!! Improving our club - your feedback is required and vital!!

toopy

Club Member
As moggy says, the website isn't the easiest to navigate, I can't see where to start a new topic, or go to a specific section on the forum? Maybe it's just me ?

Click the Forum button, ignoring the drop down list, you will see all the forum categories, click on your chosen section, once in, click the Orange thread button to start a new topic :thumbs:
 

Red7

Well-Known Forum User
Click the Forum button, ignoring the drop down list, you will see all the forum categories, click on your chosen section, once in, click the Orange thread button to start a new topic :thumbs:


Wonderful :bow:

You don't know what you don't know! Cheers! :thumbs:
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Wow! I never knew that either!! :thumbs:

I use Tapatalk 99.995% of the time!
 

STEVE BURNS

Club Member
Wonderful :bow:

You don't know what you don't know! Cheers! :thumbs:

What a lot of us who have been here a long time have got used to is how the site works (even though it needs improving) and expect every newer user to know the in and outs of the site and forget that we had to learn it in the first place

Maybe it also needs a guide put up telling how to do basic things on here
Also can some who uses Tippytappy let us know if when paying by paypal you get an automatic reminder that the renewal subscription is due
 

GTR-240Z

Well-Known Forum User
These are my observations/comments

Website:

  • Search function needs to be more prominent, the search box should be somewhere on the websites header area
  • The banner image is using flash which does not work on phones and nobody uses flash anymore as its ****, opening a page on a phone and seeing The plugin is not supported looks poor
  • Calendar should be more prominent and actually have stuff in it, which then links to a relevant thread on the event.
  • Home page needs more current stuff, the Dare To Be Different and new zclub facebook page are from 2013 and 2012 and give the impression were not very active as a club.
  • When people attach images to threads they never seem to open on the first attempt on a phone, and then when it does on the second attempt its a tiny postage stamp size and when you try to zoom in it closes the image.
  • Classifieds are a complete train wreck. They need to be merged into the main forum so its more logical asking questions about the item, and it needs to be free for all.
  • Members Only Review page comes up with a 404 page not found
  • Members Only Articles section needs to be in the form of a wiki for each model and needs to have alot more content. I personally like the E30zone.net's wiki setup http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/Main_Page
  • Where are the older magazines, weren't they suppose to be scanned and made available to members only? We should really have a pdf library of past magazines
  • Members Only Links section looks outdated and several links do not work any more.
  • Is the club still doing insurance valuations and if so why is there not a page about it on the Members Only menu?
  • Site generally looks dated and needs a good update
  • Forum structure looks a bit complicated
  • The button to create a new post just says "thread" in a hard to read italic font, it should read "New Thread" or "Create Thread"and be in a more easier to read bold icon
  • How many adverts is the zclub being paid for, I notice we have an advert which is for www.groundingkits.co.uk but the domain is dead so did they pay up for a period of time or have we left this advert up in error?
  • What is the zclub actually using to host the site, a dedicated server, vps, shared hosting, or pas?. Is the basics like regular backups being performed and kept offline or with another company that's not the hosting one?
Moderation:
  • Better moderation of threads, just about everyone goes off topic by the same clique that either nitpick it to death or **** off the original poster
  • Same clique also love to nitpick cars for sale or on other sites, the person selling the zed ends up finding the thread and gets offended and the new purchaser also finds it and then never comes here with there new purchase for fear of the nitpickers.
Membership:
Personally I think the benefits of being a paid member should be
  • Insurance valuation
  • Access to a technical wiki
  • Access to previous club magazines
  • And a discount where possible to events which the zlcub has a presence. for example Japfest, however non paid members should still be able to attend and buy tickets but receive no discount on tickets etc.
  • I think new membership packs are a waste of money, if I want an air freshener I will just buy one, and as for old fashioned paper calendars do people over 60 still use them quaint things I use the calendar on my phone.
Events:
  • It would be good if the club arranged an annual meet like we use to have at billing
  • An NEC stand would be nice but may be difficult to arrange enough people to organise
 

