scott9050

I've been here for over 13 years as a member and some of the things on here lately have had me contemplating a more or less permanent break. It is just not the same as it used to be, and as I am now approaching 40 I feel my interest waning. Those ridiculous ads are just the cherry on top.

OutsiderIROC-Z

Agreed.

DWray

I'll likely never leave permanently, but I do spend most of my time elsewhere. Those ads would scare anyone off, but such is a nature with any Internet Brands messageboard.

Jason E

I give Jason and Chris all the credit in the world for building up a phenomenal website that rode the wave of popularity for a long, long time. This website brought me opportunities like Bowling Green, the NAIAS Camaro debut, etc. It always had a family feel to it.

Personally, the whole Who Dat debacle, letting a mod run around with the biggest chip on his shoulder I've ever seen, really soured me on this area of the board. Even before that, he was an arrogant little a-hole, and I told him so much in a PM when he blasted me in a post for no real reason.

Now, its just another website with a membership always bitching about the decline. As soon as my SS is in my lap, I will likely visit LS1Tech.com more and more. I spend more of my time on TGO now, too...

thehunter

As long as the site is up, I will visit it. But I frequent a couple of other car based message boards more often. Only because the "non car" or general topic forum moves much much quicker.

jim88iroc305

We could always join mormon.org and start raising hell trolling as new members with CZ28 in our sig which might cause them to cease and desist here!

one wicked element

one wicked element

LS1Tech.com is owned by Internet Brands as well.
Here is the list: Internet Brands, Inc.

GrdLockV6

So what other message board lounge do the most people here also frequent? I'd start visiting another board if there's one particular one a lot of people here are members at.

The lounge here is pretty dead, and that is a serious issue when I'm trying to waste time at work.

91_z28_4me

I think we should put more effort/time in on the cz28 reddit page. It could take off and since many of us already spend time on reddit it could work well.

JasonD

Where to begin? I haven't said much lately about the situation because historically, it only made people put crosshairs on my head rather than being accepted as words of encouragement and enlightement. I may not post more in this, depending on how the replies after this post go, and that is up to everyone else in this thread.

For starters, I am going to accept the start of this thread as more of a concern rather than a complaint, although it was posted in the Lounge rather than the Site Help and Suggestions forum, where I moved it to.

Second, I am sorry you guys don't like the direction things went in. We didn't intend for anyone to have such strong feelings, but honestly...we didn't have much of a choice in things that put us all here, and it didn't happen all by itself.

Ad-block...the cancer of the web site owner. I have said before that part of the reason we had to sell the site was because people use ad-block. We warned everyone that it would only force us to have to make ends meet by adding more ads. In a roundabout sort of way, it still happened.

If people didn't make it hard for us to financially make ends meet on the minimal advertising that we needed to run the site, we wouldn't have had to sell it. That is a 100% fact. We ran out of site funds because we didn't increase advertisement exposure. So, it would have had to happen no matter if IB took the site over or not. It doesn't take a financial wizard to understand why now that I said this.

That's true...but I think we also understand the main concern which is the growth of the site, new members and all that. Understood fully, and it is unfortunate that it is now also required to make ends meet.

I'm sorry, buddy. We couldn't have predicted this fully.

True. But it doesn't solve the problem at hand regarding new members, I am sorry to say.

In some cases, yes....

Ads don't dictate the rules for content. My question is...why do you want to come here to discuss the advertisements? I hope there is a better reason to come here than that. If you want to talk about mormons...go to a mormon web site. Only makes sense. BTW...you will never go anywhere that requires advertisements to function where every single means and method of advertising suits everyone. Technology isn't there just yet, anyway.

Let me make it very clear that each and every ad is likely NOT hand selected. I don't know how IB does things, but it is typical for a company to use an ad network which has their own criteria...which is clearly not very accurate. There is no way to really tell how it is done, because there could be a dozen different ad networks looped in, and each one does their own selection. Some definitely get it wrong...others get it spot on. And yes, sometimes it is based on your browsing history. I have never need the mormon ad myself.

Thanks...that still means a lot to us.

