Hardline Group on FB

CHASMAN9 · Jan 10, 2019

[size=10pt]The reason you all are in this private section of HLC is to help derive ideas as to how to improve this forum and for the rest of the world to not know what's going on behind these closed doors. We might bash each other up in here, but we still need ideas of how to improve this forum. Andrew and P have valid points as well as you others, but let's remember what we are here for. Now, if some of you think we should just close the doors and fold up camp, please let me know and I will help you open the door on the way out. Now, for the rest of you that are still with me, let's come up with some creative ways to make the Free board the best it can be. Suggestions???????????????, the only dumbass one is the one you are too afraid to mention. That is why we are here and not on the open forum. Let's here them out in the open or tell me direct. COME ON ****ERS................................................ I'm waiting.[/size]........................... :dunno:

bbone · Jan 10, 2019

I am for making some improvements to address the problems discussed above. I am not the only one who cannot post form my iPhone, posting pictures could be easier right?

Bebop · Jan 10, 2019

The french pirate4x4 forum migrated from VBulletin to Xenforo a couple years ago with an integrated fully mobile version and a semi-dedicated server.

Cost us about $1500 and we pay about $250/month for hosting with professional maintenance and back up.

We have a professional Xenforo IT specialist that's available 24/7 and fixed a few **** ups like deleting one of the more popular threads of the board by mistake once. Took 48h and a forum reboot but we only lost 3 posts. He also helps up implement different mods (we have a "like" button, integrated swag shop with paypal processing and different features that didn't come standard with Xenforo).

We also have a facebook and instagram page run by 2 active members that are sharing and reposting some of the members and influant members of the offroad world posts.

85% of our traffic is redirected from Facebook and Instagram and is almost exclusively dedicated to the Tech section. People don't care about the chit-chat section.

I like the model.

Takes a lot of commitment to run a forum these days.

Eddyj · Jan 10, 2019

I'm still interested in why you can't post from an iPhone.
Can you post a normal text post without pictures?
Does it work sometimes and not others?

kmcminn · Jan 10, 2019

Bebop said:
The french pirate4x4 forum migrated from VBulletin to Xenforo a couple years ago with an integrated fully mobile version and a semi-dedicated server.

Cost us about $1500 and we pay about $250/month for hosting with professional maintenance and back up.

We have a professional Xenforo IT specialist that's available 24/7 and fixed a few **** ups like deleting one of the more popular threads of the board by mistake once. Took 48h and a forum reboot but we only lost 3 posts. He also helps up implement different mods (we have a "like" button, integrated swag shop with paypal processing and different features that didn't come standard with Xenforo).

We also have a facebook and instagram page run by 2 active members that are sharing and reposting some of the members and influant members of the offroad world posts.

85% of our traffic is redirected from Facebook and Instagram and is almost exclusively dedicated to the Tech section. People don't care about the chit-chat section.

I like the model.

Takes a lot of commitment to run a forum these days.

How is that paid for?

redneckengineered · Jan 10, 2019

I estimated about $500/yr to run this board the way it needs to be ran (new software, new server, etc). Closer to $1000/yr on the high end if you pull out all the stops. Also Pirate4x4 is free, just because there are "premium" options does not mean the board is not free to use. Also with updated forum software it would be extremely easy to turn on advertising and get some bankroll from clicks. Stupid not to honestly.

I have no idea how big the French P4x4 is but $1500 up front and $250/month it must be big. That seems high.

edit: Do you all lease the Pirate4x4 name from the owners or how does that work?

P · Jan 10, 2019

bbone said:
I am the 1st to tell someone to **** the **** off, but I don't think Andrew deserved your response at all. He has some valid points that will help. Was your response helpful to our current discussion

He probably didn't but as I stated, the entire lumping of OG drives me crazy. He of all people KNOWS where the hold ups and hang ups are. Andrew has access to everything as is my ( limited ) tech knowledge.

Gregg and I both are just trying to do what we can, that's it plain and simple.

In my eyes, the forum belongs to the members that utilize it. Not someone or anyone that doesn't participate regardless of being a club member in the past or not. Conversation between enthusiasts makes a forum, not the moderator administrators or owner.

This was originally set up to avoid complications by bringing money into, now the cost for it to operate to everyone's standard means it is going to cost money. Enzo gave a real and great example in his post for what it took for them to fix and modernize

"Cost us about $1500 and we pay about $250/month for hosting with professional maintenance and back up"

I wanna say we been running this outdated turd on about tree fiddy a year. Big difference fellas

Bebop · Jan 10, 2019

kmcminn said:
How is that paid for?

- The forum organizes a big annual ride and makes profit on the riding fees
- Paid partners that advertise on the forum
- Google adds (in very specific locations so they don't hinder the reading of the forum, not like PBB currently)
- Swag sales (we have an online shop ran by Xenforo which sells tee shirts, hoodies, sweat shirts, banners, hats, we even have sexy underwear that sell pretty good actually :****

- Member donations

The forum is actually registered as a non-profit ran by a few people of the core group (some OGs, some not). We have a board that is voted in every year by the members on the forum.
The association owns the domain name and has all the keys of the forum so that no board could potentially "take it in hostage".
Our books are completely open and updated quarterly by the board member in charge of the finances. Any member can view them at any moment online.

