Bringing back FMB

[MonteCristo]

Greetings all on this fine Caturday.

Any of you who have been here a while will know that FMB has dropped away in the last two years. I think the core reason was when new registrations were closed for about a year because of fake bot accounts. New blood just stopped coming because they couldn’t. It’s only natural that people will drop off after a while. Some lose interest. Others just lose the time to be around. Others simply don’t get the chance for whatever reasons. In any case, the number of posts has dropped significantly. We need to get things back.

The way I see it there are now two interrelated problems:
1. We need new members. But new members won’t come if there aren’t people posting.
2. I see a few of the old timers occasionally pop-up online on FMB, but then disappear again without posting. They have enough interest to come online, but don’t see enough new stuff to post themselves (see point 1).

For the past two or three months I’ve been spamming away posting as much as I can, trying to restart things. I think it’s helped a little actually. For a while you’d visit, and there would only be two new posts overnight (or none at all sadly). Now as many as ten can be going, but usually half a dozen. It is proof that posting more gets more people interested and replying more.

So with that in mind I’d like people to think of ideas to boost the number of posts, and get new people to sign up.

I’ve got a handful of ideas to start things off.

...

1. All people that still visit FMB simply post a little bit more. If you’re online for 5 minutes, reply to a topic, if only saying “Yep! I agree.” Or “No, you’re a moron.” Guess The Pole had 31 entries in three and a half days between Spain and Monaco. All those people visit, but right now there are only about a dozen people who consistently post.

2. GridBids. 226 people made picks for Monaco. Grid Bids can be used as a free advertising area and put a banner on the main Grid Bids page. Nothing huge. Just “Grid Bids is sponsored by FMB – please drop by” at the top or something like that. At the very least they might post in the Grid Bids forum. I’d do it, but I have non-existent graphics skills.

3. A banner. A pretty banner used at the top of the forum saying “FMB” or “Farzad’s F1 Gallery”. There used to be one (actually, a couple have existed), but it disappeared between forum version changes. A lack of banner makes the forum look sterile, and simply default. The banner could also be made clickable and used as the advert in point 2 for Grid Bids.

4. Any of you on MSN, or Facebook, or whatever, with old FMB guys: if you see them online, ask them to stop back by.

5. Getting friends involved. If you’ve got real-life friends that are interested in racing, ask them to sign up. If no one you know is interested, if you’re involved in other forums and have friends there, ask if they would like to be involved. If you’re on some non-racing forum, make a topic asking “Any racing fans?” If someone replies, PM them with a link to FMB.

6. Updating old threads. There’s a few threads that have been going for ages (Eg: the football thread and cricket thread) that say stuff like “Season 2007”. Remove the dates from the title. Also update forum descriptions (eg: mentioning CCWS). It ages the forum.

7. Main site update. At least an update to the main page. Currently it says “(Dec. 2nd, 2008) The forum is currently down.” Why would any people check the forum if the main site says it is down?

8. Extra main site content. Need ideas for some simple new content (bring back the quizzes?). Direction to the guessing games within?

9. FMB Legends return? Some of us could race, and then we advertise to get some more people in (on the basis of them racing if they're FMB members).

10. People uploading various racing photos to the main site (dependent on bandwidth and size restrictions) - runs from point 8.

11. Allowing more forum options? Eg: being able to directly upload your own avatars again. Low priority - need to get new people first. This would be more something to then keep them. More ideas?

12. Cats.

...

That’s all I can think of for now. What do you guys think?

I personally urge all old-timer lurkers to reply and give their opinions as well so we can bring FMB back to its former glory.

Colour code:
Green - Done
Blue - Working on it

[The Ghost Who Walks]

No you're a Moron!

Sorry couldn't resist
Good points really. Especially Grid Bids, all those people must be interested in F1 to some extent, if we encourage them to post (even if it's only in the Grid Bids thread at first) it has to be good.. Emailing Grid Bids people about GTP and PAGP (with links) could be a good call if the like 1 prediction game, they might like others..

[MonteCristo]

No you're a Moron!

"Yep! I agree."

Good idea linking Grid Bids to GTP and PAGP.

Of course, we'd need Farz to be on board with a lot of this stuff. Farz? Farz? Where are you?

[NooDle]

but then it wouldnt be as fun as talking to yourself is, isn't it Monte?

[Mawerick]

It's a vicious circle. The less people post, the less there is to read and the less people will come back to post.

I think, at least for us "oldtimers", that life has been getting in the way of things. I know I don't follow F1 or motorsport in general as closely as I did a few years ago. I just don't have the time anymore.

[Max2147]

In my case, the forum update wouldn't play nice with my computer. Now that's worked out, so I should be here more often.

What we desperately need is new blood. That'll be the only thing that revives this place.

[Richard]

I stop by here many times a day but all I want to do is read-which contrasts to about 3 years ago when I wanted/felt the urge to post and respond to anything.

