IML: Club website ideas/questions

[Kenyon Wills <imperialist1960@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Greg wrote:

> Kenyon,
> You and the rest of the guys have done a tremendous
> job on the site! I flip back and forth between the
> site and the emails all day long. 

That's good to hear, and thanks for saying something. 


Folks sure don't say much here on the IML, and
sometimes it feels like we're not doing much in the
way of viewership or helping/entertaining folks
because it's so quiet within our own club email group
here, but we do get pretty good traffic says the
electronic traffic meter and we keep on going, as Sir
Edmund Hillary said about climing Mt. Everest:
"Because It's There".  

 
>  
> Do you update the repair section with additional
> info as it comes on the regular emails? Or do you
> just let the additional info be found through the
> search function?
>  

At one Time Chris Trettin was doing a lot of serious
archiving and organizing in that area (her work is
still visible) and updating the various "aggregate
communal knowledge" areas quite regularly.  

Sadly, she's left the group, and I think that the
Archive Search function has taken on greater meaning
since she stopped adding things, unless one of the
volunteers is doing something that they aren't
advertising to the rest of us.  

We all have our own projects, work at our own pace,
and live as far apart as folks on the IML do.  

We volunteers communicate about website related
activity via email on a seperate IML-like message
board called WebMonsters.  There's been no mention of
work on this area recently that I'm aware
of.....(webmonsters?  anyone know differently?)

The general rule is to stake out an area of
interest/passion, figure out how to make it happen,
and go do it.  That's what's behind things like the
movies that you can watch, the Registry, and the Scale
Models section.  Someone decided that it was time that
we had it, got the thing going, and BAM - there's a
whole new section.

What is it about our demographic that produces such
passion and good manners both here and on the club
website's creative group?  

> Is there a way to see if the AUTOBiographies in the
> Imperials By Year section have been updated?  

Kind-of.

For
> example: I'm interested in all Imperials but
> specificaly 64-66. I go into the Imperials By Year
> section , click on 64, then would have to click on
> each person in the AUTOBiographies to see if they
> updated or photos added, etc. Then I do the same for
> 65 and 66. Is there some place that I could see that
> tells you that something has been updated or added?

Not explicitly, no.  There is the WHAT'S NEW section. 
There's also a bar at the bottom of almost every page
on the website that denotes the last time that it was
updated.  Both of these are clues to how "seasoned"
the information is, but there's no list of such.  Skim
WHATS NEW  once a month is my advice.  

We have a hard enough time organizing the junk that
we're already working on, so I'd not expect too much
on that front, but you never know.

Amazingly, with at least 700 members on the IML and at
least triple that many that have subscribed and
subsequently left over the years, there are
surprisingly few people that have submitted
AUTOBIOGRAPHIES, much less updated theirs.  Kerry
Pinkerton has to be the Babe Ruth of that genre  

http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Interior/Leather/index.htm
http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Body/Painting101/
http://www.dte.net/57imperial/54saga/index.htm
http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1957/Kerrys57saga/explanation.htm
http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Body/BodyandPaint/index.htm
http://www.imperialclub.com/~imperialclub/Yr/1973/Kerrys73saga/index.htm
http://www.dte.net/57imperial/50saga/index.htm

but getting more than a paragraph out of most people
is just murder.  He balances out about 40 other people
that didn't say a word and just sent photos.

Note that the most that a popular Imperial year might
have is 20 AUTOBIOGRAPHIES, and many years only have
one or two, so that's an area that's hurting to one
degree or antother, and it could be an even more
exciting space than it already is with  a little more
participation from the group.  

I'd say that we "maybe" get one or two new
profiles/updates submitted per month (not counting the
ones that I snag for unusual cars that show on ebay
like the 1942 Limo).

I've written repeatedly here about taking a photo of
your car at a local point of interest, writing up a
small story about it's features, reasons for being in
your family, and so forth, but we get a weak response
on that at best.   I should think that a freebie
web-page of your car in the Pantheon of Imperial
Heroes would be attractive, but... 

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't get him
to submit/update his car-story all that easily, it
seems.

>  
> How do you come up with the member highlights? Do
> they contact you or do you look for volunteers? I
> would love to see more of these.

http://imperialclub.com/IML-specific/Spotlight/index.htm

That was a section that was last run by Leslie
Ketterhofen, and she's left the volunteer group for
other pursuits, so there hasn't been a new interview
for some time now.  

We have not yet found a new person willing to solicit
interviews with club members and others (and there are
some really interesting folks here - Bob Hoffmeister
might be one I'd ask first).  

Doing this would consist of coming up with a
questionnaire (crib what's already done?), finding
people, and getting them to respond/submit photos.  

The other volunteers would definitely be able to
create the final page once that work was done.  We're
all volunteers, and we each have our areas of interest
and energy levels - this item has languished without
someone to champion it.  Email proficiency and good
manners are about the only requirements to do it.

Anyone want to spend some time to flesh this area out?
 
Greg? (hey! You asked!!)

>  
> As long as I'm asking questions, how about linking
> the sections that show photos and stories of
> Imperials that are undergoing restorations and are
> restored into a RESTORATION ARCHIVE?
>  

You'd have to provide more free beer and pizza than
you could afford to get us to do that.  Thinking about
the electronic logistics alone makes my brain swim,
but if someone can think up a way to pull it off and
wants to get behind doing it, well, this is a CLUB and
we're always happy to get people involved and
participating however we can.  

Nothing happens until "somebody" does something.  

I'm here partly because Hugh Hemphill was making
public comments about 1958 being such a miraculous
page on the website and all that jive (back when there
was almost nothing posted at all on any page and he
had sent in a cluster of pretty nice ads that he'd
amassed over the years).  

Well, 1960 is my passion, and that page is now better
filled out than 1958 (- and fortunately for me, there
happened to be more info available and I was able to
do what's there today with it, or I'd STILL be
listening to guff about 1958's) 



> Keep up the great work!!
>  
 

Thanks Greg - I'm sure that the rest of the
WebMonsters are following this thread - it was nice to
see you voice ideas, compliments, and questions!


-Kenyon


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