Which way now?

[jimmy]

What are peoples opinions on the direction of oOple.com - where it should go, where it is now etc?

reviews, race reports etc etc..

What do people want to see and ideas for how to acheive it. :thumbsup:

[Chris Doughty]

a race report on the Wycombe Micro national :thumbsup: :p

[GRIFF55]

It would be nice to see more reviews of the new cars, i know this costs time and money. So why not have a Paid members section where you could see reviews etc?
I have paid on other forums for this priviledge. (no funny remarks please)

[stegger]

It would be nice to see more reviews of the new cars, i know this costs time and money. So why not have a Paid members section where you could see reviews etc?
I have paid on other forums for this priviledge. (no funny remarks please)
I'm sure a nominal fee of even £1 per user would pay for all most everything. 3,649 users at the moment;)

[Lee]

I think you need help jimmy. Professional help :woot:

Seriously though you are working your nuts off and seeing very little for it. You quite possibly need to expand a touch to get people to help you write a review or a race report.

But on the other hand it is your personal touches to oOple that makes it what it is, its a tough question really but i think you should try and get some financial help with it, through advertising and subscriptions.

I think if you could have a live feed section, that would be a massive thing and people would pay for it, but it aint cheap.

[Lee]

I'm sure a nominal fee of even £1 per user would pay for all most everything. 3,649 users at the moment;)


3000 of these are northy's aliases :woot:

[stegger]

3000 of these are northy's aliases :woot:
He's going to be skint then:lol::lol:

[traffman]

Hell id pay a quid if it means more reviews . I love reading those. Also love the vintage photos .
I wondered if you could cover more vintage stuff . Maybe celebrating the dawn of the off roader , ah i just enjoy harking back to the ole days.:wub

[Spoolio]

More reviews would be good and some "Long Term reports" eg, how you got on with the [insert review item] etc as no one really does this. You could also set up an archive section for the older stuff as its still useful but perhaps doesn't need to be front page anymore.

From a race report perspective how about some coverage (even just a little bit) of the other finals rather than just the A's - I'm sure the top blokes wouldn't mind sharing the limelight.

I'm fully in favour of a small subs charge - hell, I pay TamiyaClub £15 a year and get about 0.10% of the info off there that I can get off oOple.com

Oh yeah, and where can I buy an oOple tee (not a nitro one though)?

Perhaps you ought to look into a lucrative licensing deal:)

[Barry Williams]

If it aint broke dont fix it, dont think you need to do more than you already do as it is a great service to off road racing, as for financial backing, i think everyone should chip in a bit to cover some of the stuff you do, I mean some events you dont even race at & yet you cover them with pics & a report. Top job you are doing Jimmy

[bigred5765]

do a paypal donate button some were on here jimmy, then it's up to the nice people to pay for there privileges,

[rcracer]

oOple is spot on and cant think of anything that could allready improve such a great forum, as for subscribtion then yeah anything to help it along, i used to be a member on another forum and it was £5 a year which gave you access to the trade room and other parts of the forum if you didnt pay it you could just browse.

[Jonathan]

Oople is fantastic.

I love the reviews, race reports and of course the forum sees a lot of use, for me its invaluable to see what going on and where.

The only other paid forum I used was relating to real cars and it works realy well:

~£12 per year, give some stickers as people love these. Shop discount for members (dont know if that could be hard to provide?).

Access to all parts of the site stays free to everyone except for posting in the for sale and wanted section. Limiting other bits will alienate too many people, make it feel too 'members only' and not draw new members in.

My hope would be that the revenue could reward you for all the effort that goes into the site and fund race reports from the worlds and euros. Possibly fund some more reviews but personaly I think suppliers should be begging you to do reviews.

Just some ideas.

[Darren Boyle]

Commercial backing...............advertising :woot:.

But you already know that :p

[Lonestar]

If it aint broke dont fix it, dont think you need to do more than you already do as it is a great service to off road racing, as for financial backing, i think everyone should chip in a bit to cover some of the stuff you do, I mean some events you dont even race at & yet you cover them with pics & a report. Top job you are doing Jimmy


my thoughts exactly - thanks again for the great work :)

More reviews would be even better, but hey time is money.

Paul

[James]

Oople is fantastic.

I love the reviews, race reports and of course the forum sees a lot of use, for me its invaluable to see what going on and where.

The only other paid forum I used was relating to real cars and it works realy well:

~£12 per year, give some stickers as people love these.

Access to all parts of the site stays free to everyone except for posting in the for sale and wanted section. Limiting other bits will alienate too many people, make it feel too 'members only' and not draw new members in.