Jake RAH

Well-Known Forum User
These are my observations/comments

Website:

  • Search function needs to be more prominent, the search box should be somewhere on the websites header area
  • The banner image is using flash which does not work on phones and nobody uses flash anymore as its ****, opening a page on a phone and seeing The plugin is not supported looks poor
  • Calendar should be more prominent and actually have stuff in it, which then links to a relevant thread on the event.
  • Home page needs more current stuff, the Dare To Be Different and new zclub facebook page are from 2013 and 2012 and give the impression were not very active as a club.
  • When people attach images to threads they never seem to open on the first attempt on a phone, and then when it does on the second attempt its a tiny postage stamp size and when you try to zoom in it closes the image.
  • Classifieds are a complete train wreck. They need to be merged into the main forum so its more logical asking questions about the item, and it needs to be free for all.
  • Members Only Review page comes up with a 404 page not found
  • Members Only Articles section needs to be in the form of a wiki for each model and needs to have alot more content. I personally like the E30zone.net's wiki setup http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/Main_Page
  • Where are the older magazines, weren't they suppose to be scanned and made available to members only? We should really have a pdf library of past magazines
  • Members Only Links section looks outdated and several links do not work any more.
  • Is the club still doing insurance valuations and if so why is there not a page about it on the Members Only menu?
  • Site generally looks dated and needs a good update
  • Forum structure looks a bit complicated
  • The button to create a new post just says "thread" in a hard to read italic font, it should read "New Thread" or "Create Thread"and be in a more easier to read bold icon
  • How many adverts is the zclub being paid for, I notice we have an advert which is for www.groundingkits.co.uk but the domain is dead so did they pay up for a period of time or have we left this advert up in error?
  • What is the zclub actually using to host the site, a dedicated server, vps, shared hosting, or pas?. Is the basics like regular backups being performed and kept offline or with another company that's not the hosting one?
Moderation:
  • Better moderation of threads, just about everyone goes off topic by the same clique that either nitpick it to death or **** off the original poster
  • Same clique also love to nitpick cars for sale or on other sites, the person selling the zed ends up finding the thread and gets offended and the new purchaser also finds it and then never comes here with there new purchase for fear of the nitpickers.
Membership:
Personally I think the benefits of being a paid member should be
  • Insurance valuation
  • Access to a technical wiki
  • Access to previous club magazines
  • And a discount where possible to events which the zlcub has a presence. for example Japfest, however non paid members should still be able to attend and buy tickets but receive no discount on tickets etc.
  • I think new membership packs are a waste of money, if I want an air freshener I will just buy one, and as for old fashioned paper calendars do people over 60 still use them quaint things I use the calendar on my phone.
Events:
  • It would be good if the club arranged an annual meet like we use to have at billing
  • An NEC stand would be nice but may be difficult to arrange enough people to organise

Pretty much spot on :thumbs:
 

1970ff

New Forum User
I am very new to the club, but have had several cars in the past and have been associated with their club forum.I find this one quite difficult to navigate, and there does not seem to be as much on it as I might have thought,,or perhaps I haven't found everything yet. I do like however details of local meets as I have found that to be one of the greatest benefits of having and driving an older car,,meeting great people and going to lovely places with the cars,,so perhaps,,more like that.I have a 280zx, which is a characterful sheep in wolfs clothing !
 

cosworth415

Club Member
I think easier access to technical stuff would be good at the moment it's a nightmare trying to find specific info, not sure one club all the cars is right how many more Z's is there gonna be?
 

Sylv1

Well-Known Forum User
hi there

I am not red & I am a froggy... so don't feel comfortable to comment

If you want, I can just give my view as one of the board of Datsun France gang, webmaster & community manager for Club Datsun France & more recently Notre350z/Notre370z.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
hi there

I am not red & I am a froggy... so don't feel comfortable to comment

If you want, I can just give my view as one of the board of Datsun France gang, webmaster & community manager for Club Datsun France & more recently Notre350z/Notre370z.

