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I made this suggestion almost 10 years ago (when I was living in AZ) since it's hard to try to pick up members from other parts of the country when the website has Chicago in the name.Rebrand to The Garage or something like that.
Seriously though, I was thinking about the "is this a car forum or not" thread.
If you ever listened to aVe for any period of time, he said something along the lines of a bunch of guys hanging out in the shop.
This is a good idea IMO. Ask around for high schools or trade car schools and bring some nice TCG cars to their classes or invite the kids out to a car show or meet. Have the owners talk about them and what it takes to have a dialed in car. See if you can get some younger people to participate that way.drop buisness cards and decals in the parking lot of a local HS with an auto shop?
jiffy lube and ntb did that shit back when i was at palatine HS
do any high schools have autos anymore?
So I’ll go ahead and throw my input in for what it’s worth. For reference I’m late 20’s and grew up being very active on forums and in the car community.
I joined here over a year ago and after a few posts fell off. I still browsed a lot, but was never really active. IMO (and with all due respect) coming to this forum can be a bit intimidating as it seems like everyone already knows everyone. Not that people aren’t welcoming and nice (they are!) but to me it can be hard to jump into a new place when everyone is on a first name basis and it feels more like your invading a friend group than joining a forum. Maybe it is due to this forum being local and more niche than most, but a bit different from my other forum experiences.
I think age does have a lot to do with it as well. I’m under 30, live downtown in the loop and don’t have as much in common as most people here. I consider this forum more general interest with a focus on cars than an actual car forum (again, my opinion and could be totally wrong) but it seems like majority of the talk here is in the general discussion / off topic forums and not as much related to Cars.
More in person events I feel are always a good thing and maybe sponsoring a booth at other large car events could get some new faces. My friend runs North Suburbs Cars and Coffee and they have incredible turnouts every month. I’m sure a booth setup there or somewhere similar would pull some interest, but it comes at a cost and time of course.
You say there is alot of life for other forums...There is A LOT of life for forums still, a lot. Just tougher for the smaller local stuff.
And yet somehow, we have members from around the globe. Not heavily active, but we have them.I made this suggestion almost 10 years ago (when I was living in AZ) since it's hard to try to pick up members from other parts of the country when the website has Chicago in the name.
I have insight into things and I can't get into them but you're only half right. But point taken.You say there is alot of life for other forums...
Do you know what quality and quantity is?
Any SHO forum.... There will be 8 brand new threads a day asking about PTU's.
Any gun forum... "can I shoot this mfer in the face if he looks at me wrong"
Any f150 forum... "can I fit 35s without rubbing on stock lift"
This site is far from welcoming, I wont deny that. Ive griped about it publicly and not publicly for years.So I’ll go ahead and throw my input in for what it’s worth. For reference I’m late 20’s and grew up being very active on forums and in the car community.
I joined here over a year ago and after a few posts fell off. I still browsed a lot, but was never really active. IMO (and with all due respect) coming to this forum can be a bit intimidating as it seems like everyone already knows everyone. Not that people aren’t welcoming and nice (they are!) but to me it can be hard to jump into a new place when everyone is on a first name basis and it feels more like your invading a friend group than joining a forum. Maybe it is due to this forum being local and more niche than most, but a bit different from my other forum experiences.
I think age does have a lot to do with it as well. I’m under 30, live downtown in the loop and don’t have as much in common as most people here. I consider this forum more general interest with a focus on cars than an actual car forum (again, my opinion and could be totally wrong) but it seems like majority of the talk here is in the general discussion / off topic forums and not as much related to Cars.
More in person events I feel are always a good thing and maybe sponsoring a booth at other large car events could get some new faces. My friend runs North Suburbs Cars and Coffee and they have incredible turnouts every month. I’m sure a booth setup there or somewhere similar would pull some interest, but it comes at a cost and time of course.
They're all from here originally though, or lived here at some point. Except for the sloppy guys, but idk how many are left.And yet somehow, we have members from around the globe. Not heavily active, but we have them.
Not true. We've had people join from Ukraine and remain active, Russia, Canada, UK, etc. Sloppy did bring a brief international influx but that died because Sloppy stopped promoting us not long after they started.They're all from here originally though, or lived here at some point. Except for the sloppy guys, but idk how many are left.
This site is far from welcoming, I wont deny that. Ive griped about it publicly and not publicly for years.
No offense Mike, but griping about it vs pulling out the hammer and enforcing are two different things. This is ultimately the issue in regards to this subject. You are an awesome person both here and IRL, but that hammer needs to come out and no matter the feelings that will get hurt, it needs to be swung.
Handing out a few vacations here and there so this place can get to a happy medium is something you should be doing daily.
Threads get so far out of hand, and while entertaining its really putting most people off.
You can say this about any forum running longer then a year....I had people I've referred to this site tell me its too intimidating to post on. Seeing new members get messed with from the cliques of OG people on here, and the lack of moderation. You can take that how you will, but people will most likely lurk at first. Then when they see the pages and pages of threads of regulars fucking with people and all the inside jokes, its not an inviting place to want to sign up at.
If you bend to that mentality though, it will be a revolving door of new people and people leaving and the same questions will be asked over and over and over. Tribal knowledge and the comradery will be gone.
The happy medium is I don't know. But that's the perception I get from the many I've sent here to join over the years.
FordRaptorForum "there's no such thing as cam phaser problems" and "how many LED lights will fit in the grill and on one upfitter switch?"Tacoma world "anyway to get more than 12 mpg and how to stop 80s dash from sqeakin"
FordRaptorForum "there's no such thing as cam phaser problems" and "how many LED lights will fit in the grill and on one upfitter switch?"