My hope would be that the revenue could reward you for all the effort that goes into the site and fund race reports from the worlds and euros. Possibly fund some more reviews but personaly I think suppliers should be begging you to do reviews.

Just some ideas.

good ideas :thumbsup:

[frogger]

Yep, I too love the amazing race reports, great reviews and pictures and am willing to pay for the privilege. Your for sale section is one of the best too. Other forums are charging for membership and when people become 'formu supporters or VIP members' they get access to features such as PM's, the For Sale section and review or race report sections. Additionally if a shop wants to market themselves on there then they pay a 'friend of forum' fee which is usually somewhere near £50\year. It's free to people who use the basics.

[Rich D]

I too am more than happy to pay towards your costs Jimmy. Great site :thumbsup:

[blitzboy]

dito i would pay a yearly registation fee this site is addictive :woot:

[Belsten]

me too :thumbsup:

[rcracer]

Yep, I too love the amazing race reports, great reviews and pictures and am willing to pay for the privilege. Your for sale section is one of the best too. Other forums are charging for membership and when people become 'formu supporters or VIP members' they get access to features such as PM's, the For Sale section and review or race report sections. Additionally if a shop wants to market themselves on there then they pay a 'friend of forum' fee which is usually somewhere near £50\year. It's free to people who use the basics.

I think payed member access to the For Sale section only would stop users just coming on the forum to just sell there gear and then we would build up a better trust of who we are dealing with, well thats my thought on it :D

[Dunc]

I'd happily pay a subscription fee too - bring it on :thumbsup:

Pretty much anything oOple is good, but I particularly enjoy the large one-off meeting reports (i.e. NEO, Euros, Worlds, etc.).

[jayst]

with wot rcracer said that is a fine option and i wud pay a membership fee

[_JP_]

I think its at the forefront of reports, photos and good old info/chat :)

most people who use oOple a lot would be prepared to pay I would have thought, but what new members will ask is what do we get?! we all know what we get. Oh NO PAYPAL only options please :thumbdown:


I think you have to ask and answer a few questions :p

Where do you think it should go?
what did you set out to achieve? have you done it!

What IS or was the ultimate goal ; MONEY - FAME or ??

just a few thoughts! :thumbsup:

OH yea Jimmy "What do people want to see and ideas for how to acheive it."
HA thats what my boss does all the time, he gets the money and kudos I give him the ideas and help implement them have you been talking to him LOL :p:woot:

What are peoples opinions on the direction of oOple.com - where it should go, where it is now etc?

reviews, race reports etc etc..

What do people want to see and ideas for how to acheive it. :thumbsup:

[dbizzle5]

How about a oOple race series! Like the old Radio Race Car series. An alternative to the nationals. Im sure many clubs would be up for hosting a round as the turnout would bound to be good. Full race reports on oOple and sponsorship from manufacturers. Would take a lot of organizing though.

[stulec52]

I want more decals in oOple style !

Also, I'm not sure that charging people for veiwing content works, often people will just go to another site that doesn't charge to find similar stuff.
Just a thought.

[Crazy L]

what about?....nothing at all cos Oople is perfect as it is:thumbsup:

[Bungleaio]

I'm more than willing to give some money towards the site and as rcracer said if the members who pay are the only ones allowed to list things for sale it would make things a bit better, although I've never had a problem with anyone I've bought from.

Hopefully the extra cash would allow for more reviews, but the site is great as it is.

[Groomi]

Hi, I'm pretty new on here so still finding my way around the site. I'm not actively racing at the moment but am more into the design side of things, hence finding my way here through your 'I Made This' forum.

I spend (too much) time on a large car forum and have found that it is interesting to involve the members opinions and feedback on products/methods/ideas etc to make use of the sheer numbers of people on the site.

A suggestion would be product reviews which perhaps have an initial editorial, then linked to a members vote to count real-world users experience rather than just the impressions gained by carrying out a one-off test. The products could be anything from full cars to motors or even method of securing radio gear.

I'd also love to see more information about how manufacturers design and develop their cars - but I know this may be hard to come by!

Keep up the good work, great site. :thumbsup:

[jpgranone]

I agree with those who would pay the annual fee. I am all for it since it would go to getting more review/product data. This site is (IMHO) the best electric racing information center. So the coverage of races, reviews of kits, and components are very useful. I would like to see more data on how kits perform over time. Also, for us on-road people trying to run off-road, more tuning articles would be very nice.

