Numbers

[The83Boy]

I check in just about every day to read what's been going on. Occasionally I hit the search button for technical advice, and usually I find it. On rare occasions I'll offer a comment , or advice if I feel I know enough to offer it. The forum is a great archive, but activity on it is unforunately a victim of modern trends.

I'm on the committee of the Rover Coupe Owners Club, where we find ourselves in a very similar situation. I imagine The LGT and RCOC are of a similar scale with a limited 'membership' on the back of ever dwindling car numbers. In 2023 there where ~300 Rover Coupes Taxed, and ~1000 SORN. There is no scope for growth with a defunct marque and/or model focus. The RCOC too have a once busy fourm, which has know become a searchable knowledgebase with very little activity. We've tried prodding people from our busy facebook group to the forum, but as soon as you need to login to read something they give up.

Facebook offers convenience, it fits easily in your pocket, short form message are the norm and it's easy to add pictures. I often read forums from my phone, but rarely post to them as I prefer to compose more literate posts from a keyboard. Probably a habit from the hey-day of forums in the late 90s/early 00's. I'll admit to being too lazy to fire up the laptop of an evening to contribute more, although I might be more inclined if I could share pictures more easily.

I don't think there's anything unusual or worrying going on here, it's just quieter than we'd perhaps like.

James.

[Dwaynem884]

For me, this forum has been invaluable and a massive help over FB

As voiced already, the photos melee is a deterrent from here, I've posted on FB more recently simply due to convenience. I can post on FB from my phone easily and fast. Whereas when I post here, I do so from the desktop only, so it's a more sit down and intent to do it, rather than a quick post on the go on FB.

That's the only downside in my eyes. Everything else on this site gets a plus from me.

[Pete Boole]

On TLF you can drag-and-drop photos - much easier. The photos "problem" here always gets newbies stumped - perhaps a disincentive to persist with the site. So many of the old photos have disappeared .

Pete

[DavidOliver]

Viva Lotusexcel,net!
As a retired person I really enjoy not needing telephone calls and spend the minimum time possible on internet chatting.
I have always found this forum very interesting and participated by people with a pretty good understading and interest in what of course are very special cars with an unrepeatable heritage.
We are lucky to have lived the development of our cars.

When I owned a Land Rover Discovery I ventured to the Land Rover Forums and found them quite pathetic and contributed to by mainly ignorants often arguing amongst themselves.

The Lotus Grand Tourers is the complete opposite and has received much praise from non-forum participants.
If there is any risk of our Forum closing, or falling into dis-use, I am very interested in setting up a Postings Register, to the extent of forming a group of enthusiasts willing to finance the creation and then access. For this to be done now I am sure the cost would be minimal, but someone needs to do it before it gets buried.
Every Lotus Grand Tourer that we own should have this Register, together with a Manual, as a guarantee for future owners to have access
in order to maintain their cars.
Dave the cog

[supraholic]

The CelicaSupra.com forum almost destroyed itself about fifteen years ago. Many of us had known each other for a decade or more already when the forum launched in 2003 because we'd been on an email listserve and there was even a paper newsletter in the 80s and early 90s before that. I drove my Supra all over the United States and Canada attending meets when I was younger. FB launched in about 2006 and people started jumping ship. Honestly we were kinda glad to see them go at first because it was mostly the kids and they were taking their useless babble to FB with them. We had already spun our generation (mk2) off from the main Supra Owners Group listserve in 1998 because 80% of the posts there were discussing the other three generations as well as the illegal street racing activity that had occurred the previous Friday and Saturday nights. It was 300-400 posts a day to wade through to find anything actually useful. Our mk2 listserve started with 40-50 posts a day, much more manageable. Most of us had kinda grown out of the street racing thing by then too.

But our impatience with newbie members was showing through particularly as the value of a mk2 Supra had depreciated down to the lowest entry level of teenager's first car. Every time some kid would join and post "How can I make my Supra go faster?", one of us would post back a scolding message with our favorite overused "Please use SEARCH" emoticon. We were losing new members who felt unwelcome. We were losing old members whose life circumstances meant they were moving on (getting married and having to switch to minivans or unable to DIY and moved on to newer sports cars, etc). And just through attrition, the Supras themselves were getting wrecked or rusting away. Facebook was the least of our worries.

By about 2013, we eventually realized that we needed to be nicer to newbies because we needed them to stick around. We still would point out that certain topics had already been covered ad-nauseum and the virtues of using the search button before posting a question, but we just did it in a nicer tone. Indeed, people naturally realized that the forum was an encyclopedia of Supra knowledge compared to FB's like post-it notes written in some enigma code using disappearing ink. After we started behaving ourselves, the new members who were worth having wound up staying.

It also helped that eventually, our Supras value decline reversed. Now the discussions are no longer about street racing or how to make them go faster. Now we have a whole new slew of topics that haven't been fully covered yet revolving around restoration and preservation. We have virtually zero aftermarket support so we have to figure out how to refurbish our existing parts or re-create copies of them. The shop manual only describes replacing components. Doesn't say how to fix the component. We've been busy trying to figure it out for ourselves. As the values have risen, we're getting new members who only wished they could have had a mk2 Supra 40 years ago, but now have the financial means to buy and restore their dream car. And to our credit, some of those teenagers that we didn't run off twelve years ago are still around, now with some financial means of their own, and contributing by making parts with their 3D printers.

