Search by Name

Just my opinion but the site has lost direction and has become a money making concern

woops!

Ups and downs,
What info were you looking for regarding " Willem"?
Tom

Paul, I think that sometimes those who may be considered 'greats' get a little weary of some expressions of those whom they may consider 'not-so-great' and decide to explore "greener forums". I do know that Willem was quite peed-off when he left. Mind you, Willem could be "prickly" and stir some up. LOL. Certainly he added colour to this forum.

There have been many others whom we may not have even missed until when searching the archived posts we see the name and realise that they have not been around for a while.

By the way, I also tested the "Search By Name" and guess what name I used to search for.......... yep, "Willem". He lives-on yet!

EO must be doing something right with the huge achievements in blogs (see 85174) and continually getting new members.

Re adverts - its a bit like TV if there aren't any ads then there's no TV station. You can't have it both ways.

No one is forcing anyone to stay with EO - if you don't like it then make other choices.

We are better off without the likes of Willem IMHO. There are others here more helpful and giving of their experiences and expertise. There are plenty of other forums that cater for the bogans.

This site is doing fine as far as I am concerned.

Jack

Re what do 'we get for our money' & ‘site’s slow’

If I buy a litre of milk at the shop does that mean I can tell the owner what to do in his shop?

The site might be slow at times - so we can't wait that extra second - is our time that precious? Relax and just consider yourself fortunate to be able to access a site such as EO and what it offers.

EO owns the site not us - its their site and its the way they want it - if we/you don’t like it then as I said elsewhere in this thread make other choices.

Hi Paul,

I think its a shame when someone who has a wealth of experience is no longer imparting wisdom.

My only thoughts are that (because Willem had been 4x4ing since moses was a kid) his advice was of a higher level then most "novices" could easily perform.

He once said that driving across the Simpson whilst towing was a relatively easy thing to do (and it may have been for an experienced desert dweller) but the average joe could easily get into trouble if they did it and generally if they are asking they prob are inexperienced.

Its just a matter of aiming the advice at who is asking

Just my thoughts,

Cheers Wilko

Stop it guys ..I'm running out of tissues :(

Cheers
Greg

There's not much feedback in this post about the new Search by Name feature here but I thought I would comment on the misinformation in the discussion about ExplorOz being a "money making venture".

We would love for the site to run purely on Membership, but 5% membership cannot sustain the operating costs of the site so we need to generate revenue from our audience in other ways. We make no apology for that! Some of you may be surprised to know that at the end of the day there is no "profits" gained from our business in fact we simply cover the operating costs. We have even considered listing as a "not for profit" organisation, however our intent is that there is still a lot of opportunity left in our model and we believe we will see further growth and is one of the reasons why we've created and taken TriathlonOz.com out to a new market.

The choices for covering costs have always been to either ask the user to pay, or take payment from advertisers. We have a model that combines both - where consumers only pay when they want more than what the basic free offering provides.

It is the individual's choice and people can use the Forum without being a Member but if they want access to the enhanced features, or want to use other features, or would benefit from the Member savings when ordering through our shop, then they have the option to pay Membership to access these services and benefits.

We are always focussing on building better Membership features to increase the attraction of this, and also WE ENJOY creating online features for travellers! Some of the stuff on ExplorOz is totally unique and I.T. Beyond is often approached to provide business-business services based on the ExplorOz proof of concepts. If we were a bigger business, we could probably focus on that more, but we are very restricted by the limitation of running our business so lean and having limited staff. Increased Membership may also enable us to reduce the reliance on ad revenue, so it is something we continue to focus on.

At the end of the day, whilst we can adequately continue to cover current costs with our "imperfect" model, this is only achieved by keeping our operating costs to a minimum. However, the peformance of the system and the satisfaction of our customers (those who buy from our shop, buy trader ads, buy advertising, or buy membership) are our No. 1 priority. So most of the operating costs are to do with system and customer satisfaction. Any income derived from the site goes right back into these core areas of the operation.

We know we can't please everyone, all of the time but if you chose to use ExplorOz then that's how it works.

Regards,
Michelle