RCU vs. World

You want to know why people are angry? It's not because we want to deny Marc an income or somehow put him out of business just for kicks. I think people view this as an extreme, long term example of a bait and switch. Marc built up a huge amount of members and support with the original forum. It was loved by many. Now that the forum is a huge success, it's time to switch it to the new more commericialized format, and hope everone sticks around. Had he come out originally with this "new" format, I do not think RCU would have ever taken off the ground. This was probably a business plan that he had from the beginning, and that's fine. He's trying to cash in his chips. But, lots of folks feel cheated, and they are venting. This is to be expected. It will blow over and whoever wants to stay will stay. He may attain his great success or make it greater. Or, alternatively, the site may decay. I'm leaning towards the first one, because Marc has been successful so far. However, my major beef is the extreme over moderation, the quashing of even the slightest most polite forms of decent. I think this is aggravating the situation.

"defection".

I can give you a bit of actual data from our logs.

New user sign-ups: September 11th, 2003 57 September 10th, 2003 68 September 09th, 2003 67 September 08th, 2003 42 September 07th, 2003 29 September 06th, 2003 27

The rate of growth has definitely changed. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months. I agree that on no one day will RCGroups or any other site receive 20,000 newcomers.

Also, since a lot of people already have RCGroups accounts we won't get a huge burst in user statistics the way a newer site would. I know the site is busier now with more people on-line simultaneously than ever before.

Jim

-- jbourke

Owner/Manager of RCGroups.com

General manager of Knife Edge Software, makers of RealFlight

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted from the RCGroups.com Discussion Forums. Visit us at

Frank

I have to laugh a little. Try the AMA Discussions Forum on RCU. There is whining there for more moderator intervention. I guess it depends on which forum your in.

One of the things I have seen on RCGroups is an off-topic forum that seems quite popular. It might behoove Marc to take a look at that and think about duplicating it.

I suggested in the problems forum on RCU that a forum just for griping about RCU be established and all the posts sent to it, but, I think that is somewhere down Marc's list at this point. He probably didn't take it serious. I, for one, am tired of the efforts of a few to cross-post every forum on RCU with gripes. As with the AMA discussions, keep 'em in once place.

JR

Hi,

The problem with most people is that if you give them something for free long enough they will feel entitled to receiving it for free forever. IMHO, RCU owes no one anything at all! They are free to do as they damn well please, including running the site into the ground if they want to! If you don't like the new format, fine, but what makes you think you have any right at all to bitch about it?? Bait-and-switch??

John

JR wrote:

Bill,

Awful Clever. RCU throws a charge on for something that requires zero effort and I'm the one with the "gimme something for nothing". Brilliant. People go there to read YOUR advice on building or tuning an engine, or whatever it is you happen to discuss... and RCU cashes in on the ads which were loaded by your browser... make sure your cookies are on so they can track them! But I'm the one wanting something for nothing

Thanks for the alternative... I won't go, it obviously won't bother me.

As it turns out, there are other forums that don't fill up pages with ads, charge to use the same services, and then use the bit of money from the little tiny ads they do have to provide free webspace for RC Clubs. Its a great alternative.

There's pleanty of ignorant people out there who are glad to say "its not that bad, I can deal with it, who cares, quit whining, let us make posts, and let that guy over there make a profit out of the work we're doing" You'll hear the same people saying "that's allright, up the welfare rate, let those guys doing nothing have a bit more of the taxes on my hard earned wages".

You can call me a democrat... but I'll venture to guess that you've never let an actual issue determine your Vote.

Sorry Pops, You need me to write I won't say naughty things on the blackboard for a couple of hours this afternoon?

I'm 27, I'm not ready to be called pops. No blackboard, just crawl back under your rock, little troll.

He's not pops, he just plays one on the Internet.

Interesting analagy. Makes a lot of sense... what with me not selling, endorsing, or otherwise attempting anybody to buy a single thing.

You sould amazingly like a used car manager in one of those dealerships... You know, the kind who is unhappy because he's a lowly piece of crud used car salesmen and nobody is much impressed by it... so he's forced to blame the other used car salesmen his sorrows, instead of himself.

Is it just me or are these "forwarded" posts really as useless as they seem?? Without any context who can tell what the hell is being said??

John

denysy wrote:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------