[bash]

Its nice to read so many positive comments about the site. I've been on it for so long now, like many of the rest of us, that there is a sense of investment now. I too have been on other sites that have descended into catcalling and intolerance that has spoilt them. I've also been on some fb sites that are similar. For instance Fitech fuel injection ( fitted to my car), so many people ask a perfectly reasonable question and there is always some low life that says go back to carbs, or use Holley injection. Its usually because of problems that have come from other sources like ignition or fuel delivery that has raised an issue but it still doesn't stop the comments, mainly because they don't understand the system, so if you want to find something out you have to kiss a lot of frogs till you find a prince, who fortunately still post sensible answers.
I suppose I think of the site a bit like my car, its mine for now but ultimately I'm only the custodian for a future owner. I hope they both survive well.

Bash

[ebikediver]

For additional feedback:

I'm a recent new member and regularly read the content plus comment when able. I very much appreciate the forum and it's content and won't hesitate to request help if ever I need it.
I have come off FB a couple of times then rejoined. I am currently enjoying a hiatus from it and all the vitriol on there and do hope I remain off it permanently.

[ChrisJ]

Im still of the opinion that this group should never have been renamed and its not attracted other types of Lotus as was envisaged, but, am I wrong ?

This for me as well. Used to be my goto site after TLF, although I'm not the most prolific poster here, I used to read everything - now, I might look in once a month if that.

[Ray-s]

Hi I regularly check through the posts but only comment or post if I feel I can help or need it, had the same problem etc .. I have found the site very helpful in the past.
I do look on face book but prefer this site.
Ray....

[tezzan]

I thought I'd add my few ha'porth. Most of this has already been said, but anyway..

Firstly I need to say that this site is exceptional. It has a huge history of information and discussion that is invaluable for the marque and has undoubtedly been used by most Excel/Eclat/Elite owners around the world. Whenever I have used it for info, it has either been answered by a history search or by great answers from all of you guys on this forum - thank you!

As for the traffic rates, they're low but this is symptomatic of many forums today - for some years now traditional forums have lost out to FB, IG, X etc. However if I look at traffic stats, this site is about the same as LEC for example. Like others have said, if it makes sense (particularly financially) to use the TLF servers, but keep the same look, feel and historical info, then I'd agree with that. Bibs seems to be a good guy and the TLF site & setup seems to work well.

Again agreeing with others, I'm not keen on FB. Partly an age thing, I prefer privacy to notoriety. Also the discussions and information here don't lend themselves to social media. The strength of this site is the polite informed thread-based discussion and retained (and easily accessible) history - none of which is compatible with normal social media platforms. You also have no control over content. As we have seen with X, your details and all your data are at the mercy of corporates whose policies can change without warning.

I also think we (Excel/Eclat/Elite) owners tend to be more hands-on than some of the other models in the Lotus family. Similar to the M100, our models have never been as highly valued as many others (think Esprit, Elan, Europa, Cortina, Carlton etc). It means we are more inclined to fix the problems ourselves, rather then pay a specialist/dealer to fix it (possibly wih a bill which is most of the value of the car!). Similarly the "barn finds" are more likely to be bought by home restorers and mechanics. This site is actively contributing to keeping the marque going. Without it, many more of our cherished models would be scrapped.

As for me personally, I only post occasionally when I have something to contribute. Thankfully I haven't had many recent incidents with the car that meant I had anything to post! I tend to just post Excel-related things I happen to hear about. I don't have issues with picture posting by the way.

[rogbmw]

I routinely check the site for new posts. Believe me...all of you over in GB are fortunate to have the support and knowledge of other Lotus enthusiasts there, as well as shops familiar with the Excel. Here in the USA, there are very few of us scattered all over the place. Very thankful for Lotusexcel.net!

[rbgosling]

This forum is always my first choice, but the photos thing is a real disincentive. There are plenty of times I want to take a snap with my phone and use it right away in a post; having to go to my desktop, fire it up, connect my phone, upload the photo, then write the message, is much more faff than just posting directly from my phone. For this reason I would support a move to TLF.

An example is selling the wheels I sold yesterday. If I could upload photos, I'd have put them here first. As it was, I put them on FB because it was much easier.

I use Facebook too, I find each serves a different purpose. Anything of lasting value goes on the forum; ephemeral stuff works well on FB.

[Zag]

Simple enough to do all that on my (android) phone

[LotusMonkey]

One for the admins - a thought. Depending on which version of phpBB we are running there might be an upgrade possible. I have no idea of who looks after the tech side, but just a thought as apparently newer versions did improve the image upload UX. but maybe we are on that already and of course the real issue is that if images are stored as part of the site then someone has to pay for that storage. Currently they are linked which keeps the costs down of running the forum. Newer versions of phpBB can be configured for server side image storage rather than links. It would also mean images are not lost when people move the images or close their personal storage. I’m sure this will have been looked into before but cost will be a factor.

[barker_001]

I use Facebook too, I find each serves a different purpose. Anything of lasting value goes on the forum; ephemeral stuff works well on FB.

I feel just the same, there is a place for both. It would be good to review what our image hosting possibilities / costs might be. There is such a volume of valuable information on here, and it is easily searchable, so I would never want to lose it. The same can't be said of Facebook, half the time you can't find things posted yesterday.