Ronnie Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 (edited) I'm starting this tread to let anyone interested know the results of the survey I posted. I'm going to break the results into several posts to keep from having one long, confusing post. They will be coming soon.There were 54 people who took the survey as of 12/20/2011. Thanks to everyone who took the survey!Read the following posts in this thread if you are interested . Edited December 20, 2011 by Ronnie (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted December 20, 2011 Author Share Posted December 20, 2011 The survey was broken down into three separate parts. This is the results of Part - 1 of the surveyHow useful do you find the features on this website? [Repair Tutorials]About 95% of the people taking the survey found the tutorials "very useful". The tutorials were the highest rated feature on the website.How useful do you find the features on this website? [Videos]About 46% of the people taking the survey found the videos "very useful". I assume this didn't include the video tutorials. Videos might be eliminated from ReattaOwner.com when updated.How useful do you find the features on this website? [Magazine Articles]Only 29% of the people taking the survey found the Magazine Articles "very useful". I'm a little surprised the rating is so low. These might be eliminated from ReattaOwner.com when updated.How useful do you find the features on this website? [Classified Ads]Only 24% of the people taking the survey found the Classified Ads "very useful". I expected this. The Buy/Sell section on this forum has eliminated the need for the classified ads on ReattaOwner.com. Would probably be eliminated from ReattaOwner.com when updated.How useful do you find the features on this website? [Forum]About 61% of the people taking the survey found the Forum "very useful". I didn't expect the rating to be so high considering how little it gets used. It was never intended to compete with this forum. Would probably be eliminated from ReattaOwner.com when updated due to lack of use.How useful do you find the features on this website? [Diagnostic Codes Info]About 71% of the people taking the survey found the Diagnostic Codes Info "very useful". This high rating is understandable since it goes hand in hand with the repair tutorials.How useful do you find the features on this website? [Parts Vendor List]About 48% of the people taking the survey found the Parts Vendor List "very useful". I'm not surprised at this low rating since Roger started the Reatta Resources sticky that lists vendors. Would probably be eliminated from ReattaOwner.com when updated.How useful do you find the features on this website? [Links to other websites]About 42% of the people taking the survey found the Links to other websites "very useful". Again, I'm not surprised at this low rating since Roger started the Reatta Resources sticky with links to other websites. Would probably be eliminated from ReattaOwner.com when updated.People who took the survey visit the website more than once per week. They found the website easy to navigate. The accuracy on the website was rated about 68%. I was hoping that rating would be higher.Please rate how ReattaOwner.com compared to other Reatta related websites you visit. [Overall rating]About 72% of the people taking the survey found ReattaOwner.com to be "the best" website compared to other Reatta related websites they visit. Could have been higher but that makes me very happy.When asked to comment about what they like best about the website most people said it was the repair tutorials. When asked what they like the least about the website they mentioned "social issues", "getting information can be challenging" and need more tutorials.That is it for the short version of what Part -1 of the survey said to me. Results of Part 2 & 3 will be posted later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Double M Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Why would ANYTHING be removed? I really dont understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bushwack Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Strictly from a selfish point of view, kinda agree with Angelo. Seems like much of your site is automated. Nevertheless Ronnie, decide what does/does not work for the time you have to set aside for site maintenance and we will still be better off (and appreciative) then if the site vanished.Good chance I would have given up on the Reatta if it wasn't for this forum and Ronnie's site. Corvette forum is OK but their attitude is mostly egocentric and about performance. Allante forum never gets much participation (same for the XLR). Lexus forum (clublexus.com) has mostly young adults (under 25) whose concerns are how low they can drop their cars w/o scraping the pavement. This forum (and Ronnie's site) is about helping one another. What a concept as we move forward into the new year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted December 20, 2011 Author Share Posted December 20, 2011 I used the term "update" to describe the work that needs to be done to the website and it probably sounds like I would be doing normal "maintenance" to the website. I wish that was the case. In reality what I'm facing is building a completely new website and transferring all the data from the current website over to it. It would be transparent to website visitors, the URL would be the same. The work must