We have somehow hi-jacked this thread, but in the interest of keeping the momentum going, let me suggest something regarding the XFi membership, as well as this forum, I was search around and see that we have members that joined in 2003 and 2004 who have not logged in after they registered. I'm sure this is true for '05, and '06. I'm sure the XFi membership has some of the same. Should we do some housekeeping and clean it up? Some forums require you to participate to stay active. I think we need to do the same. Should an account be deactivated after lets say 3 or 4 month of inactivity? Maybe 5 or 6 months is ok, but a year or more seems extremely long, and I doubt they are coming back. Plus don't we rather know what we can count on, realistically?

Any thoughts?

 

I myself made up some cards with the forum address on them and I hand them out to every XF driver I see, If no one is around the car I leave a card under the wiper. Maybe you could get some cards printed up at bulk prices and sell a 25, 50 or 100 card pack on Ebay.
I really like the XFI membership on Ebay idea. New XF drivers might not find this forum but there is a good chance they will be looking for "goodies" for the new car and we all know how hard it is to find stuff for an XF so they just might check Ebay.

Maybe redcross should start a new thread and send a pm to all members to see who's still here.

On a side note. If you are reading this thread and you are not an xfi member now is the time to join up.

 

FP...as a frequent international traveler I vote for 5 to 6 months. I sure wouldn't want to come home after a heavy round of traveling and discover I've been deleted. I know I haven't been as active on the forum as in the past, but I try to check in as often as I can. Despite that my dear Ingrid encouraged me to buy the Crossfire Roadster, she still gets a little hinky when I try to jump on the net after being out of the country. Please...let me stay.

 

Yeah sure, I'm just suggesting a set period of inactivity, whatever its determined it is. It's just a suggestion because we don't really know how many members we have today.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my $10 got me a lifetime membership regardless of activity in the forum.

 

There's one big limiting factor about a Crossfire club. This is a four year, low production vehicle. Once you own a Vette, for instance, you'll probably buy a newer one as time passes. For us, starting in about 2 years, the best you'll be able to do is buy a used one. Most of us are probably committed to our present XF for the long haul. But if it gets badly wrecked or fails to the point of being a money pit in a few years, we'll all probably end up with... (gasp)... something else.

I know this won't be popular (even with me), but how about annual dues? Like about $5. This would keep the list up to date and maybe REDCROSS would send members the latest sticker(s) or some very low cost related novelty each year (a cheap bulk-purchased pen saying Crossfire or new membership card, etc.).

 

In many ways you mention some good points, BUT take a look at Supras for example they have not been in production for soon to be 10 years yet their clubs and club activity is MASSIVE... and the prices of these cars does not fall what's so ever... even in this time when cars have been updated and long surpassed the Supra there is still a large cult following of them and large acceptance by even non - supra owners...

I like your idea of annual fee a club needs money to be funded nothing is free these days and even organizing meets and buying some bulk products... still has it's expenses that should be shared by members... Not only that but as you stated it will be good for keeping the list up 2 date.

Man I like how you think props to you!!

 

Now that ^^^ has got to be changed.

 

Agree. How many Studebaker's, T-bird, and many other cars no longer in production have successful clubs. Fees need to increase. $10 life time is crazy.

 

i think it would be a great idea... but julian will need to make this call.

 

So, do we send him the BAT signal in the sky? Holy XFi store.

 

I just received an e-mail from Jonathan Maynard of Domestic Driver, in response to my e-mail.
This is what he had to say:

Yeah you can write up an article and send me high resolution pictures but it wouldn't be in the July/August issue as that issue releases July 1st.

Carlisle will probably give us a press release for the event as a whole so we could just use that and use some of your pictures. We don't want to leave out all the other Domestics that will be attending. We can however just add whatever you write to the overall general article.

Thanks,
Jonathan Maynard
Domestic Driver E-Zine
www.domesticdriver.com

It sounds like they will have an article about the Nationals, but we can have our input along with pics. of our cars. What do you guys think? We have our photographers ChrisRT & 04Fire. Now all we need is the writer, an volunteers ?

