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Thread: OzMPSclub: The next stage

  1. #1
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    Exclamation OzMPSclub: The next stage

    We started OzMPSclub back in 2008 as a separate space for MPS owners to create a community and talk about modifications, their love of cars and to get advice. We feel we somewhat achieved that goal and have an awesome community of members and a wealth of knowledge about our cars for others to read.

    This wouldn’t have been possible without the awesome support from key Forum Staff and active members. Without you guys, we wouldn’t be where we are today!

    We also have great sponsors on board, who have allowed us to continue to offer what we think is the most reliable and fastest performing server platform out of all of our “competitors”. In addition to sponsorship revenue, we still are supported financially by our members. Because of this, we have funds to maintain this site well into the future.

    But with the growth of other community mediums, such as Facebook, we’ve seen activity drop off and some of our key members move on to other projects, myself included.

    It’s time we moved OzMPSclub to the next stage and refocus what it is that is our core offering - Community discussion.

    In the coming months we will be talking with you about what you want from the site. The Internet is a very different place now than what it was back in 2008. Should we clear out the clutter of add-on features like the Arcade, Photo Albums etc and just keep the site as a forum? Or should we look to add more features to the site to offer more?

    In terms of staff that manage the site, a number of them have moved on to bigger and brighter things. We couldn't be more happy with the time and effort they put in to help us. It's time to bring in some fresh blood and enthusiasm. We will put a call out for new Forum Staff shortly.

    We want to be open and honest about our plans and welcome your feedback in this thread or by email to webmaster@ozmpsclub.com

    In the next month or so, we will send out a survey to all members asking various questions to help us refocus. We hope you will work with us so that we can build OzMPSclub into the club you would want to be involved in.

    Cheers,

    Rowan
    2014 Mk7 Golf R | DSG | Reflex Silver | Leather | Drive Assist | Bi-Xenon Headlights
    1981 Lincoln Town Car | Auto | 80s Cream | 90s brown interior | 5.0L V8 | Currently no working headlights



  2. #2
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    Personally I'm pretty happy with it all, but if there's things that people think will bring more people to the forum, I'm all ears!

  3. #3

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    It's been a pretty good resource for me for the last few years. The only suggestion would be for the 'What's New' link - to display threads that have been recently updated, rather than new individual posts, something like the 'New Posts' section of MSF.org would be good.

  4. #4
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    The main problem is that bookface groups give people all the community they need in one convenient location. Going to a web forum in addition to that is quite cumbersome. Unless you can plug the website directly into facebook, you're at an inherent disadvantage that is difficult to overcome.

    I think if sponsors want to get more value out of the place then they should seek to get more involved in the community. Be it putting on Dyno days, or simply having an active presence on the forum. The problem again here is they mostly tend to also be active on facebook as well and can engage with their customers there already. I would insist on a little bit more than just a nominal fee from them, even if that is somewhat intangible.
    Last edited by Reedy; 18-06-2015 at 06:57 PM.

  5. #5
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    The forum is an extremely valuable resource to all and for the most part perfect however the ease of the Facebook formats when using mobile phones is the main reason for my basic electrotarded self to share my MPS related missions with our community. I don't usually have the need for a pc which is no doubt the cause of the decline in my own contribution to a car platform that I still love.

    The forum could do with a thread clean out, weed out the good threads and sticky them and maybe allow old threads to time out after so many pages or time from last post?

    To help promote Ozmps forum awareness I think that creating a individual fb profiles for each forum staff member would be a good start on bridging the gap as most of us are all still very active in Mps topics and obviously know each other well.
    Maybe recreate the Ozmps fb page, that way news feeds with forum info may entice more forum activity?
    Every man should have a V8 ute.....with a Chev badge.....and a Southern Cross sticker! Mods? What mods?

  6. #6
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    I would love to suggest creating your own OZMPS bookface page but that ship has kinda sailed unless you want to do it differently. IE: Don't let random idiots generate the content. Pick interesting threads that draw people towards the forum. It would need to have a few contributors but there won't be a shortage of people who are willing.

  7. #7

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    I don't think the ship has sailed for FB at all, we just need to approach it very differently... the previous effort was a little out of control.

    We need to be fairly specific on how each format is used. The book of faces has many benefits as does the forum, I suspect that if we used the forum for more specific technical questions, managing buying and selling & group buys and organise social events, but then cross promote that back to FB.

    FB should be considered as one big off topic thread, posts need to be a mix of the fun and interesting/informative. It shouldnt be used as a primary vehicle for people to exchange ideas and information about the cars we drive. If we did have another group page we would need to make sure that we are reinforcing that people are members of the site BEFORE becoming members in the group.

    One of the advantages of a forum format is that it does require a little bit more effort to join, you have to actively seek it out instead of being just an eye-phone click away from joining any old group... having that level of effort is automatically going to rule out less desirable people from joining (as in people who are not going to contribute but are just there for the s). People also tend to be a little more considerate on forums than they are on FB... it's taken a few incidents on MPSgOAts for people to get the message about what kind of content is and isn't acceptable.

    The other thing that we need to address is un-fracturing the results of the last FB effort, we've got all these little splinter groups and two larger ones, theres a bit of rebuilding to do to get everyone back under the one roof.

  8. #8
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    There's no chance of it being reunited... The admins of the two groups have vastly different opinions as to what's acceptable and what isn't... At least, that's what caused the split 12 months ago...

    As for the "off topic thing" we've tried that at times, semi-enforcing it by immediately semi-trolling lazy posts, it usually ends with the person getting butthurt and deleting their post...

    I've also seen people saying "this is well documented on (Facebook group)" which is the biggest joke, cause you can't document anything on Facebook, as people can't search Facebook (technical limitation).

