Looking for someone to take over Fordfestiva.com

[scitzz]

I think selling fordfestiva.com.merchandise to help with website costs or to help members in need is a good idea. I don't like the vendor idea. I've seen that go badly. However, if a member also has a buisiness that sells Festiva related things, I think it's fine for them to list in the regular for sale section.
Personally, I would do as Brian has done. I'd eat the cost and keep it simple. This allows all products advertised to be depicted honestly. It doesn't take long for commercial interests to overwhelm the greater good when it has taken foothold.

I think we are talking different things? We already have vendors, right? But they can't really advertise their stuff without basically spamming the for sale thread, which would bury other peoples for sale posts. I don't want to see commercialism over run us either! If they had a sub forum of their own in the for sale area, they can conduct business in separately and not over run the general for sale thread, that seems like a good thing. We need Ben doing what he does to help keep the cars on the road right? He has been awesome for consolidating the things that have been made.

Don't you mean you would hate to see, say, rockauto with a vendor section? Or am I not following you correctly? I wouldn't like Federal tires with a store front on here, LOL.

[Team Lightning]

You could pin a post for each "vendor" in a separate for sale section for businesses.

[nonamekid]

Discussion of a vendor section is a minor thing and frankly irrelevant to the discussion at hand. That being said, I've seen things that work well on other forums and things that work bad. What we currently have doesn't work for vendors without spamming the site and being rude. Having 1 sticky is also a poor solution: if a vendor has multiple items, discussion and installation details about a given item are quickly buried or hard to find inside of that one sticky.

I am willing to help with the forum as I have in the past. In the past I have been a moderator and a global moderator. I am not in a position to offer to take over the site, and neither do I think it would be good since I own a business and it might cause occasion for conflict of interest, which can be upsetting the average user.

[Advancedynamix]

That makes sense. I'd just be weary of paid vendor types of situations. A separate vendor section would be fine. I'm not worried about current vendors at all, but things could pick up in the next few years, introducing new faces to the market. I'd rather be prepared for that than vulnerable.

[nonamekid]

That makes sense. I'd just be weary of paid vendor types of situations. A separate vendor section would be fine. I'm not worried about current vendors at all, but things could pick up in the next few years, introducing new faces to the market. I'd rather be prepared for that than vulnerable.

I agree. It might not hurt to ask vendors to pay X amount every year to support the site in order to have their own vendor forum. Then everyone wins and it keeps their stuff out of the main pages.

[Team Lightning]

Looks like suggesting that was a bad idea......

[scitzz]

That makes sense. I'd just be weary of paid vendor types of situations. A separate vendor section would be fine. I'm not worried about current vendors at all, but things could pick up in the next few years, introducing new faces to the market. I'd rather be prepared for that than vulnerable.

That's basically what i was thinking. We'd have to carefully vet the vendors, then give them a sub sub section, like, under sales, then vendors, then a sub section for each vendor. Right now we have 2, that i think we can trust not to make things hinky.

Sent from a mental institution

[Advancedynamix]

Jerry, I don't think that was a bad idea. Thanks for speaking up. Like Ben said, this is just going to clutter up this thread. Let's move on.
I think it would not be a conflict of interest for Ben Williams to be heavily involved in the site. The Festiva Store is more of a support system than a profit maker. I know this for certain from personally making parts for the store. Ben barely breaks even on a lot of this stuff. On top of that, he's been a part of this community long before he stepped up and invested time in sourcing parts for us. I know he's too busy to take the full weight of the site, but I hope he's involved as much as possible.

[25Horseplay]

Please keep this post on subject. Some good ideas but I am looking for to take over FF.com and what ideas THEY see for the future.

[Team Lightning]

Sorry, I’ll not make suggestions in the future

[Warchild]

I'm gonna put this out there and then I'm going to be done chasing this thread looking for change. If it happens it happens if it doesn't it doesn't. You say you are looking for something for the future of ff.com. You have been given a wealth of suggestions yet still not what you are wanting to hear. SO this is something you might not want to hear. The madness committee if comprised of six people all who have actively over the last week sought to offer you help in this matter. You have been offered help by both Charlie and Ben. Will is willing to help as well that is nine people that are reaching out to help only instead of taking that help you continue to say oh but I'm looking for something specific.

Here is specific. With out a change in the site to bring it up to the standards of 2019 there is no future for the site it stays right where it's at. Without active admins and mod there is no future for the site it stays right where it is at. You have good people offering you help that you need and you don't seem willing to take it. You chose to throw this out there on Madness weekend the busiest weekend for many in this community and I am forced to wonder about your timing.

I AM WILLING TO HELP
PAUL IS WILLING TO HELP
CHARLIE IS WILLING TO HELP
BEN IS WILLING TO HELP

If you are sincere in wanting to see the change that needs to be made. Take the help man, because for us it's about the future of the community not just the future of a website. I am going to continue to do the things I do for this community and I know that the other three will as well because we all love this community. We all have other interest and we all still make time for this community not just when it suits us. I got very angry about 9 months ago with the way a new member was being treated and I stepped back for a bit and even though I stepped back I still worked behind the scenes to help members in this community get parts and help where they needed it. That's what this community is about and that is the future of the community.

So that is what I have to say about that other than the fact that I have spent the last week looking for the right place to start a thread on this page and have not been able to find the right place to put it and this is part of the problem. User friendly isn't asking much but seems unobtainable.

We are here to help you just have to take the help.

[moz]

I agree on a team effort being the way to drive this forum to continued growth.
I can’t really add anything that hasn’t already been said.

I’d be very happy to contribute towards anything that will grow our community and keep this huge vault of knowledge alive. So whatever the final decision is, please know that I’m here to help if your plates are too full.

In the meantime I’ll continue to fly the festiva flag here in Australia.

Brian, I know I have made jokes about your car not running in the past, but please know it’s just friendly banter and I never meant any malice by it. You’ve done a great job maintaining this forum and handing the reigns to the next generation is an extremely hard thing to do. But you could not find a better group of people to put in charge of it. Whether it’s individual or committee run, we have the right cast of characters to take it to the next level.

[FB71]

Brian,
I've been following this, and have only a little input. Take it for what its worth; I have to agree that committee management may be the best option. It allows for more sustainable growth of the forum, and the group as a whole. I think the folks interested are dedicated, hardcore Festiva fans, who would do well with the responsibility. I may not be super active, but I'm not going anywhere. I wouldn't voice support for any scenario that would jeopardize the longevity and health of the forum. Hope you're doing well!

[SimonTuffGuy]

As one of the longest admins and Festiva supporters of the group, and also the person that hosts the forums, I'd offer taking it with the agreeance of running the forum with a committee of folks who want to see the forum grow. I have extended the forums at no-cost to Brian for the last few years. I need to upgrade PHP on the server we're hosting FF.com with in order to upgrade to the latest version of VB. Unfortunately in the shared host that I'm using for the site, we have 1 customer with super old coded software that they are relying on. Their end-of-life date, when I must upgrade the forum is in December... And after that, we could see improvements to the board.

Or - I'm happy to dump the data off to anyone else if it was decided to go elsewhere.