Evil-Twin

As we all know the Corvette forum is a great place. Its a great place because of the community that resides here.
Over my 15 years here, I've seen this place go from 2 supporting vendors to over a hundred. This place has gone from a close knit community of Corvette lovers, to a captive audience for many vendors to ply their wares. The rules for posting from Vendors has changed dramatically over the years.

I came here this morning like every other morning looking at my PM box, always questions to be answered. Greetings and updates on personal stuff.

I am seeing a dramatic shift in posting from Vendors, that is becoming a concern to the root appeal of this forum... While most of us old timers here, have seen the evolution of this forum and the growth of supporting vendors, this forum ( the Actual forum itself is staring top be over run with commercial adds.

IM posting this here as feed back, I'm posting this here in one place, the place where I hang out. This forum is about community. So if I sent this as a private message to administration, it would be a one vote concern.

I personally know the value of the Vendors here, I know this forum would not be what it is today without them. I also know this forum would have no captive audience without the members. So there are two things that make this forum great, The people, and the vendors, I can not forget the Moderators and the administration, who try t keep this place balanced.

So I am appealing to them in open forum to take a look at the first page of C5 General today,
there are 70 lines per page of activity...... Today out of those 70 lines of community conversation, there where 22 commercial adds. Almost 1/3...

While we all respect the vendors, they need to respect us as well.. No one wants to sit through TV commercials one after the other, and no one wants to wade through line after line of commercials here.

No, this is not mutiny , or disrespect, just an appeal to take a look.
If the administration cares, they will let this run, and I know the mods and administration can read, through any one who post with an agenda other than that which this thread represents.

Any one with an honest opinion, should post here, please no trolls or trouble makers. This is an opportunity for the admin to see a slowly rising issue from the community membership's point of view.

Thanks
Bill aka ET

grantv

I agree it's a concern. Many have posted similar requests, to be either deleted or ignored. I think eventually you will start having people lose interest in this forum.
This place is overrun with advertising, like I've never seen even remotely close on any other forum. There are some who are worse than others, who they may wish to know, I will actually avoid buying from. Hinson is a prime example. Every day, every forum; reminders of their shifters, headers... no more! So they are on my banned list of vendors.
Can the moderators/vendors please reduce the abundance of advertising... will they?

Evil-Twin

While I appreciate your point and specifics.
Please, No Forum vendor bashing... I would like this thread to remain here. I would like to see some honest feed back on this issue without pointing fingers at any particular vendor. Some are more sensitive than others. Some don't seem to care. Lets keep this civil and to the point.
Please
Thanks
Bill aka ET

Awkwardcrane

I agree, I've only been on here a few months, but that was the first thing I noticed. After being on another car forum for an antique car with no ads allowed I was actually shocked by all of the ads. I usually make up my mind about wanting to buy something before going to vendors. Just my 2 cents.

Evil-Twin

One of the reasons this forum is so great is that fact that it cost a lot of money to run a forum of this caliber. Servers, bandwidth, technical support isn't free. Web design and upgrades are always evolving. WE need to support good vendors. But they should be running in the back ground, with an occasional sale post here and there. but not every 24 hours, and not bumping their own threads. IM not trying to make the rules, but identifying a problem.,... This thread is an opportunity for the admin to see it from our perspective.
This forum is the best automotive forum on the planet, because of the Vendors, and the community. The balance is becoming a bit skewed.
Thanks for your input and welcome to this forum.
Bill aka ET

leadfoot4

I, too, agree.

A number of years ago, I got into a discussion with one of the supporting vendors, no less, about how the "wheels and tires" section had morphed from a discussion of wheel and tire problems that members had experienced, into one long advertising section........and I repeat, even a supporting vendor was aware of this, and was a bit discouraged by the situation.........

8VETTE7

mstromquist

It is getting a bit lopsided for sure and I for one get a little frustrated reading every post to see if it's a sales ad or a real post I would like to read. I thought the venders had their own section if anyone wanted to see what was on sale or whatever but that didn't really help much for the other sections it seems. Our local forum has a section for the venders to post their sales and what not and if they venture outside that section it gets deleted and they get a talking to. The support for that forum is on donations only from the people on it. Not sure if or when this forum will change but we'll see I guess. Thanks for posting this. Have a great day.

