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Autoshite in 2017 ?


daveb47

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I'm pretty new to AS and trying to bed myself in gently. Bloody place has me chuckling to myself all too frequently, Mrs Bag gives me some stranger than usual looks. 

 

IMO the forum is perfect, seems friendly, fantastic and varied subject matter (have a weird perversion towards Renault 20s and and half broken vacuum cleaners/HI FI systems, brought on by here) and the lack of complication.

 

Keep it up!

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There are a few things about the forum that put me slightly at unease.

 

- It's basically run as an autocratic one man show. Should Dave B47 for any reason decide to sod it, that's the end.

  Nobody else appears to have access to the db or anything to take over should this happen.

 

- Why is there never clearly stated what it actually costs to run the forum? Why this secrecy? I am unable to judge

  whether my monthly contribution is sufficient or not, consequently neither is anybody else. This is shit.

 

- There are other technicalities, like server architecture, broadband connection, etc.

  I suspect this forum cannot be run via a regular internet connection. So is there a business connection and if yes,

  how much does that cost?

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There are a few things about the forum that put me slightly at unease.

 

- It's basically run as an autocratic one man show. Should Dave B47 for any reason decide to sod it, that's the end.

  Nobody else appears to have access to the db or anything to take over should this happen.

 

- Why is there never clearly stated what it actually costs to run the forum? Why this secrecy? I am unable to judge

  whether my monthly contribution is sufficient or not, consequently neither is anybody else. This is shit.

 

- There are other technicalities, like server architecture, broadband connection, etc.

  I suspect this forum cannot be run via a regular internet connection. So is there a business connection and if yes,

  how much does that cost?

 

My opinion and others may disagree.   I like how Autoshite runs which is all based on trust. I don't need to know any of the above and do not wish any of the people running Autoshite to explain or justify what they do as I trust them to do what they think is best. All of my monies donated are given freely without conditions.

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I also like how Autoshite is run. Dave is doing a sterling job and I have absolutely no complaints on how it's run.

 

The issue I have is that should Dave B47 be rolled over by a camper van (God beware), the forum is finished.

That's the point. There is nobody else who could potentially take over from him.

Dave is the sole pilot of the plane. Should anything happen, the plane will continue to fly on auto pilot until it crashes.

 

The reason we are with Dave now is exactly because this happened to the initial forum.

All I want is that this won't happen again. Hence also the information whether his costs are covered is important.

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.

yep.  I'm aligned with the general consensus of minimal change too.. 

 

You Admin guys can see the stats ..which will give a fair indication of whether the site has good prospects or is in decline (and so is in need of bionics or if anything at all ..just a quiet transfusion).  I do note from my own Yugoslavian Ami 'blog' (Sorry - it was never intended to be such a saga) - that a huge number of visitors have looked (11.5 thousand views !) ..and yet so many of those can't have been members ?  Is this something that Admin are happy with or does that represent sorely needed revenue.? 

 

This site is very 'roots British' (one of the many appealing aspects to me) with a few ex-pats &/or from the colonies usefully contributing, but I wonder (although I personally don't want to know the balance sheet)  if Admin ought to consider easier access (language translations perhaps) to encourage a wider international membership.  As an example ; I used to go along to a classic* car club in Slovenia (formerly Yugoslavia / gateway to the Eastern block) ..and some of the Shite that turned up was great, weird and sometimes downright awesome.  Really great people, beer and pizza  too.!  

 

A really quality aspect of this site (and quite a relief to me) is the total absence of pop-up or side bar advertising. That is refreshing and utterly brilliant.  :-D      

 

Btw as said I don't want to see nor review the finances.  I am a guest in your home, and feel comfortable here.  And so if you were to say that we need to raise (for example) 10% more next year to keep things happening - then that's all I need to know. I'd get the message and chip in. Cheers.

 

 

Moving on.  Personally speaking, I like it not being broken into many categories, as the navigation is so much easier here than many other sites, and the mix & match works well to keep things varied and interesting.  'View New Content' or exploring one of the other tabs brings sometimes unexpected pleasures ;)   ...but Members, Calendar & Gallery all seem to have fallen flat on their face,  so either members are not interested or else they don't know how or when to use them.  If I want to look up members I do that from one of their postings.   Open forum I thought was the 'chat room'.. which just goes to show what I know.!

 

As a few others others have expressed - I'd also like to choose not see some topics, as I have with some members whose tone or language I've found offensive, but really it's not a biggie.  And although I initially thought the idea of a 'blog' tag would be useful, as so few of us make this sort of contribution*  I can't see the need to (yet) split them from where they are now.

 

Two things which would improve navigation (imo), would be to reduce the length of each page &/or a button 'Back to the Top'.     

 

All in all you do a sterling job Admin - I have no idea how much work or cost it is but for me at least.. it's the best club I belong to. Thanks Dave - you're a star. .you've heard it before but still you probably didn't even know it  8)

 

But equally, I thank all members (whether I happen to agree with them or not :) ) one and all, ...As they say 'without you this would not have happened or lasted '.

 

Yours,

a non-too-particular and of  no-particular-marque Autoshite enthusiast ..and as an individual who sometimes just needs an interesting diversion from day to day reality. :shock:  

 

 

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I think that this needs to be a FOR PROFIT business, and that Dave should crowd fund the sale of equity in autoshite dot com limited, and should manipulate the statistics on traffic and sell advertising space (which equity holders - or directors as we will all be called) will be able to turn off if they require.

The sale of advertising and a £1 donation for every for sale thread, will result in Dave being able to crowd fund moto shite.  a similar website about motor bikes, and choo choo shite, one about steam trains.  and "Big fish Little fish shite" about fishing, and sell advertising with dodgy stats, thus making all the directors VERY rich.

Eventually Dave will take over pistonheads, rename it Ballocks, and retire a happy man. Or be killed because he upsets a powerfully built director, who extracts revenge in the dead of night.

 

I want to see a set of accounts before I'm taken in by your crowd funding ballox though dave. Send a copy to my email address and I'll have my accountant give it the once over (he'll charge you but hey)

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Thanks for all the hard work Dave.

 

I havn't read this whole thread but I think the only thing that could massively improve the forum in my opinion is the ability to commute the ownership of a thread from the opening poster to another Shiter.

 

I think this is quite relevant to us, as we tend to swap and share cars more often than other forums, and in the process the 'storyline' of the car gets lost and we effectively have 2 or 3 threads about the same car. Take the AS BX for example, I belive there are multiple thread all over AS for the same car. Part of the enjoyment we have in old cars is seeing them used and enjoyed by multiple owners, and that is ruined by the fact that we have to start a new thread every time the car changes hands.

 

Brothers Cleland, original owners of THAT Samara had this same problem:- when I became the owner I wanted to keep my brother's original thread, (for clarity and ease and enjoyment on the forum) so every time I wanted to change the title of the thread I had to go and ask Joe to do it for me. Once the Samara left Chez Cleland FOAD had to set up a new thread, effectively 'hiding' or 'masking' the history of the car, and making it more confusing for the reader keep track of where and who the car belongs to.

 

Surely the 'ownership' of a thread can be commuted to a new owner somehow, to give the new owner the ability to change the title, thus keeping continuity and cutting down on confusing thread duplicates? Or at least give the option to do so!

 

Just a thought, I can imagine it will be quite difficult to implement, as forums are designed specifically for this not to be possible!

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