About time we went public.

Ducati Owners Club GB Anything Else
#1

Well no replies as ever to my latest post. Its not like I have not tried to use this forum a lot since it was created. what a surprise. Honestly, when is this forum going to be made public (you can still have a members section) I get more Ducati technical and practical help by posting on my Facebook - seriously, I’ve learned loads about ECU’s and software via that method as well as recieved software to interegate my bike, all the same day as I appealed for help, and when the clutch went in the IOM I had a clutch in my hands over the bank holiday weekend within 36 hours an offers of another clutch just a quickly from another Ducati forum, on another occasion when I could not get a bike to run properly I had the computer in the garage with me and it was like having my mates round helping out with ideas- all DOC (GB) people as well!

I’ve had really good help from the 851/88 forum, the Ducati up North Forum and several other Forums but none from the DOC(GB) forum. Now, bearing in mind most people use the internet these days, if I was new to Ducati, which club would I be joining?

We have the best club, with the best people for owners of Ducati, and we should be using this forum to prove it. You must admit that if a member of the club of some 20 years (me) can’t get anything out of the forum, something is badly wrong.

:imp:

#2

Geez, where to start. I suppose, in a nutshell, I agree with your sentiments Keef, when it comes to forums.

I don’t personally use forums very much as others that I have set up tended to be very under used and became the thing of great frustration to those that did.

I am currently the chairman of the South Oxfordshire branch of CAMRA and we have binned all our forums due to lack of use. I have even set up a Facebook page; but end up talking to myself and replying to my own posts, in an attempt to provoke some response! We have over 125,000 members; but fail to get more than 8% of those doing anything. They simply pay the subscription and leave it at that. Don’t get me wrong that is fantastic and a very important part of the organisation. It only comes frustrating when you have people that are willing to do things and they end doing everything.

To bring it back to DOCGB, I have noticed with the forum that the posts are really old. My areas last post was over 9 months ago. Also of the 424 members on the Facebook page I would guess that the same 20-25 people post regularly! Its an age old problem Keef and one I don’t think can be sorted easily. The only thing we have recently done is implemented an email alert system where your recent post on the forum would have been emailed to all members that are registered making them aware of the latest post. It seems to be going well and is prompting more interaction within the branch. In a nutshell it cuts out the having to remember to check the forum and also sift through till you find the latest posts, which is off putting in itself!

On the going public front, I agree totally. The website needs to be inviting and relay all the things that we love about our bikes. It needs not be too daunting either, as a newbie on here I must admit I was a voyeur for the first few months!

Let the public see us and interact with us. Have a ‘Your questions answered’ page. There are a lot of people out there that don’t own Italian bikes; but would still love to talk about them. May be also do a reception page for new members. Lets try to get a new member met with by the nearest local member as soon as possible. All of this will break down walls quickly and encourage more of us to reply to forum requests, which in turn will put the smile back on Keef and other frustrated members faces.

Reading back I’m not sure if this answers anything or creates more questions! The one thing I know it does is, and that is the most important, it replies to one of Keef’s posts!

#3

I couldn’t agree more. When I post up details of Kent meet stuff they might get half a dozen views on here if I’m lucky. I’m selling one of my bikes at the moment and can’t be bothered to waste my time posting the details on here. I agree, if it wasn’t a closed shop it’d be more usable to the masses. A members section can’t be that hard to set up, can it? And I only logged on here to see what you’d posted after seeing it on Facebook!!!

#4

I have to be honest and say that I rarely use the club forum these days. That said, I could list half a dozen other similar sites (not all bike related) that I rarely visit nowadays. My two most visited sites on a daily basis are now Facebook and eBay. As to what we do with the forum, I am neutral on this and am happy to go with the flow.

We have a CoM meeting scheduled for the 7th July and I will make sure the subject is raised then. If people want to let me know what they think then we can have a more informed discussion (its your club, the CoM is just there to make sure things get done).

#5

I can see that this topic will generate plenty of discussion :slight_smile:
Many years ago, the 2 main forms of communication for DOC GB members were via ‘Desmo’ and the club’s email list. The latter was instant, and many interesting topics were discussed, plus the supply of useful info from members. However, since the forum appeared - and latterly, the club’s facebook page - the info has dwindled, I suspect due to members not signing up for it (it is advertised in ‘Desmo’).
There’s also been problems with other ‘public’ forums, plus DOC GB would need someone to monitor the posts if the forum went public.
I’m sure there’s a happy compromise somewhere … :wink:

#6

It’s great to talk about it, the only way to get more users is use it more, there was a discussion at AGM as to if we should be on Facebook, lots of company’s now integtate latest Facebook posts to their websites, it needs lots of monitoring though, up until now we have not had many contentious items. No knee jerk reactions but we will talk about it next COM meet.

#7

Thanks for the concidered answers. I just keep thinking about how wonderfully massive the Ducatisti forum was, although like you say, it must have taken a bit of moderating!

#8

Yes, the Ducatisti forum was ‘busy’ - perhaps too busy and that’s why Dan had to stop it. Also, with the start of a family, I think that Dan’s priorities changed.
Whilst there was some good info on Ducatisti, there was also a lot of dross (‘where do I put my tax disc?’) and people couldn’t be bothered to see if their query had been posted before.
A couple of other forums have since appeared, but all the posts seem to be the same. Ah well, such is life …

#9

If it’s open to all why pay to join the club, and who would admin it?
There are:
People who want to join an owner club for the getting together and social side.
People who are computer literate and love posting stuff on forums.
People who are willing to put themselves out for others and pay for stuff ie membership fees
People who have a wealth of technical knowledge and are willing to share it with others.

