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Its pretty quiet around here

4K views 47 replies 32 participants last post by  Glenn 
#1 ·
has this site always been this slow? I feel like theres only a handful of people who post regularly.
 
#2 ·
No it hasn't always been this slow. When I joined in 2006 up until around 2009 this was a very active site. Since then the number of active members has slowly dropped as the cars continue to age and people move on with their lives and of course their cars.

In recent years we've also had a few members pass for various reasons. Since 2009 we've lost: Jlangton, DLF and Brian M. Klein (th3subtl3on3)

The crowd of people dedicated to these cars is slowly dwindling. There's another group over at SCCoA.com that's every bit as dedicated to the MN12 platform except their cars have SC V6's in them. :tongue:

It seems though, that in the past month or so some of the old time members have reappeared which is nice to see. I hope they stick around and post regularly to add some fresh input to the forum.
 
#3 ·
Im still here. TM is right about the people on this site. A lot of people may just be caught up in other real world matters. I just got done with the bird again. It has new OEM quality front upper and lowers. New ford style arm/rod bushings. The power steering got over hauled as well. Napa rack plus inners and outers with custom 3/8th aluminum power steering hard lines with center section breakaways with fittings made of anodized aluminum. I went nuts. Now the only factory steering fitting left is the pressure elbow which also could be replaced with an after market adaptor and fitting. I just didn't want the old factory system. The PS cooler has been replaced by a small trans cooler. So yeah Ill get pictures when I switch to a better phone or get my friend to take some as his phone is really good.
 
#4 ·
I've noticed that too, the past couple years have been really slow. I think we lost a lot of members after Bill sold the site. A lot of people were not happy about it and moved on. There is a select bunch of us who stick around.
 
#5 ·
I know where they are at.....




FACEBOOK!

There, I said it.
 
#15 ·
I just sent a request over to be the 405th one! :D

Yea I agree FB is live having your life a opened book. I like this site because there's alot of good info and good people who help out with good deals on parts or repairs. I try to fix what I can but I am still limited without a garage and special tools.
Indeed it is. There's a lot of stuff I've already learned just from lurking on here! Like, when the alternator broke on me the other day. I wouldn't have known what to do if it weren't for TCCOA! :)
 
#7 ·
I really hope to be a highly active member when I actually pay the full thing for it. I goofed and only paid a dollar for the membership, but it says I'm one, it's confusing. Lol, but, I hope to learn about my car and be a useful person later in the future. But it has been quiet. I've been trying to see if anyone posts anything new so I can just soak anything up about my car, but I've had to go to the past stuff, hopefully we can liven this site up. I may not be as old or as experienced as you guys, but I will get there one day, so, I guess we could try to post more xD
 
#9 ·
I'm still here, love this Forum, Just waiting for my hip replacement surgery, my hip really keeps me from doing much of anything,after I replaced my UCAs, I could not walk for a week, but it was worth it with all the money I saved and pride of doing it myself, But after my surgery I hope to really get going on my Bird!!
 
#10 ·
I tend avoid any social media thing that requires my real name because I prefer my privacy. I saw the folks I grew up with the first time and that's quite enough for me, as far as most of them are concerned, so no FB for me.

There are too many managers with way too much time on their hands that eavesdrop on their employees over social media. That's the same as following someone home and watching them eat dinner while you hide in the woods if you ask me.

I do think this forum is better organized from a knowledge standpoint than most others. You are less likely to ask "How do ya xx?", though, which leads to discussion and people getting to know each other better.

The weather this year in the Southeast was horrible. More humid days than I can remember in a while.

Other than that, I think these things tend to go in cycles.
 
#13 ·
Still here, just haven't had much to say lately. I still drive my Coug pretty often, even ran a new best E.T. and MPH last month, but I've been too occupied with other builds to make any exciting new changes to the car.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Oh the newb playpen? Yeah I aint there.
LOL.. I like that!

I have mixed feelings about FB. Forums like this have been impacted big time with content being added to FB instead of searchable forums. All of those pictures and information have a short shelf life on FB. Forums keep that information searchable for years after.

