FKA Kiteboarding Forums  

Go Back   FKA Kiteboarding Forums > MAIN FORUM > Lessons From The Hard Side
Connect with Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/rick.iossi
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #21  
Old 08-04-2005, 06:41 AM
np131
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default RE: Closing site

Looks like it takes a considerable amount of your time/money to maintain.I hope you maitain it, although I have only started this summer I know your efforts have help me avoid serious injury or worste.

I am the classic know it all /daredevil , love to hear people saying how crazy I am etc, love to show my broken bones xrays and scars .Not anymore . After reading and rereading your accidents reports and related safety material ( ie helmet reports/leashless/low and go etc ) I have earned a lot of respect for the kite. Took lessons , still moving really slow and taking my time , Refuse to even consider riding my boards until I get totaly proficient at body dragging upwind . At this rate it will take me considerably longer but it will reduce the chance of me ending up in one of your post. The poor responses on your site are not indicative to the important service and value you have provided .
Thanks for the safety information to date (there is nothing comparable on this planet) ....also applying more safety to all my sports
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 08-04-2005, 06:41 AM
np131
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default RE: Closing site

Looks like it takes a considerable amount of your time/money to maintain.I hope you maitain it, although I have only started this summer I know your efforts have help me avoid serious injury or worste.

I am the classic know it all /daredevil , love to hear people saying how crazy I am etc, love to show my broken bones xrays and scars .Not anymore . After reading and rereading your accidents reports and related safety material ( ie helmet reports/leashless/low and go etc ) I have earned a lot of respect for the kite. Took lessons , still moving really slow and taking my time , Refuse to even consider riding my boards until I get totaly proficient at body dragging upwind . At this rate it will take me considerably longer but it will reduce the chance of me ending up in one of your post. The poor responses on your site are not indicative to the important service and value you have provided .
Thanks for the safety information to date (there is nothing comparable on this planet) ....also applying more safety to all my sports
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 08-20-2005, 03:19 PM
lopini lopini is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Sarasota
Posts: 4
Default Why not many people post...from someone who just registered.

Rick:

Let me tell you how I got here and what my initial thoughts are on the lack of participation.

First off, I live in Sarasota, I am 28 years old, I have never been kitesurfing and until today I near knew anything about it. The closest I have ever come to kitesurfing was seeing people doing it near the bridge on 275 heading to the airport (each time almost causing an accident because it was so hard not to just watch). Until today, I did not know what it was really properly called and although it seemed like one of the coolest things to try, I put that idea in the box of things I will talk about doing and never look into and put any effort towards (that put it in the same category as skydiving, getting scuba training and taking a trip, etc).

That said, this afternoon INHD 2 on Comcast had a program all about kitesurfing. I came across it 5 mins into the hour long program and had found this web site before it was over.

The program was amazing in HD and focused on the Red Bull championship in Maui; however, it did not really address some of the FAQ's someone who has NO CLUE would ask. That is what led me to www.fksa.org.

Let me first say your site has truly impressive amount of information and knowledge on kitesurfing. I have spent about 2 hours on your site and it is obvious you do a tremendous job capturing and posting all things kitesurfing, and I was particularly happy to see you’re stressing of safety and respect for beach rules. For a sport that most people know nothing about (from an active 28 year old's perspective in Sarasota, FL), you also have more local information for FLA than I would have ever thought was out there.

With that said, I almost left your site several times because you had so much information and topics, I could not find out simple answers to questions I had about the sport as non-kitesurfer. It has been frustrating because I really wanted to get some of the most basic information on the sport and when I googled "kitesurfing FL," your site was one of the top ones to choose from. Knowing NOTHING about the sport and living in Florida, the web site for the "Florida Kitesurfing Association" seemed to be the absolute best place to get some quick answers on where you do it, the costs involved, etc. While your site has that information somewhere in it (probably more than once), it is most definitely not where it should be on a web site that promotes the sport in Florida. I could be wrong, but I would think my profile (single, young, male, money to spend and most importantly very interested in kiteboarding) would be your low hanging fruit for potential new members to your site and the kind of slightly more mature and responsible people that could help the sport as a whole if they got active.

With that profile being me, I felt like I was working on a research project for my job while looking for the basics; Granted I tend to be overly critical sometimes because part of my background is in web design and information architecture. I think your post about closing part of the site is on the money...although you really are not going to close anything....just organizing it properly.

Since you use phpBB for your board and it appears like you have previously used Rapid Decision Corp for design work, reorganizing and cleaning up the content should not take long at all. Since you have stated you have great traffic, I am positive if you do cut the number of topics in 1/2, have a dedicated place for links to other kitesurfing sites, and most importantly, better classify your visitors and direct them where they need to be on your site. Some examples:

1) When I came to your site from Google, I should have immediately seen where your information and FAQs for newbies is located. You need a better FAQ for newbies that should only be updated once or twice a year, and a separate forum where newbies can ask veterans questions....and on going Q&A if you will. If you had that, and was strict about directing off-topic newbies there for answers, you have taken care of your responsibility to newbies...keeping in mind this is the minimum needed - you obviously would want to dedicate more of your site to promotion of the sport to newbies if that was your intent for the site.