Hello Sylvan, personally I would welcome your comment because of your webmaster skills and your organisational experiences. Also you are a thoroughly decent guy. :thumbs:
 

STEVE BURNS

Club Member
hi there

I am not red & I am a froggy... so don't feel comfortable to comment

If you want, I can just give my view as one of the board of Datsun France gang, webmaster & community manager for Club Datsun France & more recently Notre350z/Notre370z.
Hi thanks for taking time to reply on here and your imput is needed
Could you as well pm me your thoughts on vbulletin 5 as I believe is what the French site now runs on and how you find it as most of what I have heard about it from other parties is not very good
Did you look at Xenforo,IP or others before upgrading
Must admit that Xenforo is looking good with its ease of migrating current info to
Like I say if you want give me pm re finding re vb5
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Sylv1

Well-Known Forum User
Hi thanks for taking time to reply on here and your imput is needed
Could you as well pm me your thoughts on vbulletin 5 as I believe is what the French site now runs on and how you find it as most of what I have heard about it from other parties is not very good
Did you look at Xenforo,IP or others before upgrading
Must admit that Xenforo is looking good with its ease of migrating current info to
Like I say if you want give me pm re finding re vb5

sure :)

Datsun-France is VBulletin5 based
Notre350z is VBulletin4 based

I'll pm you about all that
 

Sylv1

Well-Known Forum User
tried to throw some ideas....



We started the Datsun France in 2006 from the basis on a old school club "paper based" : Club Zen :p



<Website :

Bad news : the golden age of forums is ended.
Now, it is social networks age and mobile internet is 75% of the hits.
If golden age of forum is ended, paper based is definitively dead... even magazines are moving to numeric format & paper version is pericliting.
Paper is huge work, long production cycle, expensive to print & to send, not planet compliant...



OK, do we stop every thing and all go to Facebook?
No I don't think!

Advantage of FB, Twitter etc....
- you get in contact with people you don't know & enlarge your community quicker than with forum.
- ergonomy of software, especially on mobiles is unbeatable
- youngers are daily connected
But :
- the content belongs to FB & they can crash all your buildling in 1sec (i experienced it on Datsun.France Facebook account) => you build on sand!
- the content is not structured and difficult to retrieve so it is "live & forget"... a modern chatbox :)
- a group or a page is linked to a FB account... you cannot transmit it as a club or a website in the future; if people change or resign, the datamart dies & your dataset goes back to the ground!
- elder are often not connected, some refuse by principle.
- if you think to get advertising revenues, it is not for the club but for FB (For Datsun-France, it is not an issue because we don't want advertising banners or pop-up)

So where are we?
Technology :
- Forums have to evolve with latest technology to support nicely mobiles/iPad devivces.... it is mandatory.
- Forums have to evolve to have a good ergonomy.... users don't accept any longer any contraints in this scope; if not, they quit! Youngers have never known television without telecommand...Zap!
- Forums have to be linked in both directions with social networks

Data mining :
- Forum advantage on social network is definitively the content & the retension (more than 10years of content...)... the search engine & SEO & sitemaps/robot compliance have to be top level.
=> organisation & quality of the content make the difference
=> overflow search engine with urls of your website (propose your urls to search engine & put links of your url on the web)... you win when you are in first page from Google/bing search
=> overflow press with your contents, your activities


-Content? that looks difficult also to retrieve information from a big forum.... There is an activity to extract the very substance as stable articles.
=> That is an activity we started http://www.datsun-france.com/forum/articles the result is not yet very satisfying as of now... working on it
We need some writers & historians. Content about Datsun in french language is poor, that is an opportunity you don't have here because of massive existing content in US. You could focus on UK specific information?
=> I am currently working on retrieving the content of FB pages & collect it back in our forum... so that, this content is back home & safe, can be reorganised etc...:)



