SAOCA & TEAE Forums

[mamoose124]

When I joined this Forum, I also joined TAEA thinking that the more people I contact who know Sunbeam Alpines, the better. What I'm learning is that compared to this forum, TAEA is dead! Looking at Stock Alpine threads on TEAE reveals that the first page includes years 2006 through 2014 with a total of 49 threads over the five years; 2013 has only four threads, 2014 has only five threads. Looking at Modified Alpines reveals only 48 threads over five years with six threads for 2012 and six threads for 2014. By comparison SAOCA has more threads in three or four weeks than TAEA gets in four years. Very interesting. Of course, the Stock & Modified Tiger categories fair much better. The Stock Tiger had 33 threads between Jan and Dec of 2013; and 17 threads between Jan and June of 2014. Still, pretty slow traffic by my standards. I wonder why the difference in traffic between these two Forums?

 

[Nickodell]

I got the same impression when I re-joined TEAE a few weeks ago after a 7-year hiatus. It seems as if it's really Tigers East and We Might Throw in the Odd Alpine East.

 

[Bill Blue]

I got the same impression when I re-joined TEAE a few weeks ago after a 7-year hiatus. It seems as if it's really Tigers East and We Might Throw in the Odd Alpine East.

Check out post #19 here:
http://www.sunbeamalpine.org/forum/showthread.php?p=150877#post150877

Ian formed SAOCA because he felt TE/AE looked at Alpines mainly as parts for Tigers and were always relegated to the back row. Looks like Ian's observation is still valid.

Bill

 

[sunbby]

I agree, in some people’s opinion, there is a decided Tiger bias at TEAE and indeed this is one reason our club was founded. Some of the reasons, I hope, are past history; and we have had discussions about collaborating more and remain closely related clubs with many members belonging to both clubs. SAOCA is obviously (and unashamedly in my opinion) an Alpine biased club, although we are certainly welcoming to Tiger owners and anyone interested in Rootes vehicles.

As to the forum differences, I think for some time SAOCA has had a very strong online community. This may be due to several reasons, being an “Alpine” club for one. Also, people from all over (even overseas) may find it more sensible to join the Alpine Club “of America” instead of Alpines “East”. Now TEAE is more than an East Coast club but the name doesn't help.
Another consideration is early on the SOACA founders decided to make our online community completely open and funded by “Donations” not “Dues”. While the TEAE forum allows non-members, some of the site is blocked to non-members, sunbeamalpine.org is not. I think this helped establish what I consider the most determining factor: contributors and momentum. Once people realize there are enough knowledgeable people willing to lend advice and useful information, they start gravitating, and more knowledgeable people join in, sort of a virtuous cycle.

Here at SAOCA our priority is to nurture and maintain this strong online community. We would like people to participate in as many ways as possible, attending an annual Invasion for example, but clearly our online community is one of our strengths. I encourage everyone to help us keep that rolling!

I'm sure Mike doesn't know the full history and just made an observation. Just want to highlight that I don't want to make this an Us vs. Them thread. Indeed this year at the SAOCA we have foregone our annual Invasion and encouraged people to attend SUNI last July and the TEAE United this weekend in Michigan (I'll be there)!

I hope we can continue making both clubs stronger and great organizations to join.

 

[mikephillips]

if you notice, regardless of the subject the TE/AE forum gets little traffic. So I don't see their issue in this case being a bias one way or another. My personal opinion is it relates as much to their coming late to the forum game after many owners had already discovered other places, like here and CAT, to discuss the cars. We're a small community compared to many car brands which limits the utility of having multiple locations since we tend to see many of the same people in each location. And then naturally gravitate towards where there is the most traffic.

 

[mamoose124]

"I'm sure Mike doesn't know the full history and just made an observation."

Todd is correct, I'm new to Sunbeams in this contemporary age of computers and internet. As I said, I joined both clubs to immerse myself in "Sunbeam Alpine Ism" and simply noticed the difference in "interactive pace," so to speak, between the two Forums. I plan to support both forums and be active on both. I'm looking forward to having my car soon and to attending some events in the next year so I can meet some of you folks.

 

[v13311]

MaMoose, Do not forget to check out the team.net forum. Check their archives and you will uncover a wealth of information going all the way back to the year, 2000. The Alpine section is slow now, but for many years it was THE PLACE for info - and it's all archived!

 

[alpine_64]

the team net tigers list was the strongest of all the online sets for many years, even during the CAT forum and SAOCA days. In 2011 they had a couple of serious crashes on their server and it took about 3-4 months for things to get sorted. In that time they lost momentum and many people signed up again and then had it crash again.

When it got sorted many never came back on... and strangley they never migrated to the forums,... we suddenly lost a large resource of knowledge.

 

[Bill Blue]

MaMoose, Do not forget to check out the team.net forum. Check their archives and you will uncover a wealth of information going all the way back to the year, 2000. The Alpine section is slow now, but for many years it was THE PLACE for info - and it's all archived!

Slow? The Sunbeam portion was last updated 15 years ago. I think we can call it dead. But there is a lot of good info there.

Bill

 

[Paul A]

Slow? The Sunbeam portion was last updated 15 years ago. I think we can call it dead. But there is a lot of good info there.

Bill

Here is a link to the team.net Alpine site

http://www.team.net/www/rootes/sunbeam/alpine/mk1-5/

 

[DanR]

Confusion on my part

I just learned the the TEAE.org has two different "LOG IN" areas for:

1. Members Only
and
2. Forum Members (open to the public)

That is if I understand it correctly.

If you want to go on to their "FORUM" just log in.

If you want to be a Member, You join and pay your dues, get a user name and a pass word different from the regualr Forum.

Hope I said that right....

DanR

 

[alpine_64]

Forum is open and free.

Members area allows you access to all the old and new newsletters, technical suppliments etc...

 

[Mikeflbmer]

When I joined this Forum, I also joined TAEA thinking that the more people I contact who know Sunbeam Alpines, the better. What I'm learning is that compared to this forum, TAEA is dead! Looking at Stock Alpine threads on TEAE reveals that the first page includes years 2006 through 2014 with a total of 49 threads over the five years; 2013 has only four threads, 2014 has only five threads. Looking at Modified Alpines reveals only 48 threads over five years with six threads for 2012 and six threads for 2014. By comparison SAOCA has more threads in three or four weeks than TAEA gets in four years. Very interesting. Of course, the Stock & Modified Tiger categories fair much better. The Stock Tiger had 33 threads between Jan and Dec of 2013; and 17 threads between Jan and June of 2014. Still, pretty slow traffic by my standards. I wonder why the difference in traffic between these two Forums?

That is because TEAE is much harder to Log inas a member.....Two different passwords for forum and reg website....and EVERY time I try to log in I have to get re activated....BUT the SAOCA website I log in 1st try every time

 

[absunbeam]

Have seen in the TEAE news letter that the web site is being revamped which is long overdue. Got most of my connections through SAOCA for the Alpine and Super Minx. CAT for Tigers. I see a lot of TEAE members on those 2 sites also which is telling.