Fast Cop

I also love coming to the forum every day. I have been here over 10 years and even kept in touch over a 3 year period that I did not have a vette. I have bought from several vendors and the transactions went well and very happy with the products I have bought. I also agree with Bill (ET). A while back a C5 Vendor for Sale section was added and I believe that this where these post belong. JMO.

c5vetteguy

Unless the "policy" here about vendors advertising in all Forums is open for debate, then you're just spinning your wheels. If it is negotiable, let's put up a poll and get some real input.
I agree that the Vendors pay for this great site, but it also takes us members to support this site and its Vendors. At what point does a member decide that the return on time spent is even worth it. I've pretty much built my C5 the way I want and have little need to buy more stuff for it. I'd rather come to General Forum to read about other members cars, trials & tribulations. I'm finding that I'm spending less time here than I used to, and wading through ads makes it even less desirable. If I want to buy something, I use the Advanced Search or C5 Parts section.
Lovin' it, but slowly leavin' it.

c5z06.O

Shut it down like so may other threads have been shut down. If this doesnt get moved. Or shut down. Then we know where we paying members stand.

TIA

Evil-Twin

I think most will agree that this forum is great and part of that greatness is the fact that the vendors pay all the bills. I think we all like it that way.. members would not be members if they had to pay a fee to join... there are too many other forums out there. A fee might chase away some really great members who really don't know this forum. Many members donate to this forum and the forum offers opportunities to do so.
Thank you for your feedback
Bill aka ET

Black 02

This is the only forum where I've seen this type of vendor activity. I always try to purchase my parts from vendors, when possible, and I've purchased from many on this site. With that said, it can be a little overbearing at time to determine if a post is from an enthusiast or a vendor. It's worth nothing that many vendors DO NOT abuse their privileges to post and are very respectful of members. Others do seem to post and bump quite often.

The largest concern I have is that the "vendor is always right" on CF. Vendors are people too and sometimes mistakes are made. When these mistakes are covered up and hidden from plain view, it rubs me the wrong way. In my opinion, vendors are allowed to make mistakes and mistakes happen, it's how they handle the mistakes and make things right for their customers that makes me want to use or avoid them.

Evil-Twin

By your own admission , this is a rant.... I can understand the passion but rants wont help get the feedback the administration need to make a correction. I also recognize that you edited the rant... Thank you...

Hopefully the admin will see this as a genuine feedback opportunity. If we keep it civil, and helpful. It will stay... Good data in, produces good results out.

peteinpa

I agree with Evil Twin. No disrespect but I also belong to other Forums run by IB where the Vendors have there own space and the members have theirs. Most if not all of us a savvy enough to navigate to the Vendor page if we are in need of a product or service. So IMHO I would like to see the member specific sections left to the members and the vendor sections to themselves.

c5z06.O

Going against the vendors has always gone wrong. Paying members or not I've always supported when we complain about the bumps and ads.

Editing was done for improper auto spelling.

I hate the ads. But i always come back to see what members are Upgrading or Learning from from the passion we have about our c5's.

I support you and the other members concerns.

CQRT

I understand ET's point- to a degree. This is a business and accordingly looking to balance customer service/access/content with income.

While I am mindful of the advertising- it's not the 'rock in my shoe' as it apparently is for BIll and I find myself looking past those ads that don't interest me. I've never really counted, but I suspect there are those vendors that post more - - or a LOT more- than others and they're more likely to alienate buyers than attract them.

Interesting topic for conversation . . . but not as much an issue for me.

Evil-Twin

Your concerns are well founded.. I agree... Ive bought from good vendors and not so good vendors. Good vendors take a mistake as an opportunity to lock in a member for life with good service after a mistake. Bad vendors also lock out a member for life when poor service goes un resolved.

There are back channels to vendor abuse... I know I don't go back to a vendor who was less than honest and engaged in a mistake.

Ranting on bad vendor service In open forum only brings the whole forum down. While I know a rant of a vendor is to enlighten other members. But that would turn every forum on this website into a bashing war. WE all know there are way too many people who come here with a personal agenda to disrupt and to troll. That's why we have rules... IM just looking for a bump in the rules, on this one issue about open forum advertising overload. we can't fix everything in this one thread.. Your concerns are legitimate.
Thanks for the feed back.
Bill aka ET

Evil-Twin

Thanks for your feedback... Its only a trend that I see going the wrong way.. my point today was that I'm use to seeing a dozen or so adds on any given page of 70 lines of text... today it was 22 out of 70.. the trend is going North.. so at what point does it become over load... does anyone want to see ( ON the first page of their forum ) 50 ads out of 70 before they say enough , IM leaving... ???

It like having to look at every single line of paid items at a store each time to make sure that its right..

No one wants to wade through 25 or 50 ads from vendors just to find one member post of concern, or request for help...

Its just a trend now... heading North.
Thanks
Bill aka ET

Road Runner

All the points are valid - from both points of view.

I wonder if we can suggest a way of "wading" thru the adds. At my place of work, we have 200 employees and our email in box get overloaded quickly by those who want or have the need to post non-work related items, but it's critical to read everything so you can help others and get your work done. To solve this, we request that non-work related it begin with "NWR - " so we can skip them and come back later if we want.