Atom 4 owners whatsappgroup

[8_enj]

I totally agree much more user friendly, and always someone to help out or answer a question etc its a fantastic group

[Yorkshire]

It is a great group with banter and photo's but i do think where issues are highlighted and possible solutions discussed this would be far better posted on a forum as they are there for others in the future rather than just been lost in a whatsapp group

[plip1953]

It is a great group with banter and photo's but i do think where issues are highlighted and possible solutions discussed this would be far better posted on a forum as they are there for others in the future rather than just been lost in a whatsapp group

Well said Stuart. The WhatsApp Group in great its own way, but I don't think it's well suited to discussions of a more technical kind.

[speedmachine]

It is a great group with banter and photo's but i do think where issues are highlighted and possible solutions discussed this would be far better posted on a forum as they are there for others in the future rather than just been lost in a whatsapp group

Well said Stuart. The WhatsApp Group in great its own way, but I don't think it's well suited to discussions of a more technical kind.

Allthough I get what you mean, would be great if the wild discussions would happen here, but that just isnt realistic.
-people dont visit forums or even internet as much as they see their phones
-dont forget there are a lót of new owners that arent posters at all in the forum, but are (very) active on the app
-not all owners tend to talk freely about problems with their cars out on the internet for the whole wide world to see
- also dont forget the information provided in the app group is of benefit for the forums as well when people ask stuff much more people know the answer.

I still think strongly they are 2 very seperate things with their plus sides and minus sides

[autobackup]

Speedmachine

You puzzle me slightly in regard to your comment about the Ariel forum and 'phones' in your post!

I access this forum almost exclusively on my phone - and not via Tapatalk - which irritates me!!

As to your comment about "... everyone to see on the internet......" if things are discussed in the member's area that's not 'open' to general viewing by non members with the added advantage that the archive is then retained and can be searched for - whereas WhatsApp is more a moment to moment'stream of concienceness' that cannot subsequently be searched/researched and anybody joining cannot see anything discussed in the the time before joining the group.

[speedmachine]

I mean that a whatsappgroup is much more active compared to a forum. I dont use tapatalk either and browse the forum once a day. No need to check more often because most days there arent more than 1 or 2 posts total.
The group is on phones of people, so people tend to reply much more, quicker and easier.


The whatsappgroup is much more active, which makes me think it is more handy and serves an other purpose. Again, I dont think it replaces anything.
You are right there isnt much of an archive and thats why we also have the forum, facebook etc

Posting in the members area is private as well, I have never seen that area, so cant comment about that, but there’s something for everyone now
There are people not using the forum in the group, there are people like me not using facebook but use the group and the forum etc, everybody happy

To me it is clear that it is a welcome addition, it wouldnt be alive like it is if it wasnt.

[anx10us]

Why not have both ? WhatsApp is great for in the moment posting, is transient but gets a lot of traction, to be honest the same subjects seem to come up again and again, brakes, overheating, spec, sequential, tyres, phone mounts etc .. Info is searchable, but as mentioned when you join you don't see the previous conversations.

WhatsApp clearly works as its the number of messages is high per day.

The forum is very quiet, to the extent that I'll login once every few days and there is little to no activity, I struggle a little bit with the fact that certain threads are hidden behind a paywall (membership), this makes it even less likely that folks will interact if the info they need is hidden.

As a suggestion we need more threads for technical information but those need to be searchable by all, this encourages traffic to the forum, also makes it much easier to search. Folks need a reason to go to the forum ...

Someone needs to write up the Pembrey trip, add photos of not just the trackday, but the nights before and after, routes across Wales. Build momentum for next year.

We need more blog type posts, so a page on tyre choices, another on waterproofs, another on 320 -> 350 upgrade, another on sequential ownership, another on brakes, cooling, windscreen or not, side panels or not, racebox/vbox/garmin pros and cons.. etc

Why not do an interview series to drive traffic to the forum ? Find someone with a fully spec'd 350 interview on camera, post on YouTube, write up text for forum, start a thread for discussion and questions ?

Interview someone with a 320 who uses it exclusively on road, same as above, video for YouTube, text for front page, thread for questions ?

Write up of a new owner, who is about to get their car, share the excitement, post pics of pickup, impressions of first drive, follow up a few months later to see how they would have changed their spec ?

Get Matt Jones to write up his Nomad ownership ?

I'd love to know what owning a Nomad R is like ?

[autobackup]

Anx10ous

It's interesting that you think that interesting threads are 'hidden' behind a paywall but membership of the Ariel owner's club at £30 pa is hardly expensive (6 or 7 cups of coffee at Starbucks or ½ a tank of fuel?) after all the ISP hosting the forum has to be paid!

I have had a considerable amount of value from the forum and would urge any Ariel owner to join because 'behind the paywall' there's a huge amount of really useful information gathered from the members over many years!!

[anx10us]

Agreed, membership of the club is great value as it pays for itself on the savings for labour at Ariel, I'm happy to contribute to ISP costs, however keeping information hidden does not encourage membership, participation or regular engagement imho ..

Case in point, this is how (in)active the members section is, for the forum to survive we need to encourage engagement ..

Image 24-10-2022 at 11.21.jpeg (507.52 KiB) Viewed 58203 times

[RicarAtom]

Is there an Atom Club Membership on this forum? Sorry guys, I’m a Atom owner only for about two weeks and I want to keep up with forums and everything there is to know about this car.

[GraemeW]

Some have been asking for more in depth information on say tyres, specs, etc. I don’t think it’s been mentioned above but there is a club web site,which is not behind a paywall. This forum is a link from the site, but I think most people go straight through to forum? When I worked for the club we could see the web site got far fewer hits than the forum. This is to be expected but the numbers were very low. We started putting more content up, and it’s continued, but I don’t know if more visiting the web site Ariel.club today?

We are a relatively small group of owners, but our digital content is spread across multiple channels; website, forum, Facebook, Instagram and several WhatsApp groups. I suppose that’s normal because for my other cars it’s the same. However in those groups there are many more owners and there is a critical mass of owners in each channel

[RicarAtom]

Great! I just paid the club membership. I’m from Puerto Rico, very far from you guys lol but since there seems to be more info there and also support this forum.

Thanks for the reply GraemeW.


PS: already sent PayPal payment, where do I access membership it? Since it’s asking me again to Join.

[John Scherrer]

There may be a short delay ..

Once our membership secretary [mention]IanG[/mention] sees your membership application and makes the necessary forum update, you should be able to see the additional Club Members Only forum group.

[RicarAtom]

Perfect. Thank you guys!

[speedmachine]

Perfect. Thank you guys!

If you own an atom 4 I can also include you in the whatsappgroup