Forum for members only

Thanks - Yes we did it was Cyprus - 14 days on sunshine, no cloud, or rain and late 80's/90's temp but no P5's either.

As I said a lot of non-members have benfited from this forum for a long time - they still will as the SEARCH facility if properly used will most likley cover the topic required .

I do not mind responding to forum and any Rover club members who do contribute even in a small way eg telling us about their cars/experiences.

This does not not have to be mechanically related either as contributions can be in all sorts of ways eg club officers, supporting arranging rallies etc or just turning up at them.

I share your sentiments and thoughts 95% Dirkco the only problem on my part is that some do not. I personally feel that if I use this forum I should also support the club at the same time. I often BROWSE onto other forums, but the high quality of contributions on this forum make it one of the... if not the best forums around. The amount of time/money it has saved me is invaluable. As a result, I would have definitely joined the club To access the site as a member would have encouraged me to join the club too to have the privelage of accessing this forum.. We could always have a trial period to see how it goes? six months/year then have a consensus of feeling then? I personally think membership levels would rise as a result. Right, I'm off downstairs to see how my old next door neighbour (yes really) Lewis Hamilton is going to do in the Chinese Grand Prix.

Well, his team manged to muck up when his tyres needed changing

Dear P5 Owners' Club members,
Just thought I would repeat here (cut & paste actually) what I said earlier on the subject in another thread, then add to it.

"I do belong to my local club down here in the Antipodes and I've contemplated joining your club as I have gained so much from this forum. It really builds upon the technical support I get from my own club and helps speed my aquisition of knowledge.

Unfortunately for me, as I live on the other side of the world, I can't participate in any meetings, club events, or even meet the people who have helped me so much. I would receive the club magazine, but it mainly focuses on local events and people (naturally enough). There is a concession for overseas membership, but the difference is small and the forum would be the only benefit of membership.

I would be more than happy to pay a lower membership fee to continue my current level of forum access and freedom. I wouldn't even expect to vote in club matters, as I see this as largely pointless when I wouldn't know or understand the multitude of things that go to running the club. It would just be meddling.

As a non-member it isn't for me to comment on what that fee might be, if in fact it could even be considered. I also fully appreciate the financial and membership pressures on clubs these days."

Now the added stuff.......
I should preface this with the acknowledgement that, as a non club member, it is really none of my business how you conduct the forum. I am offering these additional comments in point form for ease of reading. They are just my observations and general musings.

This forum is extremely good as car forums go, and the enthusiasts who post here can be proud of the way they present themselves. None of the nastiness that so often invades open forums.

I have been visiting it almost daily since I discovered it when Googling late last year when I decided to buy a P5B, and I've been posting occasionally since acquring my car last Easter.

It is impossible to put a value on what I have learnt about my car and the assistance that I've been freely given by many members of the forum, some of whom are probably not club members.

I can however put a value on assistance that John Wallett has given me regarding a non-Rover related car problem that he was instrumental in solving for me. (about AU$5,000 - thanks John).

Since this forum exists because of the efforts of the P5 Club and its members, and I'm tapping into their collective knowledge and resources, I don't believe I should get a free ride.

I considered joining the club several months ago but decided against it as the cost (due to the exchange rate) is higher than I pay for any of my other clubs here.

I cannot participate in anything other than this forum.

If club membership becomes necessary, how many forum contributors will simply dissappear?

I belong to my local Land Rover Club and it is quite large. Our forum is a closed one and as a consequence (I believe) it goes for long periods without anything more than chit-chat between friends. The technical stuff is limited. I rarely visit it and haven't posted on it in perhaps 2 years and I've been a member of that club for over 20 years.

How many of the 700 forum members still exist?

How many visit regularly as observers?

How many contribute?

How many contribute regularly? A dozen? 2 dozen?

Does the webmaster have these sorts of stats available to him from the forum software?

If you charged a lower forum membership only, what should it be?

How many contributors would you lose and how many people like Dirk would not then join the main club because they never had access when they first found it?

If you introduced a forum membership at a lower rate, would you lose any current club members to forum membership? (I doubt it as that wouldn't seem logical).

Could you perhaps offer a forum-only membership that was free for say the first 2 or 3 months? Rover web-surfers could find and explore it. If it was just a passing interest they would learn something and move on. If they had a P5 they would probably stay and join. (Who knows?)

I guess I'm just asking you to please consider all the options and ramifications carefully as the health of the forum is at stake.

I would hate to see an excellent resource deminish or weaken.

Whatever your club decides to do, I intend to stick around for the reasons I have given.

Good luck with the task at hand.

Regards,
Warwick.

(Sorry about the excessive length of my ramblings)

I understand and sympathise with what OZCOUPE (good man btw) is saying, I really do, but if you really want to access the forum and gain the help it gives you then maybe you should join the club? If OZCOUPE is not getting the help from his neck of the woods then that really does show how good this forum is. A potential hot spud, I know.

Perhaps I should clarify a few things that may not have been clear in my rather long-winded post.

Reduced subscription or full subscription, no matter what the club decides, I will join if I need to in order to stay with the forum.

As Dirk has suggested, if you were to add an international section to Take 5 it would also become of more interest to me. (However, I do realize that could add more work for the editor and I have no idea how difficult that job is already).

As a single model club in the homeland of the marque, you are bound to attract more foreign interest than Rover clubs in other countries. There must be some way you can draw strength from that.

Since I would be happy to pay a subscription of some sort, I suppose I'm just saying....Please think this through carefully lest the forum suffers.

And finally, I'm very lucky to have a very strong local club, both technically and socially, but this forum adds another dimension.

Regards,
Warwick.