HU Communities are under utilised ?????
 

Is it just the Brisbane Community or are they all the same. There seems to be only a handful of Community Members, yet I am sure there are a heaps more in this city of 980000 people who are regularly active in the HUBB. Maybe not many people know that you have to sign up separately for this contact??

Since I found out about Horizons Unlimited a couple of years ago I have only had a couple of travellers asking questions which I have answered or at least pointed them in the right direction. I certainly expected more and would most welcome more contact from travellers, please don’t feel like you are imposing. After all that’s why people sign up to a HU Community.

There is a huge untapped resource of “local knowledge” out there just waiting. Like many others, I am only too happy to pass on local knowledge to fellow travellers.
I know from personal experience that people like Rick Blain from Edmonton Canada, Bill Ryder from Montana and others will bend over backwards to help you out

How can we spread the word and encourage others to sign up???

Perhaps by starting threads on the subject? :)

I had heard of the Turkish community but had not understood there was an HU infrastructure behind it. It was only after seeing the recent posting about the mini meet organised by the Bristol community that I followed the links to see what was involved.

It looks like a tremendous potential resource and I contacted Grant a couple of days ago to start an Eastbourne community.

Tim

I totally agree! The Communities are amazing, and many people have come back from a big trip and said that the Communities were the best part of the trip!

So how do we get more people to sign up and to use them once they hit the road? I wish I knew - I try, but there's only one of me.

One of the things we are working on is a way to "manage" all your HU "stuff" from one place, but it's VERY tricky. We'd like to be able to give you one control panel to manage your HUBB id, ezine subscription, Community membership, and blog, plus anything else we can come up with. Hopefully that will help!

In the meantime, if you're not in a Community why not?

Any and all suggestions appreciated!

thanks for bringing it up,

Grant

Hi Grant,

When will you put the link to my community page on the community page of HU ?
The community is Bergen op Zoom, NoordBrabant
The page is http://www.krijtenburg.nl/HU_BoZ/

Another Mini Meet maybe
 

Maybe it's time for me to organise another Mini Meet, will have to get out and check out some possible venues. I try to get a different place every time. Could be Northern NSW to encourage some of our southern friends to make the journey north for some fun.

Not all the attendees to the weekends away are HUBBers. How about I sign each visiter on that weekend up to the HU and suggest that they become involved in the local community??? Worth a try.

Grant have you ever had a request for a HU business card that can be given out to riders that have never heard of HU??????????????? Just a thought.

Glen

I full heartedly agree...the Turkish HU community helped me find tires, etc.; the Russian HU community helped me in Ulan Ude, Vladivostok, San Francisco, Kyrgyzstan, etc. Next to the HUBB, the second most valuable resource on HU.
Without either, no way would my trip have been as successful!

Go for it! :) Give me details and we'll post it too. You can also add it to the HUBB calendar.
Can't really "sign them up" as they need to register online etc - but a short "intro to hu" would be an excellent idea - what it's all about and how to do it and why etc.
Have now! :) I could do up a design that can be downloaded and printed, if anyone wanted to. Add a persons name in and make it a membership / intro card, could be good. {brain steaming...thinking hard...}

Comments / thoughts anyone?

Thanks Grant, for linking to my community page.
I'll try to get more local information on it now it's on-line.

That's the type oif thing that you could leave on somebody's bike with a scribbled note on the back.

What do YOU think? Would you print off an HU "business card" and carry it around for handing out? With room for your name?

If there's interest I'm happy to work one up for download and printing.

I think it's a good idea !

Good idea
 

Maybe as a Publisher doc? I use their business card templates to make my own business cards on A4 pre-cut card I buy from a stationary shop, for the three small businesses I run.
Carrying one more card won't be a problem.

Regards

Nigel in NZ

card
 

Excellent idea. I never bothered doing my own business card, and I find myself constantly looking for a pen and a a piece of paper to give my details and the HU website address to other bikers I meet in my trip! So a HU one where I can add my email and hand out to people would be very useful! I would use it as long it is easy to load and is easy format like suggested by Nigel!

For the communities, I agree people don't seem to use them much, although they were so useful for me when my bike was stolen or when I had my crash in Chile and my bike was half detroyed for example!
I don't always contact them I must admit. If I don't have have an emergency I don't want to disturb! Silly I know. Ok, I feel guilty now! I am off to the community pages then, I just arrived in Santiago an hour ago! Time to say hello to the locals! :)

Excellent idea. We have something similiar in my local club, then when we meet someone we think may be interested we can just hand them a card containing the website address.

Would need room for
Name
Email of that person
Web site of that person ... and maybe some space for a small photo/logo .. And probably the type of bike too.. tend to remember bikers by the bikes they ride ..?

I'd think -
the HU logo top right
with webb site url under that ? All that would be required... would it need a description "World Motorcycle Touring" ?

----------------------- edit - add idea.
There are two sides to the card .. put our details on one side and HU on the other .. ???? Some non englis speakers use one side for english and the other for their language. Cost more.

