Site revamp, aggressive marketing, etc.
 

I love forums. I love wiki's. I love organized discussion and information for future reference. So naturally, I love what ecomodder has become. I think it's safe to say ecomodder dominates the competition as far as quality of content and activity. That being said, I think there is also room for improvement.

We are part of a small niche, but I believe we could reach more people than we do. There is so much good information from good members, I just wish more people were exposed to it. I think ecomodder should be aggressively marketing the forum/wiki to potential members. Google does a pretty good job bringing folks in, but more targeted marketing could bring in more active and contributing members.

Lets take a look at the current internet world. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. Those three sites make up a majority of the average internet users time spent online. While I do notice that ecomodder has accounts for all 3, are they used to their full potential? Do we have someone posting success stories and project summaries on social network sites, sort of like the front page of the forum? How many videos do we have on the channel? I think there is room for improvement on the social network front. People are there, ecomodder should be there too, spreading the word and getting people to come to the forum and post.

I'd also like too see the forum freshened up a bit. Lets bring it in to 2013. Not only can it impress potential members, a little bit of change is good for the veteran members too. I guess you could call me a design snob, but it is what it is, a suggestion from a different perspective.

This is the part where I throw myself out there if you would like a hand with what I have mentioned, or if you want further ideas. I've got experience with creating forums, websites, graphics, etc. Ecomodder has done a lot for me, and I'd love the opportunity to give back. I'm sure I am not alone. There could be people manning the social network accounts, interacting with potential members, posting the success stories or mod threads, etc. No doubt there are members willing to create video's about their cars, modifications, and driving techniques to upload on YouTube.

There is no doubt this is the place to be if you're interested in fuel economy. Lets keep it that way, and more! Thanks for listening to my thoughts.

I love what EcoModder has become too.

And we (admins) are not at all opposed to social media... in fact we talk about it a couple of times a year! :D

(Although, ironically, none of the 3 admins uses FB/Twitter... and it's not even a generational thing -- me being the old guy here. The other guys are the real oddballs for not doing what 99.5% of their peers are apparently doing, faces glued to mobile devices.)

Here's the thing: our occasional social media discussions always come down to the same conclusion, which is that we're content with EM's status (in terms of growth/membership levels). The active members are generally fantastic. Overall activity is steady -- and it's more influenced by fuel prices than by anything else. HUGE correlation there. Not surprisingly.

Also -- and I'm speaking only for myself here -- I'm not much into evangelizing. My approach is not to try leading the horse to water. I'd rather just be the water. The genuinely interested/motivated horses know how to use Google, so they will find us, and they will drink. Those are the horses we want most to have around here.

ALL THAT SAID...

The biggest reason we don't pursue FB/Twitter/Youtube is it's extra work for us, and we each already have TMFP (Too Many ... Projects).

But we would absolutely welcome anyone who wants to help spread the word on other platforms ... a team of social media embassadors/contributors would be interesting.

EG: someone to post the occasional success story / selected threads on EM's Twitter feed? Fantastic! A FB page "editor" would also be great (we actually didn't start that one. An EM member did independently.) Someone to "curate" the EcoModder YouTube channel/playlists? I would actually love that one.

I don't do Twit or Farcebook... but I could get into well made You Tube clips... at least until the introductory period for my high speed net runs out and I go back to slow *** dial-up.

Yeah, the YouTube thing interests me the most. I waste a fair amount of time there now.

It does give me an idea for a feature that doesn't exist on the forum: wouldn't it be interesting to be able to search for threads/posts that have embedded YouTube vids? I'm not sure that's possible right now the way the vB forum search tool works. Could be wrong...

Go to Youtube and search for ecomodder. Enjoy! :)

To find youtube vids on this site (ecomodder.com) just search for both 'youtube' and whatever you want videos about; f.i. Draft & YouTube.
It picks the vids up because 'youtube' is in the posted URL.

I have to completely disagree with this. Keep the forum simple and usable. All that design crap does is make things difficult for those of us - probably the great majority - who don't choose to access the on-line world in just the same way as the designer. As an extreme example, consider the sites which lock out anyone not using accepted (usually IE) browsers, or even particular versions of them.

No need to worry - no plans to change the functionality/usability of the forum itself.