I would think if you would leverage your current users and create topic for suggested Q&A's, this would be painless. I would just make sure you spell out the answers to the 4 W's...Who is into this sport now, What equipment is needed, how much does it cost and what is the basic terminology used in the sport (I still see it referred to as kitesurfing, kiteboarding, wakeboarding...which is right? This is the number one reason people who want to add to a discussion or ask a question in a forum fails to do so....no one wants to look like an idiot, even if they admit they do not know much about the topic) Where do people kitesurf and where can someone get lessons?

This should also have the added effect of building frequent posters out of your membership (longer-term members will not be asked the same questions by newbies regardless of the topic, and you will be better fostering an environment for more in depth discussion.

2) Your long-term members and advanced kitesurfers have more focused reasons for visiting your site. Meet people to kitesurf with locally, learning about events, weather conditions, etc... You have great information on your site for them, and have the regional FLA sections well organized....you just need to bring it more together.

3) Lastly, once you get more posters, your job as the admin will become more time consuming. Have you though about having some regional admins you trust that have better address local topics and questions, in addition to better promoting discussion and the web site in general. I suspect that you get the majority of your traffic from one area of FLA and when someone come by from a different area and sees few posts or few recent posts, you are losing them. Having someone in charge of their regions will keep fresh information on the site for everyone and keep them coming back because your have the local information exchange they want.

I know I tend to write my blogs like stereo instructions, but I hope that gives you some ideas.

As for me, I am totally psyched to get started. Anyone that has any thoughts on local places in Sarasota to buy gear and local recommendations who to use for lessons...please PM or email me...I am ready to start ASAP. Actually, I would love to talk to anyone that kiteboards in the Sarasota area and pick your brain.

Chris

QUICK UPDATE: After I posted this, I went through the site some more with an eye reviewing its organization, not looking for information. In some instances it is not that the tpocs are not organized....it is that the "Subject" lines tell the user nothing discriptive about the post. "Check this out" and morbidly excessive: "Kitesurf break his neck and dies" posts are not appropriate titles. If the subjects told me something tangible and it agreed with what was posted, I would be more likely to reply. I bet most of your users have to click on each post before they know if it is something they want to read....cutting out the "Wind is king" posts takes care of that, and if you have members that like that posting style, confine it to the right area. I also was struck by number of "downer" posts and articles about accidents, shark attacks, etc... Don't get me wrong, that is important information that should be included and easy to find for new users, but I got the feeling you are trying to scare people about the sport or this was done for some reason of full disclosure...in anyevent, a bad-news section is fine, but who wants it scattered everywhere about the topics? The best post I saw was someone who said they never posted, but always visited the site and the topic was about a specific beach and some people that are breaking the rules and are putting access to that beach in danger.
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 08-20-2005, 03:19 PM
lopini lopini is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Sarasota
Posts: 4
Default Why not many people post...from someone who just registered.

Rick:

Let me tell you how I got here and what my initial thoughts are on the lack of participation.

First off, I live in Sarasota, I am 28 years old, I have never been kitesurfing and until today I near knew anything about it. The closest I have ever come to kitesurfing was seeing people doing it near the bridge on 275 heading to the airport (each time almost causing an accident because it was so hard not to just watch). Until today, I did not know what it was really properly called and although it seemed like one of the coolest things to try, I put that idea in the box of things I will talk about doing and never look into and put any effort towards (that put it in the same category as skydiving, getting scuba training and taking a trip, etc).

That said, this afternoon INHD 2 on Comcast had a program all about kitesurfing. I came across it 5 mins into the hour long program and had found this web site before it was over.

The program was amazing in HD and focused on the Red Bull championship in Maui; however, it did not really address some of the FAQ's someone who has NO CLUE would ask. That is what led me to www.fksa.org.

Let me first say your site has truly impressive amount of information and knowledge on kitesurfing. I have spent about 2 hours on your site and it is obvious you do a tremendous job capturing and posting all things kitesurfing, and I was particularly happy to see you’re stressing of safety and respect for beach rules. For a sport that most people know nothing about (from an active 28 year old's perspective in Sarasota, FL), you also have more local information for FLA than I would have ever thought was out there.

