SNOWEST FORUMS: Member Comments on "Letter to All Members"

[Adrenaline Revolution]

???
I'm registered over at B***C***R*** DAWTCALM and I don't see my name in that block of members.
I wonder how many others aren't listed in the block either.
Could be hundreds!

 

[dsp81]

Well then how about Thumpertalk(250,000 menbers), Ktmtalk(100,000), or at least a dozen other OHV sites that I could list. All free and all have the bells and whistles.
All free and fast with limited moderation. But then they do not allow free advertising in posts and in signatures.
There are countless sites large and small that offer the same types of services that somehow manage to turn a profit. And let's face it, this is all about turning a profit.
Sell more ads!!!!!!!!

That would be a good analogy if the market sizes you were comparing were the same. Have you noticed that there are about 3 times as many motorcycle magazines? That's because the reading population is much larger and the aftermarket industry is also much larger. The pool is fairly shallow for the snowmobiling industry.

Second, ad-based revenue models have never been all that great on the internet. Some sites kill, others barely break even, and some have trouble. Given the size of the market and the number of advertisers, SnoWest has trouble keeping up with equipment and bandwidth costs.

And third, some experts in the field see online ad revenue going down:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/22/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/

 

[MtnDoo]

DSP81,

Get out of your basement HAM Radio shop, and ditch the old IBM XT - Bandwidth is cheap these days. Read the thread. 12Mbps? Heck the 6Mbps they claim to use for this site is a rounding error. I loose more than that in framing and overhead to some of my medium sized customers.

What kind of oil do you use on those fancy red buggies?



MD.

Side Note: If there is one unintended benefit from SW screwing us, it's that we all get to have a final conversation before they set off the smoke-bomb and scatter everybody.

 

[Sturgis Sledder]

All said and done there is probably 150 original members on here, and maybe a few hundred more consistent contributors at most.

Ill-applied stats are nice, but it isn't what makes this place hum.

(1) I'm amazed how many members are already seeking solace at a open site a few blocks down the road, that was just launched last week. Stunning.

(2) I'm blown away that the ADMIN of this site has registered at that site and taunting members to remain involved in SW. This tells a story.

(3) I'm amazed that the ADMIN of this site, registered at the other site uses the SNOWEST corporate logo in his icon over there, yet has coded a script that changes the other sites's name b**C**R**.**cawm when typed here to "SNOWEST".

I think SW gets the message, but has created the perfect storm seems to have a hard time admitting it - to the point of taking corrective action.

Sell management on Grande Plan 2.0, and then the oh-schidt moment comes start behaving erratically.

If HP Gods are watching: You'll be looking for a new strategy soon.


MD.


BTW - those guys are picking up advertisers already too! ...but I bet they have no idea what they're being paid for ads. Not. hehe.

I would be totally amazed if that were Christopher on the other site, He seems like someone who is reasonably intelligent (altho he fails to ask the important questions: like how much money do the forums already generate through banner ads and with their classifieds? What are the click thru rates? What are the conversion rates on those click thrus? Have you thought thru any other ways to generate $$ other than charging the providers of content to use the site?) AND would not be foolish enough to register over there.

 

[Sturgis Sledder]

The pool is fairly shallow for the snowmobiling industry.

Second, ad-based revenue models have never been all that great on the internet. Some sites kill, others barely break even, and some have trouble. Given the size of the market and the number of advertisers, SnoWest has trouble keeping up with equipment and bandwidth costs.

And third, some experts in the field see online ad revenue going down:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/22/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/

Maybe you should factor in that because there are less snowmobiling sites with this following, there are less areas for the vendors to reach their targeted audience, so that would make SNOWEST MORE attractive to it's advertisers.

 

[MtnDoo]

Ya never know - he was bold enough to pull off the stunt we're all talking about. Who knows....maybe he's spoofed. Maybe I'm not me?!

 

[dsp81]

Maybe you should factor in that because there are less snowmobiling sites with this following, there are less areas for the vendors to reach their targeted audience, so that would make SNOWEST MORE attractive to it's advertisers.