(The home page is another matter though.)

There's a home page? :confused:

I always go straight to "recent posts".

x2

X3

Good to know I'm not the only one!

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I agree though that some updating, without changing the overall useability or 'feel' of the forum, is necessary in an ever changing world. I know that much like cbaber, including myself, there are many who would be willing to do whatever it takes to make sure 'there isn't a drought at our lake' as well as bring more horses to join us. Our water is indeed pretty pure! :D

Metro, you have on the homepage things that are currently happening. We could easily incorporate that into FB, just like Vekke has done with 3L --> 2L project. I'm sure you don't want to be throwing the administrator title out to just anyone, but maybe "promoting" some members to a more official role.

I don't see starting accounts on social media as bringing more horses, I look at it as expanding our ever growing reservoir. Somebody might google something and find us, but not be convinced to join based off of one thread or whatever they found. From personal experience, it took finding this forum multiple times from a couple of different Google results to finally decide I should join. If somebody really likes one form of social media, but not another, it would just make it more likely for them to join.

I have a personal Twitter account, due to boredom on work breaks, etc. The Twitter application I use (TweetCaster) supports multiple accounts, so I could easily switch between being "me" and then update Ecomodder's feed.

Throwing my hat in the ring, if deemed necessary.

Can you imagine me limiting my deep and random thoughts to a hundred and forty characters?

Okay, apparently I can!

By the way, I recently went on a road trip with my sister and her sons. The three-year old really likes dropping things in the car and begging us to retrieve them for him. One time he dropped his happy meal toy and kept asking for his "nerf." When I realized that was three-year-old for "smurf," he helpfully clarified "It's the blue one!"

As far as wanting more exposure and membership, be careful what you wish for. That's when the community becomes a forum. If I was a site owner I'd want the most traffic possible because that ='s revenue. But as a user this is a very healthy size with organic growth.

On classical music radio stations was the change to no dead air a few years back. Apparently the morons were confused by the cessation of sound down to complete stillness. And the marketing majors, the MBA's and other detritus of our society helped force the move to the announcer immmediately speaking before the last notes died. None of them, it seems, ever played or performed music that requires talent, much less discipline or skill. Or, a mind. I am certain that no new listeners are attracted, it just lessens (in some cases, ruins) the experience desired. (One is patient with audiences at a performance who applaud at the end of a movement versus the actual ending . . they'll learn. They've given time and effort to be present after all).

Attacting the ignorant has ruined more than one site at which I used to read or participate . . the lack of any search of previous posts on a subject tends to be the marker: "Hi, it's ME, Me, me, me, meeeeeee!!!" The original participants who made the site so interesting often fall away after The Deluge.

Responding with "Do a search" falls on deaf ears . . as does providing links to same all too often. I am surprised, as one usually (though not always) can find the more interesting and knowledgeable participants. I can switch my search to one combining a key word and their screen name. This has taken me direclty to my area of interest any number of times . . and I an PM those folks as well. I've directed others on other sites as they come across my posts. Etc.

Anyone with a mission to convert the heathen has best wishes. On their own dime & time. After all, it isn't hard to find this site.

I am not arguing "no changes", I leave that to the owners, thank them for their effort (and hope it is rewarding) and extend best wishes for the future.

The Deluge here was the spike in U.S. gas prices to ~$4 in ~2008. Since then, we've had a handful of mini-deluges, but things have generally been calm. The forum has been holding steady on an even keel for ages.

I don't expect that giving EM a presence in other social media will lead to anything comparable to what a sudden $0.50 increase in fuel prices would do.

Whether there are more members or not, i think it's important to spread the word. Before i joined here, ecomodding and hypermiling were complete mysteries to me. I thought it was impossible to beat the epa rating of my car. I had no idea that I was the major factor in my gas mileage.

I would see it as a public service to enlighten others on the topic.

Actually, the number of "active users" -- defined as having visited in the last 30 days -- has shrunk to well below average in the last couple of months. And the general trendline for "number of new users" each month has been on the decline for about 2 years now. Just FYI.

(Forum stats are available for anyone to monitor at the bottom of the forum index, as they are on most forums. EM is doing well relative to a couple of other forums I follow that deal with similar subject matter, but "growth" isn't a term I'd use to describe the overall picture!)