----------------edit 2 - add anotehr one
Could also have space for the HU community the user is involved with ... promoting that too.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General comment .. on the communites page I remember that they are not there just to help - they'd like to meet you to see what you are doing and how you are doing it .. sometimes they can add ideas (places to go, or packing, or how to do smething better).

Community cards
 

HU cards sound like a good idea to me.
Neil W

HU Cards great idea

While the "Me too" post are informative .. how about your thoughts on what you'd like on the cards? Hummm

Just as you guessed....HU infrastructure was not behind it ...OMM, Turkey wanted to organize something similar to HU community idea... their aim was to be the mainbody of communities in the country and local commities were to act as braches...something silly and self-aimed ..

I agree that people on the road doesnt use the help of local communities too much but in return when ı wrote to some of them...didnt get a responce at all. Of course they cant be avaliable at all times, but sometimes it occurs to me if some people "join with a enthusiasm" and then simply forget ... i dont know if there is a way to solve this ...

On occasion we run into a problem with the Community list where there's only one person in the Community - and their email address changes or mailbox fills up, and then email to them bounces - and after two bounces their name gets deleted from the list - and there's no one in it anymore! We occasionally cruise the list - but it's a BIG slow job to do looking for empty ones. We have a new system in the planning to solve that and other things with the Community mailing system, but it's a long way from the top of the priority list.

Otherwise, all we can do is be happy when we get a response and it all works out well, as it very often does.

Grant

Great Idea!
 

That would be a great idea Grant. Was just in the process of making some for my travels, a space for name & email would be great.

Regards Mojo.

I'm the same as Mojo. Making cards is on my list and having an HU card would be great!

--Dave

Please use the communities more!
 

Please use the communities also to make new friends as I did tonight. After reading this post I flew out a shout in Phoenix AZ & got a reply back within the hour from 2 local guys inviting me to a few beers & a cookout this evening (BBQ to the brits among us).

I had a great night out meeting local guys & talk to them over a few beers & even plan a trip in the future with a few guys. They were great & I hope to ride with a few over the next few weeks. So from now I shall use the community more to meet unseen new friends along the road.

Cheers Mojo

Some more stuff
 

Grant I am guessing that the HUBB has more visits or bums on seats so to speak than any other part of the HU site?? If this is so, then can I suggest that there be a larger central icon on the home page to entice more people to visit the HUBB than there currently is. This would also make it much easier to attract sponsors with the increased traffic created.

Encourage Community members to update their info. Some people change their email address and other contact details and forget to update on HU

Encourage each Community to organise at least 1 annual Mini Meet

Use or bin these suggestions as you see fit.

Glen

Introduction cards!
 

You got it - thanks for the ideas!

Posted on:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu-id

And if you forget the link, the link to the page is currently at the bottom of "About Us" on the HU Left hand menu - because I couldn't figure out anywhere else. :(

Eventually it will be available on your personal logged in menu on the left as well. (Which will be getting more in the next few weeks)

thanks for the support and promotion guys!

Grant

Actually the biggest people is to get people to see the OTHER parts of the site! I can't tell you how many times there has been a question about carnets on the HUBB - and the answer is always - see the link CARNET on the left hand menu - and there's a ton more info there too.

we are in the process of switching the whole menu system over to Drupal, and that should be complete in the next few weeks, then we can think about a reorganise of the menu. Suggestions appreciated! BUT please see the intro first! (Top of the left menu)

I try - but can always use any suggestions?

Great idea! I need to do a mailing to all 535+ Communities and push that idea - and of course add it to the Community section of the ezine. :)

all suggestions are useful, some less than others, but all tell me what I need to know - what you guys want - and that's the most important feedback I can get in order to make the site better. Some suggestions are excellent, but can;t be implemented for one reason or another - usually budget or in-place infrastructure won't allow it.

thanks, Grant

Here's some more!
 

How about after a member updates their details in both the local Community and edit their Profile the colour of their user name changes.
Is there any way of making their user name change colour to a different one than is currently used for "Contributing Member" or "Gold Member"? Or you could even add "Community Details Edited ??/??/2008" and "Personal Details Edited ??/??/????" listed below or beside their user name.

[/QUOTE]Encourage each Community to organise at least 1 annual Mini Meet [/QUOTE]

Personal gain is normally good inducement. Maybe the organiser of the meet could be promoted to "Contributing Member" or have a new category of "Meeting Organiser", "Mini Meet Organiser" or "Community Member".

A little hard for me to put into words but I hope it all makes sense.

Glen

Too hard for now, but good idea. I'll keep it in mind as we work at the updates that are in the pipeline now. We will have more coming in this area, someday reasonably soon everyone will have their own webpage and updates to that will get listed so you can see the updated pages.

Yes it makes sense! :) We already do "Meeting Organiser" but "Mini-meet Organiser" is a good idea! I can do that for the next mini-meeting that comes up.

thanks!