What do you want to see new or more of on this site?

[chsutherland]

If you would like more participation in the site, perhaps opening it up to people who have SBRS as a common tying thread would yield more members, posts etc. When it was TJR the site name didn't imply that it was strictly for current SBRS participants. I would be curious to know how much traffic has fallen since the name swap. I for one, would be more active in the site, if it weren't only about SBRS. Personally some of the more interesting threads were about what folks were doing outside of SBRS. Jim Lowe did some neat stuff, reading Mr. Pews post about his activities were very cool.

I guess I think the site functioned better when it was about the people who had SBRS as their racing background, not about SBRS itself. The people who race, and work at SBRS are what make it interesting, not SBRS the corporation.

Craig

[sydude]

Originally Posted by chsutherland

If you would like more participation in the site, perhaps opening it up to people who have SBRS as a common tying thread would yield more members, posts etc. When it was TJR the site name didn't imply that it was strictly for current SBRS participants. I would be curious to know how much traffic has fallen since the name swap. I for one, would be more active in the site, if it weren't only about SBRS. Personally some of the more interesting threads were about what folks were doing outside of SBRS. Jim Lowe did some neat stuff, reading Mr. Pews post about his activities were very cool.

I guess I think the site functioned better when it was about the people who had SBRS as their racing background, not about SBRS itself. The people who race, and work at SBRS are what make it interesting, not SBRS the corporation.

Craig

Oh boy, can't win either way.. The reason why we changed the name was because too many people felt that 'Team Juicy' was an eastern series site, or a site based on a specific circle of people, which was not the case. We felt that changing the name the way we did would make our doors feel open to those in the SBRS community that felt excluded before.

I think what's had the biggest negative impact on this site is not the change of the name, but the general degradation of the active driver base at skippy, plus the feeling of malaise that is creeping in to the old guard. I'm not going to get into details on why, but I think many of you know what I mean. The only question is, can we do anything to help? And I mean either with this site OR with SBRS.

[dalyduo]

Great to hear from you Craig and I also think the name has less to do with fall off than what Sy said about the long term customer base dissipating. Case in point, a bunch of us masters farts (Wilcox, Mayes, Ludwig etc) went to Road America and ran in the kiddy National event and had an absolute blast but there were issues that made it less attractive for a repeat in Atlanta. There needs to be a new wave of grown up customers to re-invigorate the regional ranks. Very few are running a full season any more.

None of us at Skippyforums are trying to exclude others but the plethora of social media options has made it less compelling for people who aren't doing SBRS stuff. George Clooney and I are the last humans not on Facebook and while George has his reasons I'm not on it because I'm distracted enough with all the other stuff I'm juggling in my life. From what I've observed the software makes it entertaining and fun and if I get any more distracted... Ohh look a Porsche! They'll have to embed a lojack in me to find me and bring me home.

I think the site now has a nice base of interesting old threads for new racers to review and a home for new and old to chew things over as they always have. The economic fall off really hurt enrollment in the race series and that tends to drive the social aspect as well.

Glad to hear from you though. How have you been weathering these times. Any racing?

[Gerardo]

One thing that used to drive visitors to skipbarber.com many years ago was a good press agent. Back in the day, Jim Moore and Jim Bowie in marketing believed one or two news releases per day drove eyeballs and clicks. At the time, I used skipbarber.com as my primary racing news source. It was a good combination of articles about Skip Barber events and its people, plus articles about Alumni and other related industry news. Most of the articles were written internally, which meant a full-time guy. With the severe economic downturn and related corporate downsizing, this feature no longer exists.

If we had a writer for SkippyForums who could tell the Skip Barber story, and of course, the story of drivers who have moved on, in a compelling, entertaining, or even a personal way, eventually more eyeballs might come for their daily dose of entertainment, and hopefully contribute while they visit.

Maybe we could spread the duty around, each of us volunteering to write a story about a race weekend we attend during the season, and starting a thread for each weekend.

[Slowhands]

The reasons for the lack of activity on TJR has been well-stated by Pat and Sy. It is an organic result. As I see it, TJR came about when a lot of like-minded people were racing together on a regular basis. I came to the site in late 2005, towards the last couple of years of that wave, and got to experience a bit of what made Juicy "juicy." (It will always be "Juicy" to me-- I was not one of the early members but I did not feel excluded or an outsider, in fact you guys made me feel right at home and welcome. I think the Juicy name has individuality and personality, which is what gives the site its individual character, and should remain prominent. It contains the back story of the site, and sets us apart from every other racing site.)

