Increasing Diversity

[MapNerd]

the forum member base seems to be steadily growing, but it seems to me that most (if not all) of the growth is only happening with Newmar owners.

It makes sense to an extent, the IRV2 Newmar Owners forum was easily the most active forum, but other forums were also fairly active as well.

I think we also need to think about how we can make efforts to bring in owners of other brands and make them feel welcome. either that or rename it NewmarForums.com (I’m kidding...I think).

We can’t really control what IRV2 will do but maybe we can also spread the word on other Facebook groups such as Monaco, Entegra, Winnebago, Thor and Fleetwood?

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Good point!

TJ

 

[Neal]

Yes, most of us know each other from being Newmar owners so that's the kick off group. While the members here I hope will continue to spread the word and do so without spamming or soliciting, i.e. I heard IRV2 is reading private messages (which is horrendous in itself) and blocking anything with rvforums in them so as I mentioned, if you're going to let someone know do so smartly depending where you're contacting people.

My plan is as follows, again being transparent and hoping all here feel you are part of this site and part of the team and I appreciate all of you:

1. As the owner I am refraining from posting in member groups and forums, I will leave that to the members here to do as you don't have the vested interest such that falls under soliciting
2. If you see articles of interest on this site it really helps for you to post links to the articles on this site onto other sites.
3. Members help spread the word, feel free to like and share my post and facebook page I created last night at https://facebook.com/rvforums (click here to view it) so your RV friends in your feeds can see it
4. I would love to see the other owner groups gain traction, if you know of anyone else with any type of RV please invite them
5. I will advertise with the email blasts and magazines as well as take out ads in various platforms such as Facebook is undergoing a promoted post now to the RV community
6. I will remain professional in the handling of this site, we all have some animosity from "the toxic site over there" but that toxic nonsense needs to remain "over there" and let them nest in the bed they made, we will make this community a fun friendly an amazing one.
7. The stickers/swag will come in time, right now I'm not at a place to take deliveries and with some travel plans ahead getting stuff is complicated at the moment so it's on hold until I anchor somewhere mid December.

No, I don't want this to be a Newmar only community, it is just starting that way for obvious reasons and search engines have to do their job. Please everyone here help spread the word and do so smartly, I will do the paid advertising routes and commercial notifications to invite them aboard. It takes time but with everyone's help we will continue to grow.

To help search engines and get discovered we need content. Please don't refrain from duplicating your posts made on other sites. Search engines won't pick up us staring at each other, it will pick up RV related content. I also titled my threads for search engines such as "Adding a Foo for a Class A Motorhome". Again, this site needs everyone's help adding content. Post away and feel no remorse, you're doing it for the site regardless if some of us have already read it. I am slowly reproducing my content from the last two years.

Thanks @MapNerd and please keep the great suggestions coming. Thank you all for your help in continuing to build our new home and RV community where we can truly enjoy the RV experience.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Thanks, Neal, for all your work in getting this site up and running. While it is primarily Newmar owners right now, we are seeing others start to migrate here too.

Quite honestly, I am totally amazed at the growth we have already seen in less than a month! That's a testament to the need for an alternative to what is out there. I am reminded of the line in Field of Dreams; "If you build it, they will come!" That's happening daily; we just need to keep encouraging it in any way we can.

Even though we are mostly Newmar owners at this point, I'm sure we all know people with other brands and/or RV types. Reach out to as many as you can through your personal e-mail and Facebook venues.

TJ

 

[Neal]

I was checking to see when I launched, looks like beginning Nov per this thread so we're about two weeks in and I'm pleased with the progress thus far.

 

[turbopilot]

We can’t really control what IRV2 will do but maybe we can also spread the word on other Facebook groups such as Monaco, Entegra, Winnebago, Thor and Fleetwood?

I know little about the owner's of other make and model coaches. When I made my decision to purchase a Newmar two years ago my choices quickly narrowed to Tiffin and Newmar. I almost went to Tiffin owing to what I perceived to be a great, very active owner's forum. While the software driving that forum was old, it was well organized and seemed to have an active group of experienced owners posting.

The only owner forum of any size I could find for Newmar was the group on iRV2. I was immediately turned off by the organization and layout of the forum. It was very clear the active curation of the forum by the moderators was sparse and intermittent. The only active curating moderator was "007" who tried hard but was not up to speed on the new technology offered on late model coaches. In spite of my misgivings about support on the iRV2, I did buy a Newmar and then went on to discover the forum was much worse than my first impressions.

So this is context to my point in answering your concern about diversity. Most likely many of the other makes of coaches all ready have owner forums supporting their wants and needs. Without some really compelling new content on this forum it will likely be very difficult to draw them over to a forum that has been essentially formed around some Newmar owner's that broke away from iRV2.

For my part I would consider Neil's new forum to be an astounding success if it simply became the largest, most visited forum for Newmar owners. He has clearly set it up for everyone and they should be welcomed. There must be coach owners of other brands who are looking for a modern, active and friendly place to exchange knowledge with fellow owners. They should be encouraged to join us.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Pretty good two week's work, Neal!

TJ

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

I agree with Turbopilot. Most of the major rv manufacturers are already well represented with reasonably good forums. FMCA welcomed all rv's two years ago and to date there is only one 5th wheel owner who occasionally posts on the forum. This past summers FMCA rally was attended by less than 25 towables out of the 4000+ units there. With that being said, I agree we should be welcoming to all new members.

 

[Neal]

We are all of 17 days into this new venture and I could not be more thrilled. I started building this site in Feb/March of this year and have a lot more I want to do but it was time to let this fly and start enjoying the experience of this site. One thing of note regarding the Newmar Owners and IRV2 that I learned when attending their rally in Branson, MO is that the Newmar owners were the most active aspect of that community. I wondered what that really meant, are we failures when it comes to camping, i.e. are we on the computer more than most? Do we not go outside as much as the others? Were we more OCD about our coaches? Or is it just pride in our brand? Or a combination of all of that. If we can get all or most of our fellow Newmarians here joining us then we are off to a huge start and others will follow. Yes, we want all brands all RVers but let's work our way inside out first getting all of the Newmar owners and prospective owners here, hopefully we can get Entegra tipped off to this site as I think they weren't far behind us, and continue.

It's an exciting venture ahead and look forward to welcoming our commercial/vendor friends as we are all part of this endeavor together. I think many have fear of participation from "over there" and that is not the way I want it here. If I want to ask Angie questions about coaches she does YouTube videos on then I'd love for her to feel welcome here as an example and let us chat with her.

Keep doing a great job of getting the word out and I can't wait to continue my Newmar forum addiction

 

[Jim]

Newmar? What's this "Newmar" you speak of???

 

[NWIP]

I know I have learned numerous things from other manufacturer owners that participated in the Newmar forum on the other site. “Experts” and people more informed than me enjoy all kinds of RVs helping my prospective of the lifestyle I enjoy.

I look forward to this site continuing to grow in the New Year.