Growing Pains

The term is somewhat of a misnomer. In our case to date. Our little site has been growing, no doubt. Not explosively, but at decent clip. How could it but otherwise? Unless you start deleting members or turning off registrations, the trend will most likely be positive….




But more significant to us at this stage of growth, is not the member count in itself, directly. But the time members are spending here and the quality of the posts. That is really the key to growth:

Growing Pains

The term is somewhat of a misnomer. In our case to date. Our little site has been growing, no doubt. Not explosively, but at decent clip. How could it but otherwise? Unless you start deleting members or turning off registrations, the trend will most likely be positive….




Now that is impressive! What amazed me was the activity over this long weekend (look at the last three bars through Sunday of last week)! Get a life, everyone (kidding!).

So what is the connection to teething pains? Well the pains have really been gains as our members post, stress, and challenge the little infrastructure we have created. With the manageable number of members, we have been able to focus on each and every piece of feedback. Our PM and email are full of dialogs between ourselves and members sorting out the user interface, the way we handle graphics, the forum structure, and so on. And so I really hesitate to call it pain. I think we've addressed a multitude of issues, and have implemented changes, in many cases, in real time to better the site. We have already amassed some of the most experienced posters I have ever met, in terms of their forum/site savvy. And we have several strong groups of members with talents and interests far outside the realm of automotive that carfaq has already morphed into something with much more potential than either of us even imagined.

We hope to be able to continue to respond to every member concern, but the ability to do so will be inversely proportional to the activity and number of members. The folks here with us now have a unique place in our life cycle and have been the primary drivers of our evolution.

When we hit our true growth spurt, we will recognize our initial members in some manner. We haven't decided how, but I think it would be nice if future members were aware of the role many of you have played.

I think the bottom line is that we are preparing for that time with all the current changes and interactions with our current member base. And we are looking forward to it!

Have fun and enjoy the ride!

Ohmster
For the exteneded staff at CARfaq.org