These are not all the same folks there’s a small number who want to do all of the above which is why free forums do well and ours is very quiet.

There’s a CoM meet on the 7th if anyone wants to volunteer to run it I’m sure the CoM would listen?

#10

I’m forever digging through Forums (via Google searches) for experienced information on just about anything important I have to fuss with or am considering buying. There are also some great old e-mail lists (bevelheads, pantaheads, etc) that are goldmines if you can stand the open-subscription signal/noise ratio. Nothing beats the knowledge brought from experience.

I’m in favour of a member requirement for a forum or list. There are open ‘virtual’ clubs everywhere; most become shambolic because there is little value associated with membership. As a list admin myself, it’s easy to control who qualifies for inclusion - and exclusion.

But I prefer other formats to our current one because they offer easier logging in, posting of photos, files, calendar events, links, polls, databases, invitations, email notifications and more. In short, some of the tools have improved.

Yahoo Groups and Facebook come to mind. I prefer the former for its functionality and because it’s easier to control who sees/takes part. The latter lends itself less to, say, deep tech discussions and photos can get loose - but it’s prettier. Both work on smartphones. I repeat: Both work on smartphones.

After trying to get the London Branch members to use the DOCGB Forum for years I gave up (along with some other branches) and went to an email list for coms - which worked better. We then created a branch Yahoo Group and it is shocking how much more traffic it gets than the entire DOCGB Forum. Questions, answers, chat, photos, help, files, calendar, events, updates - it’s all there. And the automatic event emailing function is a godsend.

I think we’re past the point of hoping or expecting that the existing Forum will miraculously become more significant, especially given the take-up of the Facebook page in relative short order. It doesn’t look right for me to volunteer to run a DOCGB Yahoo Group or similar from this time zone but I’m more than ready to discuss their merits with anyone interested.

All the best,
Bob

#11

I can see it from both sides. Yes , you could get more people using the forum and adding advice etc. but, on the other hand you get the trolls and some very self important people who’s view is the right one, and anything else is wrong.
Ducati’s to was good for banter and advice but I think the admin bods were very busy keeping on top of things. Maybe why Dan knocked it on the head. I do/will use the forum whatever, but I did stop using Ducatisti before it folded.
Just my 2p worth.

#12

I agree with a lot of what has been said above … I was a moderator on the Ducatisti site and at times yes it did take a lot of moderating - but this was largely due to the stance which Dan took on both advertising, bad language and discussion of religion and politics… and there are always a handful of keyboard warriors on any forum…who delight in bating the admin team.

As for Facebook - well as Admin on the club FB Page - I cant think of a single post which has needed moderating. I understand the argument about whats the point of having a pay for membership club if we have FB, Twitter et al, but at the same time - FB is global and what a phenomenal shop window for the club…we should be embracing all the modern forms of communication and using them to our advantage, not pretending that they don’t exist.

The forum has served the club really well but like anything else, it needs a refresh and an update - compare it to the new open Ducati Forum and the look and functionality of the club forum does feel very dated, which is why i suspect in part, it doesn’t get a lot of traffic. I’ve tried to use the forum more over the last 12 months than i have ever done previously, largely as i decided to take a more active role in the club, but i find it frustrating to use at times, very slow to use, and I still have no clue how to actually upload a picture to the site!

#13

Fantastic replies, the answer is to see if we can get it a bit more user friendly and push it more, this seems to be getting more posts than anything, let’s see what happens when we get back home.

#14

see what happens when you go away, Martyn?? :wink:
We must discuss this topic at the next CoM meeting for sure

#15

I know !!! Cheers Keith, I will give free track days away next TT week when he will be away.

Great feedback, our Facebook page is there for all to see, I post now and again that it is just a FB page wghich is a small part of the club, the magazine was on the doorstep when I got home, first thing I did was read it, it was again, fantastic.
Do we open a forum page to all ?? If so how do we do it ?? Can it be done, Keith, as you said the FB page worked for you, happy days, how many do you want to post it on ?? If that open info is what you want then we have a facility, if you want something for members only then we have that to, if you want to put something in the magazine then we have that, I think we need to make the forum a one click from the front page, again, if it can be done, we then cover all bases.

#16

Hi

Just thought I would share my previous experience with another forum that I administer.

I am webmaster for the Isle of Man section of the VMCC. We too have a forum and it was open initially. After just a few weeks it was getting more spam than anything useful.

At that point I set the forum so that all registrations has to be approved by me. I received an email notification each time somebody requested access. Within 6 weeks I was getting more than 50/day from spammers & bots. I tried adding spam and bot filters but it continued to get worse.

I had no choice other than to lock it down again as it was taking 2 hours/day to moderate it. We do get less traffic but at least what we do get is useful.

Steve

#17

I agree Steve, we will be talking about it this week end. I dont think it should be opened.

#18

[size=150] I think the forum should stays for members only but needs to be easier to access from home page of website. One click, and password.
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#19

Before taking over as webmaster for our site I rarely visited the forum - it is easy to forget it as it is hidden away in the memberzone.

I agree that we could improve navigation to the forum a little and have some ideas in mind. I was thinking of creating a “beta” site with slightly modified navigation and a few other minor tweaks over the next month or so and then provide a link so people can review it and provide feedback.

I am also planning to set up an online survey within the memberzone so club members can tell us what they like and dislike about our website and make suggestions for improvements. We can then take the feedback as a guide to what to work on first.

#20

Superb, I will e mail after CoM meet, let me know when you are next in UK. The forum is getting used more but it is difficult to navigate as you know