What's next for YarisWorld?

[yarisugi]

Is that for real? India and Pakistan make up 60% of visitors?

[tk-421]

Those numbers are basically a series of snapshots from a week or so worth of data. YW is above the #100K ranking threshold, which means that there's no historical data recorded for the domain (unless someone pays for it, that is), so take the "preview" numbers with a grain or two of salt.

[tooter]

Originally Posted by yarisugi

Is that for real? India and Pakistan make up 60% of visitors?

That explains the spam.

Greg

[why?]

Originally Posted by tk-421

I still haven't made a new thread yet, but I'll link to it here once I do.

Just wanted everyone to know that YarisBueller has been through this thread and given me a couple of guidelines, one of which is that only original thread creators can request their threads to be exported. Hopefully we can still move ahead without too many losses.

And instead of letting you know he's interested in updating the site every way possible he says that? WTF? Seriously, we'd all rather have YW be the best it can be, but YB stopped caring a long time ago.

Originally Posted by tooter

I post from a...

DESKTOP



But think that mobile access is a great addition as it would help this place be more accessible to newer technologies. I'm also in for some bucks to keep the place going.

By the way are there any historical stats on how much traffic this place has been getting? Or even just daily post totals? I'm curious if participation has been going up or down.


Greg

It is way down.

Originally Posted by tk-421

There are many tools to track a website's traffic but here's one of the more reliable ones: http://preview.alexa.com/siteinfo/yarisworld.com

You could track that rating over time and get pretty good picture as to what's going on.

Originally Posted by yarisugi

Is that for real? India and Pakistan make up 60% of visitors?

We have a massive arab speaking section that was gung ho and literally half the board for years and years.

[Ecogeek]

I am interested in a new site! I followed fellow crx'ers from hondatech over to crxcommunity after things got crazy!

The main reason I am interested in a new site, It took me from September 2013, to January or Febuary 2014, to finally get an account setup on this site.... Moderators could do nothing to help me because only admins that have power...

I enjoy this site, the posts, info, people and the community.
With that said the domain name could be yariscommunity! lol

[tk-421]

Originally Posted by why?

We have a massive arab speaking section that was gung ho and literally half the board for years and years.

Very true.

Originally Posted by Ecogeek

With that said the domain name could be yariscommunity! lol

That's a nice idea. New domain extensions are now becoming available, so domains like "yaris.club", "yaris.ninja", and "yaris.community" are available for pre-order.

[aussie muzza]

Mr tk-421
If this site migrates somewhere else please have something in place to let interested people know. I would hate to go on holiday and come back and find you have all disappeared.
I am not a huge poster but I certainly look in here each day. I feel I know a lot of you guys even though we are mostly half a world apart. At 60 I may be one of the more senior members but I am still a "car guy".
Keep up the good work.
Best Wishes Muz

[tk-421]

Thanks for your interest, Muz. I will certainly let everyone know about the new plans as soon as we start migrating to the new site. Bueller stopped answering my PMs once again, so things aren't looking good on that front (taking over the current site).

[z0mb13k1ll]

I really like the idea of an unofficial store. I think that would be a great way for the site to get money. I know several people are selling things suck as headlight eyelids and cruise control modules. There could be a special section for user sales in the store where they are included and another special section for selling cars. This would rid us of searching through dozens of posts looking for someone selling what we need or making a new post asking and hoping that someone replies with a link to the post.

Yarisworld could sell things to us off of ebay and from partner stores at a small discount negotiated with them and take half of the discount amount to yarisworld and take the other half the discount off of the price. I would support that all the way.

[yariSB86]

Just found this thread.

I am also interested in seeing this community last through the ages. I will help when i can.

Keep us updated.

[YarisBueller]

Just a chime into the forum. First and formost, I really appreciate what the moderators have done for this site over the years. But of course, they aren't doing anything for me, they are doing what they do for the Yaris community. I feel I do my part by footing the bills and keeping the site running smoothly.

This is all done for the Yaris enthusiast community. I get nothing out of this. This site makes $0 in profit. It does however of course have potential for profit which is why people are constantly approaching me to buy this site.

