Bad news about AUTOFEST 2007

[crazybrew609]

*edited my comment*

hey keep up the good work guys

[mafdark]

Originally Posted by RAMbo

Of the over 500 people on the forum, only 40 are premium members. Of the 30 for the membership almost 25 goes for the tshirt , stickers and printing and postage.

Dont forget the business cards.... sounds like $5 profit and $25 in marketing. I understand the idea is to make a profit on this business/site but your not going to make the big bucks like your hoping until you offer something at least unique. I can go to 100 other places on the internet and talk to the same people, play the same games, and get unlimited picture hosting.

Sure thats comes off sounding bad "help out the community" But this money making opportunity hasnt yet done anything for the community. That show was the only reason why I was going to buy a "membership"

[crazybrew609]

dont forget tho.. the $5 is used to help maintain the site and paid for the bandwidth.. mike doesn't make a dime from this site.. his only goal is to break even or not loose to much and keep the forum at a level of postarity that is a step above others

most other forums are completely covered with ad's and commercials that are more and eye sore then anything else.. rspeed has 1 head banner and thats it.. there is a monthly fee to mike to keep this forum up.. ontop of the upkeep which is time he spends away from tM.. which in turn is costing him money.. he generates no money from this forum.. he does it b/c old rspeed was a big hit.. and now he brings it back better then it use to be and people find one thing to bitch about and keep sticking it until it blows up

[mikecentola]

Where to start....

First off, I never asked anyone to post on my behalf. I've barely even had a chance to be on the forums lately because of the 12+ hour days I've been spending working on the new building. I appreciate all those with positive thoughts.

Autofest was canceled for several reasons. It is true we had the location, our super street guests, and several bands that had decided to contribute by coming to the show. I've been to many shows, and many big shows such as NOPI Nationals, but Autofest was always designed to be fun and about having a good time, not just about the cars. Last year we still lost money on a $6000 budget for the show. We had 10 sponsors for the show last year, 108 cars, and 500+ spectators. This year, no sponsors had signed up, until Synapse, which was a week ago. I have not had the time to look for the sponsors and hit the streets in Albany. I wanted to continue to put on the show, however, I would have cut back the trophies to 1 or 2 places, and get less trophies. There would be less prizes, less to do , etc. I did not want to have a thrown together. Unfortunately, what my father said is partially true, if we had people pre-registered or had sponsors at this point in time, we would have gone ahead with the show, but I cannot take the risk to lose several thousand dollars. That would be bad business. I did see that no businessmen posted on this thread, other than my father. Canceling autofest doesn't affect anyone, except now you have nothing to do that day.

Also, Technotic Media is growing. We have some MAJOR projects for new clubs, music videos to work on, our OWN site to work on, and more things to do at the building. There is a lot to be done, and my future depends on it.

Now for your premium membership comments. As I've said plenty of times before, premium membership was designed to be a new way to try something. It was not meant to be a pay for forums, but members do get special benefits. I'm not sure why Justin continues to make the dumb pay-to-play comment, when anyone can continue to post on the forum without paying. I'm sorry you cannot sell your shit on my forum. You obviously are on here more than 95% of the people, so it cannot bother you that much. Grow up.

I have nothing against anyone on here. I am very understanding when people say they aren't going to join a membership. Instead of putting a donation box to help run the site, I figured it would be nicer to do a membership with a seemingly miniscule amount of money and offer products and new things for it.

Whilst the forums are publicly viewable, they are private forums, owned and operated by me and Technotic Media. I'm sorry if you do not view it this way, but I'm extremely lenient and we always try to do things to support our members. It is true that after shipping, paypal fees, and taxes, there is about $2.80 that goes towards running the site.

I have nothing really else to say. I appreciate all the support for those who are able and willing to help out with rspeed. I will continue to support you guys and think of new things to offer. For those who continue to complain, be warned as we will not be allowing site bashing or anything else on here. You're on here to contribute, and we are providing a service. If you don't like something, feel free to PM me or Weaksauce, and take it up with us personally. Anything else will be deleted and the user will be given an infraction.

Thanks,
Mike

[mafdark]

Thats unfortunate about the lack of sponsers. I was actually looking to hand out that sheet you posted.

and as for all the BS in the rest of the thread, if you just said lack of sponsors/prereg's everyone would have understood and that would be the end of it. You know?

[mikecentola]

Thats possible, but some people would have probably made the comment about me being greedy or something. It was mainly a time thing. If I had more time I would have been able to come out to Albany to promote and get sponsors, etc.

[Weaksauce]

Show is canceled end of story. With what Mike said there should be nothing more. And for the people that are crying up a storm... Until you put your own show on and keep it on knowing that you will lose thousands you should have nothing more to say. If you can't understand why the show was canceled after what was said well then I dunno what to tell ya.

