Looking for someone to take over Fordfestiva.com

[25Horseplay]

I am looking to see if anyone is interested in taking over ownership of the site. With a busy life I don't always have time for it. And I get tired of all the shitty comments about my car not running and if I mention getting another car. But I won't just turn it over to anyone, I have a few people I'd consider but want to see if they show interest. So if you want to be considered reply to this post with your ideas and plans for the future of Fordfestiva.com. So lets hear your thoughts and ideas. Lets not post a bunch of replies off topic here, lets keep it related to the subject.

[scitzz]

Speaking for the entire Madness committee, we want to buy it. I'll outline ideas come Tuesday if that's ok with you. We are all kind of busy this weekend. But I know my wife spoke to you of this last year. The interest is still there.

Sent from a mental institution

[ckiesman89]

I definitely support the committee buying it. We need to keep this alive. I’ve been a member of the forum for a little while now, and I have consistently used it for information. This community could really benefit from passing it on to the madness committee.


Sent from my iPhone using Unicorn magic

[xaero_81]

Anyone but Brad....��

[25Horseplay]

It's not for sale. I want to find someone with ideas and plans for the future. I won't just let anyone have FF.com. I have had it for 11-12 years and want to make sure the site continues in a positive direction!

[Hot_Wheels]

I vote for someone who makes the meets not just madness but also travels to the other meets to help spread the festiva gospel.. I'm not sure of there is one that I could say is worthy as I believe it should be a group effort.

[firebush357]

I know a lot of activity has been moved to the Facebook group but we try to push people to the Forum when we can.

Does it have to be one person or can it be a committee of people? How many Admins do you usually run right now? Maybe add some admins that are a little more active to run certain areas like FOTM and Picture Games or something to keep it a little more interesting.

[bravekozak]

BingBot Spider is logged in right now.

I was a unix sysadmin for many years.

Where is the FF server located?

[25Horseplay]

I am not looking for suggestions, I am looking for someone who wants to take over. If no one does then I will continue as is

[scitzz]

We finished getting everything around Madness Central straightened up today then basically reclined for about 6 hours doing, well, honestly, nothing. I'll be puting thoughts and ideas together tomorrow. I have lots. It's going to take a couple hours to put them all together in an organized manner. It was a very long and crazy week that really takes a day to recover from just to be able to think coherently.

But to be very clear, yes, if you need someone to take over, i think i am the guy to do it, along with the dedication to community, help, creative input, and energy that having the Madness committee behind me brings.

I did have the chance to talk to quite a few members this weekend and they seemed to be very supportive of the idea.

I'm sure that together, we can continue in a way that would make you very proud.

If you decide to stick around, I'll also be glad to help anyway i can.

Sent from a mental institution

[freshtiva]

I have had it for 11-12 years

Thank you for that !!!!

[25Horseplay]

Paul why are you the guy to take over? What ideas and thoughts do you have? Just saying your the guy isn't good enough, I want to hear specific thoughts and ideas. I am also looking for a couple key items.

[scitzz]

The overall view


Lately, the forum has seen activity decline as the Facebook group has grown to have a worldwide presence and 24/7 engagement. Facebook offers no guarantees of archiving that knowledge in the long term, ie, 2 or 3 decades from now. It could literally die over night at the whim of admins (think Myspace blogs. Millions of pages deleted overnight with no warning, representing untold amounts of knowledge.) It is also not as easy to search. Plus, not everyone on Facebook is on the forum and not everyone on the forum is on Facebook. Even those that would prefer to use the forum end up using Facebook because that is where the activity is at. There is a myriad of reasons for that, and we hope to address at least a few in this proposal. We think our goal should be to get that activity back to the forum if at all possible. At the same time, we should use the Facebook platform to continue our growth and keep our community not only the way it is today, the greatest car club with the friendliest people, but also grow that community, both in numbers and in knowledge. Social media should be utilized to drive traffic to the site, not as a replacement for the site.


Also, there is a tendency to be moving towards just the racing aspects of our cars, and sometimes we ignore our roots, and we need to keep those. Finding mods for the cars from other cars at the junkyards. Stock cars getting great gas mileage. Hypermiling. All those other things that make our cars fun.


So. Here is what I have. I am going to break this down into some sections.
=============================================
The Madness Committee, its strengths and qualifications.


The Madness Committee is:
Barbara Allen
John Jacks
Jeremy Mullins
Paul Short
Sherry Short
Autumn Winters


The way we picture this is I would be acting as a chief operations officer. I would be doing most of the day to day stuff involved in running the forum. Behind that would be the Madness Committee. Barb has always been the head of that and we would continue to rely on her for steering us in the right direction. She is our rudder. If she sees things going in a good or bad direction, she either cracks the whip or gives us encouragement.


Sherry and Autumn are where most of the creativity comes from, and Sherry organizes things. Jeremy is also involved in the creative aspects, mostly in ideas. He brings in the passion for Aspires as well as the Festiva. He has also been responsible for the Madness page. Autumn generally supplies execution. John and I generally are relied on as indicators of what would fly well and what might not go over so well. John makes various other contributions including knowledge of cars and community. Which is where my heaviest contributions fall into. I have been in the community for a long time, know most of all the older members, and also have helped recruit many of the younger members. Strong knowledge of the vehicle, and lots of hands on repair experience. During meets, I act as a "face" and an organizer of activities. I usually manage to get along with most pretty well, and when I don't, I can leave my personal feelings to the side for the sake of community. I have many years of personnel management under my belt, so I am usually pretty good at getting groups of people to get along, moving forward with common goals, and keeping them motivated.


