A slight name change?

With everyone moving away from fiesta's (for the time being maybe) but the forum is becoming more of a chatroom with the odd question about the st which at least 1 of us can answer. what do we think I know also yesterday I heard a lot of people comment that they didn't see any on the stand I'm sure that could be slowing the members actually joining the forum.

Just an idea

We were a bit of a laughing stock yesterday at BHP with our lack of Fiesta actually on the stand but then have a count up, how many of us show goers do actually have one..... 7 maybe 8 ....??

I don't think it's a bad idea tbh, I don't see the site surviving much longer tbh, we're getting very few new members if any at all recently

its the times, no one wants to join a forum,i kind of think its funny when everyone left and started there own forums etc on some of them there last post was about 3 to 4 months ago all forums are dead,facebook is killing it,but im sure this site will be kicking for many years to come well it better lol

a couple of guys came over mine Monday from focus stoc/facebook and was talking about the groups on face book it was more about rivalry more then anything but a forum and quite did come in to the confo so it is across all sites


example I was added to a new focus st/rs group on Saturday now there is over 600 members and all active,im on 2 focus st and rs pages on face book and I can not keep up on there its mad

Did hear a few people laughing, got annoying after a while.

Couple suggestions:
1. We get going properly on facebook? I know we have half a dozen different groups/personal profiles etc, lets pick one and start promoting it. The instagram page has been a success and facebook would be a better interaction between members. Wed easily get new people involved.
2. Maybe we attend shows under a different name without changing forum name. Considering we are barely getting any new members then we wont be excluding anyone. Former FIESTA ST Owners club was mentioned

Something should be done and we all agreed on that sunday

I think the FB idea is bang on Liam, one 'proper' page, run it along side the Instagram page, share the pics etc and get some proper promotion going, we need to roll with the times

unfortunately as the cars get older people don't care about them as much, daily activity on facebook could be a good idea though!

I have to disagree with you Kenny with forums in henral being dead while I've been off work looking for another car And been looking at other forums to get back ground info And 90% of them where getting a lot of members daily and people posting regular topics/ replays

As for the Facebook thing there is 1 page that has a lot of intrest and gets regular posts in

I personally don't think its the way to go, it's good to be able to come to a specialist forum and get all the right information you want, instead of having to trawl through loads of posts to find a snippet of information.

Then again what do i know, piston heads is the biggest motoring website in the world currently and that started around TVR's....

Don't get me wrong the Facebook pages do and will disappear I have seen it its just at the moment Facebook are just taking over for now (post wise)across the hole stoc are talking about the same thing,the admin over there refuse to be linked with the groups in Facebook,me I like a forum and I'm sticking with forums,for me the Facebook pages is just a easy way to get quick info of local meets and anyone selling parts local to me,I never post pics of my car on any groups it just doesn't feel save and I don't really post on there either god I don't even like Facebook I'm only on there cos of the wife other wise my account would be dead lol

Shame we haven't got any cards etc to hand out at fitp that would be a good start
Like I said for me it's a forum every time,

We have, me & Bexx got some done off our own backs, think we have some left

There's a lot of discussion going on here on a few different points so I'll weigh in a point at a time:

1) Lack of Fiesta ST's on club stand
Basically, it was Jack and I. I can sort of understand this for BHP show in particular - it was a show which wouldn't have appealed to those further afield (but major props to the Northerners who came down) and it was a mixed event, not Ford only...

However... if it was a Ford only event, you'd have had 1x MK6 FST, 1x MK7 FST, 1x MK7 EcoBoost, and 1x MK1 Focus ST. Maybe a more central location for "FITAS" (Fiesta in the Animal Shelter) and Ford Fair would increase the numbers of further afield Fords, but for Trax - we're probably going to have the same lack of Fiesta ST's on the stand compared to other marques.

Is this solvable with making the forum more popular (see point 2) or changing the name of the forum? Would a name change boost member numbers, or see them further decline?

2) Forum membership
New members on the forum just aren't signing up or contributing to the site. Personally, I'm still of the ilk that this is almost certainly down to Facebook. Sure, some forums still thrive, and some are as popular as they have ever been - and this is the argument always spilled back to whoever mentions Facebook as a reason for a forum's decline.

Everyone misses one vital point though. Target markets. The sort of person who is buying a Fiesta these days are the same sort of people who use Facebook religiously - that's unavoidable. The E46 forum that I'm on is busy as hell - could be because there's a lot of them about - or could be that the average age of the posters is a little higher and are the people who were using forums before Facebook came along. If you're looking at the Austin Allegro owners club they probably use Royal Mail to communicate, because they were doing so before the internet came along!

Also - it was mentioned yesterday that perhaps the subscription model needs adjusting or looking at - if the only incentive is to post, why would people subscribe to essentially chat to 10 other people who are active on the forum? Quite a number of us are in an FFST Whatsapp group - and dare I say it it's busier there than it is on here! (I don't want to sound like a stuck record but we really should look in to Tapatalk again - or at the very least an extremely mobile friendly theme).

