And I guess what so many of us want to see, what is it that you're going to do that would bring them back around?
I have asked in a decent tone, as have many, but the only things you talk about are things none of us care about. Please show that in at least some little way you understand what we're talking about.
None of us can understand how it is that you feel you will improve the site.
The first thing we are going to do is to exercise a large dose of PATIENCE.
We understand that
Nothing is going to happen quickly.
We fully understood that things were going to get "Very Hot" when the transition occurred and that we would loose some members over it. That was clear to us from mid-October when the discussion of moving to a paid format first got ugly. We have no secret plans on going after those that chose to leave.
What we are going to do is to focus in on the new Premium Members over the next 6 months and work with them to build up a new core membership on the forums, and to get them to participate on a more active daily basis. They are the ones that took a stand and choose to support the new format of the site. We have a TREMENDOUS reservoir of knowlege in the membership of this site, but we have only a small number who have been out in the open with it.
One of the reasons that SnoWest made the decision to make such a massive change to this forum, was because of the comments from industry members of their disdain for these forums. They had a HORRIBLE industry reputation as a hotbed of discontent and unending warfare. The owners decided to make a conscious deliberate choice to change that.
We want to build a place where we can bring in the major players in the Snowmobile industry to actively participate with riders. We want this site to evolve into a real resource of information that comes directly from the horse's mouth, and not just hearsay from enthusiasts, and detractors hiding behind aliases. And yes, there were many instances of Dis-Information being put out for purely business purposes by members using Alters to hide their true identity. Anonymity does wonders when your a grenade tosser.
A hundred shrill voices were allowed to drown out Ten Thousand others.
If you were not willing to put on a Nomex suit, and dared to say something that the ruling group disapproved of, your were going to get pounded into the ground by them. SnoWest was not always a very friendly place to come to. I can't begin to tell you how many times I was contacted by members asking me to intervene and stop the attacks against them. For lack of a better term, we had a bunch of bullies running loose on the playground.
As you previously noted, the aggressiveness of the moderation has already been pulled way way back. As the vitriol has dissipated, so has the need for most of the moderation that was responding to it.
For me, right now we are still focused on the structural foundations of the forums, and will be for some while yet. I understand that you don't care about the structure, and that little or none of it is important or of any significant interest to you. But we still see it as the foundation that we are going to be building up the new forums upon, and want to get it done and behind us. Our expectation was that overall activity on the forums would collapse rapidly from Mid March through early May, and reach it's summertime low for May/June/July/August. Our plan for SnoWest is not based on the short term, we are in it for the long haul and expect this new foundation to last us several years into the future.
