Secret Members Business.

[Toobs]

After thinking about the "club members rides" forum I think it is a bloody good idea!
It would also be nice to have a members only forum to discuss things which we may not want the general public to know about... e.g. major projects that you want kept mostly secret.

What do you think?

[Nark]

Awsome idea!

[Lambolica]

Yep that would be cool...

[Joshstix]

I'd rather we keep discussion and technical etc as one big community. If we segregate these area's we're doing the same thing that we went off at the interstate guys about, splitting into our own littel clique and not contributing to the whole.

The members only part of the members rides is really aimed at protecting our members investment in their cars. If you are working on a project that you want to keep secret for whatever reason then this is the place for it.

Discussion etc really should be out in the open as keeping it between members just devalues the entire forum.

[Lambolica]

Looking that way then yes.

My first thourght was to use it as a tool to discuss what happens within the club. An extension of the monthly meetings if you will, dealing more with somthing along the lines of creating a miniutes of the monthly meetings and then having a section that only financial members can access to discuss.

Not everyone can get to the monthly meetings but may like to know what is in the pipeline before the rest of the greater Toymods community

For instance if (lets say) Toymods were to look at purchasing a flat bed car trailer and brought it up in the meeting. Others could provide feedback after having a day or 2 to think about it or remember seeing a good one for sale somwhere cheap.

Similar to the feedback page of the existing forums but where financial members can discuss the direction of the club and the committy can review feedback to make such a desision.

[Lambolica]

Toymods flatbed... possible yes/no ????

[Craigtest]

like i could post up
"who will halp me lower my car"
and not get toled to piss off. or will i?

[Toobs]

I didn't mean that it should be a place where mass discussion takes place, just the type of stuff that we normally wouldn't discuss at all due to security concerns...

e.g. I refuse to post anything regarding my conversion and engine build up on the current forums for this exact reason, however, I do not hesitate at all in discussing these things at meetings etc.

[Toobs]

And yes it would also be a more friendly place to ask for physical help.
e.g. someone needs help to get his engine out and back in a single weekend and could post up to see if anyone could assist.
Or someone needs to borrow an engine crane or some obscure tool.. they could post up and see if anyone could lend it to them.

Basically its all the stuff that really makes the club what it is but usually its all discussed privately via phone etc. due to privacy concerns.

[puzzle man]

i thik it should be more like a "look what im doing"and "help me" threads in there so only members can see

[TheToyman75]

I have to agree with josh on this one. A members only discussion section is too tempting to become the main place members chat. The members ride section works a treat and is more than acceptable for discussion of projects in the works.

[Joshstix]

The club members rides area is for exactly what Toobs is asking for. I actually meant to put it in the description of the section that it's for projects you want to keep private.

I also don't mind the idea of what Simon was suggesting but I think it is too open to having a little group of people who don't want to ,ix with the rest of the community.

I think for now having an area for club members to list their cars and projects which is only open to club members is a fair compromise.

[The Witzl]

why not just allow threads of the nature toobs is mentioning to be posted in the fin. members rides section?

For instance:
# Can someone help me pick up a front cut this weekend?
# Can someone tow a trailer for me? Beer involved!
# Help Jooorsh rip out his 7M this weekend..

I think you get the idea.

Basically i agree with what toobs is saying about privacy matters and the social nature of the club - i mean how many of us on the board use the board emails and mobile phone to get a few people together to rip out someone's engine, move house, help in conversions etc?

I think it would help build a greater social community within the club, which I for one am 6000% in support of.

I do also agree that we dont want to create segregation within the greater community, for the exact reasons that Josh has listed.
I too dont want to see that section as the main place members chat and the only place they visit, so maybe if it's just a random chat thread - lock it and then move it to the relevant public section with the original posters permission and then unlock it?

Rod/Josh - if you want this discussion to take place elsewhere, please delete this post or request that i delete it.

[Toobs]

Yes Witzl got my meaning!

On a seperate note:
Aren't the forums supposed to be a tool provided by the "Toymods Car Club" to either assist members or increase public awareness of the clubs existance?

The forums are a pretty major part of the club even though I know many of you would prefer not to consider it such... if access to certain non-public information was available to members wouldn't you think that it would increase membership?

[admin]

There's a few problems with the logic though Toobs. If people don't see the information, they don't know why it is worth joining. We don't want people to join just so they can get access to more info on the forum, we want people who want to be members of the club. If we were just trying to make something out of restricted access we could turn on paid subscriptions and make people pay for access to parts of the forum.

My Understanding of the aim of the forum is to help our members communicate and to promote the greater Toyota Community. Restricting access to info that has no good reason to be restricted doesn't help this aim. We have a restricted members only rides section because this info is sensative and can possibly cost a member a lot if it falls into the wrong hands.

We also already have a service available for our members only to communicate with other members about projects etc, the Toymods mailing list.