Feeler from ALL members on this site??

[MoN]

Now that I have been a member scine the WBM a month or so ago, I am starting to wonder what the point of this site & forum is?

On your home page you clearly state:

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Educate. Encourage. Empower
SubieGirls.com believes that all motor vehicle owners should know how to properly maintain and care for their vehicles. There are no exceptions, be it for man OR woman. SubieGirls.com will educate owners on the fundamentals of maintaining and caring for their cars.

Some of the best ways to learn are to read, listen and ask questions! SubieGirls.com encourages women to learn more than the fundamentals of being a car owner and provide them with a welcoming environment that allows them to do so.

SubieGirls.com empowers women to take a part in the car enthusiast community, to educate and to encourage others!

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Charity, awareness and community envolvement are very important things to SubieGirls.com. Fundraising for organizations and causes that find a place in our hearts is one of the things that keeps us going strong. Please contact us at info@subiegirls.com for more information about fundraising that we have done in the past or how you or your organization can get involved.
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Personally I have not seen either well represented on the site or the forum. The forum is more of a group of already known individuals who post random completely off topic sometimes inside threads and posts.

Where is all the subaru talk? Where is the education on maintenace and care of my subie?

And whats up w/ the charities? Since you raised 600 at the wbm there have been no other ideas, interests & suggestions on this topic. I became a member to represent subiegirls as a charity supporter. And so far Im still waiting. Unfortunatly I have too busy of a schedule to go to any meets to watch movies and eat dinner. But I would gladly make time to find ways to help the comunity, and charities, as I have done on my own and w/ other groups in the past.

And I agree w/ the member who is upset about not having avatars and blockin profile pics. We should all have a choice as to what we would like to display, or they should be removed completely. OR have a vast vote from all members on what avatars to have available, not just a vote between the admins, as has been happening. Regardless of our "level of dedication" Or marketing for subiegirls that you have mentioned. We are all members which should show appreciation in itself.

Someone needs to step up and turn this site from a girly crap talkin forum to a real subaru enthusiast and non-profit fundraising organization that it should and could be.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

[jessickascarling]

Before I begin, I first want to say that if any of the admins disagree with what I have to say, I know you won't be afraid to say so and I won't be offended!

1. Subiegirls.com has only been around since May or so. You have to remember it takes a long time for a forum to truly establish itself... and that it doesn't just take the effort of the admins, it's a collaboration between the members and admins. If you have a question about something, post it! That's how we all learn and that's how the forum establishes itself. There are WAY to many topics to just post step by step instructions because someone might have a question about it later. So far, there have been a lot of informative posts for modifications other members have done and I know there will be more to come.

2. As for the charity events, if you just email them with a thought they'll take the time to come up with an event. I've all ready PM'd Sarah and Margo with some ideas to which they readily responded and we've discussed. Nothing is in the works as of yet, but they're willing to meet and get to know me so we can come up with something. One good example of this is the OCC meet. I know that a few of the members (including myself) will be making the trek to NY which also benefits the ASPCA (I do believe, please correct me if I'm wrong). I know we didn't start this event, but members being there with the subiegirls.com logo plastered on vehicles will generate interest. (On a side note, was a vendor tent started for subiegirls.com?)

3. Avatars. Geesh, this topic has caused quite a stir amongst all the members. Personally, I don't care whether or not I have an avatar so that's probably why I don't understand people being upset. I will say that the admins have made it clear this is a work in progress so I think patience is a virtue on this one.

I do think you make some valid points and the admins will be able to address them (and I know they'll appreciate the input), but I also think it's to early for this site to be really established. I know that if I have a question about my car, I will be posting it up and I'm sure someone on here will have an answer for me. If they don't know, they'll be able to tell me where to find out so I can post up my results for everyone else. NASIOC (which I think is how subiegirls got started, not entirely sure though) has been around for 10 years... so it has 10 years worth of information and 10 years worth of members. We have ~2 months worth. I don't think NASIOC started out right away with being as informative as it is today... it needed the help of the members who posted the Q&A as well as the vendors who promote them.

This, of course, is just my opinion. I am not trying to step on any toes of the admins because this isn't my forum. I just think things thus far have been going really well with a whole lot more to come as general interest grows.

[xxthat girlxx]

First and foremost, thank you SubieCutie for voicing your concerns. We appreciate your enthusiasm. That being said, I think Jessica has written a great post. Let me reiterate and expand on some things things from there.

We have been "live" as a website for just over a month. I would like to say that I am very proud of the activity I see on such a brand new forum. Everyday I have posts to read and things to catch up on and that is more to say than many new groups. Thank you to the people posting and reading on a regular basis.

Because this idea started 2 years ago, we have had lots of time to network in the New England area. Members of NESIC, Connecticut Subaru Crew and New England Subarus have met us, raced with us, gone to meets with us, donated money to our fundraisers and helped us in many ways. That being said, it is only natural that this website is so far made up of a majority of the people we have thus far networked with. Any member wishing to help us network whether it be on the internet or in real life, please contact myself or arlia11. Thank you to the members who have helped with this already and to those who have contacted us to find out how they can get involved.

As for the education/maintenance of your vehicle, I apologize for the delay in posting it on our main website. I do a lot of the work for this website myself and I will be very honest when I say it is overbearing sometimes. Both mentally and financially. There are times when I juggle work, a personal life, this website and fundraising at the same time. I will never pretend to be perfect and I am sorry to say sometimes I lose full steam. I have not forgotten about this, it has just taken a back burner to some new things the website has presented to me.