be done due to technical issues that will in effect, stop the current website from working properly sometime early next year. At least that is what I have been told by people much smarter than me. I'm happy with the way the website is now. I wish I could just keep adding information and making changes to make it better but if I do that and ignore the warnings I run the risk of loosing it all if the system crashes. Knowing I'm going to have to make changes, I want to make changes that the majority of the visitors, and more importantly the members of this forum, would like... with the least number of hours needed to do the work. The purpose of the survey was to find out what was important and what should be left out of a new website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Double M Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 I dont know what they are talking about, unless they are trying to sell you a new hosting plan. Are you running out of room? What Techinical issues could be involved by NOT changing something? Ronnie, seriously, I am a web guy. I know we have had some disagreements, but your site and the info it holds is important to all of us Reatta heads.To be honest, I once considered making a site to compete with yours. I decided that it would too large a project and in the end, I would not have the same time and effort to make it better, and if I wasnt going to be better than your site, then it would be a waste of my time.I didnt awnser your survey, but I do have a suggestion. First and foremost... Drop the forum. It is probably a space hog and a ***** to maintain/moderate. This forum has way more action than yours (no offence meant) and can serve just as effectively. This also might work to solving some of those "Social Issues". I know I dont post on your forum, so it cant be me they are complaining about! LOL!I'm not going to start waving my professional Webmaster banner around, but... I do hosting and I would be happy to host your site for FREE. If you could let me know how much room it needs, I could find out if I can meet your sites requirements. I will try my best to assist you in any way I can with technical, design and hosting issues.:cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harry yarnell Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Drop the forum??!! WHAT? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted December 20, 2011 Author Share Posted December 20, 2011 I will try to make the results of the last two parts brief to avoid boring everyone.What new features would you like to see added to ReattaOwner.com?Calendar Of Events - About 26% said this would be very usefulPhoto Gallery - About 23% said this would be very usefulVendor Rating System - About 72% said this would be very usefulSubmit Your Own Articles - About 14% said this would be very usefulReatta Of The Month - About 27% said this would be very usefulMore Repair Tutorials - About 73% said this would be very usefulA Better Forum - About 18% said this would be very usrful82% said Keep the current website design71% said a Donation but was appropriate on the website1 person pointed out that I misspelled appropriate. Would you participate in a Reatta Registry?71% said YES but many left comments with different ideas on how it should be done. Some wanted personal info to be available to everyone and some didn't want any personal information to be released. A lot of details would need to be worked out on this.Only 1 female took the survey.65% of those who took the survey were between 50 and 69 years old. 85% of those taking the survey were Reatta owners.35% have owned their Reatta for 1-5 years27% have owned their Reatta for 6-10 yearsThanks again to everyone who took the survey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kingsley Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Ronnie - Quite naturally, I strongly favor a Vendor Rating addition. However, do you think it can be done meaningfully so as to isolate the vendors who abuse their customers? If a vendor chooses not to participate, then he absents himself from having appropriate criticism directed to them, correct? Also, how would "over the top" pricing be handled. True, we are in a free market society but unfortunately there are many folks out there who are new comers - making their first purchase based solely on website info or other means and get badly stomped on.By all means, I hope that you can go forward with this and hopefully everything can be worked out to the benefit of buyers and sellers alike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 I'm bringing this up for the last time.The following is what came out of the survey that a lot of you took.If this is boring you, or you just don't think it should be here, I apologize.Just so you will know, I have began work on a major update to ReattaOwner.com to keep it online and avoid an anticipated crash of the site in the near future. It will be a large task but I'm committed to getting it done before the current site crashes.The website will continue look pretty much the way it does now but it should function even better. Some of the features will change and some will be deleted. The videos will remain as well as the old magazine articles and advertisements. I have some new ones that I will be adding too.Gone will be the classified ad section. It has made obsolete with the Buy/Sell forum that added . The Vendor list will also be gone