There are many reasons why our activity is down. Here is my rundown..

1) Cash For Clunkers was horrible for MN12s. Let's face it, many people thought it was a good idea to take the $3K and put it toward a new car. How can someone go from a MN12 to a shoebox on wheels is beyond me.

2) Northern rust took their toll. I see good looking 1992-1995 Taurus models on the road even in Michigan. Our MN12s didn't hold up on the outside for some reason.

3) Our site was SOLD and wasn't the same after that. Meanwhile, http://www.taurusclub.com, which was also sold at the same time to AutoGuide is still going strong talking about 1986-2007 daily drivers!

4) The vendors who helped keep our cars running (or upgraded parts) are either out of business or cast out of the community for various reasons.

My site gets 50-75 unique IPs everyday. While it is not focused on MN12s, it is the main draw. People are interested in our cars, they just don't want to join a forum. Perhaps we have covered all the bases and the search is enough?
 
#16 ·
I'm number 406 on there, but, i prefer this site anyway.
 
#17 ·
It has definitely slowed down, the last couple years for sure I've noticed it a lot. A lot of names I used to see regularly have vanished from the new posts lists. Master486 (among the others we've lost) is one I for sure wish would come back; last I heard he was starting a family, so this site is probably the last thing on his mind. These cars are getting older, and the crowd they appealed to is also getting older.

Sad to say it but I think this may be the last winter for the Cougar, too. It was beyond saving when I bought it (well, I suppose you could say I saved it when I bought it since it was probably crusher bound then) but the rust has started to affect the shock towers up front and it's now it's starting to become a safety issue.

I may try to sell it on the cheap once I find a car to replace it with. I really enjoyed the Mark VIII (while I had it), but I definitely want to stay in the MN12/FN10 family. I just wouldn't feel right driving or working on anything else.
 
#21 ·
Still here

I'm still here, I don't post often, too busy with two jobs, I have a bunch of parts and about 20 super coupes to sell off in the next year, just haven't had the time to do it.
 
#22 ·
The crowd and cars are dying, plus we don't have a current model to bring many new people in.

I've seen more than my fair share of guys disappear, and GTbird.com die completely.

As for me looks like if I get my new job will become a lot less active for awhile.
 
#24 ·
Here's an idea, why don't sccoa and tccoa bridge together on one site for more population and traffic...? Yeah some have v8's and some have v6's but who cares, same body. It would really help make a nicer looking site, just because our site looks like its from the 80's and is to be honest horribly organized. Modded mustangs is so entertaining and well organized and all members with all different types of setups and engines (4cyl/v6/v8) all go to one place, which ends up with more posts, more conversation, and makes the forum more alive in general. Just saying. Why have two separate sites for the same chassis, kinda dumb by todays standards. I could see back in the 90's when we were more segregated, but now that there are so few of these vehicles left we should all band together to keep the sites alive.
 
#26 ·
There use to be a longer explanation to that suggestion. But now it simply boils down to TCCoA is no longer privately owned and SCCoA is.

Fortunately for them when it came time to pass the torch they kept it in the family. TCCoA did not.
 
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#25 ·
I've thought of the same thing, but thinking of a database migration of such magnitude... it would require someone with big-time experience and know-how... not to mention one site would have to buy the rights to the other, and the site admins/moderators would have to agree to such a merger...
 
#27 ·
Guys, I'm around even though I don't post as much.

Most of you know I work a lot, so I don't have a lot of time to keep following the threads lately.

But I'm loyal and I'm not going anywhere soon! :thumbsup:
 
#29 ·
I'm 100% for a merge of SCCoA and TCCoA IF and ONLY IF they could be combined in a way that every last post going back to their origins could somehow be preserved on the revamped forum. I don't know how doable that is from a webdesign standpoint but if it can't be done I would really hate losing all that history just for more traffic.

ModdedMustangs eh? I prefer not getting eye strain from black background and orange/white fonts, but that's me. Otherwise the forum side of things isn't that different from here other than sig pics being allowed. Now the homepage on the other hand...... That's a big blight on the club.
 
