Monaco Board

[RVRon]

Hi Guys,
I am selfishly asking if you might be able to open up a Monaco Coach Board. There are plenty of Monaco/Holiday Rambler/Safari/Beaver people out there (I am now one of them).

There are lots of things I need to learn about my new coach and plenty that I could teach.

I realize that you need a sponser for the board, but I can't believe one of the above brands wouldn't "kick in" as soon as they see it running. Oh well, just my wish list....

[RVRon]

Hi Guys,
I am selfishly asking if you might be able to open up a Monaco Coach Board. There are plenty of Monaco/Holiday Rambler/Safari/Beaver people out there (I am now one of them).

There are lots of things I need to learn about my new coach and plenty that I could teach.

I realize that you need a sponser for the board, but I can't believe one of the above brands wouldn't "kick in" as soon as they see it running. Oh well, just my wish list....

[Hitchhiker]

Monaco Owners' Forum Request

Some Monaco owners feel they should have their own forum in which to post similar to the ones we've already established for Newmar, Winnebago, and Workhorse to name a few.

Most of our moderators and administrators, myself included, are opposed to adding more brand-owners groups into the Owner Section. Most of us feel that individual owners' brand forums dilute the other forums while others have indicated having specific forums can drive new users to the site. We're a split group.

Some of the concern is that once there's an individual owners' brand forum, the members with that brand seem to post all their messages in that forum, whether they are specific to the brand or not. A recent review of the Winnebago, Alpine and Newmar forums reveals that over 25% of the posts are not specifically related to the manufacturer. As example, there are currently posts asking about replacing batteries, electrical hookups, generator opinions, propane detectors, etc., in the Owners' forum. Obviously those topics would have had much better response if placed in the general sections.

This dilution hurts the other forums by taking away message traffic that would have made them more useful and more attractive to other members. There is skepticism that we actually gain members by an individual owners' brand forum; what we gain there we may be losing elsewhere in the forums.

Most of the individual owners' brand forums currently located in our "Owner's Corner" are our sponsors and bring in operating revenue to iRV2 to help support it. A forum sponsorship which includes running a banner ad is currently $840 per year. There are challenges in getting large OEM firms to commit to funding an open forum where people can freely bash or praise their products, it's more involved than just getting them to agree to pay.

When we started promoting and selling forum sponsorships, we were wanting to increase our membership numbers. We have pursued this course since early 2002 and now that we're over three years into this promotional effort, we're starting to realize that we fractionalize people and posts with this strategy. However, as seen with the Winnebago forum, it has also has brought in a bunch of new members. When we analyze our post count, our strategy has given us much needed ad inventory which makes advertising with us attractive to our customers.

Additionally, we felt that having Winnebago, Workhorse, Newmar, and the others associated with us and supporting the site would tend to lend a lot of credibility to iRV2 in the RVing industry and with the RV consumers.

Currently we have RVupgrades as the major supporter of the site and the aforementioned OEM advertisers are not as critical of an issue that they once where. Our founder, Bill Rowell "Warpath", continues to use his own money to keep things going; before the promotional efforts he was the only financial supporter of the site. Bill is in favor of whatever is best for growing the membership and making the forums as active and useful as possible.

Bill has taken a look around the Internet looking at the big forums, sites with 50,000 plus members. Most of the successful large forums have 20 to 30 forums, we currently have nearly 60. It looks like over time we have diluted ourselves and instead of creating more posts, we may have lowered our numbers because people only go directly to a forum and miss topics that they may have posted in if only they had seen them. We have concerns that this may have negatively impacted our growth. There have been boards explode with members once they reach that 10,000 member level and iRV2 seems to have floundered along with a mediocre growth rate.

We've started looking at each forum to see if we can consolidate some of the related ones and currently have no plans to add new ones such as the suggested Monaco Forum. As long as a forum is active, it may be in our best interest to leave it alone. Each will be evaluated for effectiveness.

These contemplated changes will evolve over time and will gradually be worked in as our administrative team ponders the value and merit of each.

We thank you for posting here and for your suggestions and input. Hopefully I have cleared up the question about why we aren't adding a Monaco Forum.

[RVRon]

Richard,
I appreciate your thoughtful well written response. I certainly can understandthe issues as you have explained them. I have wondered myself about the dilution effect of so many areas of the board.
I must, in all honesty say however, one of the main reasons I frequented this board was to learn about my old rig (Winnebago W22 Class A) and the Winnie forum provided what I needed, when I needed it. Maybe some other boards might be less informative or could be rolled into another? I can tell you each manufacturer has their own quirks and each coach has a learning curve.
I respect what you've said and will not ask further, but I'm sure you will keep in mind that this board serves a community purpose as well as just entertainment.
Thanks to you and everyone else that has made irv2 a great place to be.

[JudyandJim]

I found your post very informative, and understand the position(s) you stated.

That being said, I just wanted to say that I, personally, have found the Winnebago and Workhorse forums very useful and time saving. Instead of wading through posts on component brands used by other manufacturers, I can usually find what I need in the Winnebago or Workhorse forum, because "most" answers come from other Winnebago/Workhorse owners, who have similar equipment, brands, etc. Their product specific answers are much more useful than replies from those who do not have experience with the same product/brand.

If I were the owner of a coach that didn't have a visible presence on iRV2, I probably wouldn't spend much time here..... so you may be losing opportunities to grow by not having more brand specific forums....

Just my 2cents....

[Jimmy Jam]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by RVRon:



There are lots of things I need to learn about my new coach and plenty that I could teach.

. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi to you, Ron and Kathy

My wife and I have been looking and researching Class A DPs for some time now and hope to be in a position to make a purchase within a couple years.

Based on what we've looked at and seen so far, Monaco is #1 on our short list for future purchase. Let me fair, there are a couple companies still out there that we want to see their units in person but just have not been able to look at YET.

We would love to hear about your experiences with your new unit and Monaco!

Thanks for any help and enjoy your new rig!

Jim and D

[Hitchhiker]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by RVRon:
Hi Guys,
I am selfishly asking if you might be able to open up a Monaco Coach Board. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Things change.

A Monaco Owners forum was added today, go to it by clicking here.

[RVRon]

Richard,

Thanks so much for the addition. I will be monitoring and supporting it as best I can. Great news! Ron

[Kazoo Tom]

While I am not a Monaco owner, I am glad to see that the new board is up and running. While I agree with some of the statements above, my limited observations indicate that the "owner's" boards seem to be the most active on the site. One of the things that attracted me was having a Winnebago specific board. I have gathered a lifetime of information from that board in just a short amount of time. Not to mention the responses saving me probably 100's of dollars in service costs.

For what my opinion may be worth, keep the owner's boards coming. The general boards are also an important feature. Lots of hints and shortcuts, along with non owner specific information of value to all.

[rebelsbeach]

Glad we were able to accomodate the great members of iRV2 and their desire to learn more about the products you own and enjoy.