A little sad to say...

[Kyodo]

... but guys, this forum is all but dead. I made a suggestion over a year ago regarding promoted threads that are many years old, nothing happened. The redesign did nothing for the forum whatsoever over than almost signing its death warrant. As a web dev bloke, I made a bunch of suggestions when I met Francis back in 2019 but sadly nothing was acted upon and the forum as a whole got worse.
Mods, please feel free to delete this post if you feel it's inappropriate, or perhaps once someone's taken a little notice of it. Sorry to criticise. Fearing the worst but sincerely hoping for the best...
M.

 

[Nosevi]

Not at all, Mark, let's have an open chat about it.

Every day I log in and I delete far more spam threads and ban more 'Bots' than I see legitimate posts. I've been involved with Club Scud 'management' for I think around 13 years or so and you're right, in the past few years it's all gone more than a bit quiet. Unlike yourself I have zero knowledge of Web 'stuff' but I said I'd do it because I was asked to. As no one has stepped up and said they'd be happy to take over I'm still here. We've had multiple elections for new committee members since then but frankly we had year after year of no one putting themselves forward so we sort of stopped bothering asking.

Few years back (think the first was 2012 so may have been before your time, Mark) I used to organise an annual meet at RAF Scampton families Day. It was basically a small airshow obviously with the Reds as well as others but as it was closed to the public you could get a bit closer to the action. It was well attended and members got to meet each other face to face which I think made a huge difference on here. I also organised a couple of lunches in a fairly central location (an Italian place near Corby, think it's closed now) which again went down reasonably well and gave members the opportunity to meet face to face. I did that for around 5 or so years but I was never going to do it indefinitely and others haven't really been willing to do similar. Not criticising, just the way it is.

I'd love this place to be more vibrant and active again and if there are others who feel the same let's look at doing that. You're clearly one who does, Mark, so here's my first proposal - don't make suggestions, come on board within the committee / Mod / Management and help actually make it happen. How would you feel about doing that?

 

[Nosevi]

Just looking back this thread was from one of the Scampton days I did. We always got a good collection of cars showing up and I think members enjoyed the day. Remember this one because as well as the usual nice cars we had (La Ferrari, GTO, F50 amongst others that year) it was also the 25th anniversary of the launch of the 348 and I managed to get a lineup of matching RHD red 348s of every strictly road going variant. Doing that was actually harder than getting the likes of the La Ferrari (GTC was 1 of 10, GTB 1 of 14 not all were red or still around, GTS one of 18 not all red or still around etc. )Was a nightmare tracking them down and getting them there

Anyway while orginising those days was admittedly a bit of a faff I think that sort of thing might go a long way to getting members engaging more.

RAF Scampton Families' Day - Monday 1st September 2014

The GTS is overnighting in Immingham, it's arrived and been cleaned :-)

clubscuderia.co.uk

 

[Silver360]

Ferrari chat has taken over especially for the more technical matters . It’s got a bigger critical mass .
Also for those with F cars there’s specific FB groups .

This was I recall ( I had F cars since early 90 s ) initially born as F chat , then in its infancy broke away to be more U.K. centric and as ever with evolution it’s dying heading towards extinction……as is the way with Darwinism.

Also there’s been a change , mind set shift of the F car buyers .
When I was buying my first a Testarossa back in the 90 s I was really into Ferrari and paid cash , kept it 9 yrs .It was over 20 yrs old when I sold it on . I was the 2nd owner .

Today s buyers are paying monthly’s and not really that interested in cars , haven’t come through the old days of changing points / plugs / coils and adjusting tappets on a Sunday on the drive .
Nope the F car ownership experience is just a passing fad until down in the pub a mates says his McLaren, Lambo , Aston , or what ever is quicker so the F car guy just chops it in .
That’s why a 2-3 yr old F car even at a franchised dealer has multiple owners bcz they were only ever sold to guys as short term preposition . The guys was never and will never be a real enthusiast, to come on here for advice .
All he is interested in is the specc , the monthlies + eventually the residuals , Not the actual nitty gritty of the car itself .

Having said this there a few dinosaurs lingering on here [ inc me ] who are old school in terms of funding and longevity of proud ownership experience…..but as said F chat and FB give almost instantaneously answers to day to day issues .
So we go there first .

Suggest taking into account the history of this we remerge eating humble pie back into Ferrari chat .
Could ( if it’s not already there I haven’t looked before typing’ ) do a British section for more U.K. biased stuff ??

