SNOWEST POLL: Which Snowmobile "Sub" - Forums do you want???

[christopher]

Aren't the "powers that be" actually the people that use these forums? Without us there is no forum. Why not ask us what we want? Give us back the option of NO change! Many of us like it the way it was. Please, listen to your members.

Try to remember that "YOU" represent one portion of the members that come to this site. Those that are highly active.

But, the vast overwhelming majority of SnoWest users are not like you. They do not post or join in on the daily banter.

Rather they come here LOOKING for answers to their issues. Most are lurkers and are not interested in joining in on what often become confrontational debates.

So our goal is to find that happy medium where we are able to serve the needs and wants of ALL the subscribers, not just the vocal minority.

if you doubt me, just look at how PAINFULLY FEW people have cast their vote in either of the two polls.

MOST OF THE MEMBERS just don't care about the debate.

They just want to find what they are looking for.

And categorizing the content WILL make it easier to find.

 

[DaveB]

Well you asked for everyone's opinion

I still think if you MUST break things up it would be best done like this.

Ski-Doo
>General
>Tech

Or, if you wanted to get more specific

Ski-Doo
>General
>Chassis/Suspension
>Motor/Electrical

or

Ski-Doo
>General
>Tech
>>Chassis/Suspension
>>Motor/Electrical

BTW Modifying the poll after many people have already voted is not cool, especially since a LARGE majority do not like the options given.

Think about this, every few years as more chassis or sleds come out, more sub forums are going to have to be added and as the list of sub forums grow old ones will have to be combined. It would be smartest to use a system that will work indefinitely.

I also agree with this. If you MUST break it down.....Option 2 on Ak_awd's post here would be my vote. Otherwise my vote is: the way it was.

PS: I hope all the other brand forums get split up the same way.

 

[christopher]

PS: I hope all the other brand forums get split up the same way.

They will get the very same treatment.

The Ski-Doo forums are just the LUCKY ones to feel the love first!!

 

[christopher]

There are 60 members in this room right now reading threads.

Why is it so hard to get people to participate and CAST THEIR VOTE?

 

[AK-Rider]

Try to remember that "YOU" represent one portion of the members that come to this site. Those that are highly active.

But, the vast overwhelming majority of SnoWest users are not like you. They do not post or join in on the daily banter...

Really? Do you consider me highly active simply because I have posted an opinion about changing the forum? I have posted less than 65 times since 2007. I'm not sure that qualifies me as a "highly active" member. In fact, nearly 10% of my posts have been in response to this change that you (not the members) feel is necessary. I would think that highly active members are those with hundreds, or even thousands of posts.

And categorizing the content WILL make it easier to find.

And you know this because...?? Admit it. You're just guessing here. I'll say it again... In my opinion, as a user of many forums, compartmentalizing leads to orphaned posts that get few replies. How does that help anybody? If you really want to make it easier for people to find content, improve the search function and show people how to use it.

There are 60 members in this room right now reading threads.

Why is it so hard to get people to participate and CAST THEIR VOTE?

So, if there are so many inactive members here now, are you saying that they aren't posting because thay can't find what they are looking for here? I don't think so. It's called apathy. You'll never get everybody that views a post to reply to it. Think about it... How many people vote in local elections; elections that can have dramatic impacts on their lives? Maybe 20% is a good turnout. Why do you expect something like this, or even just the general threads, to be any better than that?

Besides, if the majority of people don't care enough to take two minutes to post their opinion, why not listen to the "vocal minority" that does care enough to tell you about it?

This site is unique. It is different. It is good. Please keep it that way.

 

[Krust]

Here's a vote from one of the lurkers who never joins in. I agree with AK-Rider and the others. Keep it the way it is. More and more sub-forums only make it harder for those in search of information to find it, and also will lessen post activity. If you want people to be able to find stuff make a good search engine. I just bought my first sled last week after doing research on them for a couple months. How did I find info? By using the search engine. Definitely not by picking a forum and scrolling through posts.
If you do split it up, don't do it by chassis like it currently is. All the guys who have been in the sport for a long time that have all of the knowledge are usually the guys with the latest and greatest sleds. They don't own a zx chassis anymore, so they aren't going to visit that forum, but they still have a lot of knowledge about them. That knowledge will get lost if they don't see the threads. Also those who are brand new to the sport have no idea the difference between a ZX, or a Rev, or an XP. How are they going to know where to start? It took me a while to figure it out.

 

[christopher]

Also those who are brand new to the sport have no idea the difference between a ZX, or a Rev, or an XP. How are they going to know where to start? It took me a while to figure it out.

What every single owner of a sled in the world does know is WHICH MODEL they have.

And that is probably the compelling reason that Ski-Doo sorts them on the factory website by Model, not by class or Chassis.

But a well written clear FAQ would go a long ways towards helping people.

 

[christopher]

Really? Do you consider me highly active simply because I have posted an opinion about changing the forum? I have posted less than 65 times since 2007. I'm not sure that qualifies me as a "highly active" member.

33,000 members
12,800 have never posted anything
1,365 have posted once.
7,335 have posted 2-5 times.

Thats 65% of the forum who have posted 5 or less times in total.

Now we jump to your 65 posts!

Only 3,200 people on SnoWest have ever posted 65 times or more.

That puts you in the TOP 9.6% of all posters.

So YES, that would qualify YOU as HIGHLY ACTIVE, since 90% of the members of the forum are BELOW YOU.

I can only imagine what SnoWest would be like if all the members had posted as much as you have !!!

 

[christopher]

And you know this because...?? Admit it. You're just guessing here...

Because this is what I do full time as my career.
I manage online Vbulliten Forums, and have been doing so quite successfully for many years now.

So no sir, I am NOT guessing here.
I have a pretty strong understanding on how a good Vbulliten site is run, and how you make the content of the site accessible to casual members that are just passing through the site.

Which, as you should have seen from the information I presented to you in the previous post is VERY much what we have here on SnoWest.

Please understand this, I am NOT trying to create a slew of new forums just for the sake of creating them. Nor do I desire to create so many that they become cumbersome and unmanageable.

The goal is to create SOME kind of categorization beyond simply saying "its related to Ski-Doo" which is all we have now with a single topical forum.

 

[SilverGriz]

Mountain sleds vs trail would be enough sub categories for me.