 

I've been having discussions with S-A-D, AND James from AutoXclusive to see if we can use them as a C-R-O-S-S-F-I-R-E store. The idea would be to let then Carry the merchandise or make it available for members to directly without having to organize group buys for every thing. They already have on-line stores and this would facilitate buying for us. I'd like them to carry accessories and XF gear such as shirts, jackets, hats, visors, blankets, bags coffee tumblers, and more. We have already paid for the digitizing of the art work, so that's one less thing to worry about. S_A_D is checking out what he can do, and James is very interested in doing this. He will be hooking up with S_A_D as he wants t-shirts for his business as well. Moderators, and Julian, I would recommend we place a direct Banner and link to the C-R-O-S-F-I-R-E Store at the top of our site for easy access, as well another direct member store for those members now producing products to sell. Can you consider this change? He wants to put a banner on his crossfire site for members to join the XFi club, and the forum.

Below is a copy an e-mail from James and me I thought I should share. He already has shipments coming from Germany he's placing on his XF site.


FROM James;
Hi Fernando,

AutoXclusive is definitely on the way.. I know I've been saying
this for nearly a year now ;o) We made a mistake by trying to
get too fancy, many technical issues with the template and
functionalities. We're scaling it back to something more similar
to our Korean parts sites, it will be up very soon.

In regards to the XF promo gear, please give me some dollar figures of
what we're looking at to jump start it. Also, can you find out from your
shirt guy how much he charges for 2 color print tees, I'm also looking to
have AutoX shirts produced. Or you can just give him my info and I'll work
it out with him. Do you already have the XF tees completed? If so I'd
like to purchase a few.

By the way, AutoX will have a banner for the forum on the homepage
regardless of what you guys decide to do with your advertisements. I'm all
for pushing new members your direction.

Talk to you later.
--
Best Regards,

James
AutoXclusive.com
KoreanAutoImports.com
CustomSorento.com
1-866-767-3686

************************************************** ***

From FP
> Thanks, I really want those pieces for my shifter area. As are some forum
> members.
> We have a member"Shirt-A-Day", obviously sells shirts. I coordinated group
> buys for t-shirts and polos for the Crossfire, and XFi club. Now I'm
> interested in doing jackets, hats, visors, blankets, bags, coffee
> tumblers, and while I can coordinate a group buy, I think it would be
> easier to find a store that can resell them to us as we need them, and not
> depend entirely on group buys because once a group buy is over, it
> difficult for new members and members that were not interested at the time
> of the group buy. I checked into a couple of promotional companies and we
> don't have to order high volume, but it does reduce the price if we do. I
> thought I would offer this to you since you already have an on-line store,
> and are considering a XF site. You can add a section for XF gear. You
> don't have to carry an inventory if you don't want to, but we can just go
> to the your site and order what we want from you. If you want to promote
> items through the forum, than that may create discount opportunities for
> you and us.
> Let me know if I can help you getting this going. BTW, anything going on
> with your XF site? If it's not moving as fast as you want it to, can you
> sell through your Korean store?
> I'm trying to talk the Forum moderators to consider on-line stores to be
> included on the home page.
> Thanks
> Fernando
>************************************************* ********
>
> From: info@koreanautoimports.com
> To: "Fernando Martinez"
> Subject: RE: Crossfire/ emblems
> Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 01:51:55 -0400 (EDT)
>>Hi Fernando,
>>
>> My ID is James@autoxclusive. To be honest I haven't had much
>>time lately to logon, however if anyone wants to send PM's I'll
>>be sure to address them.
>>
>>In regards to Crossfire gear, I'd be glad to help you guys out.. I think
>>it's a great idea. Let me know the specifics and we'll work it out. I
>>would personally like all the above for myself.
>>
>>The Crossfire is going nowhere, I love it. We've just been completely
>>swamped lately otherwise I would have already posted pictures on the
>>forum. As soon as I have the wheels and parts mounted I'll post some
>>photos.
>>
>>Regarding the parts found on Quaces, our first shipment of these items is
>>scheduled to arrive mid to late July. I'll be sure to contact you as soon
>>as they arrive.
>>
>>
>>--
>>Best Regards,
>>
>>James
>>AutoXclusive.com
>>KoreanAutoImports.com
>>CustomSorento.com
>>1-866-767-3686

 

FP - I want to thank you for all the time and effort you have put into putting this together and I'll be sure to but you a few drinks when I see you at the Woodward cruise!!!

 

Thanks my friend. I look forward to seeing you there.