[niggs98]

to be honest jimmy you try and do to much already m8 and the things that are curently on here are awsome so keep things as they are rather than try to add to your already bursting work load, poor vicky must feel like a oople widow :woot:

and rather than pay per view why not just allow rc advertising like dms have sugested, i know that nearly all the main importers, shops etc would pay for it due to the amount of people who come on here

[Fiddybux]

I think yearly reg or donate is a better way to go that advertising. I'll just block them anyway, but they take up screen space never the less.

[Chrislong]

oOple is a monster, and Jimmy deserves a lot of appreciation for his work. Its a credit to you mate.

Id be happy to pay a subscription.

Don't bog the site down with pop ups - but do sell advertisement space, keep it sensible, if something opens slowly then I generally loose interest in it and don't return. This site currently opens fast, everything is easy to find and is high quality.

Why did most of us leave RCracechat? well for me it was once good but got spoilt by too many rules as it grew and became too serious, and detracted from the theme of the sport - which is fun, escapism and socialising..... which is exactly what oOple has. :thumbsup:

[Welshy40]

Jimmy,

This site is spot on!!! I would like to see more reviews, lets face it your reviews are a lot better than the magazines (well I do thinks Tom's magazine reviews are tops as well) with everything there for us to see.

Maybe updates and mods used could be another way forward. A testing section for new stuff maybe.

Also more pics from the race events (maybe of the members if they appear at the events)

[Body Paint]

oOple is a monster, and Jimmy deserves a lot of appreciation for his work. Its a credit to you mate.

Id be happy to pay a subscription.

Don't bog the site down with pop ups - but do sell advertisement space, keep it sensible, if something opens slowly then I generally loose interest in it and don't return. This site currently opens fast, everything is easy to find and is high quality.

Why did most of us leave RCracechat? well for me it was once good but got spoilt by too many rules as it grew and became too serious, and detracted from the theme of the sport - which is fun, escapism and socialising..... which is exactly what oOple has. :thumbsup:

BANG ON!!!

Completely mirrors my feelings :thumbsup:

[telboy]

Sort of depends on what you want from it Jimmy.

Was your aim, to make it a full time job? or just a hobby?
You need to look into the future yourself, and see what you want from oOple.
If you start doing more, will it make it too much work for you to balance with a full time job aswell?
Could you make it full time? Obviously if thats what you aim for then you need to look at what else you can produce for the public that would make it viable.

oOple race series would be cool, sponsored by some major manufacturer. Maybe even hook up with the BRCA, and arange meetings on the same weekend as nats, and have all the reserves sent to you for the oOple series, that way you would get a decent number plus all the other F4/F5's attending. It could be the F4/5 oOple nats? leaving the nats open to mainly F1/2/3's

Like all have said, I would pay a subscription.

[David Church]

Jimmy, Keep it much as the same it is!!!!! Add paid sponsors and add the ability for people to make voluntary donations, I think you will be pleasantly surprised with how much people give to keep this site going!!!!
Then you can use the £££ to enhance your service!!!!!!:thumbsup:
Also ad a cd full of pics for certain events, (pic's that did'nt make your report online) for a price of course, and many people will see how many pic's you take!!!
Keep your job and use the oOple £££ to race with, then you can go to the Worlds with me next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:thumbsup:

Bring on South Africa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[josh_smaxx]

oOple is spot on as it is, but as times change it can always be improved in many ways. I think a yearly subscription to allow people to have certain privileges like larger PM inbox ect, access to posting in the trading section. Things like this will bring in more to help run the site, allow it to expand and maybe one day pay for reviews and race reports.

Considering the size of oOple now im quite shocked that all the review cars/products are not donated as i think oOple will get as much exposure as many of the magazines for people interested in 1/10th offroad. Ok, others who read magazine who race rallyX ect might read the new Cat SX review but probably wont be to interested, where as pretty much everyone who races 1/10th offroad has at least heard of oOple so i would expect everyone to look here first, seen as the reviews are of such high quality, most of the time i think embarrassing magazines.

I can imaging travelling for all the race reports will get very expensive so maybe find other people to do local reports for you like me and Ben did this year (or half of it). At least then you will get much wider coverage across the nation as well as the national reports which are first class.

Anyway, i think i'll stop rambling for a bit now :bored: lol

[SHY]

For OR it's the best place to be on earth! It's already perfect!

I'd love to see the on-road section increase A LOT!... How could we do that? myTSN used to be THE place for fuel on-road dudes... can't really find any site these days with noticeable activity for those classes...

I'd love to se a "full" oOple - only for track - with all brands, engines etc...

[andys]

Now then Jimmy.

Why don't you add on the 'option' for people to register and pay a yearly membership, keep everything as it is, but just make new content from here on in (reviews etc) viewable by the paid up members only.