With that said, I almost left your site several times because you had so much information and topics, I could not find out simple answers to questions I had about the sport as non-kitesurfer. It has been frustrating because I really wanted to get some of the most basic information on the sport and when I googled "kitesurfing FL," your site was one of the top ones to choose from. Knowing NOTHING about the sport and living in Florida, the web site for the "Florida Kitesurfing Association" seemed to be the absolute best place to get some quick answers on where you do it, the costs involved, etc. While your site has that information somewhere in it (probably more than once), it is most definitely not where it should be on a web site that promotes the sport in Florida. I could be wrong, but I would think my profile (single, young, male, money to spend and most importantly very interested in kiteboarding) would be your low hanging fruit for potential new members to your site and the kind of slightly more mature and responsible people that could help the sport as a whole if they got active.

With that profile being me, I felt like I was working on a research project for my job while looking for the basics; Granted I tend to be overly critical sometimes because part of my background is in web design and information architecture. I think your post about closing part of the site is on the money...although you really are not going to close anything....just organizing it properly.

Since you use phpBB for your board and it appears like you have previously used Rapid Decision Corp for design work, reorganizing and cleaning up the content should not take long at all. Since you have stated you have great traffic, I am positive if you do cut the number of topics in 1/2, have a dedicated place for links to other kitesurfing sites, and most importantly, better classify your visitors and direct them where they need to be on your site. Some examples:

1) When I came to your site from Google, I should have immediately seen where your information and FAQs for newbies is located. You need a better FAQ for newbies that should only be updated once or twice a year, and a separate forum where newbies can ask veterans questions....and on going Q&A if you will. If you had that, and was strict about directing off-topic newbies there for answers, you have taken care of your responsibility to newbies...keeping in mind this is the minimum needed - you obviously would want to dedicate more of your site to promotion of the sport to newbies if that was your intent for the site.

I would think if you would leverage your current users and create topic for suggested Q&A's, this would be painless. I would just make sure you spell out the answers to the 4 W's...Who is into this sport now, What equipment is needed, how much does it cost and what is the basic terminology used in the sport (I still see it referred to as kitesurfing, kiteboarding, wakeboarding...which is right? This is the number one reason people who want to add to a discussion or ask a question in a forum fails to do so....no one wants to look like an idiot, even if they admit they do not know much about the topic) Where do people kitesurf and where can someone get lessons?

This should also have the added effect of building frequent posters out of your membership (longer-term members will not be asked the same questions by newbies regardless of the topic, and you will be better fostering an environment for more in depth discussion.

2) Your long-term members and advanced kitesurfers have more focused reasons for visiting your site. Meet people to kitesurf with locally, learning about events, weather conditions, etc... You have great information on your site for them, and have the regional FLA sections well organized....you just need to bring it more together.

3) Lastly, once you get more posters, your job as the admin will become more time consuming. Have you though about having some regional admins you trust that have better address local topics and questions, in addition to better promoting discussion and the web site in general. I suspect that you get the majority of your traffic from one area of FLA and when someone come by from a different area and sees few posts or few recent posts, you are losing them. Having someone in charge of their regions will keep fresh information on the site for everyone and keep them coming back because your have the local information exchange they want.

I know I tend to write my blogs like stereo instructions, but I hope that gives you some ideas.

As for me, I am totally psyched to get started. Anyone that has any thoughts on local places in Sarasota to buy gear and local recommendations who to use for lessons...please PM or email me...I am ready to start ASAP. Actually, I would love to talk to anyone that kiteboards in the Sarasota area and pick your brain.

Chris

QUICK UPDATE: After I posted this, I went through the site some more with an eye reviewing its organization, not looking for information. In some instances it is not that the tpocs are not organized....it is that the "Subject" lines tell the user nothing discriptive about the post. "Check this out" and morbidly excessive: "Kitesurf break his neck and dies" posts are not appropriate titles. If the subjects told me something tangible and it agreed with what was posted, I would be more likely to reply. I bet most of your users have to click on each post before they know if it is something they want to read....cutting out the "Wind is king" posts takes care of that, and if you have members that like that posting style, confine it to the right area. I also was struck by number of "downer" posts and articles about accidents, shark attacks, etc... Don't get me wrong, that is important information that should be included and easy to find for new users, but I got the feeling you are trying to scare people about the sport or this was done for some reason of full disclosure...in anyevent, a bad-news section is fine, but who wants it scattered everywhere about the topics? The best post I saw was someone who said they never posted, but always visited the site and the topic was about a specific beach and some people that are breaking the rules and are putting access to that beach in danger.
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 08-20-2005, 09:13 PM
ricki's Avatar
ricki ricki is offline
Administrator
Site Admin
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Florida
Posts: 8,700
Default

Thanks for all your input. It will take some time to carefully consider and respond. One thing stands out, this site was never intended to be a stand alone phpBB site. I had wanted to have an html shell with a reasonably well organized format for more rapid navigation. The problem is that I am normally writing content and haven't taken the time to learn how to prepare an html site. I have had a lot of very capable help from programmers but they get busy with work demands. Bringing us back to where we are today. I am going to try to bite the bullit and figure out how to assemble a basic html architecture to compliment what current exists. As far as time committment, not a problem. I have started and moderated several kiteboarding forums over the years. Significantly, the phpBB site allows for many moderators to spread the load. There are several currently but we need more along with interactive users. I would like to have moderators for each quandrant of the state as well as some of the special interest forums.