So we cover a lot of bases as a group that one person alone would be hard pressed to supply. 12 years into Madness meets, having been involved in 9 myself, I think we show a long term dedication to the car and the community that would be hard to match. Toss in the number of parts we curate and have saved, that we will be providing for years to come, and you know that dedication is unlikely to waver. If there is something that comes up that none of us can handle, then we can identify a good candidate and recruit them into the committee.


Utilizing a committee, we can guarantee continuity. If one or two decide they are over it, for whatever reason, the rest can move forward, recruiting other members. Which is basically how I came to be a part of it. It also provides energy. If one person is buried in other life things, the rest are there to pick up the slack.


There is a whole host of other abilities at play in this group, but these are the ones we can come up with that apply to the discussion at hand.
===============================================
Technology.


We can't speak much about the tech of the website. We know it is using a version of V Bulletin. We know there were issues with a past migration of hosting. We know there are some stumbling blocks to updating the tech. We just are not privy to much information concerning that, so it is hard to express ideas about this not knowing their feasibility. We will still try.


The site could be updated. Google search added in the past was an issue, but would it still be? Search is a problem many people have. That could be addressed. Whether using google or another search engine, search just needs to be fixed.


Approval for admission could be a little more streamlined. Which also touches on another area, administration.


We have no idea what the hosting costs are and if they could be reduced in any way.


We are not very skilled at running a website on the back end. We do not know where Simon is at on continuing with his assistance. We do have access to a few people who are very knowledgeable about such things and have already agreed to spend quite a bit of time helping us any way they can. My learning ability in these areas is sharp though. Usually, a quick walk through is enough for me to at least get the basics. I am not some bumbling idiot behind the keyboard, and I am not a master of it either.


We do not know how often the site is backed up, if there is a secondary physical location, or anything else regarding that. We hope such is in place and if not, would pursue that.


Editing comments. We would look into making it possible for any member to see the edit history, and allow unlimited editing. This would make sales, and meet threads so much easier to keep updated.


The Facebook thing is huge. We need to explore a way to integrate the social side of the Facebook group with the knowledge base in the forum to make it easier to utilize both areas. Worth looking into, not sure how that would work out. File this as one giant IF. Privacy concerns, amongst other things, might kill that idea.


We need a more user friendly interface. It is getting a little clunky and outdated. That needs to be addressed.


=============================================
Administration.


This is the biggest area of problems with the site that we can see. Not that the admins are not any good, but a general lack in activity. Many people have given up on telling people to join the site more than once. What they generally get is "Well, I tried to join but I had a problem, so I emailed and never heard back, but the Facebook group answered all my questions, so why do I need the forum?" I know that personally have messaged mods and admins in the past trying to get important details about FM9 changed, when the meet location had to be changed with less than 2 weeks notice, and got no where with it.


We need more active admins and mods! There are plenty of members who surely would be glad to chip in and help with this. We would make this a top priority to help regain traffic to the site. We need a staff that can help those who are trying to join and are running into problems. Moderators who can quickly identify and fix problems on threads.


===============================================


Organization of threads


Charlie went through a while back and did a wonderful job neatening some things up. We would add in a section for vendors, with a subsection for each one, with the vendor possibly modding their own sub section.


A revamped section in the beginning for new members would be a good idea. Adding an automated welcome PM with links to a FAQ and other more active stickies would be nice.


We are always open to suggestions.


===============================================


Organization across platforms.


We would try to get all the platforms tied together a little bit better, and try to get them monitored. It was brought to our attention the page (not the very active group) on Facebook had quite a few unanswered questions on it. If the page did a better job of pointing visitors to either the forum or the group, and had notifications going to a set of active mods/admins, then we wouldn't have possible members slipping through the cracks.


=============================================


Most of all, we are guided by the great community that was already built before I ever stumbled on it. We have to listen and respond to everyones cares and concerns, follow the trends that grow organically from this great collaboration we call a forum. It isn't about one person, or a committee or any other small group of people. It is about all of us, coming together and sharing our passion. That should be our way into the future.


Lastly, as already noted, big thanks to Brian for all he has done so far. If you decide to keep it Brian, you can count on us for help. If you decide to hand it to someone else, we will support them as well. If you want to stay active as an admin, moderator or just a member, of course we want you around!

[jbibb1]

I am 100% completely in favor of allowing the "Madness Committee" to gain control of and possession of fordfestiva.com - I have been around for many years and have seen quite a few things come and go. This group is a fine choice to gain control of this great site. They have been instrumental in joining the FB crowd and the old school forum group - they not only organize and pull off Madness every year - they also have their fingers on the pulse of this fantastic group - if you don't believe me, as Barb who the guy was with the pretty white festy with the Infinity G20 wheels was - she'll know - she keeps track of that kind of stuff - and the rest of them simply make sure that things happen - all of the stuff that needs to happen - all the things that make this group what it is - fantastic -- if you need any more examples of the great things they do - please feel free to drop me a line

[Safety Guy]

This:

"Social media should be utilized to drive traffic to the site, not as a replacement for the site."

While I'd normally not suggest going to a committee, I think in this case it would be great.

Thanks to Brian, as usual, for his keeping this site alive all these years!

Karl