[Captain Moai]

Originally Posted by waltbabyluv

Call me cheap all you want.

you know, i will. membership on this forum isn't like any other forum. you don't have arrangements with vendors, you don't have companies posting and advertising on-site half as much, you don't get a "membership package", UNLIMITED image hosting which can kill enough bandwidth on its own to outspend your 30 dollar fee in a weekend.

this is NOT a public forum. It's a private forum, hosted and paid for by ONE man out of his pocket, maintained by HIM, not the fucking DMV and not NYS government.

I'm sick of this bullshit, i'm sorry mike has to go through this and I apologize.
It really isn't worth it. i'm out.

[Celtic1982citleC]

Originally Posted by RAMbo

This is Mike's dad and I've heard just about enough complaining from you guys. Autofest was cancelled because of lack of support from all of you, plain and simple. Blame yourselves. Here it is one month before the show and not one of you cheap bastards has pre- registered. Only one vendor, Synaps has stepped up to sponsor. Of the over 500 people on the forum, only 40 are premium members. Of the 30 for the membership almost 25 goes for the tshirt , stickers and printing and postage. Mike has already put a deposit on the location, he already bought the tickets for the Super Street guys, and spent countless hours preparing. We could hold the show and lose several thousand dollars.
If all of you guys had stepped up, bought premium memberships and pre-registered for the show, we would have some working capital and have an idea of how many attendees. All you guys do is argue like babies. Support the forum and it's members or get the fxxx off. I've often told Mike to close rspeed. you guys aren't worth the headache.

WE did not advertise, promote, decide to put on a car show. WE were the customers expecting the show to be put on. Pre-registration? Ni**er please! In retrospect it's a good thing people didn't pre-register because that would be a huge headache going through and refunding everyone their money as TM has decided they have better things to do than to host a car show that they spent a year promoting. So far as sponsors, I'm confused as to how so many people "sponsor" the forum but hadn't been contacted about "sponsoring" the show. I spoke with KTA and NOBODY had even sent them a PM or made a phone call regarding the show. That's just lazy. I'm sure most forum sponsors will say the same. There was not even an effort to get sponsorship for the show. And you blame US? The comsumer? F**k it, next time I sell someone a car and something happens to it I'll just blame them. Hey toolbag, you were too CHEAP to buy a Porsche from me. Take your Audi and shove it. I don't think that's the right attitude. So far as us being a headache, who the hell cares. Close the forum. There are PLENTY of places online to converse. This is just a small, closer knit community where pretty much everyone knows one and other. The fact that you deem it necessary to log-in to lash out against all of the community members is pretty ridiculous. Do I make it known that I disagree with the memberships? Sure, but I'm entitled to do so. I made sure that KTA signed up as a vendor, also. So I do understand the logistics of how the business of a forum is run. SPONSORS pay for forums, not community members. Look at 99.99% of forums online. VENDORS and SPONSORS pay. Who cares if there is a top and side bar advertisement? They're easily overlooked. I truly believe looking to profit from a forum is quite greedy. A forum is supposed to present a place where enthusiasts of any interest can gather, share thoughts, present ideas, lend assistance to one another. Not a place built in order to profit off of those members. Even if it is only $5 per membership after "benefits". Now hearing from purple truck driving Taco about having a VENDOR SPONSOR not giving the advertised benefit for membership...that's horrific. Back on topic to the show. Again, most local shows aren't built to make huge profits. If you break even, great. Got your company some exposure, had some fun, got a lot of people together who would be exciteable for a bigger and better possible show the following year. By completely canceling something that had been planned for some time where people had already begun to plan around the show date will do nothing but drive them away. Nobody likes to be led on. Again, I complain as much as anyone if not more regarding the site. But I believe that nobody would argue the fact that I also contribute as much as I can regarding what knowledge I have and also have done my best to arrange my few contacts to come onto the site and one has even sponsored it. I guess I'm done now. Flame on, all.

[waltbabyluv]

Originally Posted by Moai

you know, i will. membership on this forum isn't like any other forum. you don't have arrangements with vendors, you don't have companies posting and advertising on-site half as much, you don't get a "membership package", UNLIMITED image hosting which can kill enough bandwidth on its own to outspend your 30 dollar fee in a weekend.

this is NOT a public forum. It's a private forum, hosted and paid for by ONE man out of his pocket, maintained by HIM, not the fucking DMV and not NYS government.

I'm sick of this bullshit, i'm sorry mike has to go through this and I apologize.
It really isn't worth it. i'm out.

great you think im cheap, big deal, i have $30 more than premium members and i can post the same things they do. and your right, i am cheap, which isnt a bad thing.