The Roaring Season Questionnaire: Please Read And Reply

[GD66]

Ditto. What do you think about setting up the subscription/membership payment through Paypal, Steve? That way those of us overseas (and in NZ, for that matter) can pay up just through a relevant email address. Am unaware of the client requirements, though...

[Ellis]

Ditto a paypal setup

[Michael Clark]

Ditto again

[Carlo]

Count me in, we need to have the history of the sport in NZ recorded, including all the tales that circle around the tales

[seaqnmac27]

I'd be happy to pay.

[ERC]

Maybe I am the first to be a bit hesitant? As a newcomer to NZ (30 years ago!), much that is of interest to those who have been around longer is of little interest to me. Several threads therefore don't get read. I already subscribe to 5 or six magazines a month and currently I have difficulty in keeping up with reading them all. Now work and income has dried up a fair bit, then cost starts to come into it, especially with a winter cruising habit to feed.

My main reason for participating in this board is as a discussion board as like several others, I work on my own and it replaces the lunch room chat.

However, I too have invested a fair but of time scanning and posting photographs for the enjoyment and education of others (probably to the detriment of keeping my own websites up to date - it is addictive!).

Either this site is primarily a message board with occasional articles, or is an on line magazine with a larger contribution from readers, or it is the home page for HMC.

If it is primarily for articles, then it has to stack up against my other paid for reading material and has to be assessed as to what I am to get out of those articles. Currently, at least one paid for magazine has to go and although I am willing to pay for access to this site, I am not sure that attracting new members will be as easy in the future. If I was to pay for this site, then the first casualty would immediately be NZ Classic Car magazine.

One option Steve, is to share some of the workload by appointing moderators to "keep it clean" and maybe increase advertising revenue.

I am not too sure how many people currently contribute and how much of an income you'd therefore get. To be honest, I'd rather support it through a more substantial (annual) contribution from our race series, in return for a bit more of a mention in your articles away from this board of course!!!

[fullnoise68]

ERC, look at the bigger picture. The light at the end of the tunnel is not the train coming towards you, Steve wants to develop the website further and the general consensus is for that to happen and enjoy it even more!

[ElCoyote]

Colour me in

[Steve Holmes]

Ditto. What do you think about setting up the subscription/membership payment through Paypal, Steve? That way those of us overseas (and in NZ, for that matter) can pay up just through a relevant email address. Am unaware of the client requirements, though...

Yes this is exactly what would happen, I wouldn't be processing the payments myself, there would be a processing form as you find on other sites when purchasing a subscription or product etc.

[Steve Holmes]

Maybe I am the first to be a bit hesitant? As a newcomer to NZ (30 years ago!), much that is of interest to those who have been around longer is of little interest to me. Several threads therefore don't get read. I already subscribe to 5 or six magazines a month and currently I have difficulty in keeping up with reading them all. Now work and income has dried up a fair bit, then cost starts to come into it, especially with a winter cruising habit to feed.

My main reason for participating in this board is as a discussion board as like several others, I work on my own and it replaces the lunch room chat.

However, I too have invested a fair but of time scanning and posting photographs for the enjoyment and education of others (probably to the detriment of keeping my own websites up to date - it is addictive!).

Either this site is primarily a message board with occasional articles, or is an on line magazine with a larger contribution from readers, or it is the home page for HMC.

If it is primarily for articles, then it has to stack up against my other paid for reading material and has to be assessed as to what I am to get out of those articles. Currently, at least one paid for magazine has to go and although I am willing to pay for access to this site, I am not sure that attracting new members will be as easy in the future. If I was to pay for this site, then the first casualty would immediately be NZ Classic Car magazine.

One option Steve, is to share some of the workload by appointing moderators to "keep it clean" and maybe increase advertising revenue.

I am not too sure how many people currently contribute and how much of an income you'd therefore get. To be honest, I'd rather support it through a more substantial (annual) contribution from our race series, in return for a bit more of a mention in your articles away from this board of course!!!

Thanks Ray, its good to get feedback from bothsides. I want to hear both from those for and against the idea, as this is whatthe final decision would be based on.

[tonttu]

I'm in too. $50 ish is very reasonable.

[faminz]

Despite sounding possibly like a grinch I would note there's a price point where the $$ asked means many would not then login and therefore less contributors and therefore less value. Have you done a wee exercise on the cost of running it divided by say 80% of the current members? Is that where the $45 comes from? I'd be happier paying less as I think it would then keep the value up. You don't just want 30 - 40 members talking to themselves!
An alternative is to use Facebook as the site maybe which would do away with the maintenance costs and provide a mobile app as well!?
Just need some simplifying the linkage to the FB site..
Also more advertising ( in a discrete way ) and more linkage to your business might help. There's a ready audience here for the right nostalgic products so linkage to PayPal etc would also be an option before jumping into paid subscriptions I suggest.
My 2c worth.
That said I would pay say $20 no problem...