The problem is there are about 7986896 different F1 forums out there, there's nothing with this one that makes it any different to the others.

The whole reason I joined this place back when the old board was still up in late 2001 was because I was searching for F1 videos and sounds, and Farzads F1 Gallery was pretty much at the top of the Google listings. I watched the videos, listened to the sounds and noticed the board and joined.

If I were to search for F1 videos now, I'd head straight to YouTube - and there's no message board there.

Similarly if I wanted to look for an F1 forum I'd simply join the Autosport one.

I can't really think of any other ways to get members in, we could all put a tenner in and buy about 1cm trackside advertising at the Valencia GP...

[TomDA]

The problem is there are about 7986896 different F1 forums out there, there's nothing with this one that makes it any different to the others.

I beg to differ. I joined a couple of the other F1 forums as well.

In 2003 when I first joined, I was too moronic to notice this, but in 2006 / 2007 I realised that out of all of them, this place had a very good balance of people posting.

There were just enough Ferrari nuts to balance out the anti-Ferrari vibes that bounced around in 2004 / 2005.

Every single driver in the field had at least one or two people from the forum as die-hard followers, loyal through watching F1 for years or through being the same nationality.

Being fairly young and quite stupid, I felt that by lurking and reading the analysis of the races from the long-serving rational members I learnt more about the sport and the history than on other forums. Of course this didn't stop me posting massively stupid things.

This place just had a good feel to it. There was very rarely any actual anger or "flame wars" as everyone bantered in a "family friendly" fashoin.

Of course, this forum also has LOUD HOWARD, and NooD, so anything else is immediately incomparable.

Maybe LOUD HOWARD should post more of his comics of his fat friend? They were amusing.

[MonteCristo]

everyone bantered in a "family friendly" fashoin.

Agreed. This is the most 'community-minded' forum I've been on.

...

Also a reason why I brought up the idea of reviving the FMB Legends championship was to get some new members. At the very most we could get 10 of our own members involved, but if we advertised vacancies on sim racing forums, and got 10-15-20 extra people for a full grid (and the basis of them becoming 'contributing members'), it would be a worthwhile exercise. 1. Racing fun. 2. More members. Win!

[MiÑardi]

I agree with Tom that this is one of the more friendly forums. It's possible to have sensible arguments over certain things without flaming. It might be that we've all been on here for so many years and it's more like a family, but I don't recall a time where things were ever too stupid. I suppose such legends as billy and GVMaranello

I can't really add much to Monte's list. Just start threads and post more often. Other forums run Offline leagues which are quite fun to get involved with.

[TomDA]

I noticed that other forums regarded this one as "too cliquey", which I would disagree with strongly now. Although at first I agreed with it, but that was when I was 16 *shudder* and was more of a Billy Hinshaw type poster who was liable to attract fairly spectacular attention from people (the good old IRL arguments spring to mind).

Something that's kicked off well on another forum I frequent are online matches for any kind of PS3 / XBOX game, usually FPSers.

Most people have their online ID in their signature and then they add each other and random groups will meet up and blow the bejesus out of each other. Often with microphones so the abuse can be heard rather than awkwardly typed (family friendly abuse, I assure you). They're a lot of fun.

I don't see why this can't be applied to any games on XBOX / PS3, racing or otherwise.

Whilst the FMBL league was brilliant, especially if you liked parking in picturesque spots halfway around Spa and you disliked Edu ( ), I think that what with computers being as advanced as they are now, not many people have access to a machine that's capable of running something 12 years old. With enough interest, I think Live for Speed, or that other one that I can't remember the name of, could create a new generation of FMB racers.

The only thing I can say for sure is that I will always visit, daily, unless I have no access to a computer at all. The competitions here, Gridbids, GTP, Predict-A-GP, are second to none.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

Being fairly young and quite stupid, I felt that by lurking and reading the analysis of the races from the long-serving rational members I learnt more about the sport and the history than on other forums. Of course this didn't stop me posting massively stupid things.

I wasn't so young, but still stupid and being as I joined more for the 2005 Ashes thread that was going on at the time than F1 which I hadn't really followed since 1994. I actually found actually posting something (and being corrected) was the best way to learn as long as you were thickskinned enough to cop the abuse that sometimes came with it in good humour

[Travis Daye]

FMB has always been a forum that elected quality over quantity, but I agree that the place has become rather dead over the last two years or so. Fortunately the friendly and slightly wacky atmosphere is still there, which gives me at least some hope.

It seems to me that some of the old members have grown fed up with modern F1 and for that reason won't come on the forum any more. But FMB is a lot more than that - although in the first place it is of course an F1 forum, all kinds of (motor)sport are being discussed (although probably not as thoroughly as on some other forums, though I have no idea what else is out there) as well as just random nonsense. People wouldn't have to post on the F1 forum, but having them around again would be really nice

[the_full_monty]

I don't really know how to save the forum. Only that it has something to do with this gif:

[MonteCristo]

Kitteh caught teh Ricciardo feveh.

