New club Facebook page

[Leejm]

The whole group idea was Rob Jamesons idea, as a way of gaining new membership. Membership has been falling and the ariel club is not alone on this. Any move to encourage new members has too be a good idea and benefit the club as a whole. The group is not in competition with the forum at all. Just another way to spread awareness of the AOMCC.

[Dave.Thomas]

Any attempt to raise club awareness is to be encouraged. It’s tough to know where to draw the line between what members can access versus non-members ; the club needs its U.S.P as the font of all knowledge otherwise why pay £20 if everything you need is on Facebook ? There’s less of a ‘club’ mentality anyway these days, which doesn’t help.
But membership will fall off a cliff in the next 10-15 yrs if average ages are anything to go by, so something needs doing..

[Leejm]

The idea was suggested at the agm and was finally agreed yesterday at the club meeting. I was asked to set it up and get the ball rolling which I did. People since have been asking me a bunch of questions which I have no idea on. It's all new and finer points are to be worked out. No way the group is mine it's belongs to the club and its members. I only did the leg work! We are hoping it brings the new members into the club. And we will be promoting the club on the group to do so. Time will tell but at least we are doing something to change the tide.

[Simon.Gardiner]

"...Facebook...is instantly available to members and non members. It's very easy to use and keeps you updated....."

But only if you've signed up to Facebook. Why should I have to sign up to Facebook to do Ariel stuff?
You don't have to sign up to anything to be able to freely view (or search) this forum (without having adverts and 'join me now' pop-ups killing the experience).
More to the point, Mr Zuckerberg can change the rules for the Facebook world anytime he wants. If Facebook suddenly started charging money for keeping things longer than maybe 2 years...well, those young peeps who've only been around for a few years probably won't see it as a problem....until they've had the time to mature into a grumpy old git like wot I seem to have become.
But us grumpy old gits do need to keep making our points.

SG

[Knud.Degnbol]

There are already at least two Facebook groups concerning Ariels.

[Leejm]

The decision is always up to the individual if they use it or not. The group is in no way my decision but the clubs if people are dead set against it it up them the voice there opinions. But the suggestion was put forward with nonthing but good intentions.

[bevanclark]

I am not a Facebook fan in general, but i do use it. I have had very rapid responses to technical questions and pleas for parts. The attractive features are that it is so easy to upload images and videos and it has the potential to reach a much wider audience. It is fairly useless as a repository for technical information, but that is not what it was designed for. The AOMCC page will need to be continually moderated to stop spammers and people posting b.s.

However, since a semi-official Panther Owners Club page was setup, there has been a major drop off in activity on their forum. This is likely to happen here as well. The Facebook POC moderators endeavour to stop any discussion of POC specific club issues and it is not possible to obtain parts and specialist technical services without joining the Club.

For those who detest the idea of FB and its privacy violations, it is possible to restrict/hide your presence somewhat by setting up a gmail account with an alias name and using that on FB. Also, not using your correct date of birth or location (although FB will pretty quickly deduce more or less where you are).

As has been said, clubs such a this fine one are likely to disappear unless some action is taken to move communication into the more modern era, however annoying it might be.
Just my thoughts.
Cheers, Bevan

[tstewart]

I think the FaceBook page can be interesting, but I would like to see technical queries and advise still being captured on the forum to allow for searches etc. The Facebook page allows chat between members on rallies, products meeting etc.

[robjameson]

I appreciate that the use of Facebook isn’t for everyone, but generationally the way we interact with each other changes and we need to move with the times.

When I was in my early 20’s, you tried to pick up girls in late bars and night clubs and had to pull out your finest chat up lines - these days most of the generation in their early 20’s use a dating app or social media of some kind.

For us to keep the club moving I think it is important to explore as many avenues as possible for people to know who we are and gain the desire to join.

If you see the club stand at Stafford and you join - great! If you see the amazing information on this forum and you want to join - great! If you search the Ariel owners club on Facebook and you decide to join, great!

Basically there is more than one way to skin a cat - there are members who think this forum is witchcraft and black magic, and there will be members who think the Facebook group is the same, but at the end of the day, if it keeps our passion alive, it can’t be a bad thing!

This forum is a hive of amazing information and I absolutely think that it will continue to roll and gain more information which will stay in the cloud long after the original posters have met their maker, which is a great asset, and John Nash continues to do a wonderful job of keeping it all running.

The Facebook page is not there to detract from this, just give another gateway for people to immerse themselves in our world.

As long as we continue to welcome new people in to this friendly organisation, however they find us - we will thrive.

[admin]

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=9963

I said it in the above thread and I'll say it again here.
Facebook (and specifically facebook groups) is gradually, and will eventually, kill this forum, in a similar way that this forum did to the yahoo groups.
Facebook provides a single source for all your social media, it's immediate and you can upload photos and stuff directly from your phone.
It's the nature of the world for technologies to move forward - irrespective of how much you don't want to get involved in social media/facebook it will eventually subsume all competing platforms.

There are other competing ariel facebook groups out there, which dilute the overall experience but that is true for every other subject. Some thrive, some wither and some compete.

Although I wasn't asked about this particular group (and I don't need to be), I'd already indicated that I'm not much of an active FB user and didn't have the time to manage a FB group page. It don't know what the overall AOMCC masterplan is here, but there a few paths open with regards to how club manages itself, and it's materials, in the public space.

I'll be thinking long and hard about continuing in my role, I've been doing it for fair few years now and it's become routine as opposed to dynamic ( I actually have less time now than I had when I started it).