#30 ·
If such a thing was to be done - in technical terms - the two databases could be merged together in such a way to preserve the structure of the old posts from both sites. I.E. create a database table/section for old TCCOA structures/posts and a database table/section for old SCCOA structures/posts, kind of like subsections to the main section of the combined site. It should be possible to merge user accounts together who have the same username so they can find all their combined posts, depending how the message board's database is set up and how it handles user id -> 'who posted this post' data.

Alas, with only very limited SQL database operation knowledge, I'm not going to be very helpful on those lines. But I know there's a way it can be done - not withstanding time and effort. It would need to be done with copies of the databases from each site on a testbed first to determine the procedure and identify quirks or roadblocks.
 
#31 ·
It's been said before..Most things dealing with these cars has already been talked about, and a lot of times you'll see the expression "Got Search"..

Something along those lines anyway..Fact is..If the n00bs didn't ask these questions over, and over..Things would be realllllllllllly slow..

Even more than they are now..Not all of us members are here for the same thing..

Some of us for the comradery of being around others that like the same thing..Like MN12's!.. :D

Some come here just to sell a few things, and move on.. :rolleyes:

Then you get others that actually help one another instead of belittling them for not using "Search"..

I'm not picking on you in particular, but if all you wanna do is bullschit..IMO..Facebook would be more appropriate for that..

It's great when an individual comes up with something no one else has talked about yet..Keeps things interesting..

The Technical Articles here are great, and even people that aren't members here have found that information useful..Example: JerryMod

As far as combining SCCoA & TCCoA..I'm not sure how well that would work..A lot of information on SCCoA is Private, and only available to paid members..

Look at how many members here are actually "paid members"..Few, and far between..Thankfully some individuals have contributed monetarily..

Basically you gotta pay to see the good stuff on SCCoA.. :tongue:

What do I think?..If we combined the 2 sites, and used the SCCoA system of "pay to play"..I doubt many here would be willing to pony up the $$$$..

Big Welcome Back to the OG Members! :cool:




Rayo..
 
#32 ·
Speaking of noobs on the pages, I think be been the most annoying thing that the TCCoA has had for a while xD
 
#34 ·
I used to do a lot of FTP and server coding back in my gaming days. I'm sure if we all banded together our comp science knowledge we could be pretty handy. I know many of you do this for a living as well. Just imagine Moddedmustangs, but more classy/visually pleasing colorscheme, just as fantastic home page (Ride of the month) and lots of forum options. just because they own the rights to this site, doesn't mean we can't make our own and bridge it with sccoa's existing articles. Would it take time? Yes. But it would definitely reinvigorate our overall morale and give us a very polished result the way we, as a CLUB want it. Not AAN...

Just sayin' I'm on board to offer help in any way I can.

I think a lot of problems reside in the non-importance of being a member anymore, and there is little incentive to post about your ride, because it can't be featured, can't be listed on the home page, and we have no control over it. As one of my ITE courses said, your home page dictates your traffic levels and how many members join.
 
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#35 ·
I mostly agree, especially the home page. but that seems to be where AAN has their teeth locked into. Our old "privately owned" homepage was outdated but even it was better than the current one, which is really just a facade of a real home page. SCCoA's is pretty nice in comparison(although they've had the same ride of the month for nearly 3 years:tongue:)

Forum wise we've got everything ModdedMustangs does, minus ride of the month, which we sorta kinda had with the long defunct pic of the week/day (used on both the forum and homepage). Otherwise we have the the specific tech discussion sections, regional sections, classifieds, technical articles, videos/images(multimedia there) and general misc/club discussion sections they do, as well as a few more. I don't think the forum side of thing needs any changing if we're using moddedmustangs as the arbitrary benchmark and I agree with others that the forum's decline is more related to outside forces(like the newest MN12/FN10 being 16 years old) than any functional aspect of the forum itself. As long as Ford makes Mustangs there will be a moddedmustangs or corral, or svtperformance, or whatever.
 
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