JEC Magazine - "Forum"

[BestGear]

Guys

I enjoy reading the JEC mag every month, but am amused that the sections titles "Forums" seem to bear no relation to the chatter that appears here online.

I thought it may be the XK8(/R) section, as it always seems to contain tales of someones purchase rather than info gleaned from the valuable sections you are now reading, and it seems fairly generic across the marque.

So, is it that the forums are editorialy "dead" or do the mag writers not read the forums?!?!

Secondly, I am gobsmacked that there are so many good Jag (and XK) specifically) forums out on the web, yet here is quiet... Even the depth of the technical problems and resolutions appear "light" compaired to elsewhere.... likewise the technical depths owners typically undertake (admit there are a few real exceptions).

I appreciate this is a subscription/membership access area, so not open to everyone, but wish it had more of a buzz!

One "new" site is http://maxperformancecars.com/ - check it out if you have not yet found it... I would not go into the reason it started, but only say the guys on there are real "friends" and help each other out...

I also like the section on the above site with "how to's" - would that not be useful over here and in the JEC mag? Why not encourage members to write things up for the mag - without going too far as some "clubs" have, which in my mind, ended up being basically members articles and adverts and very little, if any, original content.

I have, elsewhere, enquired about contributing with written up articles or guides to fixes and modifications, but been really surprised with the replies of "I'll get back to you" and I never hear... so either I'm not in the "tufty club" or the Editors get their info too easily elsewhere!

Anyway - big questions...

Where do you frequent and get value from if its not here...?
If you do get value, what is it that delivers it?
If you have problems or questions, do you post here or elsewhere?
If not here, why not?

OK - rant over....


David

[Bassman]

It's always puzzled me when the mag has details of "The XK Forum Trip to ...." and yet there is never any mention of these actually on the forum and more people on the "trip" than ever post on the forum

Like you it seems to me there is no correlation at all between the REAL forum and the Forum as written about in the mag

[almcl]

I think that part of the problem is that none of the national committee appear to be 'web aware'. Certainly none read the on-line part of the forums regularly, although Ray Guiver did pop up in the XJS forum for a bit.

Such research as there is suggests that over half the membership don't use the web much or at all, either.

That and some fairly unfortunate decisions in the early days of the web based forums, several of which have since had to be unpicked by our webmaster, meant that it all got off to a pretty rocky start and we are now splitting into two groups: those who use the web and those who don't. Unfortunately the decision to only allow registered JEC members to even view the on-line bits hasn't helped growth or the quality of the contributions. Restricting the total user base to under 10,000 and then cutting each group off from the others and having far too many topics on each discrete bulletin board were not good calls, with hindsight.

There are some signs that a sub committee of the national committee is aware of these issues and may be making some progress towards resolving them.

[webman]

Sadly, I have to agree with most of the comments on this thread.

Al’s comments present a fair appraisal of the on-line Forums, from my perspective as the implementer.

I wish that some things had not happened and hope that some areas have improved.

One of the biggest disappointments for me, is that the Committee, with a couple of exceptions, don’t read the on-line comments.

I have a utility which tells me if and when Committee members register on and when they last visited, each of the Forums.

It is a very sparse list!

Over half of the Committee have never visited any Forum.

I attended a planning meeting some months back and raised this issue, only to be told by some senior members, ‘I don’t have time’.

I said I was flabbergasted, and suggested that if the task were divided between the Committee members, with each taking responsibility for one Forum, it would make the task manageable.

If the Committee do not take note of member comment, it is difficult to see how the Club will move forward.

I understand that the question of opening the BBs to the Public gaze, was raised at the AGM, perhaps by you Al. If it is just read access, then the possibility exists, if it is felt desirable. There are, of course, some issues eg should we show our ‘dirty linen’ ie comments like this?

To take the last two points together, it would be useful if general JEC-critical comments were made on the JEC Members Forum.

I have no wish to stiffle critical comment, but if made on that Forum, then the dirty linen would be out of Public view and we could reasonably expect Senior Committee members to read them.

There is one small issue: there are some links in postings to other internal areas of the Forums, which might be difficult to protect eg Gallery links.

As to the on and off-line activities, Peter Purdom and I share the view that these are complimentary functions. Some things are better done in the Magazine and others on the web. Even things published in the Magazine should be archived on the web, so that members have easy and searchable access.

We, the members, should be a bit more proactive in moving the Club forward.

I wouldn’t like to see general gripes but positive critical comments and suggestions should be welcomed.

[MarkyM]

I tend to agree and used to log on every couple of days to see if there were any new posts. However they seem to have dried up with the forum little used and I find myself logging on less often.

As to the max performance website it was set up by 'mavericks' that were banned from the XK8/R roadfly forum for posting about performance upgrades that they were actively involved in the product and sales of some quite cutting edge performance products (e.g. the McLeod X-pipe which I bought and is still running beautifully 3yrs on). To my mind this was a mistake and myself and several dozen members of Roadfly walked away.

If you look at the article on 'Cleaning The Jaguar XK8/R Throttle Body, MAFS and Part Load Breather' on the front page of the Max homepage I actually made a contribution to the artical (point 9). Even the XKEC (whom I was a member of) used to defer to Roadfly as the more 'techie based forum'

As to use of this forum by the committee members it is truly sad that they do not use the forum. I'd be interested to learn the average age of the committee and also what they drive (in comparison to that of the readership). Do they represent the readership and Jaguar's aspirations to appeal to a younger driver.

Although a grandfather of 3 I'm a realist and a forum must actively represent it's membership.

Just my tuppence worth!

Mark

[almcl]

Indeed, it was me at the AGM, however, I sensed that this was not a topic of great interest to the majority of others present, so confined myself to welcoming the change that lets us look at all the different forums; to applauding the original intent and saying that I thought it had got a bit lost. I suggested that non-members should be allowed to view (but not search or post questions.)

Hope that won't create too much of problem, should it come to fruition.