Thanks Pistonheads / Haymarket
Discussion
I had a bit of an epiphany this morning..
I've moaned about Pistonheads in the past, particularly about technical deficiencies of the forum. I probably will still knee-jerk moan about things.
Despite that I find myself using the forum pretty much every day, and there is a wealth of interesting information on here. It occurred to me that I'd be pretty sad if it went away.
So, that's that really - thanks for being around Pistonheads (and by extension Haymarket for running it for free). I'd actually be happy to pay a yearly subscription if it would mean that the forum would get more dev attention.
I've moaned about Pistonheads in the past, particularly about technical deficiencies of the forum. I probably will still knee-jerk moan about things.
Despite that I find myself using the forum pretty much every day, and there is a wealth of interesting information on here. It occurred to me that I'd be pretty sad if it went away.
So, that's that really - thanks for being around Pistonheads (and by extension Haymarket for running it for free). I'd actually be happy to pay a yearly subscription if it would mean that the forum would get more dev attention.
I do agree with your sentiments OP. PH has been of great use to me over the years with helping sort out problems with various cars, being a good contact resource, helping plan meets and trips to LeMans etc.
It's also been a good social site, enabling me to meet many people I'd not have met otherwise and many of who are now good friends.
It also gives hours of entertainment watching arguments from afar.
It will be interesting to see which way this thread goes!
It's also been a good social site, enabling me to meet many people I'd not have met otherwise and many of who are now good friends.
It also gives hours of entertainment watching arguments from afar.
It will be interesting to see which way this thread goes!
Durzel said:
I had a bit of an epiphany this morning..
I've moaned about Pistonheads in the past, particularly about technical deficiencies of the forum. I probably will still knee-jerk moan about things.
Despite that I find myself using the forum pretty much every day, and there is a wealth of interesting information on here. It occurred to me that I'd be pretty sad if it went away.
So, that's that really - thanks for being around Pistonheads (and by extension Haymarket for running it for free). I'd actually be happy to pay a yearly subscription if it would mean that the forum would get more dev attention.
Two points.I've moaned about Pistonheads in the past, particularly about technical deficiencies of the forum. I probably will still knee-jerk moan about things.
Despite that I find myself using the forum pretty much every day, and there is a wealth of interesting information on here. It occurred to me that I'd be pretty sad if it went away.
So, that's that really - thanks for being around Pistonheads (and by extension Haymarket for running it for free). I'd actually be happy to pay a yearly subscription if it would mean that the forum would get more dev attention.
1) You are thanking Pistonheads for the wealth of Information on here, however it is the members who input this information. If Pistonheads paid for some mechanics to be here full-time then your gratitude would be well placed, but here it seems to be misdirected. The site places ads which are seen not only by members, but also those that come via search engines. Its the users that provide the content so very much a 2 way process and Pistonheads are grateful in return am sure.
2) You are thanking Haymarket for running it for 'free', they are not. Without the forum there would be no members, Pistonheads would cease to exist in the minds of its advertisers/sponsors and so on. Its not a charity, its a business.
Im summary, you should change your title to "Thanks Pistonheads and its members"
It's a bit of a chicken and egg thing really.
I think it is fair to thank Haymarket for providing a forum for people to have these discussions, even if they themselves aren't providing the content. Would you thank the owner of a hall for providing it to a group to use for an event? I would.
Regards ads - I use an adblocker so I never see them, but at the same time I appreciate they have to monetise the forum in some way while it is free. That's why I said I wouldn't mind paying a subscription if it meant the forum got more development attention, had some extra features, etc. Even some basic improvements wouldn't go amiss.
And from a user's perspective it is free. I get the whole "if something is free you are the product" philosophy, I'm not under any illusions that Haymarket seek to leverage the user base for ad revenue, etc. So long as that isn't intrusive I really don't care - because I get enough value from the forum as a user anyway.
I think it is fair to thank Haymarket for providing a forum for people to have these discussions, even if they themselves aren't providing the content. Would you thank the owner of a hall for providing it to a group to use for an event? I would.
