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Just some forum stats, promoting our community, rambling on...

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G8B4Life:
Long post, a bit of rambling, title says it all. You have been warned  :P

I was a bit bored today, too cold to do any modelling or much else so I decided to sit down and crunch some stats for our group. I didn't get to crunch the stats I was originally after (that would take too much time, it'd be better to write a script that Bill could run against the member list) but I did come up with a few figures.

There are 176 members here (not including the "Archive" member) of which:

* 80 have never posted.
* 96 have posted at least once.Some of these 80 members have never logged in to RPUG after signing up or not logged in for considerable time (part of the stats I was originally after).

Of the 96 who have posted

* 19 who have only posted once
* 33 who have posted between 2 and 5 times
* 15 who have posted between 6 and 10 times
* 9 who have posted between 11 and 20 times
* 5 who have posted between 21 and 30 times
* 2 who have posted between 31 and 40 times
* 3 who have posted between 41 and 50 times
* 1 who has posted between 51 and 60 times
* 0 who have posted between 61 and 70 times
* 0 who have posted between 71 and 80 times
* 1 who has posted between 81 and 90 times
* 0 who have posted between 91 and 100 times
* 3 who have posted between 101 and 200 times
* 3 who have posted between 201 and 300 times
* 1 who has posted between 301 and 400 times
* 1 who has posted between 401 and 500 times (guess who)Taken from the above, a staggering 69 percent of posts have come from just 8 members, or just as staggering 57 percent of posts have come from just 5 members. Even if you took a few percent off because sometimes a couple of members end up having a conversation of sorts about a topic that no one else posts to it's still a large number. On the flip side just shy of 70 percent of members have 10 or less posts.

This got me to thinking about something that has been asked here before. How do we grow our group and presence? Does anyone have any great ideas? A few I have thought of include:

* A magazine article or video on a "large" Railpro running session (not so much about the ops but more showing how easy it was and how well it worked) with a link back to RPUG. This would get RailPro awareness out there and also awareness for the group.
* May not be acceptable by some places but members putting a link back to RPUG in forum signatures etc. May be taken the wrong way by members of those forums so caution would be advised.
* Getting Ring Engineering to link to us. This one would be very hard. I know Bill has tried several times to have Ring do this to no avail. It may take all of us at once to make this happen if we truly want it; and then it may not happen anyway.
* Active promotion. If someone is running RailPro at an event (like a train show) make sure that anyone who notices your using something different gets to know about the product and that the user group exists. If someone says "hey, you use RailPro too" make sure they know the group exists.That's as far as I have gotten. While it's nice to have a forum for just a few people that's not what we want. There has to be a large number of RailPro users out there that don't know about this user community (discounting that we probably see quite a few as simply guests) so how do we find them and get them onboard; and posting? or is this a quest that can only be lost?

- Tim

jimw:
Tim

I thoroughly agree with your goal of promoting RailPro, both for the benefit of the modeling community who are unaware, as well as for the benefit that increased use will serve to keep this innovative control system available for those of us already committed.

JimW

darryl.trains:
Very interesting facts and thoughts.

I have mentioned RailPro quite a number times at our club gatherings without any one asking one question at all. Most are interested in DCC but that is as far as it goes at least for now. When we get the club's new layout built, soon, I'll make another stand with my goodies to see if any interest will happen.  Maybe when they see it at work ?
 At my previous club in Oregon, 60 members, it was dang near impossible to get people motivated with DCC let alone RP !!!
 I know the lack of advertising does not help at all. Word of mouth is a very slow process as seen by the number of RP users.
 If RP should die, hopefully not, most of us have enough to tide us by, well I do, but most likely purchase a few more modules with sound just in case.
 Now your take is requested ###########
Old fardt in Yuma

KPack:
The Railpro op at Lee's place in September would be a perfect opportunity to document RP working on a large layout.  I was hoping we'd get a few more guys there, take some video, snap some pictures, and turn it into a magazine article, Youtube video, or both.  I think those two avenues reach different crowds of people.  Likely many of the Railpro users out there now are users because of the videos seen on Youtube.  The others may have been word of mouth or magazine advertising.  I think it's important to target both groups in order to get maximum exposure and steer interested parties into our community.

Those of use with operating layouts, and any sort of skill with a video camera, really ought to make some simple videos of Railpro operating and share/post them up.  It's not difficult to do and the more media (videos, pictures, articles, posts, etc) that is out there showing Railpro in action, the more interest there will be in it.

I talk about Railpro quite a bit when the opportunity arises and give people a turn on the throttle.  I've discussed it quite a bit with various prototype modelers that I associate with as well.  Currently a friend and I are discussing full dead rail, and I gave Railpro as one of the options to consider for control.  I may send him one of my controllers and a couple of modules to run some tests with and see if it's the route he wants to take. 

Talking about Railpro and then demonstrating it is what will help people get interested.  Video, pictures, posts on other forums, talking with friends.  I'm glad that Ring advertises in the various magazines, but as a business owner I can tell you that advertising in publications or on paper is one of the least useful ways to advertise.  It's good to use it for name and brand recognition but that's about it.  Actual production or sales comes best from word of mouth and hands-on demonstrations.

-Kevin

nodcc4me:
Other than forums and YouTube, one of the best ways to get the product out in front of the people is at train shows. A lot of folks pass through those aisles. You will almost always see Digitrax and NCE at those shows. I have offered to set up a booth at the giant Springfield, MA show more than once, but Tim has steadfastly declined. I attend that show annually anyway, so the only cost to Ring would be the PoP stuff and maybe some brochures plus the cost of the table. Add other shows all around the country and you get a lot of product awareness. Perhaps a business card for RPUG could also be handed out at these events.

If you belong to a club, make sure everyone knows that you are using RP and let them try it. Then, tell them they can get all the info they will ever need on this forum. I have converted three fellow club members to RP. The rest are just die hard DCC guys.

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