Starting our own forum?

[retepsnikrep]

This forum has suffered quite a few issues since it was sold by the founder from under members noses to Autoguide several years ago now.

The most annoying things IMHO are the slow performance, naff layout and plethora of annoying and intrusive adverts.

There is nothing to stop us setting up our own forum, and I have a few observations to make.

1) I previously thought we should remain here due to the huge wealth of knowledge that has accumulated over the years. I'm open to change now and perhaps the time is right to set up our own forum? The info here can still be linked from any new site.

2) If we set up a new forum I'm happy to be a member, but am not offering to organise, host or administer it.

3) I think we should go for a basic setup but with good antispam and regsistering security.

4) I don't want adverts of any kind and would be happy to pay say $5-10 a year for access.

5) I would prefer any new forum to be co-owned and administered by at least three long standing members.
Any disputes that arise can then be settled via a simple majority vote.

6) I quite like the sections and subforums we have at present but would like to expand it so that each Honda Hybrid model has it's own set of four subforums like the G1 & G2 Insight.

Just my two penneth.

[Insight for life]

lets just put all our money together and buy this site back.

I personally vote no on a new site.

[retepsnikrep]

I doubt we could afford it and the technical challenge to export all the data to a new sleek no advert code base system might be quite formidable. That's if autoguide would export it for us in the first place. I think basically we would end up starting from scratch.

[jime]

I'm for sticking with the current situation - bad as it is. I fear that Autoguide would find a way to deny prior content.

Wouldn't porting just result in porting the ads also?

Much of the ad problems can be resolved by signing up for a lifetime membership. It is $50 or $16.65/year for 3 years - not really all that great. I see no adds on my IC screen.

[UK_MJN]

Originally Posted by retepsnikrep

6) I quite like the sections and subforums we have at present but would like to expand it so that each Honda Hybrid model has it's own set of four subforums like the G1 & G2 Insight.

Could you sell that idea to the current owners? It might be easier to bring the current layout up to date and increase its relevance to new car owners...and be perceived as providing a solution rather than a problem.

[Cobb]

I am in and will help out either way.

I use to run a website on featureprice. It was a lot of technical hassles and ultimately I lost my domain name when they went out of business and a few months of hosting service. I basically paid 50 bucks a year, delt with the headaches and got checks in the mail for 400 bucks in ad revenue. Sometimes it wasnt worth the headaches and countless technical problems that were a combination of a poor hosting company and someone who was new to the gerne.

PS, I only had 2 ads per page and they were text ads too.

[jime]

Originally Posted by retepsnikrep

The info here can still be linked from any new site.

I guess that is true, but wouldn't one still have to go to THIS site to do an adequate search of the archives?

[hacker]

maybe yahoo groups?

[Cobb]

I miss the old newsgroups, you know alt.bin.honda.hybrids.insight.blah.blah. blah .

I am sure the info can be copied, linked, etc. Its just a matter of who "owns" the content at this point.

[02insight]

I dont really see any problems with the current site. But then again, I browse using adblocker plugin, which can be had to firefox, chrome etc.. I experience zero ads, the site is super fast all around, and I really dont have any complaints with the organization of the content.

But, yes when I am using the site on another computer which doesnt have a adblocker, its almost unusable.