Overhauling the "Mazda of the Month"

Antoine

Antoine

Administrator
Our MOTM contest has continued uninterrupted for years and was once a very integral part of Community life on Mazdas247. Unfortunately, the MOTM has not been able to remain popular in its current form. So I have decided to put the current MOTM on hold so that we have time to give it a proper overhaul and then launch the new version in January 2014.

My game plan (inspired by threads like Post The BEST Pictures OF YOUR MAZDA) is to remove the voting process entirely and simplify the entry and selection process. I'm thinking of assigning a specific Mazda-related category to each month, so for example...

January = Mazda Proteges

February = Mazda3

May = Rotary Mazdas

July = Mazda Clubs

etc...

For the selection process, I will post a suggestion thread and everyone is welcome to suggest a Mazda that they think deserves to be Mazda of the Month and featured on the Mazdas247 homepage etc...I will then take everyone's suggestions into account and choose a Mazda to showcase related to each month's category (as described above). The current special edition Mazdas247 T-Shirt & Decal set prize will continue to be awarded to the owner of each MOTM.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated...I would love to know what you guys think...I will keep this thread updated as we sort the details so please stay tuned, thanks!
 
VIPMSP said:
honest opinion, this is a dumb idea...

you should just leave it how it is.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you didn't notice that the amount of Entries, Votes and Views the current MOTM receives has been steadily decreasing for the past two years...I know it has because I've been posting and monitoring it for years and it's clearly getting to a point where there isn't much point in continuing in its current form...Without a major overhaul, it will become pointless to even bother posting it and I don't want the MOTM to ever reach such a sad state.

I understand if some Members are unhappy with this plan but if we wish to keep the MOTM alive and relevant, we have to update it to capture the interest of a Majority of Members, NOT a minority.

Now if you don't have any constructive (aka useful) feedback, please refrain from posting, thanks. Note that anyone is welcome to PM me directly with feedback as well...Thanks again!
 
I like the idea. With the new format each model will have it's own competition. It could even be broken down into MOTM for track cars, and slammed cars. The only problem might be that the voting may be limited to the group that follows the model or style and that could make for a low vote count. Maybe the vote could be opened up to newer members (low post count) as well.
 
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VIPMSP said:
honest opinion, this is a dumb idea...

you should just leave it how it is.
Click to expand...

I agree. Not to hate on you Antoine but, it just doesn't seem like it would be any more "popular". Will the entries need to be member owned? I think they should be and not just random mazdas.
 
I know I enter the same car year after year and I'm appreciative to win here. However this being all Mazda forum, I say leave it to being all Mazda competition. I'm also going to say that couple of years ago I entered months after month with out winning and that was cool too. It's all for fun at the end. Also the lack of show / people getting involved isn't just the forum. In general forum traffic is down because of social media such as fb or Instagram. This is seen not just here but even my site.
 
Its not about popularity or what people are into. Web forums are just dying period. Especially when people buy newer cars that require no forum help or mods what so ever. So really no need to change it. The current MOTM is great. Its fair. This one seems dumb. If i was ready to enter in january I would have to wait till november to ever enter? Also the people would have o nominate? that means people have to look for nominees and there will be tons each month lol. You should let people enter when they feel ready and are proud enough to go against some of the coolest mazdas on the planet....
 
First of all, thanks for the feedback so far but please note this is not a discussion about the state of online forums.

Secondly...Let me repeat that the current MOTM IS dying and we HAVE to do something because there is no question that Members enjoy sharing pics of their Mazda on Mazdas247. The current format clearly does not appeal to the majority of Members and I believe we CAN come up with a new format that does...So please...Enough with the negative comments (dumb is not a useful suggestion)...If you have an idea that you think might help, please let us know! Thanks!

Look at the stats of just these two threads which are all about posting pics of your Mazda...

Post your recent pictures!
Started by xDJ DUBx, 08-02-2010
Replies: 7,744
Views: 391,600

Post The BEST Pictures OF YOUR MAZDA
Started by Prodigy, 03-11-2006
Replies: 31,114
Views: 2,880,282

As I mentioned in my original thread...I'm thinking of removing the voting process entirely for following reasons...
- Fewer and fewer votes each month
- Having to manually verify qualified votes each month is time consuming and not practical
- While the voting process is meant to be fair, it can be swayed by owners with more friends in the Community

Now I'm not sure yet what to replace it with but as I also mentioned in my original post...I think simply selecting a Mazda each month to feature based on Member suggestions (as some publications do) might be the best approach...
 
