There has been quite a bit of commentary lately about locking of threads and closing or moving of threads pertaining to products not even on the market yet. One of the moderators gave a nice long explanation to Paras as to why his tread on the front fascia was closed, but I beleive he left out the most important explanation.....This forum is really a "for profit" business. Users are allowed free access to the forum space, but if there is a commercial aspect wherein a user stands to make a buck, the forum owner want a piece of the action....or you cant play. Nothing wrong with that, as long as we all know and understand that this is Troy's bread and butter and as with all media, it costs to make it happen. Even with voluntary assistance, the only real way to meet those costs is through advertising. Personally, I feel that the recent closing of Paras thread was premature and should not have happened, as there is not yet a product to offer for sale. I would think that Troy and the moderators would want to develop good relationships with potential new funding sources, like developers of new products. Now, before you guys lock this up, please consider letting this thread live for a while to let the people who come here to share 'Corvette' make some comments. As long as the users are happy with the forum, they will surf, and post, time and time again, such my posting over 1000 times now [ about which my thread was immediatly locked] ...and if they come here, then there is an audience for the paying advertisers to present to. If that audience becomes unhappy and finds another place to chat, then the old pocketbook gets hit cause the advertisers will follow the audience elsewhere.

So how bout it........giving a little more exposure to a new product developer does NOT hurt your existing advertisers, and encourages the developer to ante up and become a paid advertiser when there is product to sell.....The selling of which generates even more money to pay for more advertising.

 

I couldn't agree more, very well stated. Troy (mods) should consider the long term win/win relationship before cutting things short. I feel a re-look would be in order.

 

It's a tricky gray area.

On one hand, the forum has a responsibility to protect advertisers from free competition. Why pay to sponsor the forum if someone can come here and promote a product, even if that product is not yet for sale? When and if it becomes available, the promotion will have already taken place.

On the other hand, the forum also has a responsibility to both members and vendors to let discussions on marketing take place. Otherwise how would vendors know when there's a market for new and emerging products?

So the answer here is not in what the product is or even who's doing the promotion, but rather in how the promotion is done.

If I ask, would anyone be interested in a purple bat-wing to mount on top of your car, that's not a problem. If I say that I'm developing a new purple bat-wing to mount on top of the car, that's a problem. People will come to me first to get their bat-wing at the expense of paying sponsors.

 

What about if the purple bat wing was being manufactured by you as in your example, but distributed and sold by the existing paying advertisers? Should you be double dipped, being forced to pay for your own exposure, and then be negotiated into deeper discounts to the retailers so they can also pay for forum advertising? Its not complicated at all....It's partly how the Corvette tax gets to be so high. Everywhere one turns in the deveolpment, production, and marketing process, someone is there with a hand out to be greased.

I have some technical Corvette products underdevelopment now and I am NOT yet talking about them,.... I will,.... but only after I have rigirous testing of the prototypes completed, and a new Corp set up to handle the business framework . We will NOT get involved in retail selling. It will be interesting to see how Troy and the Mods handle my situation when the time comes, cause you will only be able to buy my stuff from a select number of outlets, several of which ARE paying advertisers here, otherwide known as 'supporting vendors'.

I would still like to see the situation lighten up a little bit to encourage small scale developers who need some kind of contact with potential customer base to make sure the product gets deveolped in a way that consumers will want it, thus generating $$ to share with Troy. Some of the items offered here a really micro business scale. Example....How many $15 dollar cup holders move on the forum? Probably not enough to make a monthy car payment. Compare that with the mid size producers like Nate and his business that makes the great jacking pucks and chassis plates, or Vette Essentials leather, and then think about the the big operations like Eckers and Year One.

There is a huge difference in the scale of operations and the ability to pay for exposure on this forum.

There are plenty of creative people with vision and the drive to take a risk and join the ranks of those offering accessories, performance enhancements, service items, and services for our Vettes. In the end, it is WE the users of the forum and WE who enjoy these cars who benefit from a healthy marketplace filled with choices. The Corvetteforum is a business too, and it benefits when we consumers/forum users benefit. It is in the spitit of an all around Win-Win for both the Corvette forum and the users that I propose a little more tolerance of those in the process of trying to take the risk and join the ranks of small scale manufacters or service providers that ultimately we ALL benefit from.

 

The Forum is privately owned, you should consider taking up such suggestions about it's business model directly with the moderators. It's the best way to get heard.

 

 

Gauging interest is one thing, but 15 posts that go on like an infomercial is another (not talking about any specific thread here). I do want to know about new potential products, but at some point it is time to pony up your $'s just like every other supporting sponsor does.

I have purchased from several Forum Vendors and two of them told me what they were paying to be a sponsor and the costs were very reasonable. Sure there are forums without any rules, but the user bases are small and therefore the infromation is often lacking.

 

Forum vendors pay to advertise which is why the forum is free, so is it fair to supporting vendor to have links for products sold by non supporting vendors.

I have talk to mods about selling things and they will allow a thread to guage interest but you can't keep coming back all the time with same type of thread.

Vstella did a guaging interest thread and it has done him well and now he is a supporting vendor.

We all know the rules when we signed up to the fourm.

If you really want to show support for the forum then you should become a supporting memeber?

 

two recent products come to mind that were allowed, after gaining permission to do so from the administrators, to see if they was/is a demand. The folding keyfob and vinyl graphics for C5 front and rear fascia. Both members petitioned admins to allow them to see the demand and then both either became supporting vendors or sold their ideas to current supporting vendors. Paras can follow the same track. To continue to badger the moderators to allow new products to be discussed, is not helping the situation. Troy and Savewave have been notified and I hope they chime in.The moderators go by the rules set down by Troy. Perhaps it would be better that you make your concerns known directly to Troy or Savewave instead on in an open thread.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...9&forum_id=109