julian N/W wrx my93

as title!

DeanF

iTrader: (1)

Only the Google search, Full scoobynet search if you subscribe !!

Dean

LG John

I don't often say this as generally I stand by the decision taken on this board but taking search away from anyone but paid up members is a real slap in the face and will probably just lead to more double/tripple threads and frustration. I've contributed here for years and whether that contribution is positive or not its a contribution all the same - I'd like to think I can dig up some old threads/topics I remember without having to pay for it.

Poor show IMHO.

corradoboy

I've contributed here for 4+ years, and mostly help people if I can. Often I do the search on behalf of others and now I can't, so simply won't bother. My post count is surely going to dwindle, as is the help I attempt to give others. The other function I use greatly is NEW POSTS as I am often on during the night when posting is light and it's easier to view every new post than troll through every relevant forum. I won't be doing that now either. Time for me to move on maybe. I sold the car a long time ago and can't see me getting another as my sensible head makes the economy and depreciation of these fantastic cars quite ridiculous. I'll still pop in but won't be saying much. Ta-ta for now

ex-webby

Guys

Give me an example of something you would like to search for.

corradoboy

Show me a post of someone wanting advice and I'll show you what I may search for. TBH the New Posts function was my favourite, but Search was just plain handy.

ex-webby

and while I'm waiting.

corradoboy and saxo boy. This is "a community".

You "contributing" is part of the sharing which happens in a community. Are you saying that you've had nothing out of being here at all?

It is give and take. There are different parts of a community from advertisers, to members, to the forum owners / managers, and it takes all parties to make it work.

I'm talking about five pounds. Carradoboy has been here for 4 years, and saxo boy for 5 years.

In that time, do you think ScoobyNet has done nothing to support you / this community?

How many times would you like to guess that the we have been out of pocket? How many times do you think we've worked through entire weekends and right through the night? And how much salary do you think we take from it?

I think you would be stunned at the answer to all of those.

I know you've contributed, but so has everyone else, and they have in turn contributed towards you, and giving you something.

You have lost almost ZERO. And there is a very very good, and difficult reason for this to have happened.

If 5 years of support, fun, entertainment, financial commitment, sheer hard work, banter, information, savings, etc, etc, etc isn't worth £5 for you, then there is probably little point in trying to help you understand the economics of all of this.

YOU CAN STILL SEARCH

ex-webby

corradoby, thanks for replying..

just to give an example, please.. think of something that has happened recently. It seems like its a big problem, so this must happen all the time.

Or.. if it doesn't.. just make somethign up.

funkyspider

Good examples are the usual

How to check CEL codes
rear suspension knocking
removing door cards
what oil to use
...
and of course remapping

Glad you found my idea of bouncing the search on to google useful - I could have saved myself 5quid there

IN THE STICKS

I've just upgraded to full member, £5 for 10 years isn't what I would call expensive . I guess it would get me to the station and 1/2 way back in petrol

Dave

mac12

70,000 members £5 each ummm

ex-webby

OK

Using the google search, which is available even to those who don't feel scoobynet is worth a voluntary five pounds.

"CEL codes"
https://www.scoobynet.com/general-te...tml?showfull=1
https://www.scoobynet.com/general-te...tml?showfull=1
https://www.scoobynet.com/general-te...tml?showfull=1

"rear suspension knocking"
https://www.scoobynet.com/suspension...tml?showfull=1
https://www.scoobynet.com/suspension...tml?showfull=1
https://www.scoobynet.com/suspension...tml?showfull=1


"removing door cards"
https://www.scoobynet.com/general-te...tml?showfull=1
https://www.scoobynet.com/interior-1...tml?showfull=1
https://www.scoobynet.com/scoobynet-...tml?showfull=1

"what oil to use"
https://www.scoobynet.com/drivetrain...tml?showfull=1
https://www.scoobynet.com/drivetrain...tml?showfull=1
https://www.scoobynet.com/drivetrain...tml?showfull=1

"remapping"
https://www.scoobynet.com/general-te...tml?showfull=1
https://www.scoobynet.com/drivetrain...tml?showfull=1
https://www.scoobynet.com/general-te...tml?showfull=1

-

Tell me.. where is the problem with search again?

The only question is whether you want to show some support, not how much you want search, as its completely free through google.

ex-webby

Someone always pops up with this ridiculous notion.

corradoboy

OK, I give in. £5 for all the benefit I've had from SNet over the years is a small price to pay, as long as I get an invite onto the yacht sometime soon

unfeasablylargegonads

iTrader: (3)

about sums it up I think

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

To be honest, I think paid up members should get free extras. Part of me also thinks it would make sense charging a one off fee to register, at least this would stop people having multiple accounts and ganging up on others.

ex-webby

LOL. Fair play corradoboy. I thought I was here for the night!

corradoboy

So, where's the yacht ? Does membership include the flight to Monaco

funkyspider

Oooo and you've made a start on the FAQ too

I know, I know scoobypedia. shhhhhh


As you can see I've shown my support with a 5ver of my hard earned, and suggested the bouncing search onto google, I shall sleep easy.

ex-webby

funky

it was a good idea sir and thank you!

