C-plus's site up for sale

Message

D-Rider · #16 Post by **D-Rider** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:18 pm

Yep, I too noticed he'd registered and I've got a reply from him.
Only had time to skim it so far - but it is clear that his site is in no immediate danger of vanishing.
I'll read it again and keep people up to date as appropriate (I'll probably talk it through with Kwackerz first).

Watch this space.

Of course if cplus wants to say anything himself, he's more than welcome .... I think every one of us wants to thank him for putting his site up there.

Gio · #17 Post by **Gio** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:17 pm

Any more news?

I missed this originally as I was on holiday.

D-Rider · #18 Post by **D-Rider** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:29 pm

Gio wrote:Any more news?

I missed this originally as I was on holiday.

Thanks for the nudge Gio - not much has happened lately. We were having a bit of an admin/moderators discussion about this but then Kwackerz went off to defend a population of sheep on a remote outcrop of rock and things stalled. We need to start discussing again ....

But .... Don't think I'll get much time 'till I'm back from Japan (going on Saturday for a week and a half).

Gio · #19 Post by **Gio** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:04 pm

Tsk, all you people who pretend you're off somewhere for work, I think its an excuse to do nowt

#20 Post by **Kwackerz** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:04 pm

Hmm. Yes.

*rethinks*

#21 Post by **Kwackerz** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:06 pm

What did happen about CP's site in the end? D-R?

D-Rider · #22 Post by **D-Rider** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:41 pm

Good question Kwacks .... you went off on manoeuvres to protect some potentially oil-rich scottish island and we were going to talk about it when you got back and then contact C-Plus again.

...... guess that's another thing that slipped off the "to do" list at some point.

The site's still up though.

#23 Post by **Kwackerz** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:45 pm

Yeah.. I did note the Site is still strong.

Might be something to continue to monitor... I'll leave that in your capable hands..

Although I 'dont do' aprilias directly, I wholeheartedly agree that the decent info hubs on the net needs protecting from demise.

D-Rider · #24 Post by **D-Rider** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:53 pm

Not going to be able to do anything positive for a bit ... too busy at work and at home at the moment ... but maybe one day things will ease up a bit!

cplus · #25 Post by **cplus** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:17 am

I just keyed in a looong update on ApriliaFalco.info, then clicked on "preview" and -- poof! -- reply gone. Nice.

I'll try again.

cplus · #26 Post by **cplus** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:45 am

2nd try...

I just received a note that this was percolating back to the top and wanted to stop by and say

.

Let me start by saying that www.ApriliaFalco.info is still up and running -- I have no plans to take it down anytime soon. Neither do I have any plans to update the site. I sold my Falco and took on a demanding job last year so now I have neither motivation nor time to do any work on the site.

I never intended, or wanted, www.ApriliaFalco.info to be "cplus' site" -- it was always supposed to be a community-driven site where members were active participants in it's growth and development. My model was the successful Ducati Multistrada site, www.multistrada.net. I setup ApriliaFalco.info so that any member could add content dealing with riding, maintaining, modifying and upgrading their Falcos. Members can also post to shared blogs, or upload pictures. All for free. Sadly, very few of the 725 members have taken advantage of these opportunities. This was, frankly, discouraging as a developer. "Build it and they will come" may work in the movies, but not in real life.

Even before selling my Falco, I tried to interest other dedicated Falco owners to participate in the site as moderators or content creators. I offered to give the site to anyone who was willing to continue it's development. Despite some interest, this never worked out. Too bad, but I understand -- who wants to take on someone else's site? We all have jobs, families, lives. I would still welcome anyone who's interested in the site to take over.

So what's next for ApriliaFalco.info? Good question. I am considering adding Google AdWords to subsidize the cost of hosting and Expression Engine maintenance. But money isn't the defining issue, use is. As it stands now, visitors are welcome to use and enjoy the content currently on the site. Members can always add content. If they do, the site will grow and flourish. If they don't, it will just sit there until someone comes along to spearhead it's growth. Or until I pull the plug.

Nooj · #27 Post by **Nooj** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:19 pm

the .info site is up against some stiff competition as an owners' forum, there's this place and AF1 which are very well established and active if you want to chat and take the piss out of other owners. They are also very easy to use, I had a go at uploading some pictures on to the .info site and found it quite unintuitive compared to the forums I'm familiar with, almost to the point of giving up, maybe other potential users feel the same?

But as a resorce website .info wins hands down. Most of the issues likely to be encountered by owners are already covered there, so I'd not expect there to be much activity around posting new stuff. That doesn't mean it's ground to a halt, or that it's failed in it's purpose, just that it's being used as a resorce site rather than an interactive site. That may not be what you were expecting of it but it's found its own niche and is successful in its own way so don't feel like it's failed at all.