The Secret Garden: What should be visible to nonMembers and what shouldn't?

[Jonathan Kay]

What should be visible to nonMembers and what shouldn't?

My views, ignoring both history and the current position.

1. There should be lots of public stuff to attract nonMembers and it should be current, including:

• How to join etc
• Events
• Benefits, including discounts
• Tasters of the stunning resources in TechTalk, Guides and, in future, the multiauthor wikis. But only tasters: to get the real thing you have to join. (This is why I joined the Club.)
• There's an excellent recent proposal somewhere about trial membership which I'll try and find.

2. Club business and Members' issues with the Club should be private.

3. ChitChat should be private. Having it visible to the world runs the risk of inhibiting discussion. (See recent discussion of real names and pseudonyms and aliases.) NB Usual point about the tiny fraction of Members who use BlatChat and the problem of frequent current posters.

4. Private Mail: There's a recent point about allowing Private Mail to be used by nonMembers in For Sale and Wanted. I hadn't understood that before. Ideally that would be supported by web forms rather than Private Mail but that is slightly more complicated. More widespread use of Private Mail by nonMembers might also have some problems of accountability.

Thanks to everyone whose views and behaviour have informed this.

Jonathan

PS: This also relates to searching: I can't get the internal searching to work for me and rely on an external search engine, which of course relies on unregistered access... :-)

[Paul Mason]

Agree with everything suggested by Jonathan

Would only add a couple of additional thoughts - anything related to buying a 7 should be public to non members (some of the guides and ownership pieces to help potential purchasers reach a decision) and maybe also a non member "ask an owner a question" section to allow potential purchasers and future club members to pose a question to existing owners (without full Blatchat access allowed) - just thinking about the current thread where a member has had to join before purchase to seek advice - perhaps that should be the other way around.

 

[Geoff Brown]

On the subject of discounts going public I disagree. Yes the fact that they are available & in a lot of cases more than compensate for one or even two years membership in one purchase should be made known. 

Some of the deals are hard fought for & are an incentive & benefit to paid up members.

I can assure you that there are suppliers that would not want the whole world trying to use a discount code even if it meant more custom.

Discounts should remain the private preserve of members.

[Paul Mason]

My reading of what Jonathan was proposing was to let non members know that a variety of discounts were available to members as an additional benefit of joining. More overall encouragement rather than specific details?

[Jonathan Kay]

Thanks x2.

I think I worded that badly. I meant advertising to nonMembers that the Club ran Discounts (and Events) but not that they were available... without joining. But it could contain details.

How would that be, Geoff?

Should Bulk Buys be similar?

Jonathan

[Jonathan Kay]

Would only add a couple of additional thoughts - anything related to buying a 7 should be public to non members (some of the guides and ownership pieces to help potential purchasers reach a decision) and maybe also a non member "ask an owner a question" section to allow potential purchasers and future club members to pose a question to existing owners (without full Blatchat access allowed) - just thinking about the current thread where a member has had to join before purchase to seek advice - perhaps that should be the other way around.

That sounds highly desirable, and fits with the general idea of communications being offered to nonMembers. I don't know the best way of implementing it but a dedicated section could be a good way to start.

Should all of For Sale and Wanted be available to nonMembers? Including posting?

Can anyone find that recent proposal about a trial period for nonMembers, please?

Jonathan

[Wrightpayne]

I've thought of late that we need an area to discuss club matters privately. I cringe that some of our discussions / difficult questions pointed at the management team are in public view.

Also, only being able to post as members doesnt make it easy for new potential owners / members to ask for those first bits of advice that help them move to the next step (or not).

There are also some forum topics that are obviously redundant and need removing / hiding and threads migrated elsewhere.

Ian

[Golf Juliet Tango]

3. ChitChat should be private. Having it visible to the world runs the risk of inhibiting discussion. (See recent discussion of real names and pseudonyms and aliases.) NB Usual point about the tiny fraction of Members who use BlatChat and the problem of frequent current posters.

I disagree: I like the idea that it helps with decorum.  At present there is absolutely minimal requirement for moderation which is a good thing.  Whilst I want an active forum, I don't want a rowdy one which is likely to require intervention from the moderators.

Should all of For Sale and Wanted be available to nonMembers? Including posting?

Yes, it certainly should.  Otehrwise non-owners will go elsewhere to buy cars, reducing the marketplace from any one to the (a few under) 3,000 members.

Can anyone find that recent proposal about a trial period for nonMembers, please?

I don't see the point of allowing non-members to post and a "trial period" would, in my opinion, make the situation worse.  What is to stop non-members using new identities to  extend their trial? (new registration, new free-to-use mailbox).  We are very generous as a Club, a policy which I support.

[Ivaan]

We need a link on the top banner to the Low Flying Archive.

Clive

[Jonathan Kay]

From Derek in another forum:

I think  blatchat should be for  paid up members only and as Paul said poss rest open for sales purchases ect and may attract new members

Jonathan