ORIGINAL: Garry Steele
something of interest often quickly turns into something that is totally irrelevant and the thread becomes meaningless and inane
That's rather negative isn't it Garry? I've worked in the motor trade for almost 20 years now and am fairly up on a lot of stuff, but I generally learn something new most days on the forum. Sure, sometimes a thread goes off-topic like any other conversation, but somewhere along the line it will either get back on topic or run it's course.
You may have had more feedback on this than myself, but the notion that would-be users will avoid the forum because threads get a bit hijacked every now and then seems to me to give very little credit to peoples intelligence. I don't read every thread and some of the things I do read are maybe not to my taste, but it takes all kinds to make a club and surely for many people the banter is part and parcel of joining the club in the first place?
Speaking personally, I joined the club to meet other Porsche owners and get into the social side of things. I'm not too interested in most of the rest of what the club does, so I find the forum to be the best part of membership. Sure, I could allow my membership to lapse and still use the forum, but I feel it's only fair to pay up to use the club's services and to continue to be an official part of R10, a great group of people.
For me, the original post in this thread was positive and upbeat, simply asking the question - 'how do we get more of the region using the forum?' That does not suggest that the RO or anyone else is not doing their best, quite the opposite. It says this is a great resource and something we really want more people to use.
I absolutely agree that this is a great resource and would love to see more people using it, members or not. I think anything that can bring more Porsche fans to the forum has to be a good thing and if there is anything extra that I can do to make that happen then I am up for it 100%.
Maybe we could one day have a regional meet in a Northants internet café where we can all sit down, swap links and help non-internet users or those watching from the sidelines to get online and have a go on the forum, who knows, I will look into it if anyone thinks that is a good idea. Maybe for the next open day at Cornbury House we could put four or five PC's somewhere and allow people to use an online 'test' section of the forum (similar to eBay's test section). Anything is possible with an open mind.
And for anyone who also feels that the 'useful information contained within the forum is hidden away amongst the vagaries of a chat room', as Dolly Parton said, If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain! [
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
]