The MFCA Value?

[WEIRDWOLF]

I constantly do a self review of the MFCA and wether or not it is achieving what it set out to do. We are still a young association and I fully realize that there is always room for improvement. Much of what we hope to do requires a strong commitment by the membership to take an active role (planning, writing, committee service, etc.) and of course money. I am always looking at improvements, changes and anything that would better serve the membership. Some of these ideas may not be to everyone's liking and some changes take place to keep us free of specific liabilities.

My question today is: If some or all of the forum went to where only MFCA members were allowed to post, would this cause you to leave the MFCA, join the MFCA, seek other sites to post. Would it be devisive to the hobby, kill the forum or other? Would it make the MFCA stronger or weaker?

This is only for consideration and not a done deal but the question has been raised. I would like your civil discussion and input.

Fact:We have 400 active forum members and of those, 140 are MFCA members.

[5-13 Studios]

i remember when the mfca was first started, there was a section of the forum that needed a password and was for mfca members only. nothing much really went on there, and it did not last too long. so from that perspective, is it really worth the effort?
as far as it dividing the hobby, etc..., i do not think that would be the case unless you went out of your way to alienate non-members and no longer gave them the opportunity to research crucial information, helping them and their interest progress in the hobby. i don't believe for a second that this is what you are thinking of doing, so i don't think that creating an mfca members only section will hurt the mfca. it would depend on the content and amount of traffic between the non-member and member areas whether or not it would help the mfca grow, imo.

[NEW CASTLE HiTMEN]

When I logged in this morning there were several adult themed messages on all the forums. This is not needed here. There are members under the age of eighteen using this site. Whatever we need to do to stop this nonsense I am all for. My 13 YEAR OLD NEPHEW USES THIS SITE. Wolf, If these people can be traced back to an e-mail let me know! I can guarentee they wont do it again!

[WEIRDWOLF]

Originally Posted by NEW CASTLE HiTMEN

When I logged in this morning there were several adult themed messages on all the forums. This is not needed here. There are members under the age of eighteen using this site. Whatever we need to do to stop this nonsense I am all for. My 13 YEAR OLD NEPHEW USES THIS SITE. Wolf, If these people can be traced back to an e-mail let me know! I can guarentee they wont do it again!

Unfortunately, they are a spamming organization out of china, the netherlands and jamaica. I deleted all of them as soon as I got on this morning, banned IP addresses, etc and eventually changed the settings so that even if they registered they could not post without approval. Since then we have had a non stop influx of them every 5 minutes. I have been deleting all morning! They at least cannot put up any more of their dirt! The only disadvantage to this , is even real honest new users will have to wait for approval before they can post which depending on when they register could create a time lapse for them. We may have to look at additional moderators as this has become a huge task, at least today.

[NEW CASTLE HiTMEN]

It figures their from another country. How about using a registration form before being able to use this site. The person MUST include a recognized e-mail address. This may help.

[GUTTMANN]

As being moderator of another site(which is been dead for sometime), I delete and ban numerous per day. As this site is set up the same way now, Wolf is emailed each time there is a new registration. I'm sure he gets emails from the host of the chat site stating that there has been a new member that has registered with and "Invalid" email. These are in turn are deleted and banned by Wolf, to avoid future attempts to access the site.

Believe me, this is not an easy chore to do. I ban up to 10 per day and 30 on weekends. They just keep trying......and trying.......and trying...........and trying.

[Treks1]

Good question.

While we encourage particiaption from any coach who has in interest in miniature football (and to be honest, ALL but the most casual visitor to this site should be dues paying members of the MFCA), there should be some incentives and benefits for membership. Voting for HOF inductees, hopefully a national ranking system for coaches, set-up for web site and chat board, MFCA directives and business that should ONLY be accessed by MFCA members.

[detroitchild]

Wolf, do you have the ability to allow visitors to view and search but not post until they become a member?

[GUTTMANN]

I think the first thing we should look at is why the MFCA board was started. Giving everyone freedom to talk about whatever league they want, ways to play, manufacturers in the hobby, posting any pictures(reasonable), and keeping everyone together. To ensure EF goes on and to show others it is still alive and well. A place where there are no manufacturer restrictions too.

The only reason I see to have a members only section would be to keep the trash talking between members in that section. When, new players(young or old), or returning to the hobby players visit the site and start reading those posts, they may interpret the posts in a different manner than it is meant to be, and decide, "this isn't for me" or "I'll keep playing on my own". To me this would be the only reason to have that forum.

I do believe however that with The Tweak as good as it is. (Thank you Matt, Wolf and Al!!) that only MFCA paid members should be allowed to write articles and advertise in it.

Of course, all this is just my view.

Mike

[jimmie]

Members only is what it is and what is preveived is that its elitist!! At least to me I belong to about four different clubs from my business web site forums for different hobbies Gijoe paid to buy hotwheels has a pay to things diecastpub is free to join and onesixthwarriors is free.I think its no point to go on about your members only area thats what you want to do.I would like to help raise money for the site or least come up with the ideals.Member only for electric football to me is bad!!