This may sound silly, but I know we all want this club to be more popular. What can I do to help out? There's some stuff that I'm limited on like time but when I do have time, I spend a good amount online, with a lot of that on here. I don't even know if I'm fully discharging my moderating duties (although the political forum doesn't take much.)

What are the definitive benchmarks of increased popularity?

I imagine that the memberlist is one, although I can see where you could have a large amount of members with little activity.

I imagine that activity could also be an indicator, but I've seen where some sites lightly moderate and a few members posting at a very high rate would tend to skew that statistic.

So, it's obvious that a large memberlist with high activity across the board is the answer....but in the meantime, what can we do to help to get the site from where it is currently to where you want it to be?

This site has all of the bells-and-whistles, I think. I imagine that any forum would be a continual work-in-progress, but the i-club is pretty much cutting edge from what I've seen.

Is vendor quantity or income from vendors what actually keeps the site up and running? I remember when you had the server problem, I was very surprised to see how much this community costs you.

I truly believe that you aren't providing this service to us for any profit beyond the satisfaction that it gives you. Personally, I wouldn't care if you did profit monetarily from it. I think that you'd definitely be justified, but I think that you just get a kick out of it but would definitely like for it to be held in the same esteem as any other Subaru online community.

How can I return the favor?

 

Hello there,

There are few ways I measure the popularity of the site.

First, there normal webstats. I closely monitor them and make certain adjustments and watch the difference in hits, etc.

Then, there are Big Board statistics. These are public and anyone can monitor them. They show vB specific statistics as well as the Alexa ranking, ect. On the bottom of the page, right next to "vbulletin skin developed by:..." you can see a small grey arrow. That takes you to the stats.

Then I also watch the # of simultaneous users online. Also, I monitor the activity of various forums (reginals) and try to do what I can to stir it up.

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i-Club has a few vendors, but not that many. I try to maintain the quality of vendor list by carefully selecting them. If I overpopulate the vendor forum, sure, there will be more $, but it will not be good for the existing vendors. I remain very loyal to those vendors that helped me out after the i-Club split. I will not do anything to jeopardise our existing relationships with them.

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i-Club is profitable. Total cost of running the site is around $1,000 per month. However, by no means this is something I can do full time. I wish I could, because I have lots of great ideas that I just cannot physically implement due to their complexity and time involvement.

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Of course, making this into a full time job would be great. But I cannot justify charging or asking members for anythng. I guess I could setup a "donation" thing, where those who wish to contribute, could do so.

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I mean, if every 20h member gave i-Club $2 per month, that would be a good sum of money, hehe. I would love to share some of it with those who help me out with it (moderators). But then again, I don't see myself as deserving all of that from the members. After all, I am not in it for the $. As some of you may know, one of the reasons for the split, was $ and I think I clearly expressed where I stand on that matter.

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Thanks for the response.

Whenever you need help with something, just throw it out there. I'll do what I can.

We (Keirnna and myself) to spark some interest in the midwest regional. It isn't over yet. We might get them to come on over given time.

 

Well i know i was just poking in on your conversation but i think i learn a little

Alex, see you at Hami.

-rich

 

Any Midwest help I can lend also....I am in Detroit....

-Ryan