It's mostly attributable to relatively stable U.S. fuel prices -- it's gone up & down a little, but they're at the same place now they were 2 years ago. Result: habituation & apathy leading to fewer people searching for solutions to a perceived problem.

That said, I'm not particularly alarmed by the current state of the forum. Activity ebbs & flows for a variety of reasons. It will flow again, and ebb again.

Metro, you've mentioned oil prices being a major factor, have you noticed anything else contributing to new membership? (Obviously you need to write big oil and tell them to raise prices :p)

You say you and the other admins are satisfied without social media, but it seems some would like to pursue it nonetheless. Would you be willing to let a select few create a social media portfolio on behalf of EM (either with or without collaboration with the admin team)?

We have all benefited from this community and I think some of us just want to show a token of our appreciation as well as showing other people the 'light'. (Send us on our mission :o)

Once upon a time the Gassavers site was good but then the HHO idiots took it over... they're gone but it's still on life support.

What brought me to this site was that things I already did were quantified and turned into an accepted method, not just me trying something. Although I agree that not all growth will be healthy, not everyone who is interested in elements of this site (basic engineering, efficiency) will necessarily search for it. Raising social awareness may help bring in contributors who will value the site.

For some reason, I never thought to modify a car to make it travel more efficiently. EM gave me the confidence to try, and the proven results have inspired me to get another car and take it to basjoos levels.

As I was going through updates, I thought about how on other sites the first response might simply be "First!", often followed by spam, and generally lacking content.

I only have people that I know and consider friends (or family) on Facebook, but I am much more active here. If I posted on Facebook "Well, my car blew up and I needed to be hospitalized," I would have people responding with "Laugh out Loud" or just hitting the "Like" button.

X2 Couldn't agree with you more UltArc. I found this site from Googling various things, but somebody devoting their time elsewhere might not think or have the time to search for 'improving MPG'.

Again, couldn't agree more. There is no way I would be where I am at today in terms of car knowledge (theory and practice), if it were not for this community. I have learned a lot and gained confidence in 'modding' without the pressure that I might blow the engine or some other catastrophic event.

I always thought car companies could do so much better and although they certainly can, I can augment their inabilities with my own modifications and this site is the reason why I can even consider it let alone attempt it.

Nope. That is the biggie.

EG, see: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ord-21268.html

Also:

FROM: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ers-19978.html

Yup - we would definitely appreciate that. Thanks to input from cbaber, we're going to work out some FB/Twit/YT plans this week.

Just my opinion.

I think if visitors could read about different levels of "hypermiling" they MIGHT be more amenable to adapting the different levels of technique.

Presenting the different levels as steps to progress might be more effective. My best example is my wife. The last time I drove her Sorento, I noticed she had an average of 31 MPG in the Sorento (new rating 29 highway). I complemented her on that number.

She is a very non agressive driver and averages 26-27 in the Sorento. In her previous vehicle, a Nissan Rogue, she could consistently beat EPA highway tank after tank.

I think many people come here who do not feel like they can contribute to the discussion, so they just read and adopt methods that they feel are acceptable to them for their driving situations.

Things like average speed, rate of acceleration, coasting, and light timing all can make a significant difference in average MPG. Most of these are very easy to do and they do not interfere with other drivers habits, even though those habits are terrible.

I also think that when threads go down the path of confrontation, they can turn people off to techniques that could be useful, but the argumentive nature of some possibly could cause those less confrontational to just stop reading some of the posts, or believe the information is not constructive.

I do like the light handed moderation, generally allowing threads to go beyond the point where I might lock them or delete tham altogether, which is one reason why I would not make a good moderator.

Been here 5 years + now. I like to try to help people when they have a problem that falls into my level of experience, which dwindles as time passes.

Not so sure about "agressive" marketing, which personally turns me off, however as long as the "flavor" of the site remains, I will be hanging around, probably indefinitely.

regards
Mech

header image freshened up
 

Thanks (!) to cbaber who massaged the header of the site and made it a little more fetching. (Did anybody notice? I uploaded it this afternoon. FYI, the old images may still be in your cache.)

Not "in your face" changes - but it definitely looks more refined to me.

