new website for import owners

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

the less scrupulous importers might be milking this information to make sales... sad to say, i expected as much...

we don't need panic, we need co-operation and support...

only 3 importers have joined up (out of 37 at last count) so it seems most are just sitting on their hands waiting for others to do the work.
we have about 120 owners signed up on the yahoo site with over 1400 RHD units in Canada...

where is everyone? i expected at least the big players to come online...
 
crushers said:
only 3 importers have joined up (out of 37 at last count) so it seems most are just sitting on their hands waiting for others to do the work.
we have about 120 owners signed up on the yahoo site with over 1400 RHD units in Canada...
where is everyone? i expected at least the big players to come online...
Click to expand...

Don't get discouraged. These things take time, especially if people do not see it as being in their immediate self interest. H*ll, some owners on the boards I am on are hoping for the 25 year rule. They think their vehicles are going to double or triple in value. I guess they would be happy to go back to driving sh*t.

I don't think we can use the Yahoo group membership as a good measurment of involvment. Between not being able to read messages (until it was fixed a couple weeks or so ago), some flaming of sports car drivers, and no real new posts, people have just avoided the Yahoo site. Let's see what happens when ivoac.ca has info and a place to post. This morning I posted on both the Delica and the Patrol/Safari forums about the new site. Only about 25 views on both but only a few hours have passed and hot topics on each forum usually end up with well over 100 views each. My first post on the issue on the Patrol / Safari forum had over 350 views - and there can't be more than 30 Safaris in Canada. The Delica forum admin, Mark, has agreed to promote our efforts.

As for the big players, the importers and the parts suppliers, I expected them to be up a the plate and encouraging their customers to participate. Once I have some materials (the business cards), I will go to the parts and service guys like John at Rocky Mountain Imports (www.rockymountainimports.net), ATEB (www.ateb.ca) and Steve at Abbotsford Nissan (http://abbotsford.nissan.ca). Are all the Toy JDM part suppliers on board? This should help us get to the owners who's dealers are not telling them about the TC issue and our new Association. Perhaps they culd all post a link on their front pages?

Cheers, John
 
exactly, i would have thought places like 4wheel auto would be right on board and Proactive that makes huge money off repairing these units...

i am not sure what is up but we are still getting great activity from guys like you and the other members of the new group...
i really appreciate all your help, guys...
 
crushers said:
i like your mandate Daryl
"seperating truth from fiction"
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I'm working behind the scene getting a portal of sorts together. I need some input from you guys as to what we would like to see on it. I'll start:

-Member signup mandatory. We will have some general info on the public pages up front but the majority of the content will be password protected. I'm not sure how to do this just yet, if we should have the user approval process go through someone as a way to keep prying eyes out. I'll leave that call up to you Wayne
-Sample letters to MLAs, MPs
-Discussion forums for both owners and importers
-Documents and articles obtained from various government and public sources
-News and alerts
-Card templates to leave on imported vehicles, graphic files for vinyl lettering, etc, etc. "promotional material" if you will
-An "email a friend" gadget to send a friendly email to someone informing them about the site..
-????


I envision the site being managed similar to this site in that you have one or two top admins, a couple of "minions" ;) organizing and approving the submitted articles and then everyone else..If you are interested in helping manage the site, PM me.

Daryl
 
sounds good to me...
i have quite a bit of info to send over to you, but my report has to be done tonight and i still have the basic overview to do and the cover page... and my mind is going numb...

guys, feel free to link this thread to other forums...

thanks a lot Daryl
 
a list of committee members will be included. these will have the responsibility to decide what is posted for all to see... the committee members have been chosen for now but those that participate will have an opportunity to join the committee. if you feel you have been over looked for appointment please contact me and we will discuss it.
 
Great start Daryl. I would like to help out with managing the site but don't have the a clue about web site development or managment. I do think we need to be very careful about slander. Sometimes people get carried away and say things that could get themselves and us in trouble. We are calling ourselve an Association. However, we are not yet incorporated and have no liability insurance. Therefore, we have to take care with what is posted for public consumption. I would like to see most of it open to the public except where it is most likely we might see a liability concern.

-Member signup mandatory. We will have some general info on the public pages up front but the majority of the content will be password protected. I'm not sure how to do this just yet, if we should have the user approval process go through someone as a way to keep prying eyes out. I'll leave that call up to you Wayne
Personally, I would prefer a paid membership of $10 a year for the IVOAC. Only paid members would have access to the full web site. It is quite common in many associations to do this. It then gives us a database of supporters to draw on for help and to ensure it is self-sufficient.

-Sample letters to MLAs, MPs
Should be open to the public. We have got nothing to hide here.