[mac]

Hi Steve, Count me in. I would hate to see the roaring season fade, its just to good. Be happy with 50 bucks . Colin Mac

[OCTARD-USA]

Steve, I'd be happy to pay, but I don't know that I would if I didn't already know what great content and community was within.

Because of that, I'd think you'd want to let the non-member see a bit of the site, to entice them into a membership. Without it, I fear that it will be difficult to attract the enthusiasts you want, that don't yet know what they're missing.

[David Manton]

Steve, I'd be happy to pay, but I don't know that I would if I didn't already know what great content and community was within.

Because of that, I'd think you'd want to let the non-member see a bit of the site, to entice them into a membership. Without it, I fear that it will be difficult to attract the enthusiasts you want, that don't yet know what they're missing.

I'm in...You're filling a previous gap in NZ historic motorsport. Doing a great job.

cheers
David M.

[Gerard Richards]

Yes I would be willing to pay an annual subscription of around $45 dollars. The Roaring Season has provided wonderful assess to a huge diverse range of NZ motorsport archival material that simply would not be available elsewhere, and it is worth it for that alone, in my view.

[BritishV8]

I would encourage you to consider other sources of revenue!

There should be a "Donate" button on every page, and there should be a "V.I.P." contributor list accessible from every page so that people can see that their friends have chipped in... alternatively or additionally, you could join the ranks of message boards which identify financial contributors in the lefthand column underneath their avatars. Some message boards have gold, silver, and bronze memberships to indicate varying contribution levels. Some message boards award benefits to membership, such as allowing people to upload more or larger photos.

If you only have five or six advertisers, you're clearly not be promoting your ad program aggressively enough. Maybe it's time to start making some cold calls?

There are other ways to find advertisers. I don't see any Google Adsense ads here. Surely there are affiliate ad programs you could join.

You may need to offer larger banners and/or more varied banner sizes.

If there's a subscription, you'll have to accept my regrets. I really admire this site, and I certainly do enjoy it when I visit, but I don't visit all that often. I've never been to New Zealand. I probably never will. I'm a man of modest means. I'm sorry that I can't help. It's a pity! I've enjoyed learning and sharing information about cars and drivers who have traveled back and forth between hemispheres and some of you have been complimentary about my posts. I guess I'll run into you on international message boards...

[ERC]

Good post British V8. I was beginning to think that there were only a couple on here to have made a more in depth assessment. Plenty for you to think about there Steve! I have found shrinking pics to post them to be a real problem and often, the quality is compromised

Also think #32 makes good points. Overseas viewers are probably content to browse as history shows that the majority of contributors are either kiwis or have a strong NZ connection.

I think that a charge may well limit it even more to Kiwis and slow the growth.

Not sure about Facebook though, as like many others, I have reservations about it. The current format is not dissimilar to other message boards, but as I said before, is it a message board or an on line magazine? People pay for magazines, but few pay for messsage boards.

Ten Tenths is free and quite a few posters on here also post on there - but generally without the pics!

[Russ Cunningham]

This is a difficult one to answer, Steve but since you asked for honest replies, here goes.

Firstly, you've done a great job with establishing TRS and full credit to you.

However, it's agreed that TRS must pay it's way. Fine! I understand but from my viewpoint I don't need to pay to socialise or to swap yarns about motor racing. I've many friends that I can do that with at any time. Most of these friends by the way will never look at or contribute to TRS even though I've urged them to do so.

Personally, I've enjoyed many of the contributions to TRS and have also enjoyed poking the borax at certain folk but I guess at heart I'm really just not that concerned whether it continues to exist or fades away. Do not take this as a personal insult Steve. You know I'm happy to assist motor racing folk and always will be but you did ask for honest input. Look at it this way: MotorMan was fantastic but it died. Motoring news, likewise but new growth comes through.

To put it in a nutshell that all who know me will understand: Sex is great but I ain't paying for it. Likewise TRS.

My opinion is tendered in full respect for what you have achieved with TRS.

All the very best,

Russ Cunningham

[worsel]

Hi Steve, happy to pay around the $50 mark, this is such a wonderful site. This is where I look 1st thing in the morning, before the newspaper, at lunchtime, as soon as I get home from work, and last thing before bed. Fantastic insight into NZ motorsport and more.

Cheers, Paul