Locked Thread
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,303
Likes: 151
From: Las Vegas Nevada
Locked Thread
So I tried to make some constructive criticism and have an open discussion about ways to help reduce the large number of venders on this forum and the thread was locked.
I know that this thread will also be locked and might get me banned - but what kind of forum is that that we can't express concerns and suggest ways of improving the site?
Also - to administrator savewave's assessment of the percentage of vender posts - I am currently have my first page set so that I see 70 posts (not including stickies). Within the 70 posts I count 26 vender ads. That is over 37%, a big difference from the 18.75% he reports. Of course being that I have 70 posts show that covers several days (depending on activity). However, looking at just Today's posts (at 09:50PM) I see 22 posts - and of those 22 threads, 10 are vender threads - over 45%.
Anyway, my vent is done. Ban me if you want - Jim "Carnac" Carnahan.
Final post by administrator "savewave" that locked the thread:
I just checked this section and found that six of the 32 threads (not counting the stickies) on the first page of the directory were vendor sales threads. That’s 18.75 percent. I used a two-day directory because the rules restrict vendors from having more than one sales threads on the first page of a two-day directory in any of the discussion sections where they historically have been allowed to post.
I also noted that one of the vendors was in conflict with that rule and removed one of his sales threads to bring him into compliance with the rules. That brought the percentage of sales threads down to16.5 percent. Actually, I was surprised the percentage was not higher since most vendors, like all other retailers depend heavily on Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales promotions to generate a large percent of their annual sales.
The rules restricting the number of vendor threads in discussion sections was imposed by the site’s volunteer administrators and moderators in response to concerns that vendor sale threads may overwhelm some of the sections – particularly those where there is not as much user activity such as this one. That was done several years ago when we started to see that some sections at times had 50 percent or higher vendor sales threads in them.
We’ve also encouraged vendors to shift some of their marketing and sales activity to Vendor For Sale sections established at the time. Those sections are not as restrictive to them. We also hoped that site users would encourage vendors to use the Vendor For Sale sections by using those areas to purchase products. The stats show that has not happened. Most of the sales the vendors get come from the discussion sections, not the Vendor For Sale sections.
Another measure we have taken to address the issue is to merge some of the less active sections to create one larger section. By way of example, we combined the tech, forced induction and performance sections in the C4 and C3 generations into one. In more active sections, a two-day directory may cover multiple pages and user activity pretty quickly pushes vendor sales threads to the bottom and then off the first page of a two-day directory. In sections with low activity, you may not have enough threads to fill the first page of the two-day directory.
In this section, for instance, there were 72 active threads during the past week. In a more active section, it is common to have 150-300 active threads during a 48-hour period. We can consider doing a similar merge in the C7 area, combining Z06 and ZR1 when vendor sales threads approach the 50 percent or higher level.
We’ll continue to monitor vendor sales activity in this and other sections, but you can help by alerting us if you spot what you believe are excessive sales threads by any individual vendor in a section and we'll be glad to take a look.
Long-term, the notion is that vendor traffic may shift more significantly toward those vendor sales sections, but at this point there is not sufficient exposure in those sections to justify removing vendors from the discussion areas they have used for more than 20 years.
The vendors depend upon traffic to generate sales. There is little or no traffic in the vendor sale sections. If after 20 years of allowing vendor sales threads in most every section, we force those sales threads to the new vendor sales sections, many of the vendors would have to drop out.
We'd be the losers because there would not be sufficient revenue to pay the significant bandwidth expenses on a site with the volume of traffic we have at Corvetteforum. And the vendors wouldn’t be here to support the products we have bought from them for our Corvettes.
It's worth noting that we welcome complaints, questions and suggestions on the moderation of the site. Please note, however, that site rules require that those communications be handled via PM or email, rather than in open threads:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...questions.html
I know that this thread will also be locked and might get me banned - but what kind of forum is that that we can't express concerns and suggest ways of improving the site?
Also - to administrator savewave's assessment of the percentage of vender posts - I am currently have my first page set so that I see 70 posts (not including stickies). Within the 70 posts I count 26 vender ads. That is over 37%, a big difference from the 18.75% he reports. Of course being that I have 70 posts show that covers several days (depending on activity). However, looking at just Today's posts (at 09:50PM) I see 22 posts - and of those 22 threads, 10 are vender threads - over 45%.
