Changes to Attract New Members

[probes]

notams.net sounds very good!


I'm sure I'm not the only one who likes to read something more reasonable than the usual journalism, especially on mysterious cases. Also what people think, but not total nonsense that looks nonsense with even limited technical knowledge like mine (like the last bomb-theories on TOP, sorry to mention it again, just to illustrate).


P.S (it might be a barrier, RiS, as I remember from my own early days of some posts over there, and even though I'm thankful to BOAC for yelling at me - which prompted a couple of e-mails that developed into close friendship later - maybe it would be good to indicate newcomers are welcome.)

[Lone Ranger]

I will say one thing right off the bat: the title of the home page should be reconsidered. Not so much ppruned.org but the description underneath: A home for ppruners who've been ppruned? Which is all and good for people coming over from TOP but for someone new, or someone who stumbles across this site? Wouldn't have a clue what that means. Perhaps something more descriptive of the site?

+1

[ian16th]

Aviation Unchained

[limeygal]

Aviation Unchained-why we like it here.

Aviation Rumour & Information Forum-ARIF

[stuart]

Aviation Rumour & Information Forum-ARIF

That is very good imo.

[limeygal]

I actually like Ian's Aviation Unchained. It does suggests Alison's philosophy about the site. It's short and catchy. A subtitle could add the words Rumour and Information, thereby hooking the Google searches

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

Agree with the current concensus of opinion from the postings so far. Good idea to move away from the OP and have a purge of any association with it. Use the core membership to create a better forum with a new name; preferably not starting with 'p' or using the word 'professional ' It would be good to appeal to all whether professional or an enthusiast. It would be good to encourage more input on the more serious threads but maybe that will develop over time.

Trying to think how 'AVGAS ' could be used for a suitable name. ...

[zarniwoop]

A Very Good Argument Site

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

Thanks Zarniwoop! ...how about AVGAS. .A Very Good Aviation Site! ....Love it!

[dubbleyew eight]

I tend to leave all the pessimistic stuff on the other place and keep the happy stuff here.

you want a name??? tickle me pink.

[limeygal]

AVGAS-A Very Good Aviation Site. I like it

It's going to hard to choose once everyone gets their thinking caps on

[rgbrock1]

Are we talking here of changing the domain name from ppruned.org to something else? If so, I'm not sure that's a good idea and here's why. When this site first started, at the hands of Alison, a Google search of anything aviation-related did not return anything to do with here. That has since changed it ppruned.org does show up in such a search. Eventually anyway. If we change the domain name then we reset the clock, so to speak, as far as search returns are concerned. Is that what we want and does it matter?

[limeygal]

A good point, however those searches aren't getting us any new members at the moment. So what do we have to lose?

[rgbrock1]

A good point, however those searches aren't getting us any new members at the moment. So what do we have to lose?

True, and a good point.

[54Phan]

I agree with rgb. Search returns are an important way to help build our membership. I also think that the description should be changed from "A home for ppruners .." to something a little less restrictive. A Very Good Aviation Site would be one great possibility. The forums should be re arranged, a little less emphasis on " JB", a little more on aviation. I think we should try to look a bit less like TOP, and de emphasize references to it, lest someone thinks this site should be renamed "sourgrapes". Thanks to alison for doing the groundwork to get this baby off the ground, by the way.

These are my thoughts, anyway.

[ian16th]

Question.

If we are to attract new, young members from outside the existing load of old foggies, should we not avoid using 'Professional acronyms' and slang terms?

NOTAM, AVGAS, AVTUR, AVTAG, AVPIN and F700 are not commonly used in 'civilian' conversation.

You need to be or have been, involved in aviation in some position to even know what they are/mean.

[angels]

I know little of these matters but it strikes me that we need a search engine optimiser to get Pprune in front of more people.

I agree that to emphasis the nature of the beast the initial attention should be on a R&N type section. The banter can come lower, we know where it is.

Thanks to those who make this a great place to visit -- even all those who I disagree with sometimes/always!

[Ibbie]

Sorry, Allison, for no input.

Mind is a bit scrambled with legal and family health matters at the moment.

How about some reference to "The Pointed End"or " View from the crew"

[om15]

Really like "A Very Good Aviation Site" it seems pretty perfect, go along with Angels re the main section being serious and the JB stuff down below, we are rather haphazard at the moment, I have a feeling that once we disassociate from TOP we will attract more interest, maybe we have been pushing the ex ppruners/banned rather too much, and it could be that some of the pprune regulars don't wish to be caught up in a squabble.
Recommend we stop the pprune observations, ignore TL and so on and have a fresh start.
I would change my avatar thingy but ian16th has beaten me to it with the wheel disc.

[admin]

Just to put things into context, when I kicked off ppruned.org I did so on a hobby webserver based in my home. It was a spur of the moment thing having just heard of more people I respected being banned from TOP. In truth I had absolutely no expectation that it would even be running now - three months later, far less to be close to 28,000 postings and 170 plus members. So yes, we've all done incredibly well.

The layout, forum titles and descriptions were knocked up over a weekend solely to irritate TOP. There isn't a shadow of doubt in my mind that it has outgrown this initial setup. I've thought this for some time. Same for "Search Engine Optimisation" and meta tags. Haven't set up any, initially didn't seem to be any reason to do so.

So now having built ourselves a community we have a chance to decide how we want it to move ahead, and the more contributions the better.

Some personal thoughts. In my dotage get easily irritated by bad spelling and grammar. In my opinion aircrew like programmers tend to be more pedantic about such things, knowing that incorrectly entered parameters can spell disaster. Those of a more mature age recognise this and post accordingly. Many of the postings on ppruned are a real joy to read. Whereas, on a few non-aviation forums I frequent that have a much younger membership I often log out in disgust at the inability of many of their members to put together a coherent and readable posting. Postings on ppruned rarely seem to emanate from the twitterverse, assembled on an iPad or similar that seems to choose like-sounding words as if it doesn't make any difference. Don't people know the difference between "Quiet" and "Quite" for instance. Rant over.

I do like our current demographics - mature-aged, technically competent, well travelled people, able to communicate successfully by the written word. Thinking people, experienced in life and world affairs. I think it's important that we retain this.

Alison