 

[Nosevi]

Think there has always been a UK section on F Chat and this place was born out of a disagreement with the management there - essentially a group of UK owners up and left and Sy (Angelis) set this place up. That was a long time ago though and I doubt anyone really remembers what the issue even was.

Regarding the UK section of F Chat, it's not really much busier than here. Looking at the 'latest' posts there the most recent is 6 days ago (so we've got them beat with this thread ) Next couple of threads it's a week ago then 2 weeks ago and so on. It's about as dead as here. Pretty much everyone on F Chat, myself included, looks in on their own tipo section far more. 348/355 last post was 6 minutes ago in comparison.

The thing is I don't think we need to compete with Ferrari Chat or close if we can't, I think we need to offer something slightly different. That's really what I was talking about with the posts about events I used to organise. I wasn't blowing my own trumpet, I was saying what we can do which Ferrari Chat really can't is be more of a club than a technical forum. I guess you could say the clue is in the name Quite recently some drives in Wales were organised, I appologise but I forget by who, and I think those who went on them really enjoyed them.

The thing is that requires people to want to engage. It does take a little effort and people can't expect that effort to simply be from the 3 members of the committee who essentially keep this place open (modding, paying internet fees, being asked to edit a members photos when they realise they had posted something they didn't want open to the public......)

I said to Mark let's have an open discussion so let's do that. I asked whether he would like to come on board and help us enact the changes he thinks will help. I know he read it but so far no answer. I'm not at all pointing fingers (well, not much and only in the interest of open debate) but members can't say I'd like things done to liven the place up but I want others to do it because I'm too busy.

If I were to make a suggestion it would be this and I have no idea how viable it would be - create a map which essentially shows roughly where members are. I'm not talking addresses but maybe counties. You click on a map and it shows which members are roughly in that area. It might be a first step to feeling like other members are actually near you and maybe lead to members meeting up more and more of a club feel starting.

As I say I have no idea how viable that would be. If only we knew a "web dev bloke" we could ask...........

 

[Kyodo]

Hi both. You're right I did read it but hadn't answered. You're also right that I'm too busy right now, only in the UK 50% of the year and currently involved in a house build.

I think there are lots of things that could be done but my comments on an earlier post were very valid. Why are posts from twenty years ago considered 'trending content'!! The fact the forum is quiet can be at least partially blamed on social media. The fact that promoted and featured content is older than my car, that's just silly. As a web bloke I'm looking straight towards that sidebar of the forum, along with the never quite finished footer template. There's a start, although I have no idea who the forum admin is or how easy those things are to change. I know it all takes time & effort.

M.

 

[Nosevi]

Thanks for replying Mark. I do think you represent many members in that you'd like things on here to change but are too busy to step in and help do them. Unfortunately you would have the expertise to do it, I don't. I'll speak to the other committee members / mods (one and the same thing, there are 3 of us essentially doing both) and see what they say. Perhaps you can write down exactly what your thoughts are and send them to Francis (he's more forum savvy than I am) and we can look into it.

Where I disagree is that headers and footers on the forum will make much of a difference. I think a change of 'concept' or vibe would make far more impact. As I've said we can't and shouldn't try to compete with the Tipo sections of Ferrari Chat in being a technical forum but what we could do is be more of a club.

 

[francisn]

Hi Mark, I remember coming to see you in Windsor way back in 1999 though I can't remember the details of the conversation. I think it was around then that various of the then committee had decided they no longer wanted to be involved, mainly because they no longer owned Ferraris, and I was trying to steady the ship and find a way forward. Crucially, amongst those was Graham Sagar who had been forum admin going back to the early days. At that point we were running on some forum software called vBulletin which we had been right from the start.

So my first task was to find a new forum admin which with a lot of difficulty I eventually did. You will see some posts from him "Wakey". As far as I remember vBulletin had been a free to use app which by then, v4, was no longer being developed and with pretty much no support. We were suffering not only from an enormous spamming problem but various other server problems with vBulletin being increasingly flakey out of kilter with evolving server software. Without rereading the dozens of emails between myself and Wakey, with initial input from Graham, I can't remember the exact sequence of events but I do know that I spent an inordinate amount of time conversing with Wakey on something that is not my specialist subject.