Well Antoine is the boss and needs to do what he feels and see if it works.

Aloha
 
i have never been active in MOTM, but I have always looked at the winners since I joined. however, I must say that I have to agree with VIPMSP

it seems like you are onto something with a new setup, however I just don't think that's it.. i personally can't see that creating a larger turnout, it just limits the groups who will be interested into smaller selections.

maybe the best way would be to keep this MOTM and add a specialty contest of "protege of the year" "rx-8 of the year" etc each in its own forum? Maybe do one every month like you said. Or instead of yearly have trimesters

another idea could be to split it up regionally, cause i noticed many of the location-specific forums are dead, especially mine (north east connecticut), for example Northern America protege of the year, Canadian protege of the year... only problems with that is how large the population of active mazda owners there are per location. these are just the first few ideas i thought of , hopefully they can spark up some new ideas!
 
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I like the way that some of you offered up ideas as opposed to just stating that Antoine's ideas/suggestion is a "dumb idea"! If you don't have a suggestion/idea then you should keep your thoughts to yourself. I personally think we should have a group submission, with 4-5 cars and go from ther.......I also think that we shoujld have the MOTY voting, which would have the membership vote on the monthly winners. I have more ideas, but I will reserve the right to submit them later!
 
Obviously there have been a few posts deleted and at least 2 bannings. This is getting blown out of proportion.
 
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I like the idea of the MotM being dedicated to a type or group, but let's drill down into the issue a bit further.

Right now the MotM thread is a sub thread of the Photo thread... Which in itself is at the bottom of the forums. To help increase viewership we, as a forum, should look into moving the MotM voting and entry to higher up in the forum.

Also, some people log on and go straight to the section they are watching or viewing. I'm not sure how hard it would be to do this, but can we look at replacing the Garage segment at the top to the entries or a link to MotM? I never click on any of people's garage entry cars... Or add a header that is on top of any forum thread about MotM and listing the current rides in it... This may attract more people to vote regardless of the marquee (if it is done that way) month.
 
Great to see real feedback rolling in...Please do keep it coming, I will respond to everyone's suggestions soon I hope (one of those crazy busy weeks)...Thanks!

hat1018 said:
Obviously there have been a few posts deleted and at least 2 bannings. This is getting blown out of proportion.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's just one ex-Member with a history of infractions over the last few years (issued by various Moderators including myself for breaking site rules) and he's having a hard time growing up and moving on...Not to worry though as the Moderators (including myself) will keep this thread clean and on topic. Your cooperation and understanding would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
 
maybe you could reduce the required posts to vote, I am the only MPV here and I can't vote because i don't have enough posts, being there is nothing for me to post about. I still come to look at the MOTH even with no MPV topics.
 
downside I see to making different category months is it seems more than half of the entry's are proteges, so you'd have a bunch of proteges waiting around to enter, etc

I thought the old way worked fine, it wasn't perfect but I enjoyed looking thru the entries and voting. I am partially saying this because I've been waiting all season to enter my own protege, and now I can't!
 
Keep the suggestions coming...I'm reading over them and putting together a revised plan which I will post soon for feedback, thanks!


STRICK- said:
I PMed my idea over. Hope thats ok. It was a little hot in this thread hahahaha
Click to expand...

No problem, thanks for the feedback...Don't worry about this thread, I'll keep it cool...:D
 
i agree with bonksbongs i do notice a good amount of protege entries but that should be a given if there is a larger community of certain model and i too was looking forward to entering my car in february but to make it a different category every month is kind of pointless because you may wait till a certain month and get busy with work/school/life and log back in and have to wait till next year. i do think the motm should stay the same. i read that you said it was sometimes to much work to up keep but i say maybe having less votes and having more threads to vote on...for example maybe have a motm, motquarter, moty, or even have certain details in these three such as motm (color) edition(only that color cars can enter) or motm(how low can you go), or motm MODELS(have some hot babes posing with your clean ride) i dont know about you guys but hot babes make a car look sexier. i dont think the MOTM needs an overhauling but maybe add some spice to it... like someone said there is not a big community for certain mazdas so i dont think it will work out for a lot of models. i hope this makes sense since i am at work typing this...
 
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