Thread: Week #1 of GrandPrixForums.net

Well, its been a week already that we have been on line and I must say I am impressed with the turn out. We have a long ways to go but the ship has most definitely set sail.

Lets look at a few stats.

At the time Im posting this, there are 155 members. Thats roughly 22 members/day. Not bad. I know we are new and word is still getting out, but I think we have it in this community to get to a point where we can sustain that number.

We have 1466 posts or about 209/day in 177 topics which is about 25 new topics a day. This, I KNOW we can do better in. These are not horrible numbers by any means, but we strive to do better here.

We have averaged about 60 - 65 members on line per day. Again, not a horrible number for such a new place, but I know we can do better.

The bottom line is you guys and gals rock! There is no other description for it. Not only have you come here and helped get this place started, but you have continued to come back and keep it going. I call upon you all now to keep up the superb work. Spread the word all you can. Continue to return here and talk and discuss. Get involved as much as you can. We have not forgotten about those that wish to participate by being moderators. We are working towards that as we try to accomplish a few other pressing tasks behind the scenes.

So whats planned?

Well, right now, as I write this the How To page is being built. It has some How To's on it already. I have several to add, but again this is where you all get to participate and have a stake in how successful this place is.

If you have a how to, email it to myself or Webracin, or post it up here. What we strive for with our how tos is good photo documentation and detailed written directions. I dont care what it is folks. Oil changes, belt changes, coolant flushes. Bring it on. Just take LOTS of good clear pictures and LOTS of written details. Need an example to follow. Well think like NASA. You ever seen documentation from them? If you blow your nose, it has a step by step guide from how many tissues to use or how many squares of toilet paper to use to how much pressure you are to blow your nose with.

Thats what we are looking for. Why? Because no one else is doing it. There are many how to's out there, but many of them are not written so well and do lack some photographic documentation. When you wonder about how something should be done or how to carry out a particular mod, we want you to first think of here.

Right now that is our major goal, to get that started and on line. One of the things that will set us apart in that area is that as much as possible, the how tos will have a downloadable document. No longer will you have to print out a web page with all its graphics and such, you will be able to download a copy of the instructions and save them.

I have to say this is one of my personal pet peeves. I cannot STAND wikis. I hate the move in the last couple of years to online documentation. You ever tried to work on your car while trying to run back and forth to a PC to read instructions? It doesnt work. Many of the wiki forms of documentation you can only print one page at a time. It is my personal goal to change that at least in the GP community.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised by our How To section. It will take time to develop, but we will get there.

Next on the list is to promote more attendance and to maybe do a small incentive or two to promote the growth of the site. I am working on that and once I have all the details worked out with the admins I will present that out there for everyone.

I wouldnt call it a major thing, just something to hopefully get all of you to go out there and invite more people, spread the word and encourage them to be a part of this.

I want involvement, participation, ingenuity, and definitely infectious enthusiasm. Lets make everyone that doesn't have a Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, Regal, etc. wish they did so they could be a part of this. With the community that we have even now, I know its more than a possibility.

LOL. 73 wpm to be exact.

That was a rather long post wasnt it...

What has been happening to the people who have tried posting info about this site on clubgp? Are you getting banned? How can we boost new memberships?

Well I dont want to see anyone get banned. Personally I dont have a problem with anyone visiting another forum. They are treating like adultery unfortunately and changing the locks while you're at work. Instead of banning and deleting people I would think they would ask "what has happened that this wave has started" and be taking steps to correct it.

So with that said, I would advise to post on the other site with caution. Meaning, dont intentionally do anything that would get you banned, like post about this site. I was banned and blocked on day 1 but that was due to the hit and run tactic of sending the PM's to everyone about the site. I expected that and was prepared for that.

As for new memberships. Quite frankly, we depend on you and everyone in the community to talk it up, pimp the site, spread the word and so on. The three people involved in starting and setting up the site, myself being one are just that, only three people. So lets just say that I can get one person per day to sign up as well as the other Admins.

Thats three people per day or 21 people per week. Not bad at all, that would amount to nearly 1100 people in a year. There are currently 158 members signed up here. Lets say they all get one person per day to sign up. Well, in one week they would have brought in more than the three of us could in a year. Over the course of a year, that would be well over 57,000 people. See where this is going?

Now, are you going to get one person per day to sign up? Probably not, by one a week or one a month isnt out of the question and those numbers begin to have huge multiplication factors after a short time.

That all said, I do have some incentives to 'encourage' people to get others to sign up. I need to iron out some details but I'll give it a shot and see how it goes. It will either help or it wont and if it doesnt I will move on and look at other things. So stay tuned for that.

The biggest thing that can be done for now is for everyone to just email their friends, talk to people and so on. So far things are doing really well, we just need not loose sight of why we are here and become complacent and end up like the other place.

Originally Posted by SyntheticShield

Well I dont want to see anyone get banned. Personally I dont have a problem with anyone visiting another forum. They are treating like adultery unfortunately and changing the locks while you're at work. Instead of banning and deleting people I would think they would ask "what has happened that this wave has started" and be taking steps to correct it.

So with that said, I would advise to post on the other site with caution. Meaning, dont intentionally do anything that would get you banned, like post about this site. I was banned and blocked on day 1 but that was due to the hit and run tactic of sending the PM's to everyone about the site. I expected that and was prepared for that.

As for new memberships. Quite frankly, we depend on you and everyone in the community to talk it up, pimp the site, spread the word and so on. The three people involved in starting and setting up the site, myself being one are just that, only three people. So lets just say that I can get one person per day to sign up as well as the other Admins.

Thats three people per day or 21 people per week. Not bad at all, that would amount to nearly 1100 people in a year. There are currently 158 members signed up here. Lets say they all get one person per day to sign up. Well, in one week they would have brought in more than the three of us could in a year. Over the course of a year, that would be well over 57,000 people. See where this is going?

Now, are you going to get one person per day to sign up? Probably not, by one a week or one a month isnt out of the question and those numbers begin to have huge multiplication factors after a short time.

That all said, I do have some incentives to 'encourage' people to get others to sign up. I need to iron out some details but I'll give it a shot and see how it goes. It will either help or it wont and if it doesnt I will move on and look at other things. So stay tuned for that.

The biggest thing that can be done for now is for everyone to just email their friends, talk to people and so on. So far things are doing really well, we just need not loose sight of why we are here and become complacent and end up like the other place.

That's a long freaking post.. How did we get 100 members in the first few days?

A lot of it was people looking for an alternative and I think there are many more out there. We will have to remain true to our purpose and vision and they will continue to come in. Kinda like the snowball effect.

Why Not?

The ****, Joe.