a bureaucracy it's easier to get a bailout through congress. Everyone I've written to to or spoke directly to pawns what ever the matter is onto another person or department. I think the motto of IB is "The Buck gets passed to someone else"

I deal with Mark on a regular basis still as I'm doing some contract work for him and we still have the NAM Alliance Magazine. I can assure you that this current state of affairs is not what Mark had thought he was getting into when the purchase of NAM was negotiated.

Take a good look at this page http://www.internetbrands.com/ib/management This will give you some idea of the people behind IB. These are not car enthusiasts aggregating a group of automotive forums. These are money people looking for another way to grow their own personal fortunes.

 

And as I said, at this rate, in a few years this board will be dead or very close to it.

And, as far as all these general topics being posted into regional or generational specific forums, of course it happned before. My point was that it's happening MUCH more now.

 

Interesting, a thread is born

Do the folks at IB know how to get to this forum

Mark

 

Links have been mailed to them more than once. I also added the screen name and email of the Community Manager above. Another problem is this person is responsible for ALL the auto based forums. Full listing http://www.internetbrands.com/autonetwork

 

If you don't like this site, don't visit it. If members stop visiting the site, unique visits will decrease thus hurting the advertising revenue. If you want to make a statement to IB, that'd be the way to do it. Just my 2 cents.

 

Or we can try to make it better.

Take your two cents and do something more useful with them. Please.

 

Some of us have tried making it better. We've created the Magazine that is free to all. Now that Magazine has an index. We've created NAM Help so people can find answers to common issues. Just need more people to ask what they don't know to add more content. We added the JCW area when so many asked for it.

It's real easy to point out all the issues, it's harder to come up with ideas that make the site more valuable. Tell us what you want and we can try to implement. As I see it we are pretty much on our own now, IB will keep the site running and bring in big national advertisers.

I know we need to sit down and go to each moderator and ask them if they still want to be one and if so they are going to have to produce. To that end I expect we are going to lose a few and will need new ones that will move posts without prompting and slap a few hands when things get awry.

Far and away the biggest issue is that there is no one leader such as Mark that created a direction and tried new things. The admin staff needs to look within its self and choose one person that is willing to take the bull the horns and lead NAM. Otherwise we are like we are now. Rudderless with no direction.

 

I hope I've helped make this board better by assisting a lot of people with their auto insurance questions, through posts and private messages.

I also hope I've helped today by voicing my frustration about all the General MINI discussions that are started in other sub forums.

 

Yeah, this is not what I signed up for back when this site was called MCO. A thread like this would not have last hours, let alone weeks, before some kind of response, likely via PM, would have happened to respond to the first contact.

Background of why this thread came about;

I used the "Contact Us" feature, about an idea I had about creating a forum that NAM members could use to talk about how their club dealt with different issues that came up, such as; developing new membership, keeping interest/involvement up, types of club functions the did/did not work. No response, so I started a couple of threads here in site-feedback, still no response. I might add that gnaster has contacted me about this issue.

I now have a new idea Follow this link

I will ask that this be stuck, in all 3 club regional forums. But it would be easy to just add 1 forum at the top of the club forums for this kind of discussion.

Oh, no I don't want to hurt the site, so staying away is not an option. I have met to many fine folks, both in person and virtually, to give up on the site.

Mark

 

Mark I wrote about the maturity of MINI in our club newsletter a few months past. The jest of it was that in the beginning you had the early adopters that were very enthusiastic and gung-ho - starting forums and clubs all over the place. As MINI began to appeal to a more general crowd some of the shine was knocked from the apple - still enthusiastic but less likely to go to the effort to create clubs but rather ride on the coat tails of those before. Now however MINI has entered the general population and as a result sales are great but owner enthusiasm has wained. Most of the huddled masses that now buy a MINI view it as simply a car so why would they want a club or a computer forum to discuss it?
This as it turns out is the natural progression of new and exciting things and there really is no way to fight it. Heck once corporate America sinks their money sucking fangs into something you know it is no longer cutting edge. They want everyone to buy the widget so the company makes money - whether that person has a joy and enthusiasm for the widget or not. So welcome huddled masses, good-bye enthusiasts.
Too cynical and defeatist?

 

No , neither, just speaking your mind without attacking anyone.

Being involved with something, like a club, web site, school/community/church group, is a good thing. It takes commitment, it also takes leaders of a group, payed or otherwise, to show interest in what brings them together, and interact with members.

Mark