IMO the activity of the site has decreased due to the organic reason that people who have moved on to other racing only post occasionally, because they are not racing each other. "Trash talking" and rehashing the wheel-to-wheel moments on the track was a big driver of activity. When that went away, so did the posting. And as Pat says, they have not been replaced by an adequate number of passionate grown-ups (Strelzoff and Paul Fisk being the big exceptions of course). Just as the economic world is showing us the limited ability of governmental policy to fundamentally change an organic cycle in our economy, I think similar "artificial" attempts to try to drive activity based on artificial polls ("Who's your favorite pit girl?"-- sorry Sy, but that was too close to jumping the shark for my liking ) or photo quizzes, etc, will only create blips in activity. People have to post about the races, and other news about racing. Since I am not racing this season, I am dying for any news about the race events. I was really disappointed in how few posts there have been about Lime Rock, Grattan, and Road America. Road America, especially, the gang got back together, but there has been total silence. How is a site going to survive like that? If people are posting on Facebook about it, then we are not going to have substantial new activity here until an economic upturn brings in new drivers. Although I have a FB profile, I just find it too big and unwieldy, and harder to discuss and interact. I like the focus and intimacy of Juicy.

I think Gerardo has the best suggestion so far to create real new content. Until either the economy or SBRS turn around, we are going to have to figure out what content will allow us to compete successfully with the plethora of other social networking options drivers have. I wish the old guard would also post more-- everyone still racing should be posting stories about their racing experiences on Juicy-- Dom in Star Mazda, the Greists in FC, Pew, Patterson, Kasey Kuhlman in Porsches, Tom Brown in Spec Miata, etc-- we want to share in these experiences. Some people are good about it (thank you Ron Yarab for the stories about the Rolex and your dirt cars), but I know you other guys are doing some serious racing, and would love to hear about it.

[GT-Subject]

I am wondering if we could get SB to encourage all new customers/drivers/students to join TJRSF - it is after all the offical clubhouse of SB. It would and could be a very symbiotic deal - new customers get a feel for the SB driver group and we get to extoll the virtues of racing with SB. I will ask Todd how we implement something like this. Another place we can generate interest is at race weekends - I will make sure that I talk up the existence of TJRSF. I think each of us at race weekends should make sure that the people we talk to know of the existence of our forum - a simple invite to new drivers will do wonders.

On another note, it is very hard to compete with all of the other Web 2.0 content that is out there, howver it is very easy to link motorsports related items of interest to the TJRSF site without a lot of copy writing or additional work. I challenge all forum members to find and embed interesting racing stuff that we can all enjoy. I can't hurt and it may help to stir up some interest.

What do all ya all think (to coin a Wattsism) ?

[dalyduo]

I think these are all good ideas that should be implemented immediately.

A phrase like "Skip Barber encourages new customers to join and participate on Skippyforums to connect with like minded driving enthusiasts who enjoy the supportive culture around our activities" might go a long way in confirm E-mails and on the SBRS web site. And we can be more supportive in referring people to the SBRS web site for program content and dates.

Originally Posted by GT-Subject

I am wondering if we could get SB to encourage all new customers/drivers/students to join TJRSF - it is after all the offical clubhouse of SB. It would and could be a very symbiotic deal - new customers get a feel for the SB driver group and we get to extoll the virtues of racing with SB. I will ask Todd how we implement something like this. Another place we can generate interest is at race weekends - I will make sure that I talk up the existence of TJRSF. I think each of us at race weekends should make sure that the people we talk to know of the existence of our forum - a simple invite to new drivers will do wonders.

On another note, it is very hard to compete with all of the other Web 2.0 content that is out there, howver it is very easy to link motorsports related items of interest to the TJRSF site without a lot of copy writing or additional work. I challenge all forum members to find and embed interesting racing stuff that we can all enjoy. I can't hurt and it may help to stir up some interest.

What do all ya all think (to coin a Wattsism) ?

[GregS]

Originally Posted by GT-Subject

I am wondering if we could get SB to encourage all new customers/drivers/students to join TJRSF - it is after all the offical clubhouse of SB. It would and could be a very symbiotic deal - new customers get a feel for the SB driver group and we get to extoll the virtues of racing with SB. I will ask Todd how we implement something like this.

good luck, I already suggested this.
I actually have an unpopular idea that skippy should be running their own forums or/and merge these forums together OR link to this site from the current site. (prolly a link would make the people here most happy, but good luck getting the brass to bless that idea.)

I feel this way because it would hopefully drive more members. Luigi and his Dad who are doing the summer series had NO idea about these forums which is a shame. There is a value that these forums provide that is not being harnessed. People curious about SB would be more likely to race with us knowing that it is a club racing and a blast (most of the time :P ).

Then we could add features to energize the racing series recruiting:

They should post all audio clips from the race series to these forums. It is a problem that some of the language gets colorful, but it is actually what I love. We have hbo right? Does everything have to be PG?

They should have posts ala twitter (though I really hate twitter) to these or their official forums so that people can understand what is going on here. I think more drivers would sign up if they knew how exciting our racing is.

It should be easier to see the current standings. It is a joke how hard it is to find the standings currently.

