GTiROC – The Future?
I’d like to share some points I’ve had about the site that I feel need to be brought to attention.
Over the years I’ve been here I’ve seen many changes to the site, such as the running of the forum, events organised, the people involved and the quality of the content.
When I started ownership of my Pulsar the GTiROC was something I was proud to be apart of. We had many members that spent their personal time refining, developing and tuning their cars to aid and assist other members as well as their own personal gain. Over the months and years I’ve seen a steady decline in overall performance from members and the forum.
I’ve seen staff leave, events dwindle and overall activity with the GTIROC fall.
Now I’d like to point out that I’m not having ago at anyone, nor am I pointing any fingers or trying to take sides. I’m making observations about the site and hopefully this might spur something good from it.
Basically what plans are for the GTiROC, where its future is going and perhaps some changes?
I’ve made a few sections below that I’d like to discuss and perhaps stimulate it into some forwards motion and perhaps see some good come out of it
My 1st point of call is: Staffing
I would like to make a point that over last year ( 2008 ) I noticed the presence of admin and moderator staff has become less and less to the point that in 2009 we only have 2 moderators remaining and 3 active admin staff.
I know that some staff members are not on as often as they can be due to work commitments and other responsibilities, which is understandable. Others have stepped down or moved on, but what is happening is that these people are not being replaced with existing member’s who are motivated or are showing enthusiasm in the site - I stress for the right reasons.
It would be good to see some new moderators added to the site aiding the overall running and housekeeping of the board as well as keeping idiots at bay!
Another area I looked at was perhaps having people as dedicated “events co-ordinators” to look after things like shows, trackdays, TOTB and so on.
No-one seem’s to have any responsibility for this area; if we do attend a show say: JTS (Silverstone) later this year, we could do with banners, stands and/or perhaps some flags.
You look at other owners clubs as the MLR, the Supra OC or the several Impreza clubs around the UK they out class us by miles.
We don’t need anything as mental as their set-up, but it would be nice for our OC to be organised with some sort of presence and backing.
These are areas that seem to be neglected and it would be good to see something done about it and given that kick start it needs.
My second point of call is: Housekeeping.
This is linked to the staffing, but it was something that I feel needed a separate section.
The overall form layout is good and works fine, however there are area’s that could do with updating at cleaning up, stickies removed or edited and so-on.
There is also an abundance of text talk and poor spelling.
Granted no-one is perfect, but there seems to be more and more text talk making its way on to the site along with some very poor spelling. Again this might be due to the lack of moderators, but an area that seems to have got worse and the rules seem to be ignored!
My 3rd point is: Events
You know what I’m going to say next, but it’s true – we just don’t seem to have much going on here.
I know right away that a lot of this comes down to the members and for people to stump up the cash and attend events, but perhaps that could change?
When it comes to events we don’t have to do every show under the sun, but I do feel that we need some sort of organisation or a team (as I said earlier in the post) to deal with this area and really take the time and effort to organise events for members.
The only National GTiROC meet I’ve been to was the JapFest meet in 2007. Not a bad event, but we lacked the class of other clubs with our organisation, and club layout.
We had no banners, no information about who or which club we were (don’t want to get mixed up with any other club, do we?!?) and when you see other clubs organised with all that “tat” that comes with it, we looked unprofessional.
Even if we only have 1-2 national meets a year at least we are going in the right direction. The national meet at JapFest with track time was an excellent idea and made a change from the norm. If we could have something like that again it would be a real boost for the forum and members.
Again that also depends on us as members to turn up and make the effort also, but I can’t see why that would be an issue in the summer months.
I’d also like to point out that events don’t have to be track based, JAE used to be an excellent get-together of members, camping, drinking etc etc.
Organisation is the key, however I can see both sides of the problem, as members we lack commitment and reliability and for that why should people bother to spend time on events if we don’t attend.
Perhaps we should break that cycle?
Last on my list: attitude
Forum attitude seem’s to becoming very wussy. What was once a site that liked a good joke seems to be turning into a handbags paradise.
Where has all the banter gone?
At the GTIROC, the mentality is different from other site and that is what makes us different.
On here people don’t (didn’t) talk crap and when they did they got put in their place.
That worked well, it keeps most of the crap off the forum, can we have that back please?
Summary
Its not rocket science, but I genuinely want to see more going on here. I’d like to see some new blood and ideas injected into the site and help it move forwards.
I’m not asking for anyone to step down, far from it; however we need to start making an effort here and not let standards fall.
If anyone else wants to comment on this then whether its admin, moderators or members, I’d like to see what people have to think and whether I’m way off or people are thinking something similar?