PS : If that gives you an idea our yearly meeting this year had a $15k budget. Made 3k in profit.

redneckengineered said:
I estimated about $500/yr to run this board the way it needs to be ran (new software, new server, etc). Closer to $1000/yr on the high end if you pull out all the stops. Also Pirate4x4 is free, just because there are "premium" options does not mean the board is not free to use. Also with updated forum software it would be extremely easy to turn on advertising and get some bankroll from clicks. Stupid not to honestly.

I have no idea how big the French P4x4 is but $1500 up front and $250/month it must be big. That seems high.

edit: Do you all lease the Pirate4x4 name from the owners or how does that work?

About 250 000 posts with 4800 members so far. Best day was about 2500 hits.
Our Facebook page has 90k likes and represents a vast majority of the inbound traffic. We also have a "log in from Facebook" button which helped make new members.

Prices I gave you are from a french company. No idea how much a similar service would cost here.

We use the pirate4x4 name with a written agreement from Lance.

As all forums it's struggling right now. No surprise there. I'm trying to do my part to bring tech over there but it's very time consuming and I try to spend as much as I can in the garage...

kmcminn · Jan 11, 2019

Gregg, Dobosh and P what do we need to do to get this **** happening?

I would think each easyline member can come up with fifty dollars. Ask for donation from regular members.

Also probably a good time to thin the herd in Easyline.

CHASMAN9 · Jan 11, 2019

kmcminn said:
Gregg, Dobosh and P what do we need to do to get this **** happening?

I would think each easyline member can come up with fifty dollars. Ask for donation from regular members.

Also probably a good time to thin the herd in Easyline.

I wish it were just that easy Kevin, but taking money from members has it drawbacks to it. Say we take the money from the members and down the road there is a falling out and the member is disgruntled and decides he has been ripped off some how and decides HLC are the bastard stepchild. I would like to think this wouldn't be the case, but you never know. It is something that we need to agree upon though as a whole. Let's see who else chirps in.

Keep em coming.

wizzo · Jan 11, 2019

Donations at HL rides or in general? If this was decided as the way to go. Moderator makes a post about the plan with exact numbers to do what needs done. I think you would get folks that are willing to donate. If you go donation route vs "membership" or "fee", then someone gets butt hurt about something and want to leave, if they donated, it's on them.

Utilizing social media. I think bbone mentioned posting on instafacespacegram about upcoming rides. I wouldn't see an issue with that as means to draw people to HL. If you posted about it and a link to the site. Or if someone has a build thread. Post up on instafacespacegram "hey got a build going on, come check it out on HL with link. My issue is using those platforms instead of the HL forum.

IMO - all this goes back to getting control of the forum and what can and can't be done with it. If folks are holding on, there needs to be some sort of resolution so the forum can move in what ever direction it wants.

CHASMAN9 · Jan 11, 2019

wizzo said:
Donations at HL rides or in general? If this was decided as the way to go. Moderator makes a post about the plan with exact numbers to do what needs done. I think you would get folks that are willing to donate. If you go donation route vs "membership" or "fee", then someone gets butt hurt about something and want to leave, if they donated, it's on them.

Utilizing social media. I think bbone mentioned posting on instafacespacegram about upcoming rides. I wouldn't see an issue with that as means to draw people to HL. If you posted about it and a link to the site. Or if someone has a build thread. Post up on instafacespacegram "hey got a build going on, come check it out on HL with link. My issue is using those platforms instead of the HL forum.

IMO - all this goes back to getting control of the forum and what can and can't be done with it. If folks are holding on, there needs to be some sort of resolution so the forum can move in what ever direction it wants.

You're starting to hit on the right idea with the anonymous contribution at a ride. The other problem we face is the annual domain fees involved. All fine and dandy for the initial takedown, but we will incur this expense annually. And NO Stephen, an annual car wash won't work like on Dodgeball. :rolf:

bbone · Jan 11, 2019

That was my intention. It seemed like everyones opinion was against anything FB.

-name to a face
-face to a rig
-post a about rides
-post pictures of said rides
-posting about tech with link to site is a great idea. I believe I mentioned that also when talking about Pirate fb page

bbone · Jan 11, 2019

CHASMAN9 said:
You're starting to hit on the right idea with the anonymous contribution at a ride. The other problem we face is the annual domain fees involved. All fine and dandy for the initial takedown, but we will incur this expense annually. And NO Stephen, an annual car wash won't work like on Dodgeball.

So we need to know around about what everything will cost, THEN we know how many rides, donations, swag, etc we need sell. Shouldn't be that hard. A good turnout for a ride or two would/should take care of that right?

redneckengineered · Jan 11, 2019

Let me do a little more research and come back with a proposal.

bbone · Jan 11, 2019

redneckengineered said:
Let me do a little more research and come back with a proposal.

Thanks for all the work you have done for this and your input.

P · Jan 11, 2019

bbone said:
Thanks for all the work you have done for this and your input.

X2 despite me getting aggravated, I do appreciate the time and effort that you've put into figuring out a solution .

wizzo · Jan 11, 2019

bbone said:
That was my intention. It seemed like everyones opinion was against anything FB.

-name to a face
-face to a rig
-post a about rides
-post pictures of said rides
-posting about tech with link to site is a great idea. I believe I mentioned that also when talking about Pirate fb page

I'm still of the opinion that I don't think there needs to be a Hardline group on facebook.

I'm talking use your personal page to promote/ bring interest/ etc. to the Hardline forum.