I noticed! I thought "Hey wait a second..." :)

When looking at the forum activity are you looking at the number of posts, or the number of vistors to a page? I ask this because i often come on here and dont sign in(lurking)

I also agree that with more posters on a forum it tends to take away from the overall quality. I have always admired this site because of its overall maturity, lack of trolls, and arguments compared to forums with hundreds of thousands of members

I recently had a thought on the design[of the site]. It seems, to me, very clean, and very clear. I appreciate that. Watching a bit of insightcentral.net, mustangevolution.com, and other forums I randomly come across (guns, random cars, other things), I find this to be the most refined. It's not complex, not obnoxious, not confusing. It's nice.

Although, I must say, attempting to use this site on a mobile phone (pda, smartphone) it is pretty rough. When I had an ipad, it was decent, the Galaxy Note 8.0, it's a tiny bit rough. Not nearly as bad as the mobile phone, though. It is important to get others perspective on the mobile android experience as I use an older version.

Didn't mean to end on a negative note, from color scheme to layout, I really like the site. As odd and boring as it sounds out loud, I really like beige and green lol

I like the site, just as it is! :)

Although the new header is nice. Kudos!

We keep tabs on everything. And as you point out, the various metrics don't always move in unison -- sometimes we can have reduced overall traffic, yet post & thread activity remains steady or goes up. (Indicates more member activity vs. visitor activity). Or vise versa.

Thanks. One main difference is the big sites are mostly owned by one company based in Toronto whose business is buying up all kinds of forums. The sites they buy tend to get pretty ad-heavy and a bit cluttered. IC is owned by them now. Not sure about the other.

I use the non-mobile skin, and it actually works just fine in 2 different browsers on my tiny old android 2.x phone.

I'm running a new HTC One with Android 4.1.2 on a 4.7" 1080p screen, using the main non-mobile site without problems. I did try the site on a Blackberry Z10 at work and found it more difficult.

But, I do agree with the cleanliness of the site overall. I've become frustrated at times with the Search feature here, so if I was pressed to make a complaint that'd be the one.

Love this site too much to complain though :)

You probably already know this, but...

Default search box on each page is Google-powered... so you know how to formulate a query to make that work.

If you hit the "Advanced Search" link, it takes you to the native vBulletin search feature. It has its own syntax & quirks.

I think many of us more experienced forum users do that.

It would make sense to have a "share" function in each thread for those of us who do use fb/twitter to more easily share post's that we find interesting/useful. This by itself would attract new interested users.

I wish that when I did a search, if I went to modify my search, it would continue searching EcoModder! :o

I've asked Ben (SVOboy) for EM's Facebook login info... hopefully we can put the page to better use than it has been since... oh, November 3, 2011.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/EcoModdercom/22233936282

I understand the idea behind social media and getting the word out to the masses but I think the best advertisement would be a car sticker. Considering almost all of us drive slower than traffic on the highway there is ample opportunity for people to see our back and side windows.

Just an ecomodder.com sticker wouldn't be all the effective though. There should be a spot to put each car's MPG on the sticker. The sticker (and/or magnet?) should be of some material where you could write on it semi-permenantly; kinda like a dry erase board idea but better. Being able to change it lets your advertise your gains to the people that pass you on the road...some of them on a daily basis. Next time they fill up, they might check their MPG, time after that they might start wondering "how does that guy get such high mpg? Maybe I'll check out that website".

Most of us have small economy cars that get good mpg unlike "most" of America who pass us in the their SUVs but I think that the members here who have pickups, SUVs and other "not-so-economical" cars could really make an impression on the masses by using the sticker idea...for a "hey, that guy gets 20 more MPG than me in the same truck, what is he doing to get that kind of economy?" type situation.

They sell decals on the site for $5, but I like your idea of adding each members MPG somehow. EcoModder Store: Get Stuff, Support EcoModder - EcoModder.com

While I was working on my undergraduate senior project (mpg computer similar to MPGuino) I thought about mounting a small display in the rear window that showed my instant MPG. But I'm not sure if that is safe for other drivers, and I'm not sure of how legal it is to have a display showing out of your window. But you are correct, advertising our MPG numbers is a lot more interesting than just the website link.

I always talk about this. Essentially, a ~32" scanguage for the rear window. My roommate always complains- because I talk about it so much lol