While I thought I was doing good, complaints always persist. I have my own ideas why and who is always stirring the pot, but I'm past that. I am starting to see that running a pro-bono site isn't what people may actually want. There will simply always be someone to stir the pot-- now people have it in their minds that this site is going to shutdown tomorrow and we must do something before YW dies.. yea right.

I have so far refused basicly all offers from people that wanted to buy this site for two reasons.

#1) They want to make money from it, ie. they will likely turn this place into an ads fest. The ones who promise not to do that will likely see that they can make much more money if they turn around and sell this site to a large company that pays top $ for a site like this (Autoguide/Internet Brands). Well duh, I could obviously do this, and have done it at any time since I launched this site. Money doesn't motivate me when it comes to hobbies.

#2) Lack of technical expertise to keep a site like this up. Many of you remebered the bad outage we had a while back. I don't want that to ever happen again so I dont want someone running the site who has no real world experience with such things. The spammers and hackers can find a way to overcome a novice really quickly i'm sure. The large car forums have atleast wide ranging technical knowledge and ability to ensure the site never goes down or dissappears from the internet.

BUT, like I said, obviously just leaving a site up to run on its own free of charge and without ads may not be a model that people want. This is not the first time people talk about splitting off into a new forum, and guess what, each time it happens the Yaris community dies a little bit more. Noone wins. The people with $$ in their sights realize they aren't going to get what they want-- by then its too late, damage is done.

With all this said, I have to say reading stuff like this is beyond frustrating so I am considering which way to go. Its a constant struggle. Do I just sell the forum to one of these greedy people? Do I give it to an amateur who may or may not trash the site completly? Do I give it an amateur who will realize he made a mistake and make a tremendous profit off all the time and money I have put into this site over the years? Very difficult decisions, but my way is going noway, so I might have to bite the bullet and let it go.

This is just an update on where I stand. I move slowly on such decisions, but rest assured there will be somekind of change coming in the future, only because the YW community seems to be speaking.

[fnkngrv]

I have been here since the beginning and have been great full for the site for sure. We definitely lost a tremendous amount when the hack happened. It disheartened many and so much so they moved on. I believe wholeheartedly that for the most part folks just want the community to grow. In order to do so that means moving with the times and as the owner being available to allow for new sponsors to come in, etc. It took forever to get Tapatalk for example...literally years. Some don't care for it, but a lot do. We need to really push forward to become relevant again and that means having a forum that is moving with the times. If this requires donations, VIP status, etc I have no issues doing so. I actually will call for it. Let me help to keep the forum online. I can honestly never be able to pay enough to give back what I have received for benefit. I am also not oblivious to the fact that you would have other obligations. We need you however to be at least a little more engaged. Without the engagement then your fears probably will come to pass. That's my final two cents on this situation. Thank you for your feedback from the owner's point of view also. It helps to provide perspective.

P.S. I am one of the people that screams all the time to allow me to have the ability for a paid premium account on Facebook to remove ads, etc. If I like something I have no problem paying for quality rather than being a schmooze.

sent from my m-o-b-i-l-e

[cali yaris]

Bueller, if you give your mods the power to run the site a little better, 90% or more of the reasons people are frustrated with it would disappear. There's no harm with assigning a couple of Admins; you still have ultimate control.

I'm glad you kept the site up all this time -- lots and lots of users benefit, whether they ever post or not (the vast majority get an answer they needed and never post).

The fact that you've allowed an open discussion about replacing your site, even copying YOUR content (yes folks, the site owner OWNS the content everyone posted, read the TOS), is simply remarkable.

[tk-421]

Bueller,

While I am grateful for YW (and have said so many times in the past), I cannot understand how someone who is so concerned with the future of the site is also so detached from daily operations. I have been waiting for many years to earn your trust so as to gain elevated privileges and help make up for your absence, but that hasn't happened so far. How exactly does an absentee admin and powerless moderators help improve the community again?

I don't know whether you're indirectly calling me greedy or an amateur (or both?), but you've never bothered to ask about who I am or even my CV. All my motivation and all this free work has been solely for the betterment of the community. Why else would I keep doing this kind of thing for so long? Post counts? My username in red?

I really don't get what else you need to be convinced about my intentions, or why you need 5 years to make up your mind, especially when it's so easy to ask around. I hope that you can let me know soon, since waiting for your PMs to arrive is honestly worse than watching paint dry (paint dries eventually). I've literally been waiting years for some of the longer ones that I've taken the time to send.

I leave you with the open letter that I posted oh so many years ago, in which promises from the admins were made, but eventually almost nothing changed: http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21469

Actions speak louder than words, YB. If you want the community to grow like you say you do, then give us the power to do so on our own, or step up and do the work yourself. Things will simply continue to erode otherwise, and it's pretty clear that nobody wants that to happen. I love this place, but without your help I don't think I can go on for much longer as moderator.

[tk-421]

Or, you know, let us have some of (y)our content so that we can transition to a new home. That's also a possibility that has a reasonable chance of success, IMHO.

With all due respect, and all that, of course.

[trunkout]

Bueller.... you need several admins and moderators. take it from someone that helps run a nationwide network! YOU NEED BACKUP!

[why?]

YB, none of this needs to happen. You have qualified moderators that could be given admin permission right now. Let the current mods be able to update the site. That is all anyone has ever wanted. And there is nothing wrong with ads, it is part of a healthy forum.

YarisWorld needs active admins. It has been needed since you stopped being active. You are right that every time a new site opens, the community dies a little. But the community has died a bunch because YW does not look like it has admin support.

Originally Posted by YarisBueller

Just a chime into the forum. First and formost, I really appreciate what the moderators have done for this site over the years. But of course, they aren't doing anything for me, they are doing what they do for the Yaris community. I feel I do my part by footing the bills and keeping the site running smoothly.

This is all done for the Yaris enthusiast community. I get nothing out of this. This site makes $0 in profit. It does however of course have potential for profit which is why people are constantly approaching me to buy this site.

While I thought I was doing good, complaints always persist. I have my own ideas why and who is always stirring the pot, but I'm past that. I am starting to see that running a pro-bono site isn't what people may actually want. There will simply always be someone to stir the pot-- now people have it in their minds that this site is going to shutdown tomorrow and we must do something before YW dies.. yea right.

I have so far refused basicly all offers from people that wanted to buy this site for two reasons.

#1) They want to make money from it, ie. they will likely turn this place into an ads fest. The ones who promise not to do that will likely see that they can make much more money if they turn around and sell this site to a large company that pays top $ for a site like this (Autoguide/Internet Brands). Well duh, I could obviously do this, and have done it at any time since I launched this site. Money doesn't motivate me when it comes to hobbies.

#2) Lack of technical expertise to keep a site like this up. Many of you remebered the bad outage we had a while back. I don't want that to ever happen again so I dont want someone running the site who has no real world experience with such things. The spammers and hackers can find a way to overcome a novice really quickly i'm sure. The large car forums have atleast wide ranging technical knowledge and ability to ensure the site never goes down or dissappears from the internet.

BUT, like I said, obviously just leaving a site up to run on its own free of charge and without ads may not be a model that people want. This is not the first time people talk about splitting off into a new forum, and guess what, each time it happens the Yaris community dies a little bit more. Noone wins. The people with $$ in their sights realize they aren't going to get what they want-- by then its too late, damage is done.

With all this said, I have to say reading stuff like this is beyond frustrating so I am considering which way to go. Its a constant struggle. Do I just sell the forum to one of these greedy people? Do I give it to an amateur who may or may not trash the site completly? Do I give it an amateur who will realize he made a mistake and make a tremendous profit off all the time and money I have put into this site over the years? Very difficult decisions, but my way is going noway, so I might have to bite the bullet and let it go.

This is just an update on where I stand. I move slowly on such decisions, but rest assured there will be somekind of change coming in the future, only because the YW community seems to be speaking.

[cali yaris]

^ +1 gazillion, well said.