Markus

That 70,000 is the number of registered accounts, it does not indicate that there are 70,000 people posting all the time. The majority of those 70,000 accounts are probably dormant, I'd say it's more likely to be 2000 - 5000 active posters on a daily basis, if that.

The only issue I can see with the Google Search is with regards to date ranges. For example a vB (vBulletin - the forum software) search on the word ABW returns the 22B 3 door Wagon thread, last post on 3rd July 2007. Next thread the last post is on 29th June 2007.
The google search on the same term returns a lot of threads, however the first thread (ABW Help Me) has a last post date of 22nd September 2006.

This could simply be an indexing thing, in that the google index of topics is not up to date, or perhaps there is some way to specify via the search option (as in from the admin side) what date range it'll look for and to spec that it displays the results with the latest items first.

Markus

Further to the above. I've tried the advanced search on google, specifying the domain, and ABW in the "with all of the words" field. With the date set to "anytime" it returns the same result as the google search option on here. If I change it to any of the other date options then it does not return any results, so I'd say the "problem" is more than likely an indexing issue.

LG John

Points noted and my post was written before I realised it was £5 for 10 years which is little more than a token gesture (one I'll probably never be bothered to make out of sheer hassle of getting card/paypal details out). Nevertheless, there are hundreds of other smaller forums that manage to provide sound service without charging this fee and there is no way they make the revenue that SN does from google ads, other memberships and advertising. It strikes me all as a little unnecessary.

mac12

ok paid my £5 to the r.s.p.c.c enough money is being made on and out of this sight so decided to give my £5 to charity instead.
who really need the money.....

ex-webby

mac12

I commend your commitment to charity.

However, with respect, you have absolutely no idea how much money is or isn't being made out of this site, so please keep your ilinformed nonsense to yourself.

-

Saxo Boy

Understood. Although, its important to realise that smaller sites need next to zero cash to keep them running.

Small Site Hosting
They are often hosted on the back of other services such as "works server", or "out of a bedroom". Sometimes they are hosted properly at a respectable host, but they are almost always on shared servers where many sites share the same webserver.

ScoobyNet needs its own infrastructure.

Small site management / running
Generally these sites take very little time to run. Some of the reasons :

• No need to spend time finding income

• No accounts / VAT to file

• No need for solicitors meetings each time someone attempts to sue you

• Very few posts mean not many problems = not a lot of time to moderate

• Low traffic removes the need to constantly be upgrading and tweaking settings in order to keep ahead of the server load

• Less members simply means less queries to deal with / questions to answer

• Rarely - if ever - attacked by hackers

• No time spent dealing with advertiser queries

If you take away the need to find revenue, you take away almost all of the time required to keep the site running. The rest (As it was when I first took over scoobynet) is just fun and enthusiasm.

Small site costs
Free hosting, inexpensive forum software, no need for accountants, no need for solicitors, etc, etc, etc.

-

The costs of running a site the size of scoobynet are exponentially greater than that of a small site.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about...

I would be stunned if 22b.com cost more than £200 a year to run. Absolutely stunned.

I am not going to give you the exact figure, but just to keep scoobynet running costs in excess of 10 times that A MONTH.

That's OVER 120 times more expensive - just to keep it on the internet. Now, when I tell you that we do not take a single salary from ScoobyNet - and you can believe it or not, but the accounts are available for anyone to view - and yet spend in excess of 20 hours a week running it.

20 HOURS A WEEK. Try to imagine what it would be like to have the kind of extra burden on your life - for no salary.

Now, of course. I wouldn't be at all averse to scoobynet suddenly earning £1m a year - I'm not completely stupid - but please don't assume you know how much money scoobynet makes right now, or how the practices of smaller sites can relate to what scoobynet should do. Its just totally different.

mac12

as catherine tate says ITS A F****NG LIBERTY

ex-webby

oh right

This is a sensible topic. Please try to keep drivel out of it.

wrxjay03

If you pay this £5 fee thing, do you get NEW POSTS or not?

gazza-uk

£5 for basic membership gives you membership costing £0.001369863013698630136986301369863 per day

Stop the whine, think of all the overhead costs of hosting a forum of this size....

ps,

as a fully paid up £25 member where's my car stickers and how do I change the logo on the left thingymybob

ex-webby

wrxjay, yes