mvigod

hey...what do you guys think of having a "vendor day" at RCU where we allow one day every 3 or 4 months where a vendor or any commercial entity can post whatever products they want in the forums? As it is now we do not allow commercial posts by vendors, distributors or retailers as it can serve to clutter the forums. However if we did this 3 or 4 times a year for one day only it might allow both the little and big guys to get a bit of exposure here for the products we are all interested in. Not everyone can afford an ad believe it or not so a one day grace posting period every 3 to 4 months might be interesting.

They would be limited to 2-3 posts in any 3 forums maximum. It would be a one day affair only.

Policing it is simple...if the originating date of a commercial post is not on our "vendor day" then we know it is a spam.

As I said it would only be something special we would do 3 or 4 times a year at most.

What do you fellas think? Good, bad or ugly?

Should we try it at least once to see if it is interesting? If so I would announce the day via a sitewide post and vendors would have a week to prepare their announements.

Flyfalcons

Sounds like fun, like an internet trade show. I actually wouldn't mind them getting more posts so they can answer questions and the like.

MHawker

My Feedback: (16)

Hey Marc,

I like the idea of allowing Vendors some free time, but (there's always a 'but') I think putting it in it's own thread would be the best idea, rather than letting them post where they want. Otherwise, it might get lost in the shuffle. (unless that's what you were thinking)

Also, I'd try to get the vendors to offer a "special" for responding to the ad. You could even have a Quarterly Vendor Specials thread, where the vendors would offer, for a limited time, certain items at special prices. That, alone, would (might) get us to their website.

I relate this to when we have a LHS come to our club meetings and tell us all about how great they are, but give us no reason to come by (buy).

Keep at it, Marc. I can hear the wheels turning from here.

Mike

vtol_guy

yeh i think that sounds like a good idea but i agree with Mhawker that it should be in its own forum. Maybe you could do it a little more often than 4 times a year? See if it seems to be a success, i reckon it will be but just one request please...

...Please invite some companies from england too, not all of us come from America :P

pinball-RCU

Putting it in its own forum would sort of defeat the purpose for many vendors, since not many folks would look in that forum. I think the point is to let a vendor of trainers post something in the "Beginner" forum, no?

In a perfect world, I think it would be great, but I'm concerned some bad apples would abuse it. Personally, I think a vendor should be able to post on any day, but just not very often.

Here's my idea: Let vendors post whenever and wherever they want, but they have to use a special icon, or put "ADV" in the subject or something. I don't think it would add much load to the servers, and folks who weren't interested could just ignore the posts. It would probably spice up the forums for the rest of us. After a couple of months, we re-visit the policy and see how it's worked out.

The problem with the special day is that a lot of vendors with nothing to say might feel that they had to post, just because everyone else did, and we would be deluged with posts.

phayd

Why not create a year-round forum called "Vendor's Specials" it would promote the vendors posting deals for your users, and users frequenting the forum, as there are deals to be had.

Mike Bogh

My Feedback: (14)

Like it, good idea, and fair to the cottage industries.

Groundforce-RCU

My Feedback: (20)

It would be good so long as someone doesnt have a biased reason to start a flame session....I think itd be real cool..

mvigod

cannot do it every day as that would clutter forums and our ad revenue would also go to zero...why buy the cow if the milk is free? worse yet the user experience here would suffer if this happened often.

I think once every 3 or 4 months for a one day period might at least expose everyone to some lesser known entities and some interesting new products while not disturbing the RCU ecosystem.

4*60

My Feedback: (41)

Sounds good!

RCaeroguy

My Feedback: (4)

Yeah, it does sound like an internet trade show. I think it would be cool.

SMALLFLY-

My Feedback: (19)

So why not require a smal fee, say 5-10 dollars for the vendor. any mom and pop can afford it and it will help out money wise. A targeted ad to a specific forum for 5-10 bucks would be dirt cheap and would help your money situation a bit.

Barland

Give the vendors a chance or two. If they can't make it worth while they loose their exposure. I open every catalog that comes to my home, the good ones get to stay, the others go immediately from the counter top to the recycle box. And boy, are there ever a bunch of those! The good ones seem to maintain life well beyond their expiration dates. GIVE THEM A CHANCE.

Unstable

Instead of a vendor forum just set up a vendor thread... it could be in blue or something and stick to the top of the forum at the time and after a week or so it goes away...

that way they can post a special deal for a limited time.. then after it expires the post disapears.

that way you get limited time for the deals,
you get exposure (stays up top)
and its not confused with "normal" posts

mvigod

Unstable to the rescue with an interesting idea...only thing is we would need a sticky in every single forum for that day...that is like 150 of those or more to attend to

Lynx

It'd be nice if the content were filtered through moderators too. I hate seeing the same old same old products come up from every one that thinks they can sell the same old stuff with a new sticker on it. Unique products would be nice to see.

airwethead

Combine Unstable and smallflys ideas. Special clearly demarked post, stays at the top, small fee for posting. Let us all see some stuff from all the manufacturers and distributers that we may never come across otherwise, possibly get a special offer or discount, and a little $$ for the empty RCU coffers. Win - win....WIN!

Shortman

My Feedback: (21)

I like the sound of this

Hypter

My Feedback: (2)

Sounds good, go for it.

pilotrc

Why not have a venders site/forum so we can just do a search for a product and WHAM , there appears a number of venders selling what your looking to find. RC UNIVERSE can arrange a fee schedule to cover the cost of setup and ongoing administration....IT'SSOOOO SIMPLE..Jim

vtol_guy

sounds like a good idea pilotrc but as marc said earlier it would ruin the ad revenue. Sorry if i'm gettin it wrong, i'm thinkin that you mean on an everyday basis, sorry if im readin wrong.

When you look at the basis of the whole concept though...

A company wanting to advertise on a site with 30,000 members, thousands of which visit the site every single day for a fee of lets say $20 for example...i think this is something they can't afford to miss out on!

Also, i dont know about everyone else but i'd say half the reason for me buying r/c mags is to look at what deals are in there from companies

pilotrc

My thoughts are a vendor would have an ad for say a reasonable cost each month ..30,000 members looking for an item he/she dosen't know where to look. Ad's in mags are fun to peruse ,but just dosen't do it for my searches.. Jim

Gordon Mc

My Feedback: (11)

Except for the little details about the time-zone issue - e.g. once you nominate a vendor day, I could see a post at 4:01 pm PST the day before vendor day, that was correctly made on vendor day by a company in the UK !

Gordon

vtol_guy

hmmm, good point with the time zone thing. Since the site is obviously mainly american dominated ect, i think it best to run from american time zones. if it was a 12 till 12 thing then a company would have to get up at 5am in britain but its the norm for companies to get up around 6am so it aint gonna be much difference.

Dago Red

My Feedback: (11)

I think you should allow them to post, but make a special are for them to do it in, and they should have special deals or give a certain percent to RCU for letting them do so, thats my .2 $