There is an intro to kiteboarding forum currently on the site at:

http://fksa.org/index.php?c=13

This could be easier to find of course and will be with the expanded site.

There is also a new article on how to select an instructor or school at:

http://fksa.org/viewforum.php?f=93

More to come!
__________________
FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi
Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old 08-20-2005, 09:13 PM
ricki's Avatar
ricki ricki is offline
Administrator
Site Admin
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Florida
Posts: 8,700
Default

Thanks for all your input. It will take some time to carefully consider and respond. One thing stands out, this site was never intended to be a stand alone phpBB site. I had wanted to have an html shell with a reasonably well organized format for more rapid navigation. The problem is that I am normally writing content and haven't taken the time to learn how to prepare an html site. I have had a lot of very capable help from programmers but they get busy with work demands. Bringing us back to where we are today. I am going to try to bite the bullit and figure out how to assemble a basic html architecture to compliment what current exists. As far as time committment, not a problem. I have started and moderated several kiteboarding forums over the years. Significantly, the phpBB site allows for many moderators to spread the load. There are several currently but we need more along with interactive users. I would like to have moderators for each quandrant of the state as well as some of the special interest forums.

There is an intro to kiteboarding forum currently on the site at:

http://fksa.org/index.php?c=13

This could be easier to find of course and will be with the expanded site.

There is also a new article on how to select an instructor or school at:

http://fksa.org/viewforum.php?f=93

More to come!
__________________
FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 09-01-2005, 03:02 AM
lopini lopini is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Sarasota
Posts: 4
Default Help

Rick:

Sorry for the delayed reply, but I have been out of town. If you want some help creating a basic website and just have this as you message board, I would be happy to help you out. The first step would be having a basic site map for how you would like it set-up. In your case, I cannot imagine you have something very complex in mind. If you are interested, fire me an email so can chat about and I can show you some sites I designed and others I laid out the basic framework and outsourced. It is the slow part of the year for my business, so I could work on it a weedend and a few nights and get you up and running. I have the software to do it (I am not a graphics person, so we would have to use stock stuff, but it will still look good). Let me know if you are interested. All I would ask is that you help me find someone who is a good trainer to get me started kiteboarding...I read the info you posted and I still am somewhat apprehensive.

One other thing, I was planning on speading between $1000 to $1500 on equipment and lesson to get started...is this realistic?

Lo
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 09-01-2005, 03:02 AM
lopini lopini is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Sarasota
Posts: 4
Default Help

Rick:

Sorry for the delayed reply, but I have been out of town. If you want some help creating a basic website and just have this as you message board, I would be happy to help you out. The first step would be having a basic site map for how you would like it set-up. In your case, I cannot imagine you have something very complex in mind. If you are interested, fire me an email so can chat about and I can show you some sites I designed and others I laid out the basic framework and outsourced. It is the slow part of the year for my business, so I could work on it a weedend and a few nights and get you up and running. I have the software to do it (I am not a graphics person, so we would have to use stock stuff, but it will still look good). Let me know if you are interested. All I would ask is that you help me find someone who is a good trainer to get me started kiteboarding...I read the info you posted and I still am somewhat apprehensive.

One other thing, I was planning on speading between $1000 to $1500 on equipment and lesson to get started...is this realistic?

Lo
Reply With Quote
  #29  
Old 09-04-2005, 03:43 PM
siete siete is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2
Default

I read this forum a lot. I live in Spain, and think all this is very interesting. As soon I have anything to post I will surely do. Ive been out for a month, thats why I didnt answer before. I usually tell about your info to all my kitesurfer friends, and it is very interesting. Those who understand english check it themselves, so we appretiate all your work from this side of the atlantic ocean
Reply With Quote
  #30  
Old 09-04-2005, 03:43 PM
siete siete is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2
Default

I read this forum a lot. I live in Spain, and think all this is very interesting. As soon I have anything to post I will surely do. Ive been out for a month, thats why I didnt answer before. I usually tell about your info to all my kitesurfer friends, and it is very interesting. Those who understand english check it themselves, so we appretiate all your work from this side of the atlantic ocean
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:16 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.

Do not advertise outside of [COM] Forums.
Do not show disrespect for others in your postings.
Users can be denied access to this Site without warning.
FKA, Inc., it’s officers and moderators are not responsible
for the content of the postings and any links or pictures posted.

Report Problems by PM to “administrator” or via email to flkitesurfer@hotmail.com

Copyright FKA, Inc. 2004, All Rights Reserved.