Please help me!

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Stuart_D

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[30] If you are reading this message then you will have paid to join the A2OC or donated in the past to support the club - if you have done either of these (or both), I am very grateful and you can be satisfied that you have supported the permanent stability of this site and the club site.

However, whilst the forum is still used and posted to on a regular basis, you will have noticed that the forum numbers have been growing very slowly.

Before I locked everyone out, the member count was over 600, and now it shows 106 members.

There are two options:

1) I can leave it as it is with slow growth - on average 2 new forum members per month.

OR

2) I can unlock the forum and allow anyone to register at any time (as before). This obviously provides less of an incentive for people to join the club, which would worry me but at the same time would ensure that more people use the forum and ensure that it remains busy with a diverse range of people using it.

The club benefits would remain exactly the same except that this forum would be free for anyone to join.

This second option would I presume bother many people who have paid to join the club specifically to use the forum and so this is the reason I have created this post.

Please let me know your thoughts on this...

Thanks,

Stuart.

Are you coming to the club social?
________________________________________________________________________________
[img=left]http://www.a2forum.net/stuart.gif[/img=left]
Stuart Diamond: A2OC Founder | Forum Administrator

2001 TDi SE: Cobalt Blue Metallic | Open Sky Roof | Kenwood Mask CD | Front Centre Armrest | Front Centre Tray

A2OC: www.Audi-A2.co.uk | www.A2Forum.net
 
Mmm, I see the dilemma. Personally, I would leave it until after the newsletter has been read by a few more people. Surely the numbers will pick up once people have seen it? The mailshot was only late last week so at least monitor how things go for the next month? Once you unlock it again, there's no going back?

Longer term, you have to do what you have to do and if numbers just don't grow then you'll need to rethink. I just think it's a little early in the day.....

Doesn't bother me TBH whether people pay or not, but you'd have the keep all the other benefits back for members only...

[img=left]http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adriancharles/a2ade.gif[/img=left]Ade
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Of the 600 members you had registered, how many were still posting, or never posted? I bet there weren't 600 concurrent posters. Is it possible to grant read only for some forums to guests and full access to members or such like? I know you can show/hide.

[img=left]http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adriancharles/a2ade.gif[/img=left]Ade
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It might be worth letting non members access to the General A2 Discussions but hiding all other forums - ie. socials, newsletters, relaxation room, buying/selling.

Don't know how hard it would be to still have the other forums showing (with thread numbers & reply counts) but inacessable.

I believe you need to let people see the forum and the advice on offer to whet their appetite for more.

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1.4SE petrol. http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk14.htm
 
what about letting new people view all of the forum site for say a week to let them make up their mind, then after that week they can apply for full membership or leave it.

mine1.GIF
[2002] | 1.4 | azure blue | 2 tone leather | concert II single cd.
Member of A2OC site.
http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk12.htm
 
At present, all non logged in visitors can view all the main forums (General/Interior/Exterior/Audio etc and some of the Relaxation Rooms) so that should be enough to give them a taster.

Many times I have visited the site, I have found maybe 5 logged in users and 6 visitors reading but not logged in which leads me to believe that there are still many that visit the forum but can't log in.

Mal - the week trial idea is good but too much administrative work for me, I'll have a think about it though.

Ade - you are correct, there were never 600 concurrent users. Since January 2003, only about half of them had logged in, the other half had logged last year or the year before that!

As you say, the newsletter is going to give us some good exposure and so I'll leave it until mid June and see how things pick up.

Are you coming to the club social?
________________________________________________________________________________
[img=left]http://www.a2forum.net/stuart.gif[/img=left]
Stuart Diamond: A2OC Founder | Forum Administrator

2001 TDi SE: Cobalt Blue Metallic | Open Sky Roof | Kenwood Mask CD | Front Centre Armrest | Front Centre Tray

A2OC: www.Audi-A2.co.uk | www.A2Forum.net
 
No. The distribution list was based on the 450 "members" some of which have paid to join, others haven't yet (I haven't got all the figures with me at the moment).
It would be a monstrous task for me to redistribute the newsletter to forum members who I haven't sent it to...so please don't suggest it!!

If you are logged out of the forum, one of the topics you can see is a topic of how and where to receive a copy of the newsletter from.

Are you coming to the club social?
________________________________________________________________________________
[img=left]http://www.a2forum.net/stuart.gif[/img=left]
Stuart Diamond: A2OC Founder | Forum Administrator

2001 TDi SE: Cobalt Blue Metallic | Open Sky Roof | Kenwood Mask CD | Front Centre Armrest | Front Centre Tray

A2OC: www.Audi-A2.co.uk | www.A2Forum.net
 
Stuart

I'm sure there are many ways of doing this-a trial membership of three months, a week, limiting access to only certain boards etc. But it all takes time which I'm sure you don't have. Therefore either leave it as it is, or re-open it to everyone.