We have seen a nice set of posts about modifications being done to the cars. I am very confident that when one of our members does their brakes or does some maintenance on their car, they will share with us.

Those who do charity work know that it can be time consuming and difficult at times, but rewarding in the end. We have decided to do approx. 2 focused fundraising events a year. Scoobies for Boobies is our 1st one. The 2nd event can be chosen by members from other regions as this applies. Last year we were involved with Toys for Tots in conjunction with Swift Motorsports. As you mentioned, we raised money at WBM to help build a playground. We will be working with Rally Armor this August at OCC to raise money for the ASPCA. 4 members from this website will be selling raffle tickets to raise money for the charity and other members will be attending. Attendance is also key. It gets our name out there and it helps to show that we like to get involved for a good cause. If any member of this website knows of an event that they think would be a good cause to support, please contact myself or arlia11. We will be more than happy to see if we can help and find members to volunteer and get involved.

I do not have anything to update you with about avatars except thank you to WRXGRL09 for this week's Avatar of the Week theme. Profile pictures are and have been enabled, so please, feel free to customize your profiles!!

I'm sorry that you think this website is filled with girly-crap talk. I want to thank all of the girls I have become close to over the past few years. This forum has given us a place to share our common interests, both female related and car/Subaru enthusiast related. I appreciate that I can talk to you about my new favorite eye shadow while we enjoy a nice sunny day at the track or wrench on our cars while we discuss the killer heels we've been looking for.

[MoN]

Ok well I will def give you the benifit of the doubt regarding the sites activity considering it has only been up for a lil over a month. I did not know this. It has been pretty active for such a short period of time.

Regarding updating the info on maintenance and educating others, and the lack of time, maybe you should consider having other volunteers/admins, who would like to put in the time and the effort help you w/ the updating and adding more info to the site if they want to. It would prob be better for yall to distribute the work on the site then to have it rest on one or two people. I just say this because for Newbies its probably more interesting for them to see that statements made on the homepage are being followed through, and that they can come here for info on maintenance, upgrading, projects, etc.

Regarding the charity work, all the past work you have done has not been known besides the two that are posted on the homepage, maybe you should add all the little things that have been done also. Also, why has it not been posted that subiegirls wil be helping raise money at the OCC. And what about other members who are attending? Is there any way that we could help, even if it just means wearing t-shirts or something? Or coming up w/ another way to raise money at the event even if it is something minute like selling candy bars or something? My point is not every member has been notified or involved in the upcoming charity events. Do you get what I mean? If I am rambling im sorry it is very early lol.

The girly crap talk, sorry if you were offended I didnt mean it in a belittling way. I guess there is no way from stopping womern from talking about their nails/crushes, etc even on a car forum lol. I just think it would be more attractive to potential long term members if it was kept down to a minumium. I'd rather read a thread about a sick subie that you saw, or a sick race, or a new project or a charity event idea rather than an off topic matter. Dont get me wrong some of them are hilarious like the effin hipster and the drink recipe thread was cool.

And i guess thats all, I just think that the game should be stepped up a little to make your organization seem to be more active, more involved w/ all members, more serious about raising money, and keeping up w/ subies.

[sleepy04]

I have a question in line with this. Is there anything special that needs to be done to post a How-To article? Like get official approval before posting it?

[xxthat girlxx]

Nope. But if it's done badly or proven to be wrong a mod may remove it.

This was from back when Monica was a hater... ;)

[MoN]

Nope. But if it's done badly or proven to be wrong a mod may remove it.

This was from back when Monica was a hater... ;)

Hey!! :p Come on!! lol, It was just that the posting was just like PM's between already known friends thats all, and it didnt feel like a friendly enviornment lol but that was because it was brand spankin new, and it was only already known friends. But now look at the progress, the site is spreading nation wide!! Good Job ladies!

But ya I still think that we should have a how to maintenance type section as mentioned in the home page.

P.S.: maybe we should delete this thread lol I think its making us look bad lol....

[xxthat girlxx]

Hey!! :p Come on!! lol, It was just that the posting was just like PM's between already known friends thats all, and it didnt feel like a friendly enviornment lol but that was because it was brand spankin new, and it was only already known friends. But now look at the progress, the site is spreading nation wide!! Good Job ladies!

But ya I still think that we should have a how to maintenance type section as mentioned in the home page.

P.S.: maybe we should delete this thread lol I think its making us look bad lol....

I'll be painting my wheels soon, so I can add that DIY to the forum. I haven't given up on the maintenance section on the website. I'll do some digging to get it worked on.

And for now I think it just shows our progress, like you said. :)

[jessickascarling]

when i get to my spark plugs i can put that up :-D if it's worth it to post of course. hehe

[Bu11dogg2]

I can bombard you with excellent walkthroughs and info related threads.

Lemme know

-Randy

[jessickascarling]

thanks for posting up all the excellent info!

[Bu11dogg2]

I have a few others....

I have one issue though... this site is set up like NASIOC which means transferring threads requires RE-bolding and RE-posting pictures individually.... instead of a simple "copy/paste"

This is a setting that is great for very, very large sites to reduce server load.

just saying...

[xxthat girlxx]

^Really? Yeah I have no idea. That's lame and I'd like to fix it.