Keep the forum and all existing content free, then any new members will have loads to go at before they choose to 'pay-in' for the newer stuff.

Everyone's happy, and I reckon most long time users of oOple would just register anyway !

Keep up the good work, it's as near to racing as I can get for the time being....

[glypo]

There is serious money in advertising if you chase up the right people and sort it out.

Locking anything out to paid members is a MASSIVE turn-off and totally against what most people expect with the web. I think if there is paid subscription it should only enhance existing options - not remove others. As people said, bigger PM inbox, perhaps something fancy under their avatar and maybe remove adverts for people that subscribe. Anything locked out would be rubbish though I think.

And also, as someone kind of touched on (t shirts) some products would be dead cool. Stickers, t-shirts etc etc

[rcracer]

yes oople is just fine as it is and you would be hard pushed to find a better forum and a bunch of people who are down to earth and will help you out but also have there feet on the ground, hats off to Jimmy and Vicky for all there hard work,i believe locking out features such as reviews and race reports would put people off but i do think members only in the trade room would be a good thing to keep people safe in the knowledge of who they are dealing with and if the subscription was for just this purpose only i am sure most of the loyal original members would pay it anyway.

Neil..

[mole2k]

Having just read through this thread I mostly agree with people. I think a lot of people would pay a subscription fee but I personally know of quite a lot of people who wont pay a sub fee not because they don't think it's worth it but simply because they are against the idea of paying for things on the internet.

My advice would be to offer additional things to paid members as opposed to taking away things from non-paying members. Say drop the PM limit for non-paid people to 50 and raise it way up for the paid people.

As far as race reports go, would a system whereby you can have the race results live on the web for people who either pay a subscription or paid a nominal fee to view to updates of the event and the daily updates. Then after the event is over make these reports available to non-paying members so paid people have the advantage of getting the same information just quicker. Obviously live results,etc would take quite a bit of organisation and it might get to the point where all the fun is removed from it.

More regional reports done by a select few would work quite well as long as the quality is kept up to oople's high standard.

One thing I would personally love to see more from the events is video footage but this is quite different from photography and would take quite a few more people/equipment and then somebody to cut it together afterwards, would there be the demand to film all of the national series and then release an oople dvd of the nationals?

Corporate sponsorship would help cover the costs of covering events if you can attain it by offering them in return advertising banners on the event coverage pages as well maybe a plug for them in the opening text and possibly a small watermark on the images?

You could try doing some deals with some model shops to have a %discount for members as well as then links on the site too the shop. (for example reviewing a kit or equipment and having a set of links at the end of the review of places to buy the kit within the UK that oople (paid?) members can get discount.)

Try and rope a few top drivers into having semi-regular blogs would be quite good to her the different drivers opinions on general rc car news and what sort of preparation they put into the cars comming up to major events.

Anyway thats enough rambling for now :)

[telboy]

I think to make it bigger without too much change there needs to be more contributors, to help Vicky and Jimmy.
Obviously sponsorship will bring in the revenue to achieve such heights.
Maybe once there is a good sponsor on board, how about buying a decent movie camera and doing footage on a dvd to sell...or downlad? Maybe even get one of the new (larger) sponsors to provide you with a decent movie cam, and have their name on all the dvd's you sell?

That'd be almost like carrying on how it is now, but with a little extension in services.:thumbsup: Plus the sales from the dvd's would bring in dosh too.



edit: Sorry moley I just read your post. lol and realised that I've just mentioned the same as you. :)

[jimmy]

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions and helpful comments. Truth is I'm no the wiser :lol: but its given me something to work with. I've not replied sooner because I just didn't know what or how to reply - so I won't go into specifics, I just appreciate everyones input.:thumbsup:

[b4rs]

hey guys, jimmy i think alot of ideas that people have thought of are good and could work, i like the oople video ideas but subscription for me personally could be a toughy. because im a student etc then times are hard lol. but i personally would rather donate through a donate button on occasions when i have money, so say you were thinking of making it £5 annual, then id rather dontate the odd £2 here and there, and if i did it 3 times its £6. but personally a set fee wouldnt be the nicest for me as BRCA, etc and all other annual and monthly fees add up to a silly amount.

i think i nice big paypal donate button would be great.

one major cool add on to this site would be a built in live chat section?

just a thought.

[Lee]

You could close oople down and then do a come back tour like all the greats.

ie boyzone take that, the spice girls :lol::thumbsup:

[rcracer]

You could close oople down and then do a come back tour like all the greats.

ie boyzone take that, the spice girls :lol::thumbsup:

you certainly know your pop bands Lee.. i can just picture you in your new car giving it some spice girls tunezzzzz :thumbsup: