Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

[planecrazy2]

So, apparently there is a thing, this Facebook thing out there in the interweb. Imma playa. Imma gonna be a Facebooker dude. All ma “friends” are on da Facebook thing and I can see where and what they are having for dinner, every day.

I am also a pilot, sailor and air race aficionado. I love AARP, I mean AAFO. I haunt this site for tidbits of info, little crumbs of data. The weeks leading up to the mid-sept. orgy of airplanes is divine. If I am not there in person, I am glued to this site. It pleases me. The last few years several playas here at AAFO have made super updates during race week and I thank them deeply for their effort. At AAFO most of the members and posters are top-notch fans with a deep base of knowledge and I am honored to be among the respectful recipients of their experiences and to share mine.

AAFO is my “one-stop-shop” for my info, my fix of air racing juice. The point is I am way too lazy to have to visit every air racing team and fanboy site on Facebook. As was said here in another recent thread, “to many people who have never touched a plane” simply vomit their thoughts on the pages of Facebook….way too much value-less info to wade through. Nevertheless, Facebooks tech has lured potential AAFO members away from the nest and into the void of Facebook.

Long time users of AAFO have surely noted our fearless leaders tone has gone up a notch in pitch. Wayne has soldiered this site through its ups and downs with minimal member support. Can we change that? Can a sugar-daddy pony-up some cash to help support this site? $20 here, $10,000 there, whatever…this can add-up and make a difference! Can the DONATE TO AAFO button have a large, significant position on the pages? (couldn’t find it) Can Dago ever race again? What about The Bear? Can the Buick ever win again? Find out here from those in the know, news at 11.

[Desertdawg]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

I hear ya, this is the only site I go to for Air Race news. Life's to short to waste too much time on FB, better to get a life and enjoy something besides a electronic device.

First off the biggest problem here is people leaving and/or no longer interested in posting. Just look at the list of moderators, some big time players that use to be part of this AAFO community and have long since disappeared.

There needs to be some discussion as to why they left, and what it will take to get everyone excited into participating again.

Right now as I type there 104 people here, 1 member and 103 guests???

A lot of closet AAFO junkies still cruising by, what will it take to get them participate and grow this site??

[planecrazy2]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

At this point, 223 people read this message, one responded. Apathy? Some pathetic example of, letting the others do all the work?

I've always tried to respect that which I believed "held value" to me. Still surprises me that others don't do the same.

TANSTAAFL There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

[Fence Sence]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

This site would blow up if the teams would post here. I don’t bother with FB. Too much of a PITA to go to each racers page. I think people get a cheap thrill being a member of a racers page. Doesn’t really do much for me. Having everybody in one place would make it so much more...nice.

Wayne- You’re getting pretty grumpy in your old age there bud. I don’t blame you. I would be too if I had to compete with the FB juggernaut. Hang in there man. We’re still with you.

[kiwiracefan]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

My daily routine from June through Race week tends to be check here then check FB, sure being a member of a fan page on the blue n white F is fun, you get to see pics etc, but i LOVE coming here for the proper knowledge and minimal amount of armchair racing that happens here compared to the F site. Too many on the fan pages have 1/4oz of knowledge and they are then calling themselves experts which puts me off visiting.. About the only racer page i frequent is Full Noise

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

I love you guys who keep this place going!

Every time I think about there being no aafo, I remember back to when we first started and did what nobody had done as yet with the Internet... we reported as close to live as we could.. mostly same day, next day stuff.. I remember sitting up late at night with my cohorts, Mark Kallio, Griffon Girl, Neal and Birgitta and others to get *SOMETHING* out there to generate intetst.. and damned if we didn't succeed! Our numbers went crazy here, RARA noted better butts in seats numbers as well as an influx of international visitors..

I have emails on file from "over there" that prove it out.. stuff like "I had no idea anyone anywhere in the world did what you guys do with warbirds... I have to see this!"

Not patting myself on the back, just thinking back fondly remembering when this site really did mean something!

I'm turning 67 in two months, I was 46 when I started this site with nothing more than a story about the Spruce Goose sitting under tarps, which led to the Miss Ashley II story... which led to a lot of racers wondering who we were and how we got those "spy photos".. stories are still in the archives, makes me smile remembering how on top of the world I was when I got that first interview with Gary Levitz, which led to someone getting mad that I'd not interviewed Bill Rogers, to which I said... by all means, put me in contact with him and I will, indeed interview him... I wound up working (in a very minor way) on the airplane and loving Bill and the crew like family.

It is worth keeping it going, I hope RARA thinks so too when I apply for media credentials again this year.. after not being able to attend last year due to a medical issue, I am, indeed, looking forward to seeing what the new Sheriff is doing with the old place!

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

Any of you Reno guys want to sign up as "In-Stead News" reporter/s?

Most of you are already doing a pretty darn good job of keeping us "tourists" informed about the off season stuff out there.. Lousy pay, (once doubled Kraz's salary to zero... but lots of opportunities to promote the sport by bringing interesting tidbits out...??

Just thinking out loud, I think I asked a couple of you via PM a ways back but can't exactly remember who I sent the message to..

[planecrazy2]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

Wayne, nice to hear from you here. Now....where is that "DONATE HERE" button?

As a now retired successful marketing professional in the R/C hobby industry my advice is that the DONATE HERE button should be very prominent on your pages.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

It would be great to get teams posting here. That said, people here have said some less than polite things about how things were getting done to various people and they have left. I do remember logging onto AAFO back in the late 90s to see who was doing what, and who was going to be at Reno on any given year. It was amazing. The number of photographers posting amazing shots here was a driving force for me to learn how to shoot aviation photography. It was truly awesome to see history being captured, and reported here. Over the years yes, some of those people have gone away.
I can see why FB has gained in popularity since you can post a pic directly rather than having to host the image somewhere else and link it here. Its sort of a PITA. Still, if hosted somewhere that will allow full resolution, posting here is totally worth the effort since the images will be full detail rather than watered down, highly compressed images (that you get on FB.)

I'd love to some how make this the inside news site for all classes at Reno. Perhaps get someone from RARA to post here on a regular basis to keep everyone up on the latest inside info. Perhaps get Graeme from Full Noise to post updates on their program (Nope, they aren't the fastest team out there, but their enthusiasm for racing is off the charts, especially since they need to come half way around the world to get here.)

Now that the Warbird Aero Press forum is gone, this is the only venue that I know of for Reno info outside of FB. Sure, those of us who are on FB could promote the site on FB, but we need info here that isn't out on FB to draw people in.

Will

[GRNDP51]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

It would be great to get teams posting here. That said, people here have said some less than polite things about how things were getting done to various people and they have left. I do remember logging onto AAFO back in the late 90s to see who was doing what, and who was going to be at Reno on any given year. It was amazing. The number of photographers posting amazing shots here was a driving force for me to learn how to shoot aviation photography. It was truly awesome to see history being captured, and reported here. Over the years yes, some of those people have gone away.
I can see why FB has gained in popularity since you can post a pic directly rather than having to host the image somewhere else and link it here. Its sort of a PITA. Still, if hosted somewhere that will allow full resolution, posting here is totally worth the effort since the images will be full detail rather than watered down, highly compressed images (that you get on FB.)

I'd love to some how make this the inside news site for all classes at Reno. Perhaps get someone from RARA to post here on a regular basis to keep everyone up on the latest inside info. Perhaps get Graeme from Full Noise to post updates on their program (Nope, they aren't the fastest team out there, but their enthusiasm for racing is off the charts, especially since they need to come half way around the world to get here.)

Now that the Warbird Aero Press forum is gone, this is the only venue that I know of for Reno info outside of FB. Sure, those of us who are on FB could promote the site on FB, but we need info here that isn't out on FB to draw people in.

Will

The Tsunami Page has also been posting pretty often on FB, it would be like the old days to have a team like that posting progress on AAFO. I am curious of what their agenda is going forward. It seems like they have a mess of all this stuff being done at once and it's hard to keep track. I guess it's better to have a lot of stuff going on that one thing at a time? LAst I saw was finishing up the horizontal stab.

[planecrazy2]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

It would be great to get teams posting here. That said, people here have said some less than polite things about how things were getting done to various people and they have left.

All forums everywhere have this issue it is not unique.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

All forums everywhere have this issue it is not unique.

This is true, and its also true on FB. That said, it seems like a few people were put off by people on the board here and decided that it simply wasn't worth their time to post. They may still check in from time to time, but keep a low profile in doing so.

Another thing is that in the offseason, there isn't much going on in here. Perhaps we should start posting non racing related stuff such as local airshows that someone has attended or whatnot. It really does seem like the number of people who start and post to threads has grown pretty small. Heck, the site has a whole list of really great aviation photographers, let's start posting some new threads of Airshows or shoots we do. (In the past 3 weeks I've done Beale and Chino, I've got lots of pics from both, and I know there were a few others who attended at least one if not both shows.)

Will

[CubersWrist]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

Thought I'd offer the millenial perspective. There's lots of things happening in air racing, they just typically aren't in the unlimited class. And this forum deals almost exclusively with the unlimiteds. Therefore there is a lacking of actual content from the unlimited teams for people to comment on and discuss, so of course forum traffic dies down. (ie you need a youtube video for there to be youtube comments). Precious Metal was popular because they actually shared stuff and what progress or projects they had. Now that PM is down, Full Noise has stepped up some to fill the gap some, but it's not a full blown racer.

Either there is content and it isn't making it's way here, or my theory, there just isn't much content to begin with. If it's the latter, then new content must be sought out elsewhere (ie the other classes, red bull, air race 1, fixed wing drone racing (which is a thing now) or whatever works for people)

Also most forums are struggling. Facebook has changed the industry. Not saying it's good or bad, just that the market has shifted.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

Thought I'd offer the millenial perspective. There's lots of things happening in air racing, they just typically aren't in the unlimited class. And this forum deals almost exclusively with the unlimiteds. Therefore there is a lacking of actual content from the unlimited teams for people to comment on and discuss, so of course forum traffic dies down. (ie you need a youtube video for there to be youtube comments). Precious Metal was popular because they actually shared stuff and what progress or projects they had. Now that PM is down, Full Noise has stepped up some to fill the gap some, but it's not a full blown racer.

Either there is content and it isn't making it's way here, or my theory, there just isn't much content to begin with. If it's the latter, then new content must be sought out elsewhere (ie the other classes, red bull, air race 1, fixed wing drone racing (which is a thing now) or whatever works for people)

Also most forums are struggling. Facebook has changed the industry. Not saying it's good or bad, just that the market has shifted.

I agree. There is lots happening with air racing, both in the Sport and IF1 classes. Yes, this forum has revolved around Unlimiteds, but there have been a few people in the sport class who have posted here in the past, but they have been quiet lately. It would be great to hear whats going on with Relentless, One Moment, and all the rest of the sport racers. There is a lot of cool stuff going on in that class. The same with the IF1 guys. Its been a long time since any of them have posted anything here. It would be great if that were to change.

I also agree that there is lots of content out there that isn't making it here, especially with the Sport and IF1 guys. It makes it to FB, but not here. I'd love for it to be in both places. Post some stuff to FB, but post the really good stuff here so you have to become a member of the forum to read about it. (Although word would make it back to FB anyway.)

We are the seriously hard core fans of air racing. I lurked as a visitor for probably 10 years before I became an actual member (mostly because I had nothing to add at the time.) however it was here that I was able to follow the races until I was able to make it back to Reno starting in 2010. I'm sure there are others like me who followed but couldn't make it to reno, so lived vicariously through the site. I'd love to see the site return to what it was 15 years ago with tons of content from all the classes.

Will

[rchevyman]

Re: Thoughts on FB vs AAFO and a member funding drive push

Another thing is that in the offseason, there isn't much going on in here. Perhaps we should start posting non racing related stuff such as local airshows that someone has attended or whatnot. It really does seem like the number of people who start and post to threads has grown pretty small. Heck, the site has a whole list of really great aviation photographers, let's start posting some new threads of Airshows or shoots we do. (In the past 3 weeks I've done Beale and Chino, I've got lots of pics from both, and I know there were a few others who attended at least one if not both shows.)

Will

I agree. I love seeing photos of airshows and such, especially if there isn't much going on. I check this forum almost every day, but I just don't have much to say and almost no inside information. But I do love air racing and this website. Thank you to all who contribute!