DLX of the Month is going quarterly.

[Dan]

Due to lack of participation, I'm going to change how the contest works. We only got six votes last month, two of which were Sugar & I.

The new contest will run quarterly, starting today, July 1st. Members can post or send me your pictures all of July and August, and on September 1st I'll post a new poll, which will run all month. On Oct 1st, I'll lock the poll, and the winning picture will be up for three months.

I have a few pictures, mostly from Arlene saved on my computer, but I am not going to use them. It's just too confusing to try and figure out who sent what, when I received it, what the background of the cat is, who owns it now, etc. Also, I appreciate Arlene sending me pictures, but for the contest to be fair, I want to use photos of our members cats. Just using shots of someones DLX that isn't a member doesn't seem right. I set this contest up in the hopes of getting more of our members involved and participating, and submitting pictures of their DLX. Bottom line, please post a picture of your DLX. I don't want to be using random pictures as "filler".

We need to start fresh, so if you would like your DLX to be in the contest, send me the pics, or go ahead and post them in the thread.

I'm going to start a new thread titled Quarterly DLX Submissions and Poll. That's where you can post your entry, and where the poll will eventually be.

If this one doesn't work out, and we get some more entries and votes, I'll rethink the contest as a whole...

[lynxlady]

It's sad isn't it.. I have had this from the start.. once people get their babies they just dissapear.. then I hear from them after 10 or more years and they want another one.. I always ask for people to please keep in touch with me and send pictures as they grow,, but so few actually do.
I guess it's the same with the foum.. I know people have lives and they get busy.. I do too.. but it would be nice if they would just check in from time to time.. I miss so many of them and think of them often.. Peanutbutter, Kioki, Habib.. wonder if Habib got lost again.. the list goes on and on.. I even tried to contact Twisters mom and no reply.. Oh well.. I hope we don't have to go to dlx once a year ;D
Thanks Dan for trying to keep us all together.

[ron]

Yes Thank you Dan. I don't say a lot. ( I leave that up to Jackie ) . I do enjoy reading the forum and I do participate in the DLX of the month. It a lot of fun.

[lynxlady]

I think a lot of the members just check in and read.. I wish more would post.. You & Jackie have been good.. but so many are slackers .. I see where we have a bunch that just look but don't sign in or post.. I have no idea how to get them to join in..
Maybe I need to go take their cats back

[Dan]

It's just human nature, not everyone wants to sit at a computer and type. It's just not something everyone enjoys doing.

I'm a member on several different forums. Harley forums, Corvette forums, Cadillac forums, radio controlled model aircraft forums, shooting forums, police forums, etc., etc., etc. They are a great source of information, especially the tech forums. If you have a problem, the odds are very good that someone else has had the exact same issue, and has a cool way to fix it. I've also met several very nice folks from all over the world. Everyone comes to Las Vegas eventually, and sometimes I get the chance to meet folks that I've only known on-line. All are interesting, some are very interesting. I met a guy from California on a Harley forum that is a Trekkie. (Star Trek uber-fan) He dresses as a Klingon, and has his bike set up like a Klingon Bird of Prey spaceship. Now that, was an interesting dude!

Some of you may notice that Sugar never posts anything here either. She forgot her password and actually registered twice when she couldn't figure out how to retrieve it. I pushed her to post some messages once, and she did not enjoy it. At all. Then she got her feelings hurt because no one commented on her posts, nor answered her. I still show her posts from time to time, and she loves the DLX/Month pics. She asks me about what's going on, and I always keep her updated when Arlene loses a cat or has a litter, stories and pics from Nanaimo, and anything else I think may interest her. But she refuses to log on, and post. Just doesn't interest her.

Human nature, and there is nothing wrong with it.

I'm currently sorting out a problem at a very active R/C aircraft forum. One thread I'm participating in currently has 13,287 views and only 190 posts. Obviously, there are a lot of folks interested in the topic, but very few contributing to the actual topic.

Just human nature.

One thing I have learned is negative posts never go very far. That pretty much works in everyday life too. No one wants to talk to the grouchy person at a party, and it's not so different on an internet forum. 10 years or so ago I was on a different Harley forum. It was by far the most active HD forum anywhere, had tons of members, and lots of good data on motorcycles in general. Over time, more and more negative posts started showing up, and the bickering started. I eventually quit participating, and found another smaller HD forum. Over a couple of years, I started seeing more and more members from the other forum show up, and when negative posts started showing up, the members would do some self regulating and remind them why they left the "big" forum. The new place is still a nice place to ask questions, the negative posts are few and far between. The old forum is still there, but gets little traffic. I try and never post anything that I wouldn't say to someone face to face.

One thing we need to remember is why Our Forum was created in the first place. Arlene would get an email from someone that has one of her cats, and she would forward it to folks she keeps in touch with, that also have one of her kids. Then, one of the folks on the list she would forward to, would hit "reply to all". Then, there are 20 emails going out and someone else would "reply to all". It got to be a mess of emails flying back and forth, and got confusing. Or someone would have info on a food recall, and the same flurry of emails would go back and forth.

I put the forum together to help with the confusing emails flying around. Kind of a clearing house for information on a very specific breed of cats. I think it works pretty well for that, actually. If someone posts about a bad lot of food, there are likely many folks reading it, and heeding the advise. As long as it gets read, a cat doesn't eat it and get sick, the forum is doing exactly what it is supposed to. It's not important that that post gets a reply. There are millions of Harley Davidson motorcycles, and only relatively small handful of DLX owners. It's no surprise that we get a tiny fraction of members and posts that my Harley or R/C plane sites get.

I would love to see more of our members post stories, advise, questions and pictures, but there is nothing wrong with just being lurker, either.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox. I have some DLX of the month pics to post, and I'm pretty sure Scooter is up to something...

[Dan]

Jul 6, 2013 6:27:59 GMT -8 ron said:

Yes Thank you Dan. I don't say a lot. ( I leave that up to Jackie ) . I do enjoy reading the forum and I do participate in the DLX of the month. It a lot of fun.

Thanks Ron!

[ladybuggs]

I know I'm guilty of lack of posts since I received Elly Mae, it's been due to having surgery, recovering from surgery, surgery complication, extension physical therapy and then returning to work, still recovering (it's a 6-12 month expected full recovery). Aside from that I do read more than I post, I work on a computer 90% of my work day, so sometimes it's all I can muster to read on the computer after work! I will try and do better though!

[ladybuggs]

BTW - I'm confused - where do we vote for this quarters picture?

[lynxlady]

Hi Ladybuggs !! Good to see you back.. we understand but we would still like to hear from you once in a while.. and also I see you have a Birthday coming up.. so have a great one and not too much cake for Elly Mae

[ladybuggs]

How do we vote???