as it has been rendered obsolete with the addition of Rawja's "Reatta Resources" sticky at the top of the this page. I have no desire to compete with this forum but instead I want to work in conjunction with it to help Reatta owners in the best way I can.So, in the future ReattaOwner.com will focus more on my original mission of being an online journal, or repository, that contains information about repairing and maintaining your Reatta. To do that I intend to add a lot more tutorials and repair videos about the Buick Reatta. I also intend to add a lot more Reatta specifications and part numbers. To make all the new information easier to find, I'm working on a new layout for the "Repair Information" section. For the website to be the best it can be, I need your help and I will be asking for it on the new ReattaOwner.com website. You could really help me in three or four different ways.1. If you have expertise in a certain field, such as electronics, AC repair or any other field, please submit articles to ReattaOwner.com on how to do specific repairs. I will have a facility in place on the new website so you can edit and submit an article directly to the website.2. Buy your Amazon.com items by starting out on ReattaOwner.com. It does not cost you anything extra when you do that. You get the same low price and benefits as you do by going directly to Amazon.com. If you do that you will be making a small donation to ReattaOwner.com each time you do... at no cost to you.3. If you own a business that sells Reatta parts, please consider placing an ad on ReattaOwner.com. It will help defray that cost of keeping the website going. The cost for an ad on ReattaOwner.com is dirt cheap now and could be even lower if more vendors would participate.Thanks to the vendors who have done so already. It is really appreciated!!4. If you find the website is useful to you please consider helping out by making a small donation to ReattaOwner.com. Any and all donations would be appreciated. It would only be used to make the website better. Thanks again to those who have already donated!I feel bad about posting items 2, thru 4 above. I have said many times in the past that I don't make anything from my website. However, for ReattaOwner.com to survive I must try to at least recoup what I put into keeping the website going. A lot of people benefit from my website being online. I see no reason why I should be frowned on for wanting to do the same.If anyone has comments I would like to hear them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 There are a few folks on this site that do a terrific job helping others and Ronnie is one of them.THANK YOU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bushwack Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Ronnie - where is the Amazon link on your site? Don't see it on your home page (or anywhere else - it should be on every page). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 There are a few folks on this site that do a terrific job helping others and Ronnie is one of them.THANK YOUThanks Jim! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 Ronnie - where is the Amazon link on your site? Don't see it on your home page (or anywhere else - it should be on every page).The link is on about all the pages in the column on the right side of the page. Also the articles are filled with links that take you to the Amazon website. Not many people have used them but I appreciate everyone who has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bushwack Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 The link is on about all the pages in the column on the right side of the page. Also the articles are filled with links that take you to the Amazon website. Not many people have used them but I appreciate everyone who has.FYI....w/ Windows 7, the Amazon link and your advertising link just underneath Kingsley's revolving ad for sun visor clips and headlight crank arms does not appear using Firefox v9.01. All three links do appear using IE or Chrome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 I'm not sure what to do about that. I'm using FF 8.0 and that is where the screen capture was taken. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bushwack Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I'm not sure what to do about that. I'm using FF 8.0 and that is where the screen capture was taken. Any ideas?Curious if anyone else has these links missing. FF makes up about 23% of browsers used. Suppose I should get accustomed to Chrome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawja Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 Amazon ad works with Safari 5.1.2I will try to remember to use your gateway to Amazon whenever I'm going to make a purchase. You paid per click or does a sale have to result? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 Thanks Rawja. Clicks do not count unless they result in a completed sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bushwack Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 Ronnie - FWIW...Can now view all your linkable ads on your site. Had to reconfigure a preference in FF v9.0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 That's good news. Especially since you are considering new struts. Amazon has the Monroe Sensitracks that most people prefer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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