Cheers
I’d like to share some points I’ve had about the site that I feel need to be brought to attention.
Over the years I’ve been here I’ve seen many changes to the site, such as the running of the forum, events organised, the people involved and the quality of the content.
When I started ownership of my Pulsar the GTiROC was something I was proud to be apart of. We had many members that spent their personal time refining, developing and tuning their cars to aid and assist other members as well as their own personal gain. Over the months and years I’ve seen a steady decline in overall performance from members and the forum.
I’ve seen staff leave, events dwindle and overall activity with the GTIROC fall.
Now I’d like to point out that I’m not having ago at anyone, nor am I pointing any fingers or trying to take sides. I’m making observations about the site and hopefully this might spur something good from it.
Basically what plans are for the GTiROC, where its future is going and perhaps some changes?
I’ve made a few sections below that I’d like to discuss and perhaps stimulate it into some forwards motion and perhaps see some good come out of it
My 1st point of call is: Staffing
I would like to make a point that over last year ( 2008 ) I noticed the presence of admin and moderator staff has become less and less to the point that in 2009 we only have 2 moderators remaining and 3 active admin staff.
I know that some staff members are not on as often as they can be due to work commitments and other responsibilities, which is understandable. Others have stepped down or moved on, but what is happening is that these people are not being replaced with existing member’s who are motivated or are showing enthusiasm in the site - I stress for the right reasons.
It would be good to see some new moderators added to the site aiding the overall running and housekeeping of the board as well as keeping idiots at bay!
Another area I looked at was perhaps having people as dedicated “events co-ordinators” to look after things like shows, trackdays, TOTB and so on.
No-one seem’s to have any responsibility for this area; if we do attend a show say: JTS (Silverstone) later this year, we could do with banners, stands and/or perhaps some flags.
You look at other owners clubs as the MLR, the Supra OC or the several Impreza clubs around the UK they out class us by miles.
We don’t need anything as mental as their set-up, but it would be nice for our OC to be organised with some sort of presence and backing.
These are areas that seem to be neglected and it would be good to see something done about it and given that kick start it needs.
My second point of call is: Housekeeping.
This is linked to the staffing, but it was something that I feel needed a separate section.
The overall form layout is good and works fine, however there are area’s that could do with updating at cleaning up, stickies removed or edited and so-on.
There is also an abundance of text talk and poor spelling.
Granted no-one is perfect, but there seems to be more and more text talk making its way on to the site along with some very poor spelling. Again this might be due to the lack of moderators, but an area that seems to have got worse and the rules seem to be ignored!
My 3rd point is: Events
You know what I’m going to say next, but it’s true – we just don’t seem to have much going on here.
I know right away that a lot of this comes down to the members and for people to stump up the cash and attend events, but perhaps that could change?
When it comes to events we don’t have to do every show under the sun, but I do feel that we need some sort of organisation or a team (as I said earlier in the post) to deal with this area and really take the time and effort to organise events for members.
The only National GTiROC meet I’ve been to was the JapFest meet in 2007. Not a bad event, but we lacked the class of other clubs with our organisation, and club layout.
We had no banners, no information about who or which club we were (don’t want to get mixed up with any other club, do we?!?) and when you see other clubs organised with all that “tat” that comes with it, we looked unprofessional.
Even if we only have 1-2 national meets a year at least we are going in the right direction. The national meet at JapFest with track time was an excellent idea and made a change from the norm. If we could have something like that again it would be a real boost for the forum and members.
Again that also depends on us as members to turn up and make the effort also, but I can’t see why that would be an issue in the summer months.
I’d also like to point out that events don’t have to be track based, JAE used to be an excellent get-together of members, camping, drinking etc etc.
Organisation is the key, however I can see both sides of the problem, as members we lack commitment and reliability and for that why should people bother to spend time on events if we don’t attend.
Perhaps we should break that cycle?
Last on my list: attitude
Forum attitude seem’s to becoming very wussy. What was once a site that liked a good joke seems to be turning into a handbags paradise.
Where has all the banter gone?
At the GTIROC, the mentality is different from other site and that is what makes us different.
On here people don’t (didn’t) talk crap and when they did they got put in their place.
That worked well, it keeps most of the crap off the forum, can we have that back please?
Summary
Its not rocket science, but I genuinely want to see more going on here. I’d like to see some new blood and ideas injected into the site and help it move forwards.
I’m not asking for anyone to step down, far from it; however we need to start making an effort here and not let standards fall.
If anyone else wants to comment on this then whether its admin, moderators or members, I’d like to see what people have to think and whether I’m way off or people are thinking something similar?
Cheers