I am going to say that I respectfully have an issue with this one, as it is a fine example of an ongoing problem that never helped and always hurt this site, and IMO...is a contributor to the step back the community as a whole has taken. That example is not letting things go. The whole "who dat" BS was a long time ago, and would have died and been forgotten about except for people kept bringing it up, and not by the moderator but the people who just won't drop it and move on to something beneficial. Thet mod stopped moderating and doesn't even show up any more (his user title was never changed until recently).

Hell, I was making things better during that issue right in the thread in question offering up apologies and doing the right thing. I spent hours and hours reading people's thoughts and responding honestly to every comment made. Largely, people ignored the improvements and my willingness to work with the situation and continued bashing me when I was there to fix things. Some people didn't want to see improvements, they just wanted to be *******s about it.

We made changes based on people's suggestions and we never got any credit for it, and still get crapped on for the problem that we fixed. Who has a chip on their shoulder now? How is repeatedly bringing it up going to make anything better? I don't see the point.

The speed complaints seemed to have dropped off. Everyone is working very hard to make it respond better and find the problem. I noticed that there were many people offering up complaints and a few offering up help by providing traceroutes and such when there are slowdowns, etc. (which is much appreciated) Now, the complaints have dropped off because we are making progress. How many posts of gratitude have replaced them? None that I know of. A little gratitude would go a long way.

I miss a lot of the old days myself even though it was tough to make it through sometimes. Bottom line, if you want this site to be better...do something to make it better. Don't do something to make it worse, because that is what you will get.

Chris and I get nothing financially for still being here. Not a cent. We do get the relief of not having to worry night after night, week after week, month after month, year after year about how we will pay the server bill while keeping everyone happy. However, we weren't just going to dump the site and walk away as if we didn't put 15 years of our lives into it. We are still here, wanting to make things better. We'd like people to spend more time helping us make the site better, rather the pointing out shortcomings for the sake of it. The content in the reddit group is a fine example. If any of you think that actually helps, you need to have your head examined. That is pure insult to injury.

So is TGO.

Again, I am sorry to every single one of you that you don't like the direction it went. We didn't like having to allow it, but thanks to people using ad-block, complaining without contributing, etc., we didn't have any choice.

My point is, we all got into this together, and it is up to all of us to get out of it. You can take that as you will, but I hope as an opportunity.

It was always up to you, and it still is. Before you post that it has gotten worse, ask yourself what you attempted to make it better.

GrdLockV6

I don't think anyone here blames you (Jason) or Chris for anything, or if they do they shouldn't.

It would be nice if traffic picked back up on the site. I just fear it may be too late, as it seems many once regular members have already moved on, or are visiting the board less and less. I'm sure new members will trickle in. Maybe new people are joining and I just haven't realized it... I don't know. Maybe there's a lot more going on in some of the other sections of the board, I don't know either.

People definitely need to drop the who dat deal. It's stupid and in the past. However, looking at it from the other side, weren't there a few regular members who were banned around that time, who contributed a lot of posts to the board? What if some of those members were unbanned? I may be mistaken, and they were banned for completely different reasons, but it still seems like a lot of regular members were perma-banned for the wrong reasons, and that slowed things down quite a bit before IB even bought the site. What if that were to be undone? Of course now they may not even want to come back, but who knows.

I never used ad-block prior to IB, but now I keep it turned on when I'm here. The ads used to be relevant to car enthusiasts. Now they're garbage ads, flash ads, ads that play audio, ads that enlarge when you mouseover them... I don't deal w/ that crap from any site that wants to use those types of ads.