There are other ways of doing things-maybe only allowing competition entries to paid members, having a members-only part of the A2OC website with things like fitting guides etc.

Unless you make serious changes to the site and forum with password entry on say the main A2OC site, then I think it's difficult to encourage people to pay to stay.

I suppose my gut feeling is to make the forum open to all again, but maybe push a bit harder for funding. A more prominent piece in the next newsletter maybe.

Steve - 2002 1.4SE petrol, Silver, black/black interior, Then an identical replacement 2003 A2. Now a Toyota Corolla 1.6 T-Spirit
 
Most other clubs have an annual fee, so this makes the A2OC no different than the norm. £10 is not a lot. Keep it like that and see what more investment in dealer placed newsletters can generate...

Also remember there are only, what, 50000 or so A2s out there... of which about 11000 are in the UK... of which, what, 40% use the Internet regularly, so 4400 of which half are female and only go online to order Sainsbury's or Tesco shopping (sorry) so 2000 odd Internet educated A2 drivers to recruit in the UK... (I left a poster and details of the social on a female at work's A2 and had no response at all... so I think it is and will be difficult to get females interested in a "male" thing like an owners club. The amount of males on the forum surprised me as well as nearly half of the A2s I see are driven by females... and they are not here...).

The main web address is a .co.uk one which limits the worldwideness as well I think... but any search engine shows it up... IF you bother to search for such a thing that is...

So where is the target? Men reading car magazines that also drive A2s... I got the link in the AutoExpress and not via a search engine... I searched the web in 2001 when I bought my car, found nothing and never bothered searching again... and that from someone that does everything on the web...

So we need to get more plugs in more mags I think, to get numbers up. Purely relying on people "searching" for an owners club on a search engine is not enough...


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[img=left]http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/180225.jpg[/img=left]
2001 A2 TDI SE Crystal Blue with Open Sky, 6CD Symphony II, BOSE upgrade, DIS and HALF a winterpack!

iPAQ 3970 with Sat-Nav sleeve, rear cupholders, luggage net and floppy wiper!

http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk23.htm
 
My view is that you have to be offering something perceived as valuable to take money off people. To see that it is of value they need to be able to look so visitors should have access to the "general" areas as a taster for what the membership fee gets them. As one of the few who contributed "voluntarily" I had to justify the invertment to her indoors who wanted to know why and access to knowledge about problems other people were experienceing was justification enough!

Maybe a "problems/solutions" forum where you could read the index but had to be a member to read the posts would help.

I agree with restricting areas of the A2OC site to members so visitors can again get a taste know there is more availble if they join.

Ian

2002 1.4 Petrol SE, silver with climate control.
Why are NEARLY all the A2s in Lichfield are silver ? ? ?
 
I agree with Ian.
I feel that as a web based organisation that can only serve it's members via the web, we should give potential members a taster, nothing of any value such as hints, tips, fitting guides etc. but enough to whet their appetite and to inform them of what is available. It would be reasonable to inform everyone that the web site costs money to maintain, and that money can only come from paying members. We need to be bigger to gain more discounts and concessions, the web is our only recruitment agency.
I nearly joined the Volvo club the other day, but they want 25 quid, and I could not see how it would be of any benefit to me.

All right , I give in why are nearly all A2s in Lichfield silver?
Why is there only one A2 in Iceland Green, anywhere? (Although Peter saw one in Gt yarmouth last week).
 
Just so I know who to target, what other discounts/deals are you all looking for?

Are you coming to the club social?
________________________________________________________________________________
[img=left]http://www.a2forum.net/stuart.gif[/img=left]
Stuart Diamond: A2OC Founder | Forum Administrator

2001 TDi SE: Cobalt Blue Metallic | Open Sky Roof | Kenwood Mask CD | Front Centre Armrest | Front Centre Tray

A2OC: www.Audi-A2.co.uk | www.A2Forum.net
 
Valeting,
Tyres,


Lee and Sheridan,
TDI SE, Build 11/01, Dolphin Grey,
50% Brighter Bulbs : Original Audi 6 CD Changer (Fitted in proper location by me) : Rear drinks holder : Floppy Wiper : Centre Tray : Elasticated Belt System.
http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk18.htm
 
I have two companies that you can contact for alloy wheel repairs
But only one of them is nationwide the other is based essex/herts and some parts of london
And for valeting do you want valeters or supplies

2002 1.6 FSI Azure Blue DIS Blue Interior
 
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