Which would be great, if there were more advertisers.

 

[Sturgis Sledder]

It's a bunch of crap that people would get ugly if asked to pay a listing fee to sell their crap in the swapmeet. I paid $30 to list my house for rent for the Sturgis Rally, you can't list anything for sale ( and get a quality targeted sale) anywhere for free, unless you want to deal with 800 Nigerian a-holes trying to send you a money order for $3,000 over the asking price and they will arrange for the shipping for your item on craigslist.

 

[meche]

I for one will be leaving. I got my enjoyement when someone needed some basic help and their problem was too simple for most of the people to bother with. Now those people won't be coming here so neither will I. I was a snowest subscriber in the late 80's and early 90's, until I graduated from college and did not have time to snowmobile 30 days a year and lost interest. I have been following this forum for many years (I took a year off when our old user names were lost). But my motivation is gone. I wish everyone the best of luck.

 

[AKSNOWRIDER]

That would be a good analogy if the market sizes you were comparing were the same. Have you noticed that there are about 3 times as many motorcycle magazines? That's because the reading population is much larger and the aftermarket industry is also much larger. The pool is fairly shallow for the snowmobiling industry.

Second, ad-based revenue models have never been all that great on the internet. Some sites kill, others barely break even, and some have trouble. Given the size of the market and the number of advertisers, SnoWest has trouble keeping up with equipment and bandwidth costs.

And third, some experts in the field see online ad revenue going down:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/22/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/

one thing that has been said on here is that in the future because the site has been completely rebuilt with a ton of new bells and whistles that all sorts of in the know peeps(including manufacturers, and important people who wont visit now due to the way things have been) are going to be coming here and become active members......wouldnt you think that if the 4 major manufacturerers are coming on snowest to share their world with us(cant be because of a sudden change of heart IE: polaris coming to make up for the 800ve cranks and the 900 issues, or doo for the piston rings and crank bearings), but wouldnt you think they would be more then happy to pay 10 grand each a year for access to all these potential customers?I mean they pay more then that just to think about how to market their stuff on a daily basis...too much here doesnt add up...

 

[dsp81]

DSP81,

Get out of your basement HAM Radio shop, and ditch the old IBM XT - Bandwidth is cheap these days. Read the thread. 12Mbps? Heck the 6Mbps they claim to use for this site is a rounding error. I loose more than that in framing and overhead to some of my medium sized customers.

Which would be neat, if that was the only cost. Wow, you lose 6mbps in framing and overhead? Maybe someone needs to look at your work.

Now, since I've never seen any of your systems, I'm not qualified to say that, but I'll throw it out there anyway. I figure that since I know, well, pretty much every thing, I can make assesments about the network structure and costs associated with running a business I'm only guessing about. I figure, hey, it works for you.

What kind of oil do you use on those fancy red buggies?
.

Look mom, a red herring!

 

[AKSNOWRIDER]

I would be totally amazed if that were Christopher on the other site, He seems like someone who is reasonably intelligent (altho he fails to ask the important questions: like how much money do the forums already generate through banner ads and with their classifieds? What are the click thru rates? What are the conversion rates on those click thrus? Have you thought thru any other ways to generate $$ other than charging the providers of content to use the site?) AND would not be foolish enough to register over there.

go visit the site..if its not christopher they express themselves exactly the same as he does....

 

[XC700116]

I would be totally amazed if that were Christopher on the other site, He seems like someone who is reasonably intelligent (altho he fails to ask the important questions: like how much money do the forums already generate through banner ads and with their classifieds? What are the click thru rates? What are the conversion rates on those click thrus? Have you thought thru any other ways to generate $$ other than charging the providers of content to use the site?) AND would not be foolish enough to register over there.

Go over there and read the posts in the welcome section that he has posted and you will have zero doubts that it IS him

 

[Ollie]

It's not about the money, it's about the sport. Shoot i pay more to watch one UFC fight. If you can afford to sled then you can afford $9.99 a year. SUPPORT YOUR SPORT!!!!!