Anyway, my vent is done. Ban me if you want - Jim "Carnac" Carnahan.
Final post by administrator "savewave" that locked the thread:
I just checked this section and found that six of the 32 threads (not counting the stickies) on the first page of the directory were vendor sales threads. That’s 18.75 percent. I used a two-day directory because the rules restrict vendors from having more than one sales threads on the first page of a two-day directory in any of the discussion sections where they historically have been allowed to post.
I also noted that one of the vendors was in conflict with that rule and removed one of his sales threads to bring him into compliance with the rules. That brought the percentage of sales threads down to16.5 percent. Actually, I was surprised the percentage was not higher since most vendors, like all other retailers depend heavily on Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales promotions to generate a large percent of their annual sales.
The rules restricting the number of vendor threads in discussion sections was imposed by the site’s volunteer administrators and moderators in response to concerns that vendor sale threads may overwhelm some of the sections – particularly those where there is not as much user activity such as this one. That was done several years ago when we started to see that some sections at times had 50 percent or higher vendor sales threads in them.
We’ve also encouraged vendors to shift some of their marketing and sales activity to Vendor For Sale sections established at the time. Those sections are not as restrictive to them. We also hoped that site users would encourage vendors to use the Vendor For Sale sections by using those areas to purchase products. The stats show that has not happened. Most of the sales the vendors get come from the discussion sections, not the Vendor For Sale sections.
Another measure we have taken to address the issue is to merge some of the less active sections to create one larger section. By way of example, we combined the tech, forced induction and performance sections in the C4 and C3 generations into one. In more active sections, a two-day directory may cover multiple pages and user activity pretty quickly pushes vendor sales threads to the bottom and then off the first page of a two-day directory. In sections with low activity, you may not have enough threads to fill the first page of the two-day directory.
In this section, for instance, there were 72 active threads during the past week. In a more active section, it is common to have 150-300 active threads during a 48-hour period. We can consider doing a similar merge in the C7 area, combining Z06 and ZR1 when vendor sales threads approach the 50 percent or higher level.
We’ll continue to monitor vendor sales activity in this and other sections, but you can help by alerting us if you spot what you believe are excessive sales threads by any individual vendor in a section and we'll be glad to take a look.
Long-term, the notion is that vendor traffic may shift more significantly toward those vendor sales sections, but at this point there is not sufficient exposure in those sections to justify removing vendors from the discussion areas they have used for more than 20 years.
The vendors depend upon traffic to generate sales. There is little or no traffic in the vendor sale sections. If after 20 years of allowing vendor sales threads in most every section, we force those sales threads to the new vendor sales sections, many of the vendors would have to drop out.
We'd be the losers because there would not be sufficient revenue to pay the significant bandwidth expenses on a site with the volume of traffic we have at Corvetteforum. And the vendors wouldn’t be here to support the products we have bought from them for our Corvettes.
It's worth noting that we welcome complaints, questions and suggestions on the moderation of the site. Please note, however, that site rules require that those communications be handled via PM or email, rather than in open threads:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...questions.html
Melting Slicks
Joined: Aug 2016
Posts: 2,762
Likes: 1,017
From: MOUNTAIN HOME Arkansas
Savewave is correct. He also says these topics are to be covered by pm’s & direct contact. The rules can be confusing and difficult to find. But your Thread was locked & a very detailed reason why was given & yet you come right back to the same topic simply because YOU don’t seem to like the answer he gave. I do agree the # of ads are overwhelming for someone looking for info on our cars, especially new folks learning to navigate thru the “NOISE”. JMO, no jab at you but this has been covered a buttload of times. 👍
Race Director
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 17,767
Likes: 3,694
From: The Sunshine State
2022 C5 of the Year Finalist - Modified
2021 C5 of the Year Finalist - Modified
C7 of the Year - Modified Finalist 2021
Finalist 2020 C7 of the Year -- Modified
2020 C5 of the Year Finalist - Modified
C5 of Year Finalist (appearance mods) 2019
2018 C5 of Year Finalist
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