A new forum for vendors

[Anonymous]

This has certainly been an eye opening experience and to be perfectly honest I am having a hard time getting my head around the objections. I keep hearing the word(s) advertising, banners, solicitating through PM's, and a level of classium (not sure what that means). If you look at what was proposed you will see that its simply a page separated from the main forum where guys like me can paste a link to my homepage so guys like us can source a needed part. As I mentioned in my earlier post we do that now the difference is we would do it inhouse and those of us who have an eBay or private store would pay for that focused exposure.

This is just a side thing for me simply put it was/is intended to pay for my toys but I have made many friends through this little venture and the percentage I sell on here compared to other venues is minimal to infinitesimal and if anyone thinks I use 60% of my posts to sell they are wrong. I can tell you that I have neither the intention or energy to send spam emails and PM's and I seriously doubt any eBay sellers would operate differently. For those who fear the high pressure sales tactics I invite you to scroll through my feedback profile (I have never once solicited a response) you will find that most eBay sellers are pretty easy to deal with (that has been my experience).

We already have a forum called Goldwing and other MC links. Member recommended suppliers and I dont see any problems arising from there.

 

[thebro]

Ok here's my 2 cents... I think a seperate forum or thread or whatever you call it would be a good thing. It gives me the options to go visit it and read it or ignore it. What I really don't care for is all that crap flashing at the top of a web page that intices you and leads you absolutely nowhere. From what I gathered that is not what Dan or anybody wants either.
As far as money to keep the site up, I donated before and would be happy to do it again, this site has saved me a bunch of money with the information I got here. If there is a thread that makes it easier for me to find a good supplier for the parts I require, I am sure I could use it sometime.

Roger

 

[mcgovern61]

This has certainly been an eye opening experience and to be perfectly honest I am having a hard time getting my head around the objections. I keep hearing the word(s) advertising, banners, solicitating through PM's, and a level of classium (not sure what that means). If you look at what was proposed you will see that its simply a page separated from the main forum where guys like me can paste a link to my homepage so guys like us can source a needed part. As I mentioned in my earlier post we do that now the difference is we would do it inhouse and those of us who have an eBay or private store would pay for that focused exposure.

This is just a side thing for me simply put it was/is intended to pay for my toys but I have made many friends through this little venture and the percentage I sell on here compared to other venues is minimal to infinitesimal and if anyone thinks I use 60% of my posts to sell they are wrong. I can tell you that I have neither the intention or energy to send spam emails and PM's and I seriously doubt any eBay sellers would operate differently. For those who fear the high pressure sales tactics I invite you to scroll through my feedback profile (I have never once solicited a response) you will find that most eBay sellers are pretty easy to deal with (that has been my experience).

We already have a forum called Goldwing and other MC links. Member recommended suppliers and I dont see any problems arising from there.

I can speak for myself only and my previous comments are not intended to make vendors feel we (or I) do not want them on the site. My comments are an opinion derived from other MC sites that use advertisers that have ads in the top and side banners as well as in every post which is very annoying if not distracting plus it dramatically slows down the page download speed and increases the risk of downloading bots and spyware (not specifically from the vendor).

I agree that a forum page for vendors is a good idea and we (as consumers looking to keep our bikes safely on the road) will benefit from the resource (hence the reason for our M/C links pages). But...to be fair....I have seen other sites that have been pummeled by advertisers (not your usual ebay sellers). I believe Dan is being reasonably cautious in checking with the Membership (and it is his site) for opinions. A forum page with a subsciption for vendors to promote their sites is a good way to offset system operating costs.

 

[joedrum]

i think your right gerry ...but im also worried about intrusion of gov parisites on dan ...as we are we our a club non profit with rights the irs devils cant make any claim to lable us something different keeping those paristes away is job one in my book ....

 

[dan filipi]

I'm about 99% certain everyone feels the same way about keeping banner ads and popups off the forum.
Believe me, I am too!
They are friggen annoying as hell.
The same with flashy graphics.

Frankly I'm surprised any of you guys would even think I'd allow such things!
There are a few oversized pics in some sigs as well as a bit too much "stuff" going on in some others as it is.

I never started this forum to make money, that has never been my intention with this idea.
(The thought did cross my mind but I did a reality check).
It is to pull parts resources into one place to keep these old beasts on the road.
It became more evident to me we need more parts resources after finding out cheapcycleparts.com no longer stocks ANY 1100 parts. That was an eye opener for me.
Then to top it off, I found myself recommending Saber Cycle for the parts.
(NO SC FLAMES PLEASE!)

I believe pooling these resources is something who's time has come.
The small vendor fees would help offset operating costs of the forum which by the way is in the red.
It's in the red because we have not asked for donations because I don't like to do that.
I feel if you like the site and want to help out then a donation should be voluntary and your own idea without me having to ASK for it.

I have made a sample forum to put some things together and make sure this is something that actually could work before making them "live" forums anyone can see.
It is a work in progress.

Believe me when I say the well being of the forum is my primary concern.

 

[toytender01]

Dan I trust your judgement and so far you da man!! I am on the fence with this. Venders will always be members on the site like every one else. Giving them a seperate place to tout there wares would help keep the rest of the posts cleaner. Having recognized venders ,with oversite would keep the Posts in check. But lets face it it is all a crap shoot It may be worth a trial run. My 2c :lazy: :lazy: :lazy:

 

[dan filipi]

Well guys, I've decided this whole vendor forum idea aint gonna work.
Believe me. it's all I've been thinking about the past week or so.

I think having such a thing would undermine the fundamental core that CGW was built on,
100% member supported.

With that in mind I see no reason to not allow vendors to advertise on the site FOR FREE.
That is afterall what we need is is parts.
In fact I think we should encourage anyone in business selling parts to post away.

There needs to be some rules (I hate stinking rules) to keep the vendors fairly low key.
No flashy graphics in their sig like banners.
Company logo yes but it needs to be a set size maximum, not sure what that should be just yet but I'm thinkin around the size of the CGW patch is in my sig as a max.
No vendor can spam the group with ads either by PM or email. If that comes to my attention the vendor will be dealt with.

So that's it.
Enough about this hairbrained idea.

If any vendor has any questions about how to move forward feel free to PM me.