We DID support the sport nimrod.
Who do you think BUILT THIS SITE?

It sure as heck wasn't the administration.
I have been with this site since 2002.
Where were you?
Oh that's right, we weren't big enough to get your notice yet.

 

[dsp81]

It's a bunch of crap that people would get ugly if asked to pay a listing fee to sell their crap in the swapmeet. I paid $30 to list my house for rent for the Sturgis Rally, you can't list anything for sale ( and get a quality targeted sale) anywhere for free, unless you want to deal with 800 Nigerian a-holes trying to send you a money order for $3,000 over the asking price and they will arrange for the shipping for your item on craigslist.

This might be true, at least on paper. A few years ago SnoWest attempted to run a revenue generating SwapMeet. What a ****storm that caused.

 

[MtnDoo]

Which would be neat, if that was the only cost. Wow, you lose 6mbps in framing and overhead? Maybe someone needs to look at your work.

Now, since I've never seen any of your systems, I'm not qualified to say that, but I'll throw it out there anyway.

Ok, Numb-knutz....Quick run-of-the mill example for one delivery technology:

Let's estimate the ATM bandwidth available on an OC-3. With
STS-3c SONET at 155.520 Mbps it gets reduced to 149.760 Mbps due to
section, line and path SONET overhead.

Next we reduce 10% due to 20 bytes lost on average 200 byte long
packets due to incomplete ATM cell fills resulting in 134.784 Mbps.

Then we need to subtract 9.43% due to ATM headers of 5 bytes in 53 byte
packets.

Thus we end up with a 122.069 Mbps true information rate which is about
78.5% of the nominal OC-3 capacity.


...as I said, rounding error - not even.



MD.

 

[dsp81]

Ok, Numb-knutz....Quick run-of-the mill example for one delivery technology:

Keep swinging.

 

[Idaho Slim]

Keep swinging.

hehehehe, you kinda like not being handcuffed as a MOD dont cha?

See, sh!tdisturbing is fun .....

 

[HOBB-Z]

All said and done there is probably 150 original members on here, and maybe a few hundred more consistent contributors at most.

Ill-applied stats are nice, but it isn't what makes this place hum.

(1) I'm amazed how many members are already seeking solace at a open site a few blocks down the road, that was just launched last week. Stunning.

(2) I'm blown away that the ADMIN of this site has registered at that site and taunting members to remain involved in SW. This tells a story.

(3) I'm amazed that the ADMIN of this site, registered at the other site uses the SNOWEST corporate logo in his icon over there, yet has coded a script that changes the other sites's name b**C**R**.**cawm when typed here to "SNOWEST".

I think SW gets the message, but has created the perfect storm seems to have a hard time admitting it - to the point of taking corrective action.

Sell management on Grande Plan 2.0, and then the oh-schidt moment comes start behaving erratically.

If HP Gods are watching: You'll be looking for a new strategy soon.


MD.


BTW - those guys are picking up advertisers already too! ...but I bet they have no idea what they're being paid for ads. Not. hehe.

Its pretty sad, he came to B,C,R, to try and justify his actions and tell us
" YOU GUYS ARE JUST OVER REACTING TO CHANGE " " You guys think I'm the devil, I'm not I'm just the guy that has to make hard decisions and I made them "

It screams I was WRONG and I'm worried about the fall out, while at the same time saying on here it was expected....It can't be both...

I'm to the point of being glad, at first I was mad. Now I think you are exactly
what the old timers needed to get back what we once had.....

To bad it just couldn't of happened here where it started....

 

[Toddstud2003]

Membership!!!

I think all the bells and whistles are kinda cool. But if you guys want it simple then dont pay the premiun membership fee. Just get the basic for free. Quit Complaining. Sounds like they are just trying to give people more options. I love this site. I don't wanna pay either. Might be worth it. might not. Sounds like thats why they have options.
I would like to make a suggestion to Chris. Do we all get a trial of full premium membership to see if we want all the extra features?????