Social networking :
- If content is for what a visitor arrives to your website, people & relationships are the reason for staying. Respect, well balanced moderation, free help, initialtives etc.. difficult topic, human is not a simple technology :)
- Forum are probably more focussed visitors & more long term relation than social networking where there are so many groups...rising, dying, new ones...
- Social networks are a great tool to reach people you don't know and who don't know you; It is real opportunity.
- Social networks are also a very good solution to break the distance & direct connect with contacts as journalists for instance
- Important function is membermap... web makes binds between people by affinities & not on a geographical criteria; membermap transforms this benefit on local "real" relationship and traditional friendship => make the group "real" & durable ; at the moment, we have lost this function since forum engine evolution... working on it :)
=> connect your forum with social media... it is mandatory nowadays
=> with objective of transforming the web link and become real friendship : add a membermap, add a up to date planning of activities

As a summary, your website has to adapt to social networks & even more on social media for mobile devices... or die, takes the benefits of it but pays attention to keep the content & human value inhouse, focus on people.





<Club?
- One club, all cars? For my opinion, no chance...
behavior & expectations of a brand new 370Z or used 350z owner is not the ones of a classic Bluebird lover;
Some are common but 75% are not. Tuned or hybrid 240z or 510 are polymorph & are the exceptions.
Young S13 drift lovers with no money in pocket in the same restaurant than middle aged purists of strictly stock collectors?
Camping for every body? hotel *** for every body? not compliant i think.
=> Betwen Datsun France & Notre350z, We took the path of a common association as a holding to mutualise what can be but clubs and forums running are independants. Some events are shared, some not. Freedom for all.
This flexible structure is capable to host others in the future at no extra cost because capacity of infrastructure is ready.


- Cotisation? I think there is two classes of members : ones want something in return of their money, the others value the appartenance to a group.
=> for the first, the will take their club ticket when they need the discount or private info because repairing the car. This is not a critic; this behavior is respectable & for some, money is really not easy to earn nowadays.
Often, the cotisation is not renewed after the end of the need.
=> for the second, the appartenance to a group is important. They want to contribute & participate to existence of the club. In a good working familly, a parent is happy to spend money for familly...
If people feel in a familly, they agree to pay without claiming for return. This behavior exists mainly thanks to real life meetings and not only web experience.
=> if a club behave hard "no membership, no advantage", I think that promotes the first behaviour.
If a club behave as a community, I think that promotes the second mindset. In Datsun France, we bet on openness;
If some take benefit for free, it is not important. We don't need to be rich (it is nearly Tom Jones' song... :p)
=> This philosophy is not money efficient & long to achieve... but quality focused. We prefer active members than terrible paying members :p
=> You win when the overall opinion of your club is high (awareness, opinion, recommandation...), then the group is working without intervention & effort.
=> How to improve? Club is like a brand... Do you want a telephone or do you want an iPhone? both let you ring your wife when you are late in the pub but you want an €€€ iPhone... why? :p brand recognition :)
=> We have openned comptability online for club members... that closes totally the terrible question that can always bring troubles "what do you do with our money?" That kills in the egg any suspicion.
=> how much do the club need to work? a web site as Datsun-France is around 200€ a year of run costs + around 200€ for a dedicated database server for notre350z (the database is big...) + licenses vbulletin when changing to new version (~300€) ;
So let's say 500€ a year of running costs supposing TLC for free.
This balance is quite easy to achieve and let us be alive without twisting our people centric objective.
There is no free hosting for site with huge SQL database...
or you go to built-in forum provider as forumactive for instance... but you have advertising popups, no easy ability to quit without loosing your data, name suffix is captive... so if you move, your "branding" is obsolete... and when your site becomes big, you are captive and locked.


Did I say that all that is a huge workload? :p
=> You need a clear delegation & confidence between a few volonteers; when someone cannot any longer or for a time, it is OK... it has to be led by pleasure to last :)
 
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