[Scuderia_Turini]

I posted up on my Facebook page 5 hours ago :-)   Can see that there  has been one new member  since then, but I don't think they are one of my 592 "friends"  :-( 

Leo

[Gordon Steadman]

Gentlemen, at the risk of sounding like I take all this too seriously, I'd really prefer us not to be cocking a snook at SlotForum with anything that goes out with this place's name on it.


That's not our aim here, we've still got good friends over there, and the last thing we want is to create any division within our hobby. I guess I feel a little uncomfortable with the reference to "suits in far away places, profiting by your presence".

So if anybody is kind enough to promote SlotRacer.online, if anybody wants to do us a favour and print off some flyers or whatever, that would be very much appreciated. But could I request that we try to be careful. I don't want to discourage anybody from promoting our new forum, but personally I'd like us to be talking about the benefits of this place without trying to highlight the problems of others.

As Andy has kindly pointed out above, we're beginning to build up some good content, and I'd add Gordon's car plans, and Andy's own ARC instruction manual to that list, amongst others.

So I'd like to suggest the following as something that I'd be happy to go out under our name. Just one of Doug's lovely photos, with the site's name and address.



Obviously it's not up to me what anybody does, But as a polite request, I'd like us not to snipe at SFI in any way, shape or form. We worked really hard for SlotForum, and for the sake of our hobby we wish it continuing success.

My effort was not really intended to be serious and I didn't expect anyone to take it so. I take your point about not wanting to criticise SFI. It wasn't aimed at the people on there obviously, just the sharks elsewhere.

[JasonB]

Don't worry Gordon, I took that for granted.

[Henk]

Although I like the initiative to „spread the word around“ I must also emphasize on the fact that a good forum needs some time to grow, Rome wasn‘t build in a day either.

What did some people expect, that everybody from SFI would come to this forum and never look back? Most of the people don‘t even know what the reasons was to open this forum in the first place. At least I don‘t know. Just read some comment on Chappy‘s post on SFI that it had to do with an „unhappy“ feeling some mods had concerning the company that runs SFI now.

I don‘t need to know, for me it is all dust in the wind. But the times for bulletin board and fora are almost gone, few people still post and discuss. It‘s the Ohs and AHs they want without comment so the social Media like Facebook is where new potential members can be found.

And if I‘m correct that‘s where this forum started in the first place?

[woodcote]

Henk - you're absolutely right that the new forum will need time to grow. However, to grow into something worthwhile it will need gentle nurturing and encouragement - as well as patience.

One thing I like about Slot Racer Online is that it is a hybrid of static website and forum. There is space in this world for the kind of content that is simply not possible on social media. That's why I think it is important we nurture and encourage that sort of content here - and then share the links to social media and to our clubs and with our slot car friends and acquaintances.

I have had positive feedback about my posts on Slot Racer Online from people who have followed the links. They have not signed up or posted here, but they have used the site. I would think most traffic to forums is casual browsing - and that is no bad thing. Anonymous 'lurkers' are going to be learning new things and getting inspired by what we post here.

There are a lot of ways that people share their passion for their hobbies - at clubs, public events, conventions, birthday parties, on facebook, WeChat, instagram, whatsapp groups, twitter, blogs, paper and ink magazines, ebooks, websites, YouTube channels, articles in local newspapers, forum posts - you name a way of communicating, people will be using it to share their passions. There is no one way, neither any obsolete ways. Every platform probably has its own 'best way' - and that's a big opportunity to develop Slot Racer Online.

[Kevan]

I've started posting links to both here and the other slot forum in my weekly club race reports.

Talking of club race reports we need our own club section rather than one thread for each club.

[Mr Modifier]

For me the Forum is a better format because you can find information easily.  Facebook etc has no real reference section - it’s all about the here and now.

I don’t think fora are dead by any means - they remain relevant to specific interest groups  - the gossipers moved away to FaceChat and SnapBook ages ago.

[Gordon Steadman]

Probably boring to get into the Facebook thing but after trying hard to enjoy the Old School group over there, I just found it hard to get fully involved with. Nothing but quick posts with a lot of liking going on but no real depth or reference.

A shame, as the people over there are great and many of them I know or have raced against plus the basic subject matter was interesting of course. The final killer was the constant ads and non related rubbish that started popping up everywhere.

This is the second time I have 'resigned'. I hoped that there would be enough reason to stay this time but alas...no.

[CMOTD]

Thanks very much for your enthusiastic support folks. As Henk says, Rome wasn't built in a day and it will take time to get established but so far so good. We would obviously like as many people to join us as possible and any help you can give in promoting the site would be much appreciated.

Mr Modifier and/or Woodcote, flyers at the Festival would be most helpful, the more the better and I can bankroll it up to a point if you want to get something done professionally. Send me a PM if you need some financial assistance.

This site was born out of our frustration with the incompetent commercial owners of SFI, we have no gripe with the actual members and there is room for both of us. Jason would have preferred to do all his new stuff over there but its combination of outdated software and a complete absence of help from VerticalScope made it impossible.

Forums are certainly in decline all over t'internet but there is still sufficient interest to keep them going for a while yet. Don't be fooled by the seemingly large membership of other forums though, SFI has over 22,00 but, this is a false figure because it is virtually impossible to terminate your membership even if you die. 90% of their members haven't logged in for many years. Last time I trawled through their membership list I found just 240 people who had actually made a post in the previous 6 months.

The main USA forum SCI is also in terminal decline, they produce more statistics than SFI  and currently show an active membership of just 336 from 27,470! Our total of 178 so far doesn't look too bad compared to that but we need to keep pushing.

Facebook has a lot to answer for but we can't turn the clock back so it will remain the go to site for ephemeral information for the foreseeable future. Hopefully our aim of publishing more permanent content will appeal to sufficient numbers of people to make SlotRacer a long term success.

[Kevan]

I ran an RC Drift forum for 10 years, Facebook came along and my membership died. I finished the website but still see some members on FB. We need to post here and there and link them so Google can cross reference them which is good for traffic.