On the bright side, the speed on the board seems to have improved over last week. Hopefully it stays that way... as there have been good days in the past, and then the next day things will be back in the sh*tter. We'll see. I won't get my hopes up until there has been a solid week of good performance.

nitrojunky

my take on it is a lot of members get vocal because they like this place a little to much

i don't know about the rest of the site, but how to make the lounge profitable?

advertise:

• newegg.com
• guns
• corvette related items
• eurotrash car items
• horse pr0n
• human pr0n
• christian anti pr0n stuff
• other tech gadget related items
• apple stuff
• anti-apple stuff
• online gaming stuff
• fitness related gear
• football related stuff
• tools
• home theater gear
• home depot-type equipment
• car items in general, but not just fbod specific

is the above feasible? i have no idea. i think a lot of us in the lounge are car guys, but most have moved on from f-bods.


but remove the active areas in the text and the gumgum garbage. it only pisses off consumers. over the years, i've been a 'premium member' and have purchased a few thousand in items from various supporting vendors. i will never purchase something via a link that annoys me or attempts to trick me into clicking on it. what seems to be going on is an attempt at a rapid monetizing of the site at the expense of its long term. that's unfortunate, but i don't hold jason and chris accountable. if it weren't for them, we wouldn't have the present community.



i can see jason's point about keeping the lights on. how many views do i make before buying something via a supporting venodor? i'm not sure. it's varied a lot over the years, and i have to wonder if my purchases paid for my bandwidth. nevertheless, i have to wonder if something super light weight, more like a craigslist-type board (in order to at least be cheap enough to support itself with minimal ads), would better serve the lounge members.

94Camaro_Z_28

No Mormon pr0n????

JasonD

Thanks, and likewise...we don't blame any one person either. I didn't mean to come off as critical and "not my fault, but yours" or anything like that to anyone. But just the same way, one or two people aren't going to make it better, either. It will take a group effort. Sadly, I don't see that happening.

That's a good point. The point I was trying to make earlier was that people sort of having this bandwagon/gang complaining mentality that gets to the point where people are too busy bitching to notice that things aren't like they are making it out to be or simply got better.

Again, a few people aren't going to make anything better. Furthermore, just making a lot of posts don't make them beneficial. I think I know who you are referring to and I understand they they were the life of the party to some, but a babysitting job to others.

The people who get banned know exactly why they got banned even if they don't care to admit it. It didn't sneak up on them, it took a lot...warnings, nice emails, not so nice emails, temp banning, etc. They saw it coming a mile away and are either not admitting that they knew it or aren't telling the whole story. No one gets banned without going WAY out of their way to do it. They can only blame themselves.

Sorry to say, like the who dat BS, this also needs to be dropped. It won't help and won't change a thing.

I never used ad-block prior to IB, but now I keep it turned on when I'm here. The ads used to be relevant to car enthusiasts. Now they're garbage ads, flash ads, ads that play audio, ads that enlarge when you mouseover them... I don't deal w/ that crap from any site that wants to use those types of ads.

The Internet is an imperfect place. There has definitely been improvements, but it seems that no one is able to recognize them because they are more focused on typing up their next complaint about tit.

That's like saying I beat my children because I love them. If people like this place, they know the right way to show it. However, from what I have seen, it is rare that they do.

GumGum...we (Chris and I) put that in place WEEKS before IB came into the picture. Why? We had to. It helped keep the place running. If IB hadn't came into the picture, we'd still be having this "I hate all these ads" conversation but it would be directed squarely at Chris and I. Either that, or there would be a "Thanks for the last 15 years but due to financial constraints, CamaroZ28.Com had to be shut down". And now you know why that would have happened.

Um...we had minimal ads. One on top and one on the side. For people who weren't logged in, there was a couple after the first post and the last post of a thread. People thought it was cool to block them. Look where we are now. Do a search for the word "adblock" and see how many were actually proud to use it.

Speaking of which...the Search function was always a problem. Is is VASTLY improved. Again, a little gratitude would have went a long way.

You know what else makes people leave a site? When they come to it and all they see are people saying how bad it is.

If you walked into a restaurant and saw large groups of customers shouting to everyone else how bad the food is, and making harsh comments, and snide remarks, would you find a table and sit down? No, you would leave. And even if the food was great, you would still have doubt in your head about it.

That is what is happening here, and it isn't just the ads. It is in what people say about this site, on this site, and off this site.

And although I made it clear I don't blame any one person, I do have to ask again in general...those who are complaining...have you done anything to contribute to an improvement? Or have you done anything to contribute to a decline?

I am simply asking for people to be fair and honest about it, to recognize improvements as well as faults, and to offer the benefit of the doubt. That's all, really.