Regards ads - I use an adblocker so I never see them, but at the same time I appreciate they have to monetise the forum in some way while it is free. That's why I said I wouldn't mind paying a subscription if it meant the forum got more development attention, had some extra features, etc. Even some basic improvements wouldn't go amiss.
And from a user's perspective it is free. I get the whole "if something is free you are the product" philosophy, I'm not under any illusions that Haymarket seek to leverage the user base for ad revenue, etc. So long as that isn't intrusive I really don't care - because I get enough value from the forum as a user anyway.
Edited by Durzel on Monday 20th February 12:50
I don't mean to be harsh, but you seem not to understand the situation here.
Pistonheads is one of the more valuable brands in the Haymarket stable. If it was standalone then Pistonheads as a single entity would be able to re-invest any Pistonhead profits back into Pistonheads, instead it will be helping to prop up the areas of Haymarket which are not doing so well.
Pistonheads is one of the more valuable brands in the Haymarket stable. If it was standalone then Pistonheads as a single entity would be able to re-invest any Pistonhead profits back into Pistonheads, instead it will be helping to prop up the areas of Haymarket which are not doing so well.
haymarket said:
The improvement in operating profit was driven primarily by growing demand for online content, notably in the motoring segment where Haymarket’s popular ‘Pistonheads’ platform continued to expand, as well as for specialist contract-publishing and medical and pharmaceutical business-information, notably in the US.
http://www.haymarket.com/news/haymarket-release-2016-financial-resultsEdited by hyphen on Monday 20th February 12:59
I'd go one further and suggest it's all solely due to the members here. If PH was started as it is from scratch tomorrow would it ever gain traction? Nope. The front page seems to be very unpopular/unused with the forum members here (understandably, it's terrible).
The forum itself could be run at very little cost on a much more suitable/modern platform, it's literally just the name/existing membership base that props things up in that respect in my opinion.
The forum itself could be run at very little cost on a much more suitable/modern platform, it's literally just the name/existing membership base that props things up in that respect in my opinion.
I don't disagree with anything that has been said.
I still enjoy visiting Pistonheads, several times a day, and with adblocking on both desktop & mobile it is a very unintrusive experience. I guess if I couldn't adblock and had to suffer the autoplaying videos, and full page background adverts I'd be more jaded.
Dunno what else to say really.. I can appreciate something existing whilst also knowing that it doesn't exist for altruistic reasons.
I still enjoy visiting Pistonheads, several times a day, and with adblocking on both desktop & mobile it is a very unintrusive experience. I guess if I couldn't adblock and had to suffer the autoplaying videos, and full page background adverts I'd be more jaded.
Dunno what else to say really.. I can appreciate something existing whilst also knowing that it doesn't exist for altruistic reasons.
Durzel said:
I had a bit of an epiphany this morning..
I've moaned about Pistonheads in the past, particularly about technical deficiencies of the forum. I probably will still knee-jerk moan about things.
Despite that I find myself using the forum pretty much every day, and there is a wealth of interesting information on here. It occurred to me that I'd be pretty sad if it went away.
So, that's that really - thanks for being around Pistonheads (and by extension Haymarket for running it for free). I'd actually be happy to pay a yearly subscription if it would mean that the forum would get more dev attention.
Durzel, your PH Gold membership has officially begun free of charge. Your gold benefit is one free get out of jail card and a pot of Birds custard! I've moaned about Pistonheads in the past, particularly about technical deficiencies of the forum. I probably will still knee-jerk moan about things.
Despite that I find myself using the forum pretty much every day, and there is a wealth of interesting information on here. It occurred to me that I'd be pretty sad if it went away.
So, that's that really - thanks for being around Pistonheads (and by extension Haymarket for running it for free). I'd actually be happy to pay a yearly subscription if it would mean that the forum would get more dev attention.
But in all seriousness, thank you and I hope you carry on enjoying the forums, while we work on ironing out the "quirks"
Gassing Station | Website Feedback | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff