After a lot of thought I have decided to stop paying over $100/month to "advertise" on the forum. Unfortunately, times have changed and there is no return on investment. In the past the powers that be decided to ban vendors from the forum and delete their posts, I feel that over the decades I have contributed a lot to the information that has been archived here. For the record Banzai Racing is not going anywhere and is doing great, if they opt to ban me it was merely a business decision and nothing more.

 

I think that if the mods ban you at this point, it becomes obvious that money is their #1 objective instead of supporting RX7 enthusiasts.

 

You're fine Banzai. Stepping down from being a vendor is not breaking any rules or a bannable offense. I'd say you've more than earned a halo here.

 

the site is owned and operated by Internet Brands LLC. It is a for-profit business and there are operating costs.

I get what you’re saying though and besides being off-point on who such a criticism should fall on, short of IB going to a paid subscription basis then what would you otherwise suggest that they do to cover their costs and also make enough profit for it to be a worthwhile venture other than commercialize the site through advertisers and vendors?

[facetious question]Or do you think that they should just cater to everyone for free as a non-profit or at their own expense?[/facetious question]

which is not in any way to suggest they ban anyone, but they all need to be treated fairly and equally. Which can be a moderator criticism because it sometimes seems to be more of who they might have a personal issue about or not.
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It should only be a ban if a vendor continues to advertise. Deciding not to pay and advertise, but continuing on like any other member should be totally fine. Removing old posts and banning would be terrible.

 

I'm still going to continue ordering parts through you guys because you seem to be one of the few left in the industry that cares.

 

I do care. This is simply a business decision as to where advertising money is best spent. If IB allows me to still post then I will.

 

^Agree 1000%! It would be sheer idiocy if IB decides to delete Banzai's old posts or ban him if he chooses to continue posting here according to the terms of use like any other regular member. He posted a wealth of good info and how-to info here that I'd hate to see deleted.

 

Put down your pitch forks fellas.

I can't picture any of us mods or admins banning you, Chris. I don't think banning or deleting of posts has ever been done to any vendor in the 15-20 ish years I've been here. IB will probably deactivate your vendor sub-forum as that was one of the perks if I understand things correctly. Iirc, vendor accounts started before IB bought the forum as a way to cover the hosting costs.

I hope you continue to post though. Your contributions over the decades are many and very helpful and you continue to be one of the most trustworthy shops in the community.

 

Stopping ads or vendor status would not warrant you getting banned or deleting posts. You technically would still be allowed to post on your prior ads as a means to conitnue support for past customers. I believe the rules would prohibit actively posting NEW threads advertising your services or parts. Subforum would be deleted, so I would ask IB about how those threads could perhaps be moved, etc.

 

I think this is the main issue. Having a vendor "archive" could be still considered promotion/advertisement.

Its a tough situation, but regardless, thank you Banzai for your contributions!

 

just a small data point, but i'm a customer because of the ads here. granted a small customer, but still

 

I have not seen my own banner ads in years. Lots for GFC, zoro, bounty, etc. I happened to click on a "blank" ad yesterday, that actually took me to my website strangely enough.

 

you may be underestimating the value, but obviously your decision
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I think IB may be underestimating the value of the content that myself and others create. As much as I dislike Meta in general, FB and Instagram both actually pay content creators. Posts get seen by 100K+ people immediately, however the downside is there is no real searchable archive and information is virtually lost. Reality is that traffic on the forum is a tiny fraction on what it was 15 years ago or even 5. The last product thread I released on this forum has been viewed 654 times in nearly a year. I have been a paying vendor all the way back to Ryan’s ownership and I have always said that the forum helped me build the Banzai brand recognition.

I enjoy problem solving and sharing knowledge which is why I still visit this site. I don’t use it to show the engines and cars I build every week or launch new products.

 

Agree on number of eyeballs. FB, IG, YouTube do a decent job of rewarding content creators - and a great job of acquiring users. Unfortunately, they also reward loud mouth idiots over-confidently spewing nonsense.

I find the signal to noise ratio on FB groups to be annoying. Lots of useless posts and poorly informed posters. Kinda like what the forum was 20 years ago but with less tools for self learning via search, FAQs etc. FB is good entertainment if you want to browse some fresh RX7 content but I personally don't get much value from it and it gets tiring reading the same topics being poorly rehashed so I spend very little time on the groups there.

The info on new products getting posted on the FB groups is the only value that I get. There is no friction to people or companies posting about new products.

"Content creation" was not the primary goal with forums at the start. Neither was it to provide a tool to develop a community. Yet here we are. Most forum owners have not attempted any new monetization strategies beyond banner ads for themselves or for businesses taking part in the community.

 

Did you possibly consider that low views might demonstrate a disparity between how a creator perceived their own content/product vs. how the audience they’re supposedly targeting perceived it?

Even if there are less people here now, it’s clear to me that there’s no shortage of money being spent by people on this website. There’s clearly less vendors overall as well following covid, let alone trustworthy ones. Which I know and profess that you are a trustworthy vendor. Despite the rotary engine and vehicles being out of production for many years, there are new vendors who seem to be doing ok, if not growing.

Not that it reflects my own personal view in either direction, particularly being only one person whose opinion I doubt you care about one way or the other for. It simply being a response to your prior reply that you might consider pondering upon.

So don’t misunderstand my words, because it's my own direct experience from which this statement comes; it’s always easier to see outward, than to look inward.
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Ads or no Ads..... Ban or no ban, I'll still order stuff from you when I need to. Glad to hear your company is still going to be around & going strong.

 

I can see the logic in opting out of vendor status. I mean who in the forum hasn't bought something from or doesn't know Banzai (not many)? Even if someone isn't familiar with them the members would clear that up quick (I'd hope). Word of mouth does work, I don't recall ever seeing an add from Ray but I could be mistaken. Regardless of what Banzai does, it's not a good look for the forum or the community when the one or two most trusted guys in the business have better things to do than to advertise on the one place people go for RX7 information?

Jason