[Mawerick]

It seems to me that some of the old members have grown fed up with modern F1 and for that reason won't come on the forum any more.

Hear hear.

Also, problems with forum being down for weeks at a time didn't help.

[Max2147]

The way I see it, FMB is like a pub where the only patrons are the regulars. Everybody knows everybody really well, and we all get along (sort of). Unfortunately, that means that any new member will inevitably feel like an outsider. They don't know our history, they don't know the fact that we've discussed Adelaide 1994 5 billion times, and they'd probably be bemused (to say the least) at our litany of inside jokes.

[Travis Daye]

The way I see it, FMB is like a pub where the only patrons are the regulars. Everybody knows everybody really well, and we all get along (sort of). Unfortunately, that means that any new member will inevitably feel like an outsider. They don't know our history, they don't know the fact that we've discussed Adelaide 1994 5 billion times, and they'd probably be bemused (to say the least) at our litany of inside jokes.

That is true. However, wasn't it already like that when people like Picci and TGWW joined?

[MonteCristo]

The way I see it, FMB is like a pub where the only patrons are the regulars. Everybody knows everybody really well, and we all get along (sort of). Unfortunately, that means that any new member will inevitably feel like an outsider. They don't know our history, they don't know the fact that we've discussed Adelaide 1994 5 billion times, and they'd probably be bemused (to say the least) at our litany of inside jokes.

I think most non-official forums become that though (eg: not the F1 2010 game forum, where people just register to stop by and say what they want in a product, etc). Those things inadvertently become a community where a group of people post more than others, and they shape the way the community is, so I really don’t see that as a problem.

Most people don’t sign up at a forum straight away either. I feel that most people will lurk for a little while and get the feel of the place first before they dive in. So while there may be some hardened vets around, and that may be a little intimidating, if people visit half a dozen times before they sign up, they’ll see what the place is generally about. And we aren’t really that bad, are we?

The biggest problem was – and in some ways still is – accessibility.

- Forum registrations were locked for ages.
- There’s been downtime in the forum itself for periods.
- The front page still says (going back to 2008) that the forum is down (so why should people click through?).
- The forum isn’t accessorised with modifications, making it seem deader than it is (If I didn’t know better I’d see the "phpbb" logo at the top and think that the forum was installed, but then nothing happened with it).

[The Ghost Who Walks]

The way I see it, FMB is like a pub where the only patrons are the regulars. Everybody knows everybody really well, and we all get along (sort of). Unfortunately, that means that any new member will inevitably feel like an outsider. They don't know our history, they don't know the fact that we've discussed Adelaide 1994 5 billion times, and they'd probably be bemused (to say the least) at our litany of inside jokes.

That is true. However, wasn't it already like that when people like Picci and TGWW joined?

Yes we were either too stupid to notice the in jokes or smart enough to realise they were happening and laugh and nod knowingly
At times though I can remember trawling back through 3 yr old threads to try and work out who the Brebans were, for instance I don't even think that's possible anymore is it?

@ Daz - you forgot to add the loss of the quote tree on your list
R.I.P. Quote tree *sigh*

[Kai-Star]

The front page definitely needs an upgrade. I can't see how anyone would be lured to the message board except through the main page.

Maybe there should be a link to latest F1 news. Gridbids should feature prominently. Maybe even links to things such as Patronise F1. Maybe there should be blogs. I know Farz started a blog page but I would think that it would be better if it were on this website instead.

[MonteCristo]

The front page definitely needs an upgrade. I can't see how anyone would be lured to the message board except through the main page.

Maybe there should be a link to latest F1 news. Gridbids should feature prominently. Maybe even links to things such as Patronise F1. Maybe there should be blogs. I know Farz started a blog page but I would think that it would be better if it were on this website instead.

An RSS feed would be alright, and wouldn't require constant updating.

[Max2147]

I mean, outside of a few updates on the board's tech problems from 2 years ago, the front page really hasn't been updated since around 2000, as far as I can tell.

Re-branding the place as the FMB might also help. The site stopped being a Gallery a long time ago.

[Travis Daye]

As far as I can see, there has never been a proper thread in which new members can introduce themselves either. It might help them to dip their toes into the water first, before diving headlong into the all-out madness.

But of course the first issue that needs to be addressed is how to attract new members in the first place, because there just don't seem to be any.

[Travis Daye]

The front page definitely needs an upgrade. I can't see how anyone would be lured to the message board except through the main page.

Maybe there should be a link to latest F1 news. Gridbids should feature prominently. Maybe even links to things such as Patronise F1. Maybe there should be blogs. I know Farz started a blog page but I would think that it would be better if it were on this website instead.

Seeing as the last paragraph of Patty Weekly is already a litany of shameless plugs, why not plonk a link to FMB in there?