Grand Champions Model Horse Club

Back in 2010, I was still relatively new to the online model horse scene. I was just setting up my s/d list and getting my horses into photo showing. But I learned very early on that GCs were not rated very high in the community. And yet I found little pockets of collectors strewn throughout the web of collectors, so I created a forum specifically for lovers of this retired brand.

It lasted a year before real life swamped many of the regulars, and first the photo showing and then the club died down to a bare trickle. New collectors came along, wrote a post, and then faded out when no reply came. Much of the hobby migrated to Facebook, and forums were used mostly as bases for photo showing clubs, as much of the main interactions including buying and selling took place on the popular site. It seemed like there was not much use for the old forum format anymore.

So it was to my surprise that a discussion, albeit small, had cropped up on -surprise, surprise- my old club! The posters were lamenting the ghost board, and wishing for more activity. I responded, gauging their interest, and then went back to the forum to scrounge around in the dust and see what I could dig up. Although many of the posts were old, the framework was solid. I knew in a couple hours of cleanup, the club could be as good as new. I set to work. The worst that could happen was it flopped again.

My first step was upgrading. Proboards offered a Version 5 format to their forums. I knew in order to get a fresh start, the forum needed a new look. I went ahead with the upgrade, and then fiddled with the color palettes for awhile before settling on an earthy set. As much as I wanted pink, I wanted something that felt homey more!

Here is the final result (although I think you now have to become a member to view it, if I did it right!)--

www.gcmhc.proboards.com

My favorite upgrade was the addition of the shoutbox, a feature that allows all the members to interact in a chat room, something none of the clubs I am a part of focuses on. Facebook can come close, but often people pop on to post and then pop off, only returning to respond to an inquiry on their post. I feel like if there was more real-time discussion and communication in the hobby, a lot of the cattiness would fade and people would become greater friends. Obviously it could never come close to hanging out in person, but for a group of strangers, it's a start.

V5 allowed me to send a mass email to all members, something I would normally never do, but in this case, I wanted to let everyone know that there was a club to come back to.

Now, the only thing to do it wait.