 

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade but do you guys and gals realize that you've got a pretty sweet forum as it is. What I’m talking about is a forum without ANY annoying advertisements, that you can download as many pics and info without any limitations for ZERO $ from any of us. Someone is paying for it (mightyjlr = Julian?) and trust me, it does cost money to keep this forum running. I think you have to respect that and not try to change his vision of what I also think is the best way for individual owners to exchange information without commercializing it.
More content is not always better. We sort out the good from the bad products. Plus, just think we wouldn't have all the wonderful posts from FP to look forward to.
XFi is something that also has worked out pretty well IMO. Not to say, it couldn't be improved at a cost I'm sure, but we have to give credit to REDCROSS for starting it and maintaining it to this day. Thanks buddy...While I'm rambling about this, I'm really concern about the fact that some of you want to put some sort of quota on the number of posts to remain an active member. You have to remember that quite a few members are just "lurkers" that rarely post. If anything, it should be based on number of times visited not on number of posts. I'm also going to take MIROADSTER as an example to make another point on this. She is a member that greatly contributed to this forum. Her pics are still today among the most highly rated in the gallery. Unfortunately a while back her husband was involved in an accident from what I have gathered from one of her post. So she wasn't and isn't able to have the time to post. Do you think, it would be fair to remove her from the list of active members? I don’t think so.
Don't try to fix something that isn't broken and PLEASE run a poll when and if you decide to change things.
Just one other thing, I want to clarify, I'm not opposed to anyone recommending products, links to websites, vendors, etc in a post, I just don't like the idea of banners to clutter or even opening the door to paid advertisement...That will be the day I say good bye to you guys and gals...
Enough from me, I’m sure you get my 02 whether you want it or not.

 

~ some very valid points indeed.

as i had stated to fp ... this is julian's call... not mine.

cheers!

 

Indeed you do make some very good points. You can't knock the excellent work that some very dedicated members have done for the forum, and for the XFi club. But, yes there is a 'but' (you had to know it was coming ). There' nothing wrong with improving it. There's always room for that. In fact, there's a place on the forum for suggestions.

First I'll make sure I'm clear on something. These are suggestions from me, and from other members. We don't have the authority to make these decisions That lies totally on Julian.
Now let me address a couple of you concerns;

I'm really concern about the fact that some of you want to put some sort of quota on the number of posts to remain an active member.

No quotas for posts were suggested by me. What I suggested was that we set some limit to inactivity, meaning there are users who registered and never logged on again since 2003. I don't think members need to post. If they never want to post, there's nothing wrong with that, but if they don't log in for a specific time, let say 6 months as an example, they will have to re-register if they want to become active members again. Again 6 months is just an example, and if the moderator knows there is sickness in the family, we're not so big we can't make exception.
Don't try to fix something that isn't broken and PLEASE run a poll when and if you decide to change things.

While there is something to be said for "if it ain't broke don't fix it', philosophically, I don't always agree with that. I think that breaths complacency, but it's not about me, it's about the forum. We are always complaining about not finding aftermarket parts, accessories, and other items such a XF gear. We run group buys, but when it's over, and newbies want the same items, the cycle starts again. I don't know if it's broke, but it's not working. The Sprint Booster is a good example, as are the polos. As far as changing things, again not my decision to make. However, we should not resist change, rather be agents of change for the betterment of the forum.
I just don't like the idea of banners to clutter or even opening the door to paid advertisement...That will be the day I say good bye to you guys and gals...

I don't think anyone is suggesting commercializing the forum to a point of clutter. Just one or maybe two XF stores that make purchasing certain items easier for everyone. It takes a long time for a newbies to get acquainted with all the leg work that's been done by the senior members. Why not make it easier.

If we are serious about our forum and XFi club, and I know I, and many members are not only serious. but passionate. Why not look for ways of making it more efficient to find new stuff, plus the XFi store can be a lead for XFi membership. I don't call this fixing what ain't broke, I call it continuous improvement.

Lastly to close; Plus, just think we wouldn't have all the wonderful posts from FP to look forward to.

Priceless
Come on guys, lets not be resistant to introduce change that can only make life better for us.

 

I really like your thoughts, FP. I'm a newbie, and I'm having a tough time sifting through this wealth of knowledge for information such as a list of vendor sites. I'm all for more part/accessory availability and lower costs, as well, of course, which I think "sponsored" Crossfire stores would facilitate.

 

We have alternative in the 'Market Place' forum. I've added some key resellers.

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...play.php?f=103