Frizzle-Dee

So is there 2 owner’s clubs in Essex these days?

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has noticed this sudden ‘revival’ of the Essex Scooby Crew name and the Paul Walker Tribute Tunnel Run thread has somewhat confirmed it.

Forgive me if I’m wrong here, but I was under the impression that the Essex Scooby Crew was officially RE-BRANDED to form the Essex Subaru Owners Club last year.

It wasn’t a simple, over-night, fleeting decision either.

Months of polls and discussions went into it.

We all voted to pick the name, we all voted to pick the ‘leader/moderator’, we all voted on the logo design, on the clothing and even the colour schemes.

A lot of time and money was invested into this re-brand and it was all seen for the greater good of the club as a whole…after all, it wouldn't have happened otherwise.

And now, out of the blue, there are 2 club names being thrown around.

Posts about monthly meets are not being made on here all of a sudden, a good example being-the Southend Meet on Saturday.

Confused people were posting on here asking if it was going ahead as there was no mention of it, yet it was on the Essex Scooby Crew Facebook page? Not everyone has Facebook, hence why this forum is considered the home of the ESOC-formally known as the ESC.

So is that it then? We have officially split into two clubs now? I appreciate that there are die-hard owners on here who have and always will see it as the Essex Scooby Crew, but with the Subaru Scene supposedly ‘Dying a Death’ is it really in the Club’s greater interest to just split into 2 entities? And seemingly without telling anyone?

Naturally, I mean no offence by this thread so please don’t take it as such. I’m not ‘having a go’…just confused as to when this transition happened?

~Z

Essexdon

It's ESOC, ESC name lives on through the FB page. That's all.

ron_uk2000

Hi, may i offer some explanation, seeing as i posted the info on the Paul Walker charity Tunnel Run,

Yep your correct with everything you have said.

Alot of work went into re-branding ESC on scoobynet, but that was just on scoobynet only ! A new ESOC facebook page was created also.

But the facebook ESC kept itself running under the ESC banner, for the die hard members of the ESC. Wozza Earl runs the page, i'm sure he was aware at the time of the ESC name change on scoobynet, and it was mentioned quite a few times on the ESC facebook page about the name change happening on scoobynet. But he decided to keep it as the ESC, and quite rightly so, it's his FB group and his well within his rights to keep it going under the ESC name.

Yep alot of ppl join this ESC facebook page every week, I'm not sure why it is more popular, But it is. Maybe the Essex Scooby Crew name has been around for so many years, That the name really proceeds itself within the Subaru ownership community in Essex.

I'm not fussed about it thou , i float between both ESOC and ESC, The southend run has always been a joint ESOC / ESC venture, You still have alot of the old school ESC members that attend this ( you know who you are ) , and new members from here and ESC join every month , there's always a new face turning up
Same with previous Tunnel Runs, it's always been a joint venture between the ESOC / ESC , always posted and promoted on both sites, and also posted on many other Subaru forums as well

I only posted this latest Tunnel Run up under the joint ESC / ESOC venture as it is a member of the Facebook ESC page John Peters who has created and is hosting this event on Facebook, and i wouldn't even think about branding it solely under the ESOC banner!

I'm purely just promoting it for him, as he is awaiting for his membership to be approved on here, Plus he asked for help to promote this event also, which i have helped him with.

I have never seen it as 2 clubs, we are all one. We have a common interest, it just depends how you want to get involved, either on here or on facebook it doesn't really matter, what matters is meeting up , enjoying our cars and having a little fun from time to time ( Providing you conform to rule and regulation no.3 of the ESOC code of conduct! )

Frizzle-Dee

Hi Ron,

Thank you for taking the time to respond in such detail, it has certainly helped to clear up any doubts in my mind

Like I said, I wasn't writing to get anyone's 'back's up' or to cause offence.

I was just genuinely none the wiser

TBH, I don't have a Facebook account. I never have and I never intend to. It's just not my thing, so I had no idea of what was going on with regards to which was more popular/active. I was merely going off what I have noticed lately and that was that the ESC was coming up a lot more in conversation.

The only reason I brought it up was after the whole incident with the Southend Run this weekend just gone which wasn't mentioned on here and as a result some people may have missed out.
I didn't realise that it was still an ESC/ESOC joint venture you see and if I didn't know that then I'm sure others may also not have known that and if you don't know where to look other than on here then you wouldn't be any the wiser!

Our aim as a collective as you rightly say yourself is- meeting up, enjoying our cars and having fun every now and again whilst making a continuous effort to welcome in any potential scooby-noobies as I'm sure we all were at some point (I still am one lol) I just wanted to clear up any confusion that could occur as a result of these two titles as we could easily look like 2 clubs to an untrained eye.

Thank you for clarifying

~Z

JohnD

iTrader: (5)

As someone who doesn't bother too much with Face Book I was unaware of the continued existence of ESC.
I've been around the Subaru thing since '99 and was a regular attender at meets (originally SIDC then at 'Flat Four' club meets) at the various venues used. I found it started to become a little bit 'cliquey' and when it was decided to add the word 'Crew' to the group, I decided it was a good time to drift away!
Recently, when it was decided to 're-brand' and drop the (rather outdated?) 'Crew' tag, I thought it worth giving it another try and I'm glad I did. So far, so good!

JohnD

ron_uk2000

No probs fella.

As with the January Southend run, Guessing Rab555 was still hanging from the NYE celebrations , and probably just didn't get round to posting up the flyer for the January meet.

Naughty Rob ! Hope you had a good one thou fella.

But the 1st Sat of month for many years has been the date for meeting up at Tesco's and having a little run down to the front, Even if you haven't been on here or on Facebook for a long time , almost every past and present member knows that the 1st Sat of the month is the Southend run, and you can just turn up whenever you feel like it at Tesco's and get involved.

All a little more interesting, now as we take a small detour now at the Shoeburyness roundabout around the back streets of Shoeburyness to the Mcdonalds. Adds a little more fun to the night. Sit in the warm, order some fatness, have a chat with friends.

Better than buying a scabby coffee from that seaside scab-hut and freezing your nads off on the front.

John D - Yep them times have past for the cliquey nature of the ESC, Not thou i never experienced it, But i'm guessing it was more of the 25K car club, You had to have a bit of money behind you to be accepted into the fold. With your average Joe now being able to afford and run a scoob, the club is just down to earth and fun, Yep the crew is still hanging on in there, but it gels well with the young guys and girls that join up to the page every week.

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Uninterested in any "our club this, your club that" stuff to be perfectly honest.
The ESC as it was appeared to die a slow death a number of years back.
It was then that it was agreed to reinvent the club and rebrand what was the old ESC to the new ESOC.
As far as I'm aware, the ESC page that still operates on Facebook is frequented by a number of old and new members to do as they please.
The ESOC forum is here and will always be kept here. The ESOC Facebook page is purely for advertising, that's why it's not opened up for chat. Our chat is kept all in here as it's always been.

People are free to do as they please and attend whichever meets they wish.

Might want to reign in on the smileys too Ron.

Essexdon

The best idea imho is to turn the ESOC FB page into a group. Many people frequent on FB ESC group whilst this place dies like a ghost town in an old western.

And the same could be said for the FB ESOC page.

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Why would you put chat on more than one place?
There will be discussions and info all over the place.
If an ESOC group is what people want then that's fine, but then how are you expecting the forum to grow?

Doesn't make any constructive sense to me for the future of the forum.
Here the threads are all separate, easy to read and navigate.
How will you stay on top of topics on a FB group?
It ends up in a free for all with crap all over the place and everyone getting fed up with notifications every time someone replies to a post.

Not constructive IMO.

Essexdon

It's not meant to be constructive or of benefit, is just simply my opinion mate.

I don't think a FB group is designed for topics, most owners know if they need a specific answer to a specialist issue on their car they know to come to Scoobynet. Putting a question on a FB group is going to get Jimmy the mobile grease monkey come in with a generic answer. As for notifications, sure they can be annoying but again people know how to turn them off.

Lets get focused with the issue at the moment, and that is the forum getting worryingly less traffic than the Essex Scooby Crew page on Facebook. A great example of this 'culture change' is the annual Tunnel Run. Each year less and less names are down on the attendees list, but roughly at the last event near on twice as many Impreza's if not more turned up at the event than there were names down on the attendee list. Each year the list of attendees gets shorter but the numbers are still there. And from my own experience chatting to various peeps, this is due to Facebook.

Another point I would like to bring up, Frayz, I know you are not hot on the 'meet/event' aspect of ESOC but, I think of myself as quiet active at meets, I chat to anyone, met some really nice guys and people I would consider friends, but the feedback and feel I get is some owners don't even know this forum exists, some blank it due to previous experiences and others chose to use Facebook due to the simplicity of it all.

That's main point mate, and this is not a dig at you in anyway, I'm to old and ugly for forum wars but rather than battle against Facebook embrace it, use it to benefit the community and promote the ESOC rather than your own dislike of it.

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Not my dislike of it.
If that's what people want then that's perfectly cool with me.
If you would like me to start an ESOC Facebook group I can or if it's something you would like to do then please feel free.
Either way if people are happy chatting in the ESC Facebook group. Are they likely to use an ESOC one?

frayz

iTrader: (7)

At your request. There is now an Essex Subaru Owners Club group created. Please use using the same respectful forum rules.

Search Facebook for Essex Subaru Owners Club.

Essexdon

Ok great,

I was going to set one up myself in the morning, if you would like to make me an admin to assist I'd be more than happy too. Just put in a request to join, I think it needs to be an open group mate rather than a closed shop. Just my thoughts.

Frizzle-Dee

Frayz, I am with you here.

As was previously discussed, the ESC appeared to be 'dying a death' with regards to this forum specifically, hence the re-brand in a bid to reinvent it.

Whereas we might not see as much traffic as a Facebook page, I for one think that all the effort that was put in by yourself and others with this re-branding and general 'housekeeping' in this little section of Scoobynet was for the better.

You say here that 'Why would you put chat in more than one place?' and I agree with this.

What would be the point of all the hard work you've put into this forum over the last year and all the effort that was put in over previous years for that matter??

You could have saved yourself a lot of time and effort if you'd of simply created a Facebook group in the first place...but you didn't, you focused your attention on making this forum work and there is a reason for that-

Facebook seems chaotic, the user-friendly layout of a forum keeps everything separate and organised. Finding info is a lot easier on here, despite the best efforts from the renowned 'vague' search bar along the top.

And it's a car club for crying out loud, where best to house a car club than on a car forum!!?

I used to be a member of another Impreza forum, and sadly, it died a death, wasn't worth the money it was costing to run and was forced to close it's doors.
All the hundreds of threads containing useful, relevant information went down with it.
So the guy who owned it created a Facebook group to compensate. Giving all the old members somewhere to continue their discussions. Its an open group, even I can view it...but its crap!!
It just consists of people popping up and asking the SAME OLD questions, like we get on here with 'WRX vs. STi' and 'Dump Valves' but because there is no forum anymore, there is no instant links to another thread, no searching through discussions, so the same faces find themselves constantly pandering to these repetitive questions with no means to an end.


I hope I haven't simply shot myself in the foot by starting this thread in the first place, as now, with the addition of an ESOC Facebook Group, what is to become of this forum?

"...how are you expecting the forum to grow?"

Simple answer, with interactions being moved over to a Facebook group, it won't. All that will happen now is that it will become even quieter as the majority of people will probably 'chat' on the group instead until it's decided that this forum isn't worth maintaining anymore and it will be removed, along with all its invaluable contributions made over the years.

What have I done?? I should have just kept my mouth shut...

~Z

frayz

iTrader: (7)

At the end of the day, people will chat via here or social media and do whatever they want to do. The forum is always naturally quieter over the winter months anyway.
Soon as this rain goes away and the sun starts to come out, the forum will pick up too.

I did not do this on my own and although it has died down, the reinvention of the forum was done for everyone's benefit. If the ESC page users, (or anyone for that matter) would like to come and use the forum then as long as it's kept to our good housekeeping then where's the issue.

Rab555

iTrader: (2)

I'll apologise for the missed Southend run/pub meet images, I was away for a couple of weeks over Xmas, and come back for someone to rear end the scooby (barstewards)! Normal service shall be resuming in that respect!

Scoobysmeet

No pub flyers missed mate.
Is the car bad?

frayz

iTrader: (7)

Sorry to hear about the car Rob. Hope it's not too much trouble to fix.
Hope you had a good Christmas other than that.

Essexdon

Frayz would you like a hand with the group as I was going to start one?

Frizzle-Dee

Sorry to hear about your car Rob, what a sh*tty thing to happen! I hope you get it sorted soon!

I wasn't blaming you btw for the lack of info regarding the Southend Run. To be fair I wasn't blaming anyone! I was merely inquiring about the use of two different locations being used to advertise these events. A query that has since been cleared up by everyone on this thread.

So thank you to you all, I think we can safely put this matter to rest now as there is obviously nothing to be worried about in regards to the future of this forum.

BTW, Rob- I meant to thank you, for the lovely job you did with the Christmas flyer for the pub meet, I know it was all kinda 'last minute' so I really appreciate it It looked lovely!

~Z

frayz

iTrader: (7)

The group is set so that anyone can join and can be approved by any member.
So I'm not having to do anything anyway.

Rab555

iTrader: (2)

Thanks guys, scoobys fine, hopefully just a new rear bumper jobbie and some painting. doesn't appear to be any significant damage beneath the bodywork but we'll see once it comes off. If anything it's a blessing in disguise as the mrs may have just inadvertently agreed to me giving the garage other bits to spray at the same time lol.

Nate

iTrader: (2)

I saw the title and expected someone to have bought a second Scoob !

Frizzle-Dee

Hahaha! I wish!! Maybe one day eh?

~Z

modelmotorvation

iTrader: (2)

frayz , having the esoc facebook page as a group is a good idea , i for one spend a lot of time away from home so rely on my phone for internet access, with all the adds on here it is a hassle to view the forum topics sometimes.
i understand forums and facebook groups as i run both.
the best advice i can give is to use the facebook page as a link to this forum.
by that i mean members from here that also use facebook share topic links from this forum on the facebook page , that way you will encourage new members on the facebook page to also register here on the dedicated forum and join in discussions and topics on here.
it may sound a little long winded but it does work and only requires a couple of clicks of the mouse to paste up links of topics on here on the facebook page , in time you will see a 100% rise in new members to the esoc forum , it was a link on another facebook page that brought me to this forum!!

ron_uk2000

Edited ... Sorry, i forgot to conform to the rules and regulations of the codes of conduct ..... No.1

TimmyC300

As said above a Facebook page with event/posters and meet info on would be a good idea also with links to this forum, id join it to see the info in my newsfeed

The word 'Crew' in the title did make it seem a bit of a boy racer club didn't it