3) Social Media
We seem to have about 3 Facebook pages/groups/people - this needs cutting down to one "Page" (not a group, not a person), add a couple of admins who can be on there all the time promoting third party posts, articles etc. Link the Page with the site's Instagram page and Twitter - if we have one - so that when you post on one, it's posted everywhere. Do the trick we did with KM - we grab a cheap prize (car cleaning starter pack or something) then stick a photo up on the Facebook page - Like and Share to enter the prize draw, boom, the name is shared around.

Food for thought - sorry, I seem to have gone on a bit too much and please please please think of these as discussion points rather than criticisms - it's all stuff we did with KM which did boost post numbers (until a disagreement between admin staff led to the clubs eventual demise). The page, which hasn't been posted on in over a year now, still has over 3,000 likes!

Yeah the like & share idea is extremely effective, it's used on Instagram all the time

I've read through all the comments as always. You've all said honest and constructive comments. Clearly a tough one. I agree we need more structured coverage. All the social media suggestions we can jump on. My life is stupidly busy currently and i struggle to have the time to cover social media and this forum. I'm happy for others to jump in and take control of this if they wished.

The forum is a knowledgebase. It would be difficult to change it... But maybe we can try another direction? Flush in another URL name and have the forum support a duel site. We tried a separate site in ST-RS for this very reason but that didn't work out. Having two URLs would mean you guys could feel comfortable and appeal to a wider spectrum... The issue here is how we work the site around this format...

Maybe a suggestion... People who wish to view and be members of FordFiestaST.co.uk can see all that content. Members of the new URL will have all new topics so they can use it properly still. Sections such as off topic etc can remain a duel view.

To explain;

Fiesta ST technical (St members can view)
General technical (other URL members can view)

Another URL name would need to be thought of.

I'm confused lol all this url talk I don't follow pmsl on another note I don't mind posting on the facebook account

That's fine Scott, have someone doing FB & someone doing Instagram so you can focus on here

bang on, you just can't do that with FB. With FB people want and demand answers to their post, sign of the time we live in, nobody seems to have a spare second to look things up, when in reality they do but just CBA. But try to convince them of that and you banging your head against a wall.
FB interacts with smart phones/pads in a very user friendly way being on tap with notifications etc, people just wait for these and no need to actually look at the page for anything really - prompts. Yet everyone seems to manage the rest of their lives using smart phones/pads with online usuage banking, shopping etc etc so why can't they look at a forum (it has same notification type messages/replies system - lack of knowledge I think) ? Just lazy.

Am not at all happy with FB security and I can tell you now that the cycling sites I am on are being used to steal bikes from homes - a lot. So chatting on FB with all sorts about yourself and car etc I wouldn't be happy with.

A FB page with limited info, links back to topics on here perhaps................

Another thought, yes think I agree, a rebranding of this site to make in more inclusive of all fords/fiestas/st, do we have a website ? that would be good place to start for newbies to locate us, with some info on the page and direction back to here. NO doubt there are huge numbers of new ford cars about and ST's too.

Hope that helps.

oopps apols, and other makes of car owners too of course welcome just as this site has always encouraged.

Scott, can we have a Corsa section please

Definitely a good idea to attract new members
I saw one young boy at the show laugh to his dad when he saw our stand name and only 2 ST's

Suggestions guys to keep this moving?

Burningfuel.co.uk
ExFordOwners.co.uk
OpenLanes.co.uk
PureEnthusiast.co.uk
PureAcceleration.co.uk

All available... more suggestions welcome.

Bhpcartorque.co.UK

Cartorque

Drivewayracecar

Modifiedcarpeople

A domain name needs to describe the site content imo, something like......

Carfans

Wetorquealot

Motormouths

Thecarforum

Petrolheads

Anymakewelcome

but needs to be searchable and thinkable, so if you have bought a car or a ford or an ST what would someone google for.............?

Rob's above Thecarforum good suggestion leading this way

How about "pistonheads" or "speedhunters"

TheCarForum does not have a .co.uk or .com address. These extensions are a must when suggesting sites.



MotorMeets.co.uk
All-Cars.eu
Car-Mad.co.uk
Car-Mad.com
MotorMad.co.uk

cargroup
carclub
carforum
fordsandcars

carowners/club

Good point

Seeing loads of s about so it's surprising there's not more interest
Perhaps also with them being pretty low in value now, the people buying them that aren't that enthusiastic about them. Not sure about that as a theory, but just a thought.


Seems like a good one, a lot of people are probably going to search for 'car forum'

So what happened with this, anything???

Nothing yet but I'm happy to get it sorted if we have a decision.

So do we have it narrowed down from the above options??

i like motormad or something alike

If there are others rob then happy to include them. Would like to move forwards with one shortly.

Automotive addicts anonymous ?

Automotive society