OK -ill stop before i get on someone's hate list

Originally Posted by GT-Subject

Another place we can generate interest is at race weekends - I will make sure that I talk up the existence of TJRSF. I think each of us at race weekends should make sure that the people we talk to know of the existence of our forum - a simple invite to new drivers will do wonders.

Maybe put up a banner in the hospitality tent?

Originally Posted by GT-Subject

On another note, it is very hard to compete with all of the other Web 2.0 content that is out there, howver it is very easy to link motorsports related items of interest to the TJRSF site without a lot of copy writing or additional work. I challenge all forum members to find and embed interesting racing stuff that we can all enjoy. I can't hurt and it may help to stir up some interest.

What do all ya all think (to coin a Wattsism) ?

Great Idea.

I like seeing interesting stuff.

BTW
This is a good site

http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com

[cdh]

Originally Posted by chsutherland

If you would like more participation in the site, perhaps opening it up to people who have SBRS as a common tying thread would yield more members, posts etc. When it was TJR the site name didn't imply that it was strictly for current SBRS participants. Craig

Look at this screen shot and the # of threads in the circled forums...clearly there is a great deal of posting about non-SB racing activities. We have been asking this question for 6 years, my guess is an F1 pool next year would bump participation more than anything...just a guess.

[Slowhands]

Originally Posted by cdh

Look at this screen shot and the # of threads in the circled forums...clearly there is a great deal of posting about non-SB racing activities. We have been asking this question for 6 years, my guess is an F1 pool next year would bump participation more than anything...just a guess.

I agree about the F1 pool. I also would be willing (deep breath, swallow hard) to run it if my time situation allows next year. Will know by Jan/Feb...

BTW, love your new avatar. And before you ask, yes I know the track! I crack myself up....

[cdh]

Originally Posted by Slowhands

I agree about the F1 pool. I also would be willing (deep breath, swallow hard) to run it if my time situation allows next year. Will know by Jan/Feb...

BTW, love your new avatar. And before you ask, yes I know the track! I crack myself up....

I VOTE FOR HARSHA - YAAAAAAAAAAAAY HARSHA!!!!!
Of course you know the track, I would withdraw my nomination otherwise...
That is a Bug isn't it?

[Slowhands]

Originally Posted by cdh

I VOTE FOR HARSHA - YAAAAAAAAAAAAY HARSHA!!!!!
Of course you know the track, I would withdraw my nomination otherwise...
That is a Bug isn't it?

LOL. I know a dirty job when I see it. And somehow, I can't seem to avoid them. Masochism? Insanity?

Yessir, you are correct, can't mistake that grille shape. Lord Howe's T59, I'm not sure who's at the wheel, looks tall enough for Nuvo, but he's not credited on any picture I found. Jean-Pierre Wimille also drove for Howe, figure looks too tall for Howe?

[Moxie]

Moxie's responses to the question, "what do you want to see more of on TJR?" (#1 of a series)

CHARACTER ASSASSINATION. In July 2010, the German magazine Bild am Sonntag conducted an anonymous survey involving 20 of the 24 current F1 drivers and in the category 'Most Beautiful Woman In F1', one vote went to Nico Rosberg. In the most recent issue of Autoweek, there’s a horrifying photo of Michael Schumacher in clingy silver pants. Paddocktalk reported that Bruno Senna, when asked about alternative career plans if F1 doesn’t work out, replied “Selling coconuts on the beach.” This sort of stuff practically begs for acerbic TJR commentary. Remember, it takes a couple of asses to do assassination properly.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING. I am shocked (shocked!) that other publications and web sites are scooping TJR on automotive news stories. Some examples follow. Okay, the third one has nothing to do with cars, but it’s something we really should have been on top of.

[StevieDe]

Great to hear from Craig and agree that more non SBRS related content is always welcome.

I solicit traffic for TeamJuicyRacing.com with a written reminder at the close of every racing school program I lead.
It is a fantastic and largely untapped resource for those getting started in this addiction.
Some of the most educated discussions on the industry in general have graced this board...

I also agree with Gerbobo that more field reports from the races are what we need most.

My.02
SD

PS. CDH I also love the airborne Bug avatar from the birthplace of British Auto racing and avaition. Fantastic museum on site and a portion of that famous banking still exists!

[cdh]

Originally Posted by StevieDe

I solicit traffic for TeamJuicyRacing.com with a written reminder at the close of every racing school program I lead.
My.02
SD

Much appreciated Stevie, thanks for the help. New SF registrations lately show "How did you hear about SF" as Skip schools, literature and race weekends.

[cdh]

Done, new thread here - back to "What do you want to see new or more of on this site?" topic

Originally Posted by Slowhands

speaking of which, interesting superimposed "past meets present" pic here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gordonc...n/photostream/

ok, so maybe we need a new thread for this. do your stuff.