Anyway, we eventually bit the bullet, migrated to a more up to date forum platform, Xenforo, which was written by two of the original vBulletin developers. After a couple of initial glitches it all worked and we breathed a sigh of release. Of course it looked different but it was never actually intended as a "redesign".

Going back to 1999, and we probably discussed this back then, the forum was already experiencing a significant decline in activity. This was partly due to many of the original subscribers no longer owning a Ferrari but possibly more to a decline in the use of forms generally. I certainly experienced the same in various other specialist forums, once busy, which now have almost zero traffic. A lot of it must be down to Facebook and prior to 1999 the then committee started a Club Scuderia Facebook page to try and attract more members to the forum, which I at the time thought was a mistake. It didn't produce anything worthwhile.

As our traffic continued to drop we started losing our sponsors so today we have no income but are paying for our professional admin and hosting. Luckily we have enough in the bank to continue for a few years yet. Apart from occasionally looking at Fchat and the even more occasional post on there, my activity now is almost exclusively on Whatsapp, on the various very busy FOC Area Group sites, my own 308GT4 site and a local classic car club that I belong to. It's with people that I know and it's far more like Clubscud once was.

Fchat is a bit of an anomaly. I suppose it is because the USA is so vast it is much more difficult to get to know people in person and so I suppose a forum still works.

So that's where we are. As Pete said, I am very happy for anyone who wants to to come on board and make whatever changes they want. As Pete said, he looks after the spam and the bots while I pay the bills, converse with Wakey when needed and do any day to day admin stuff, such as today a long inactive member wanting his profile removed.

I only do it because no-one else wanted to but am quite happy to pass on the reins.

 

[Nosevi]

I think your dates may be a smidge off, Francis - maybe 2019 rather than 1999?

I do think what you have said is telling though - the things you have migrated to more are things where you know and/or meet the people involved in person.

I think what we as members need to decide is whether Club Scud should tick along as it is - a quiet little forum where people occasionally drop in - or whether there is the will and enthusiasm for members to get involved to make it something more.

And regarding your offer, Francis, to pass on the reins, I've been on the committee by far the longest so if we hold an election to bring anyone new on board it's me who gets to jump off first

 

[Kyodo]

Hi, just a quick one from me and yes it was February 2019.

Pete, regarding the header/footer bits I mentioned, it's not the styling that I'm talking about. The sidebar is clearly broken in its functionality and the footer is part of a template that has never been completed, let alone styled in any way. We have dead links and headings like 'This is some example content'. That's not good and the footer at least should be such a simple fix I'm surprised it was never completed.

I'll send you a pm at some point . To add a little current content, here's a picture of a boat I couldn't fit into the frame during our California's three month trip into Europe during 2025. Sanremo, Italy.

 

[Nosevi]

Yep I can see that, as I say, not my area of expertise but guessing Francis or Wakey can get on it. You're right it's not a good look but I'm not sure it'll make much difference. The trending content and latest profile posts needs sorting too.

I do stand by what I said before though, to make real change members have to be willing to get involved rather than expecting the Committee members (myself, Francis and Gordon (mon the fish) to do it all.

As I say I've been on the committee I think for around 13 years basically because no one else has been willing to step up and do it. I log in almost every day and delete spam posts and block/ban bots etc. Admittedly we'd have a lot more traffic if I didn't but I'm not sure any of it would be all that useful.

 

[francisn]

Hi, just a quick one from me and yes it was February 2019.

Pete, regarding the header/footer bits I mentioned, it's not the styling that I'm talking about. The sidebar is clearly broken in its functionality and the footer is part of a template that has never been completed, let alone styled in any way. We have dead links and headings like 'This is some example content'. That's not good and the footer at least should be such a simple fix I'm surprised it was never completed.

I'll send you a pm at some point . To add a little current content, here's a picture of a boat I couldn't fit into the frame during our California's three month trip into Europe during 2025. Sanremo, Italy.

Thanks Mark. Yes 1999 was a typo, I meant 2019. Yes, please do send me a PM with what needs fixing and I will endeavour to either sort it myself or get Wazey to do it.

Thanks

 

[A348W]

Too many words to read; but the comments on owner “types” is very valid, as is FB and FChat, although Ive been banned a few times as our american friends have zero sense of humour and thus whilst I contribute to the technical thread; rarely post on the Uk thread.

Be great to see CS back to the vibrance when I joined 10 years ago; but dont ask me how; if I cant fix it with a hammer…!