Forum accounts - Basic Account - Full Forum Member - Club Esprit

[cbclotus]

ps my mrs is not keen on the site I have many jobs to do at home lol.i am allways on this forum.....Only joking she thinks it's a great site.Mike and Mrs

[Bibs]

You've been on here for nearly 10 years Mike, that's automatic permission through association

[tinywillyuk]

Suitably shamed in to renewing having forgotten about it... oops...

[Barrykearley]

Hmm ladyboy midgets indeed...... Not sure about that

However - this is funny.

 

[Chillidoggy]

Would all those who've benefitted from using the TLF yet not paid a penny towards it now stump up and help Bibs with the costs of running it, please?

 

If you can afford a Lotus, you can afford £20.

[Whirlybird]

It's £20 that's all...... About the cost of a decent steak at somewhere half about.

For all the effort the guys put in on this site - it's well worth chucking a steak their way

 

I don't eat meat, so I have saved there!

It has been a couple of years now since joining, upgrading now.

[glynherron]

Hi Bibs, to be absolutely honest I thought the ffm payment was for the negotiation of discounts etc and not for the running of the site. I assumed the advertising revenue paid for the site.

There are many lotus dealers out there who provide us with spares, who if went out of business would leave us pretty stuffed. 10 percent discount is always taken from their trading margin. For this reason I don't ask for discounts.

Apologies again. Upgraded yesterday.

Brilliant forum. Been here since the early days when Paul C was a regular!

Cheers

Glyn

[fflyingdog]

Ok have caved in after 11 odd years ,and moved over to upper echelon of Esprit forumship/ownership.

 

 

I am now a full forum member.        No flowers please.

Edited March 22, 2015 by fflyingdog

[glynherron]

We joined at the same time all those years ago. Ahhh...

[Barrykearley]

Let hope it all goes towards a more sustainable forum...... Bibs should not need to financially support this ( but thank god he has )

[Chinsterb]

This is a bit like the not the nine o'clock news sketch about the licence fee! 

 

Have to say that I have joined both but wont be renewing LEW used the check list but that is all so far TLF is great, Bibs hand delivered the cover i ordered for my car and called me on Friday to see how the repairs were comming on with my car after it broke down the week before.

 

top forum cheers C

[andydclements]

Suitably shamed in to renewing having forgotten about it... oops...

+1 here.

[hedgerley]

My gast is truly flabbered. I had assumed that the majority of the membership would be fully paid up! I find it hard to believe it's so few. It's worth it just for the crack, never mind the discounts. And I've just realised this is my 10th year, initially on LEF of course. How time flies.

[Daniel]

Near 10 year veteran here too althogh between 2009 and 2014 i was a lotusless lurker..... I feel so dirty saying it.

My fully paid up membership means more to me than both my knighthood and peerage put together ...... Mostly because they're made up and my membership here is real.

[Bibs]

18 new members, that's nearly an 8% increase in the last few days

[ramjet]

My gast is truly flabbered. I had assumed that the majority of the membership would be fully paid up! I find it hard to believe it's so few. It's worth it just for the crack, never mind the discounts. And I've just realised this is my 10th year, initially on LEF of course. How time flies.

 

We can get stuff here? Can you get it through customs easy?

[theelanman]

I didn't realize so few didn't pay........

Ive just paid on the back of these comments as TLF and Bibs do a sterling job....

 

I think the hesitance of joining members is that as all virtual sites go you get virtually nothing.....in a physical sense.....

like if you joined CL then you get a mag every quarter......or LDC.......

and I think the lack of anything physical lessens the feeling of needing to supports something that is but isnt

 

am I making sense?....I doubt it.....

 

this is why I think you've hit on a great idea with TLF International Lotus Day

 

but I agree that is costs money to run.....our local Lotus Club site was run and funded by me.....but as our group never really grew I got rid........(after 10 years)......

Edited March 24, 2015 by theelanman

[johnpwalsh]

Just got to add my two pence worth to the argument of membership. Has anyone looked at how many people have been on and got a cracking price for insurance for instance. I now have three cars insured with AiB and at a rough esitmate has saved me just over £400. Twenty quide for FFM, thats a no brainer.

If you smoke it's three packs of fags.

If you drink it's roughly 5 beers at Aberdeen prices.

If you buy a monthly magazine, say Classic Cars, it's 5 issues.

 

Get your money out and support a great site.

 

Bibs, I slag you off all the time in friendly banter and that alone is well worth the £20.

Respect to you both for all the efforts.

[Bibs]

I think the hesitance of joining members is that as all virtual sites go you get virtually nothing.....in a physical sense.....

like if you joined CL then you get a mag every quarter......or LDC.......

and I think the lack of anything physical lessens the feeling of needing to supports something that is but isnt

 

I see what you mean but the problem for me (running a site which publishes news on what it often often a daily basis) is that magazines are always out of date. Our average time to publish news from Lotus is less than 2.5 minutes and we go out of our way to source and produce our own content too. For example, Malcolm and I flew to Geneva to see, photograph and film the Evora 400 being launched. Our pics were published within 2 hours of the launch and video within 6 (would have been quicker but for their shitty press room broadband!). A magazine posting that stuff in 2.5 months would be completely irrelevant in my opinion. Stuff like the car reviews we travel to Hethel for would work, but being online our better reviews have now been read by over 15,000 people, I can't see a magazine getting that sort of exposure anyway.

 

The problem is everyone thinks the internet is free, which it isn't. TLF paid for our flights, we took probably a grands worth of computers and 5k's worth of cameras and there's our time too. When you publish this news it's important, but not important enough to pay for so there's the quandry. Do we not do it, is it not worth it and following from that, how much should we spend to be there and present it to everyone who isn't willing to pay. 

 

Fortunately TLF has some excellent advertisers who support us long term and a lot of the money required to run the site comes from them as well as from FFM's and a small amount from our shop sales & other sources. That said, it doesn't pay a wage and can't afford to employ anyone (yet) so there's something wrong with the model, hence me being £1m out of pocket over the last decade to run it, tangible income I'd have had from my proper business that I no longer make as this takes up so much time. 

[Barrykearley]

Magazines are lovely there's no doubt....... But everything is going off print and solely inter web based.

Bibs - I just think you were ahead of the curve........

This site brings huge benefits for little expenditure for ffm folks........ Anyone else who's had a beneficial gain should do the decent thing and stump a bit up......

Keep up the good work

[Bibs]

I've merged the 'LEW & TLF' topic with the original one for continuity

[johnpwalsh]

Just wondered, would it be possible for none members to have something like say three hits on the site FOC then for any further assistance/advice they have to take out membership or even partial membership to give limited access. I am sure the PC guru's will tell me if this would be possible, after all Bibs and Co cant eat on fresh air and if like many other businesses, if one takes over from the other i.e Bibs income from his normal work, then at some point something has to give.

[NR2k]

Signed up a while ago. Should i expect a membership card?

[Bibs]

Just saw an ad for a member of staff for Porsche Club GB
 
https://www.porscheclubgb.com/news-and-events/news/2015/may-2015/digital-executive-be-part-of-the-pcgb-team
 

With 13,000 members and an annual turnover in excess of £1 million

We've more members, a much busier website, hugely more social presence.

 

I'm definitely doing something wrong!

[Barrykearley]

Turnovers vanity......profits sanity

Ummm am I helping