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RCU vs. World

It's amazing the posts that take place here sometimes. I see a few people that are bashing RCU and promoting some other site. One post implies that RCU is creating 500 guests to persuade advertisers that they have more participants then they do. Another post gripes because of the "free" classifieds that RCU took away. Well, here are some of my thoughts and observations.

First, as I read what was on RCU's site, the classifieds were never free. They requested a percentage of the sale be sent to them as a donation, using an honor system. Anyone that consistently sent nothing, in my opinion, is less than honorable and their posts here should be viewed in that light. A casual seller that sold a couple of items a year could be forgiven, not someone that had multiple items for sale all the time.

RCU shows about 60000 members. I do not believe that is anywhere near correct, because of members that have multiple identities and people that simply have abandoned an account and no longer visit the site. I am just as sure that any advertiser is aware of that as well. Creating 500 guests is more work during a period where they are fixing bugs, and would be a foolish ploy by RCU.

Much is being made about RC Groups, and other sites, on the net. This, in my view is a good thing. A couple of sites I was unaware of were brought to my attention and I now have additional resources.

In looking at the RC Groups site, I found a post in the announcements section stating that they were approaching 20000 members dated the middle of August. They are now showing about 20800. Not exactly a massive gain in the last few days. I happen to be one of those new members. It's another source of information, so why not? I wonder how many others signed up with the intention of using it as an additional source, as opposed to a "defection". I personally can not see the need to make a choice between one site and another.

When it comes to the blatant accusations and name calling, it appears to be more sour grapes than anything else.

I do wonder how many sites have been set up without any thought by the originator of making money. I, for one, do not see the profit motive as a negative thing.

Just my 2 cents

JR

Reply to
JR
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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".

Reply to
Frank Costa

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

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General manager of Knife Edge Software, makers of RealFlight

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Reply to
jbourke

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

Reply to
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:

Reply to
John Morley

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.

Reply to
mineeart

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

Reply to
mineeart

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

Reply to
Frank

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

Reply to
mineeart

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.

Reply to
mineeart

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:

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Reply to
John Morley

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