Of recent times there have been a lot of first time posters going directly after parts or posting other remarks or questions which causes some angst amongst the regular members.
I understand where you are coming from and I know it's frustrating as someone looking to restore these cars that hard to find parts come up seldom and then disappear. In some ways I understand the frustration and how you may feel "cheated" as a contributor to the site who adds value.
However I also see the flip side of the coin, I recently bought an RX-7 and am an active member of the Irish Forum for rotary cars. However there is a far larger community in the UK and much more good parts available, I've been using eBay and the Mazda Rotary Club forum to source bits and pieces, spending way too much money I might add
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I have not contributed to this other site yet in the form of technical info or really given an introduction. Rather I've been purchasing parts. From this perspective I don't see a problem, someone wants to sell something, I give them the money they want and buy it no mucking about and no backing out of an agreement, which often happens when selling cars or parts.
Others may get upset if I "beat them to the bargain" but as with any good deal, you snooze you loose. A problem I have is that you can only really be an active members in some many forums at a given point in time. I would love to participate in all these forums if time were readily available as I'm sure there is much I could learn and much I could share with others.
I suspect many of these others who view the forum may feel the same way or be just busy restoring their car and not ready to invest the time yet to become known in the community but are happy to spectate. As you mentioned 1/3 of visitors to the site are actually registered users. We can't force everyone to join and I strongly believe that the reason the site has grown is due to it's open nature.
This is one of my biggest irks.
Newbies, who have never contributed any value to this site, who grab a good deal before an "actual" member can! Thus, guys who put in, can miss out.
No offense to 24dat, but it would have been nice for an intro before you buy the bargains. Then disappear.
It's happening more and more lately.
I'll give you an example.
I sold a 240Z here with an RB30, yes it needed work. But I thought I'd do the right thing and put it here for a member to build. How much did I ask? $3,000 
And a guy bought it, them disappeared! 
Maybe there should be a locked topic for BUYING until you've reached 10-50 posts?
Or am I going a bit over the top?
Totally understand where you are coming from, and it sucks to miss out on the bargains or the good deals. I think my situation with the RX-7 is a bit different to this community because the Z is getting rarer and hard to find. The RX-7 is still relatively easy to obtain parts for, although some parts are getting difficult to source or very expensive for OEM.
Remember just because the owner of the Z you sold has not registered yet (He may have) doesn't mean he wont' drop in and say hello soon. He may be busy putting it back together and getting it up to speed. God knows I should spend less time on forums and more time on the car.
I think you guys are overreacting waayyyy too much!
At least he's joined the forums -.- Maybe this thread acted as the catalyst for this new user to join.
I tend to agree mate, although I understand their frustration. In many ways it's a case of the early bird gets the worm
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Hi
I would like to respond to the forum in regards to this post.
I have been following this forum for about 2 years and only Officially registered just recently.
I was classified by registered members as a "TROLL" when the Longfield collection was being posted even though i was contributing financially anonymously,this I believe was a unjust name tag for people wanting to view the quality of this forum.
The catalyst for me to register was not the Technical or the For Sale but the many genuine responses to the unfortunate death of Kyle and the strong "esprit de corps" of the group even though many people had not meet him and spread all across this great land, and i was so touched.
My first post was not an introduction but to assist a member just recently with some valuable information that I had in regards to a wiring harness.this was because I have an Australian parts list that is complete for all 240/260 and 2+2 up to 1978.therefore I agree with 53-681 to some extent.
My suggestion would be to lock the FOR SALE and FREE sections only to donating members for a period of two (3) days from the time of the original post to enable active members (donating) first dibs at anything being offered and that way satisfy and encourage members to financially support the forum that has this section allowing parts that are now getting harder to find an avenue to restorers,this was always the impression and principal of many members I thought in saving these historic beasts from the metal crushers.
I suppose some people will think that this view is not justified because I have-not gone to a formal intro,but what is a forum without a soapbox,what value is the speaker without a crowd,are we going to deny access to Gordon Dobies knowledge and experience because he hasn't done an intro to,
I feel that in this area we should be a little bit tolerant, and focus on the issue that items are being claimed before active members,I was always taught not to whinge without offering a solution.
Therefore
I suppose if the will of the membership is there and the support of the moderators, then Gavin can make this LOCK happen and this will give value to being a donating member and still allow a vibrant forum
Cheers
Phil
Hi Phil,
In many ways I couldn't agree more with everything you have mentioned. I would like to point out that Phil is not alone and there have been a few donations from people who have no membership or registration on the site.
I think a members only section could be a good solution to this issue. Where members who donate only have access and can post cars / parts for first dibs there and then if the seller wishes they can move it to the normal or open classifieds. The only problem is that there is no automated facility for such a workflow built into the forum.
There is also no good way of "billing" forum members regularly, although you can have paid membership through the forum it's actually not very intuitive to find. Although some members have found this facility. It may be worth exploring in more detail and perhaps creating a "how to" page to instruct users how to become re-curring paid members.
The other alternative to donations on the site would be more advertising. I've been looking into various options and with more advertising it could be possible to offset the hosting costs of the site with advertising. Of course I don't want to put flashing banners on the site to point of causing seizures. However this would obviously be more intrusive than the current advertising so it's a trade off. Funny thing is when it comes to advertising we make more money off the "trolls" than the regular members who become "banner blind".
So we could put the costs of the site onto the non-donating members in many ways. Just something to think about. Then there is the option of paying to not see so much advertising, again it could be a bit of work to implement and something to research.
I would like to know how other members on the site feel before taking any action on this. I think a poll might be in order to get a feel for how the community feels about this issue.
Poll