    As for the content idea @Reedy suggested, I try to do a similar thing already with photos/dyno graphs I find from some of the more prolific US based tuners (and MSF). Doesn't always link back here, but it's often an interesting read (to my mind at least).
    Newbie FAQ My Build Thread
    From stock, to GT3071, to substantially less modded, many lessons learned!
    3" HTP | 100 Cel DP | Autotech HPFP | AP V3 - Self Tuned on E20 | JBR RSB | CPE S2 REM | JBR Shifter Bushings

  9. #9

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    True... The salt is pretty hardcore from that split... I don't particularly care for the admins from the first group (I care for the second because I'm an admin for MPSgOAts ).

    I was more talking about the state specific groups.

    Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

  10. #10
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    If a fb page isn't going to work again it would still be good for Ozmps representatives to be visibly active in fb groups.

  11. #11
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    Im still happy with the way it is , Just dont get here as much as before .
    When and if Mazda release newer versions of MPS, then obviously there will be a greater interest from peeps. The knowledge base here is huge and the learing curve for this platform when initially developing was extremely steep hence (the growth and interest) .
    Mazda with no newer releases since 2012 has impacted both growth and interest IMO .
    Again personally game add on,s dont do it for me , but im 60 .
    Im not familiar with Facebook ,but it would seem as though from posts that it has not been totally successful (splinter groups and fractures) of recent .
    Re vising and tweeking the format of OZMPS is needed and welcomed . Thanks Admin.
    Way to many mods, way too much money spent,way way too much time spent = the wifes no 1 Enemy.
    But i,m Smiling

  12. #12
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    Just some random thoughts:

    I stilll like coming here to see what people have done to their cars, and to live in hope that someone might announce they are from adelaide lol. I am a member in pretty much all the mps related fb groups because I love seeing what people are up to, however still prefer ozmps and msf due to how easy it is to find info, plus I don't give a sh** about interstate meet ups and asinine questions which can flood fb. Lol

    On that note, I think an offiial fb page could work. Evolution oz have a pretty good set up where they will only post for sale items if they have been listed on the forum first, and so the post only links to the forum. No forum post and the fb post gets removed.

    I was thinking an official fb page could just be used to spruik the forum, and maybe pre empt the bloody repetitive questions that come up that have already been answered many many times (that those who frequent the forum are well aware of) for example admin could post up "wondering what intake to get for your car? Look at these threads" and link them to appropriate stickys here. I would make it clear that the page is to be mainly for proper car stuff and for the off topic stuff they should go to the other fb groups, just to avoid the splinter that happened before when people who had been on the scene for 5 minutes thought they knew it all..

    Anyway, whatever you do I will keep popping in to mod my car vicariously through other people until I can afford my next part lol
    AP V3 (Rayd tuned) / CP-E CAI / CP-E TIP / JBR Trilogy / CS Front Strut Brace / JBR SSP / JBR Shift Knob / JBR shifter bushings / Eibach Pro-Kit / Bilstein B8's / SURE Juggernaught / SURE Dreadnaught / Whiteline RSB / Toyo Proxes T1R 235/40/18 / Evo X BBS rims / Turbosmart Dual Port BOV / CP-E DP / CP-E TMIC / Autotech internals / Superpro bushings

    Future mods:
    BT, DM OCC, EGR delete, Braided clutch/brake lines, Hawk HPS 5.0 pads, DBA T3 rotors....


  13. #13

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    Still don't see why we can't have another official fb page. Or that instead of getting onto fb for immediate response, people who cared about the forum, people should consider posting everything here first???

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fully6mps View Post
    I was thinking an official fb page could just be used to spruik the forum, and maybe pre empt the bloody repetitive questions that come up that have already been answered many many times (that those who frequent the forum are well aware of) for example admin could post up "wondering what intake to get for your car? Look at these threads" and link them to appropriate stickys here. I would make it clear that the page is to be mainly for proper car stuff and for the off topic stuff they should go to the other fb groups, just to avoid the splinter that happened before when people who had been on the scene for 5 minutes thought they knew it all..
    That's pretty much the model that I had in mind as well. The only way to stop those asinine posts is to have trusted contributors operating under the OZMPS name.

    Another model that I have seen work well is for people to post all their submissions pending approval from an admin (This model applies to certain political groups that I am on) If it's shit then they reject it but if it encourages actual discussion then it passes. That needs some pretty active administration tho so I don't think it would be ideal.
    Last edited by Reedy; 19-06-2015 at 01:19 PM.

  15. Default

    being new to the MPS scene i have no idea what happened with Facey books and split and that but going onto the pages on fb its interesting. Facey is a good ground to get people interested and its easy to like or join anything you want i like the community on this page seems to be very nice and well minded not like MSF where you ask a question and get shot down.

    cant think of anything else yet as im only new but i guess i have a different perspective on this than some of the older people here
    '06 Mazda 3 MPS Cosmic Blue

  16. #16
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    Thanks all for the comments. Don't have time to respond to each one now...but I like the direction Keep the comments coming!

  17. #17
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    Also bring back hoodies and stuff. I saw an MPST hoodie the other day and I cringed! Get that brand image out there and let people feel involved!

  18. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by Reedy View Post
    Also bring back hoodies and stuff. I saw an MPST hoodie the other day and I cringed! Get that brand image out there and let people feel involved!
    Love my hoodie. I still wear it all the time. Will need a new one next winter

    Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
    Queenslands Bossy Bitch

  19. Default

    Quote Originally Posted by MissJody View Post
    Love my hoodie. I still wear it all the time. Will need a new one next winter

    Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
    i need one this winter

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