-Discussion forums for both owners and importers
I suggest this be for members only

-Documents and articles obtained from various government and public sources
Again, open to the public.

-News and alerts
Open to the public

-Card templates to leave on imported vehicles, graphic files for vinyl lettering, etc, etc. "promotional material" if you will
Open to the public

-An "email a friend" gadget to send a friendly email to someone informing them about the site..
Open to the public

-????
Wayne mentioned a rumour thread. I think this is a good idea. However, this should be closed to the public until the rumour can be substantiated. Was proven as factual, then it can be moved to news and reports.

Cheers, John
 
canucksafari said:
Great start Daryl. I would like to help out with managing the site but don't have the a clue about web site development or managment.
--Snippity snipp --
Click to expand...

Well I'm using a prepackaged solution of sorts (PostNuke for those in the know) so not a lot of technical knowledge is required. If you can use the web, you can figure out the admin tools..

I thought about it a little more and you are right, most of it can and should be public. However any 'works in progress' can be private. I think you are right about having private and public forums..

I also think we should also add some data collection to the signup and make it strongly encouraged. These fields would be number of years owning a RHD and number of KM and months of (provable) accident free driving. I think we could generate some pretty impressive numbers that way..

As far as incorporating an association, collecting fees, I think thats an idea that has merit. However, I will have to leave that up to others. I'd love to be able to help out in that regard, but like everyone else my free time is limited. I am more than willing to take care of the web technicalities and participate as an import owner but I don't think I can commit to any commitee type roles..

Daryl
 
my feelings are, at this point we shoudl see how active the site is before we go to the hassle of incorporating and fee collecting.

no use going to all the work and have 100 people sign up plus if all the completed work is open to the public what is the benefit of paying to see behind closed doors? that area should be for the committee personal only.

or am i missing something here?
 
I can help Daryl out with maintaining the site if he needs it. I have the knowledge and a little bit of time.

Wes

dieselDaryl said:
Well I'm using a prepackaged solution of sorts (PostNuke for those in the know) so not a lot of technical knowledge is required. If you can use the web, you can figure out the admin tools..

I thought about it a little more and you are right, most of it can and should be public. However any 'works in progress' can be private. I think you are right about having private and public forums..

I also think we should also add some data collection to the signup and make it strongly encouraged. These fields would be number of years owning a RHD and number of KM and months of (provable) accident free driving. I think we could generate some pretty impressive numbers that way..

As far as incorporating an association, collecting fees, I think thats an idea that has merit. However, I will have to leave that up to others. I'd love to be able to help out in that regard, but like everyone else my free time is limited. I am more than willing to take care of the web technicalities and participate as an import owner but I don't think I can commit to any commitee type roles..

Daryl
Click to expand...
 
crushers said:
my feelings are, at this point we shoudl see how active the site is before we go to the hassle of incorporating and fee collecting.

no use going to all the work and have 100 people sign up plus if all the completed work is open to the public what is the benefit of paying to see behind closed doors? that area should be for the committee personal only.

or am i missing something here?
Click to expand...


I think the donation/fee should be done similarly to the silver star thing here on Mud.. i.e. most people don't get their star for the added functionality, they do it to support the cause and help Woody out with costs...

The other thought I had last night was that we need a media section. I think this is actually quite important, despite my misgivings about the media! :) I don't know exactly what we would need here, probably just a contacts section at first. There could be a few key people in there willing to speak for the group. I also think we should put out the offer to media groups and our local polititians to come out for a drive in a RHD (import) to see for themselves the truth on the safety issue..
 
I agree that we should wait until we have an idea of numbers before looking at starting a legal association and charging membership fees. However, if this is a long term organization, then there are benefits (security, advocacy and financial) to incorporation. But let's cross that bridge when we get the current battle finished.

I also like the idea of a media section and think it could be divided into two parts: a short background section and a section for press releases. Does anybody have contacts which would put our news releases out on the wire for free?

The media / politician test drive is an excellent idea - invite both at the same time. It should be with people who have a very nice looking clean (law conforming) import vehicles: 4wheelers, sports and family movers.

Cheers, John
 
now, the idea of test drives is fine and i like it

but if we are thiking of taking someone that hates the idea of RHD then it would be a waste of our effort. attitude goes a long way toward dealing with a reasonable person.
the idea of taking Mike Woods for a test drive to change his mind would be futile, he dispises them.
 
The site is now up in a very basic form.. Lets move the discussions on this issue to the General forum over there. I'll add a sticky to the top of this forum

http://www.ivoac.ca
 
Daryl,
can you move the links from here over to the new site?
i can forward you a list of links from the skyline site as well if you wish...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom