Marlin on Facebook

[lil_red_roadster]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

I'm sure Steve wasn't trying to be
argumentative and was merely using the word
"Quote" to draw attention to specific points.
No different to using the "quote previous"
functionality provided in most other
forums...

I happen to share the view that the forum is
the single most important aspect to the
public face of the club and encouraging wider
membership & participation. If we can provide
a forum which helps brings together all Marlin
owners & builders so much the better.

As I said on the other thread IMO the static
content is actually less important, providing
the forum is up to snuff...which sadly it no
longer is.

To me there appears to be a
natural divide between the "old" models, with
many no longer in the ownership of the
original builder and the newer offerings from
Marlin. These new and their owners are the
future of the club

The needs of the new-builder/modifier versus the
2nd/3rd owner are arguably different, as are
the challenges faced (SVA/IVA) & technologies
used (carbs vs. injection, turbo, vtec
etc)...in fact I think this is one of the
significant challenges we face - how to
overcome those differences, which don't exist
in many clubs, as the model-base is much more
homogeneous and hence problems faced by all
are very similar.

That said I'm convinced a more dynamic &
user-friendly forum can definitely help
bridge the divide. Let's have the forum
"garage" where people can describe their cars
& mods; the general chat; the techie members-only
area (including downloadable manuals/PitStop archive);
the IVA/SVA section and so on...

As regards PitStop I believe this is still
relevant and is a magazine we can be proud of
(Sue to note!), though it does need to be more
inclusive...but to do that we need to encourage
new builders to contribute. And the most immediate
way that can be accomplished is to improve the
forum, bringing more people into the "community"
and building trust & inclusion from there.

Anyway, FWIW those are my thoughts.

Jez

[Dane_Rescueman]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

So, Old models not so good?
Old models with their second or subsequent owner not good at all?
IT possibly more important than the cars?
I've seen it before in the TR Register many years ago when everyone was split over the inclusion of the new (then) TR7 & 8. They had nothing in common with the TR line but because the newish company, BL not Triumph, decided to call them TRs then it was thought that they should join. Some of you may remember the acrimony!
We are possibly in the same position The latest Marlins are from a newish company producing radically different designs. It could be a problem that we do not overcome.
Is it PUFO time?

[lil_red_roadster]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

Dane, I'm not saying that one set of cars/owners are better. I'm saying "different"...

You have a point with the TR analogy - perhaps the talk of websites & forums are masking the real issues and hence the debate needs to be opened up somewhat..?

[CosworthCabrioLee]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

Hello All,
I have read with great interest peoples’ opinions both on the forum, and facebook as to what the new forum should look like and what it should say about the MOC .
Please all be assured that the committee will be discussing the new website at our next committee meeting in May, and how we can get a website that is correct and the best it possibly can be for its member and new faces.
I hope to be reporting back soon the progress of the new website and possible time scales.
Thanks
Lee Hunter
Marlin Owners Club Chairman

[denniswpearce1]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

Sue Roedel, I would like to publicly apologise for my wrong choice of words re: the editorial comment on the madabout forum. Having read it back it was not what I meant to say. I was trying to compare the glitzy BMAA mag with ours with its colour glossy format. The mag would look good on any newsagent shelf, but I did not mean to denigrate you or any other editorial staff. So apologies again. In future I will read and think about what I have said before I post
Regards
Dennis

[cdow]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

Jez talks a lot of sense. The problem is this forum has been behind the times for years… the committee are going to talk about it in May – best not to rush anything!

[listerjp2]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

Chris, you are obviously bent on arguing with anyone who doesn't have the same opinion as you i.e. a classic wide up merchant. You’re not a member and obviously are a very sarcastic person, why are you even lowering yourself to reply and make comments on something that is clearly below you.
Why do you bother?
You could do us all a favour and not.

[cdow]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

Adrian, I don’t recall arguing with anyone, or trying to wind anyone up. Rather the opposite, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone disagree with me.

I’m not ‘very sarcastic’, just a tiny bit where appropriate. Modernisation has been a topic for years and still nothing happens, why does it have to wait for a committee meeting? This is 2011 and the committee could exchange ideas and make a decision in minutes without the need for a formal meeting. It looks very much to me that it wants to put it off for as long as possible.

The reason I bother, is because I’m quite keen on Marlin cars and the MOC is failing to fulfil its own published Objectives – “encourage the improvement of the standard of kit car construction by providing facilities for the exchange if news and technical information between the members”

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

In fairness to the committee, they have been discussing this for a long time now and I dont envy their postions; trying to get the best value for money versus the best possible product - there's always going to be some tensions there!
I know requests for inclusion in a potential new website were solicited in the chairman's letter in a not so recent Pitstop, and Bob corrected me earlier in saying that a tendering process had taken place.
We might be better off in this discussion following Jez's lead and adding our thoughts to what form the new site should take.
The website itself is not a big problem, it contains most of the stuff you would want - it just needs a facility that allows easy editing without incurring web designer costs - content management systems are the usual solution nowadays - and a freshen up. No, the big issue is the forum itself. That's where the money needs to be spent and that is probably the sticking point in the committees deliberations (I dont know- Im not on it). If you look at other car club forums you will see that almost all are hosted on free software - but that doesnt mean it is really Free - someone has to be an administrator and apply updates, patches, moderate etc. There is definitley a cost, to say nothing of migrating the values threads from years back, setting it all up etc, that is an area worth spending on. I know from experience that sites of this (MOC) size and complexity cost about 2/3 to half what they did last year as technology becomes more usable and accessible.

This topic has probably run out of steam now - until the AGM- and rather than risk falling out with one another we need to be thinking about how to support our commitee to come to the right decisions. After all they are elected by us for exactly that reason. I dont want to sound patronising and thats not my intention, I just see a really good oportunity for us to move the club forward and think the best way to do it is to use our voice in a united front. So my vote would be Yes to a new website/forum as long as it represented good value for money!

[b_caswell]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

To those it may concern,

All the positions on the committee are purely voluntary and unpaid.

Any paid up member of the Marlin Owners Club can stand for election to any post.

When I considered publicly at last years AGM that I may stand down from the committee there wasnt much of a rush to enquire what the job involved. In fact only one person approached me to find out.

We (the committee) are tying to do the best we can for the club. If you can do better stick your hand up or shut up.

[cdow]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

Whoever runs the FB page might want to look at getting a unique URL for it - makes it neater and easier to find, see the following link on how to do it: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=158064879912&topic=53094

(non-member trying to be helpful!)

[arthur_clark]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

face book is the nemesis of all club web sites/forums
NEMESIS, (Greek mythology) the goddess of divine retribution and vengeance
bane: something causing misery or death;

BE WARNED

[KitCarGirl]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

To Dennis: Thank you for your clarification.

To all: Sadly the MOC will never have a big glossy mag while members only pay £15 a year and we have fewer than 600 in total paying that. So you get what you pay more and it's as good as the copy that is sent in.

To Cameron: Thank you for your supportive words and clarification.

To Arthur: Even Silverstone have a FaceBook Group. I'd hardly call it a nemesis. MOC are simply trying to grind the club into more modern times. A new website will also do this.

To all: I am frustrated as you at the lack of progress on the website. For complex reasons it has been temporarily halted. The reason for talking in May is that it is the next time the whole committee is together. As Ben says, our work is voluntary and unpaid. Some of us still have full time jobs. All of us live considerable miles away from each other. To make any big decisions we have to meet. We meet three times a year. Since Stoneleigh last year there has been a lot of background work on a new website. It came to a head in the new year when we were near to being able to probably have a new site to launch at Stoneleigh but due to financial discussions and lack of agreement on who does the work being re-discussed at the February committee meeting, the work was halted. A deep breath has been taken and we will resume again, with a decision to progress, at Stoneleigh after the AGM when the committee get together.

[donsayers]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

This present forum is quite frankly past it. We need in line pictures; pictures that are part of the post and not separate. We need a proper indexing (by tags) so that technical help can be found easily.

Printed magazines are all very well but without a carefully collated collection of them and a comprehensive index, they are useless.

I sorry to all the dinosaurs out there, the online world is here to stay. I expect to be able to find all information on the web, and the MOC must keep up.

[KitCarGirl]

Re: Marlin on Facebook

You're right Don and we plan to have all that and more. The Forum is especially important and will be a standard format that is commonly used now.