Ferrari Club Australia Inc - Vic New web site

I saw a 355 today... it was red. I had to chase it seven blocks down chapel st to get close enough. I was so excited I forgot to get the VIN but at least I managed to take 2,345 pictures of it whilst it was stopped at the lights... woo hoo, made my week it did! Does everyone want me to post all the pictures here so we can all see it and compare notes. Oh gee PP, hurry up and put up a section where I can share all my photos of every Ferrari I've ever seen.

 

well, just for the record, i'd be happy to look at any pics, don't care whether you's think it's boring.

 

I wouldn't

next one will be anything bar red !!

 

coupla options for ya
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oh no, not another IT nerd ;-)

 

and I think he was only using paint, not that fancy Photoshop ****e

do me a blue Ash or maybe that rare YELLOW we never see

I happen to know PP and 348CH have only RED cars the poofs, 99% of the FCA cars are bloody red and I was so sick of it I tried to sand it off while on the move and doing stunts

I think the rare rosso might be the go...anything but red


there is only one colour worse than red, British "racing" green..what a joke, the British wouldn't know HOW to "race"

 

No that's right.

Britain never bred a world champ car or driver at all. Useless pr1cks.

 

here's a blue Ash, from my younger days as a Smurf... or depression, i ferget which.

hint: don't store those special mushrooms and food colouring in the same cupboard.
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The purpose of the FCA website is to do a number of things

1: Provide a web presence for the club so that prospective members have a point of contact & can download membership applications
2: Central archive of state newsletters & national magazine
3: Information & entry forms for national rally
4: Place for members to sell their own cars
5: Repository of other club info such as concours judging rules

There are also links provided to the official Ferrari dealers in Australia ( who also support the club financially, especially national rallys and other "sites of interest" in the greater Ferrari web community.

The FCA national committee also insisted that club newsletters and the like were not available to the general public, hence this material is in the members section.

Ditto, details about any upcoming FCA events are only available to members - for instance club drive days & club concours - the main reasons given are security, to eliminate non club members gatecrashing club events, privacy of FCA members and so that drive days are not compromised by unwanted attention from you know who.

For many & varied reasons many FCA members also do not want to be identified in a public forum like the web, hence there are very few photos on the website, those that are have been submitted by the owners of the cars.

Technical articles of a DIY nature can give rise to potential litigation if something goes wrong, even more so when the information is "endorsed" by being published on the club website, hence a limit to the technical articles. In any case, this info is available from a multitude of sources on the web already, so there is no reason to duplicate it again on the FCA website,

Chatrooms for members - Federal committee decided to distance the club from this as the 'owner" of the chatroom could be involved in any unpleasantness arisign from comments made in that forum & in any case there are already plenty of other forums for Ferrari owners to abuse each other.

The state & federal newsletters in the members section already contain much of the info with regard to new members profiles, events etc, so there is no need to publish this seperately on the web ( for the public )

Michael

 

Michael
Many other clubs have managed to grapple with these potential liability issues. As long as the requisite legal disclaimer is inlcuded on the site, there is no real reason for not including a lot of interesting content on the web.
There is a far greater real liability in the organisation and running of real world events anyhow!
I see your point about publicly "advertising" some of the events as being counter productive though! This along with any potentially "confidential" info could be a secure members section.
If part of the purpose is to promote the club and the marque, how can this be achieved, without giving non-members a taste of what the club has to offer? The National site certainly does not do that.
IMO the net effect of the National view is the creation of a secret society with no external visibility of its activites and potential worth.
There are over 200 FCA members in Vic alone, how many of these families have web acess? How many know about fchat, as an example? Tech articles are available online, IF you know where and how to look. How many of these members have the prerequisite skills and knowledge?

 

Well, yeah, heaven forbid the peasants finding out.

What, do you want to encourage the general public to find out more, get them excited about the marque, show how they can purchase a Ferrari for themselves (cheaper than a crappydore) and have them join *US*??? What a disgusting thought - down with the peasants.


Next thing you'll want to encourage current members to become involved in the club by giving them activities that suit their needs not just the needs of the chosen few.

You shoud get kicked out of the club for such thoughts

 

Stephen, Michael is an IT guy so is very aware of the privacy laws that preclude a lot of the information you think should be on the 'net.

In this day and age, with some of the past history of the club, it is not wise to give member profiles for security reasons but I think some tech tips would be helpful with the right disclaimer added.

One of the reasons the site is a little "thin" is the feedback, or lack thereof, sent to Michael so he can add useful information.

Have a look at the technical section and you'll see only Carl has fed back any information. I've done an article but have never sent it to Mike, but will now that I realise I am part of the problem not the answer.

I spent a week doing the steering column on the 308 and found many handy tips for the DIYer, documented it all but didn't go the one step further of sending it to Michael.

We only get out of the site what people are WILLING to put in.

 

Aircon would not agree with this comment!

IMO, the National FCA site is achieving what it is intended to do and I think you do a great job Michael, given the limited resources available to maintain the site. Maybe you could liaise with Vic and the other states to air their members' official views.

 

I think (and i hate to have to say this), that we should be happy that Plessie
wants to do something on behalf of the club. And he should be thanked for it, because he is doing it free of charge and it's a thankless job. (very much like being on the Vic Committee). The idea is to have a Vic website that is specifically Victorian and the events and cars that exist in Victoria. Let's face it.......we have the best and most important Ferrari's in Victoria. (that should start you all going).

 

FCA Vic is very fortunate to have PP volunteer to do this (as was FCA Nat with MR). I just hope the politics involved in any club is able to be parted to enable a useful and informative site for members and provides a great 'hook' for potential members.

 

I agree, who cares if you have seen one (or 100) before or not I could look at Ferrari pics all day long!
I saw a Diablo 6.0 on Anzac Day and that made my day, but I would assume that is also 'boring'

 

well, adelaide has the best and most important Ferrari's in South Australia.

 

Hey that's cool, whatever floats your boat. I just don't enjoy looking at photos of cars unless it's an exceptional photo.

I was fortunate enough to be at Scuds workshop before the Enzo was shown at the Sydney Motorshow - it was being kept under wraps with restricted access to the workshop. Fortunately, I was able to go and take a good look (it's not what you ko but how much you're paying for the service :-(. Half an hour later, Lenn arrived to start her up and drive down to the truck and off to the show. I not only got to crawl all around but got to listen to Lenn drive it as well Remember, this was the first showing of an Enzo in Aus with deliveries for the fortunate few still many months away. The part you guys probably won't understand is that although I had a camera in the car, and a video on me as well, I couldn't see the point of taking a single shot, and if I did they'd just be sitting at the bottom of the cupboard gathering dust

 

thats fine, no point you taking the pics if you would never use or look at them There are enough pics on the net of Enzo's in any case, for me I just like taking pics of nice cars I see to add to my collection and show others (the ones that are interested) what I saw
BTW, I never print my pics out so there is no danger of them being stored at the bottom of a cupboard - only on my HD

 

well my deal with pics is not so much that it's exceptional in quality, but that it has a context. if i just want to see pics of anything on the planet, i can go to google and find it. i like seeing pics that are either shown to me by the person who took them, or ones where i can see them in a setting familiar to me.

people show me photos of their holidays, and all you tend to see are the same dam photos like on postcards and whatnot... oh great, Wineglass Bay, Ayers Rock... boring! stick your mug or a teddy in there or or get a wierd angle or something at least.

well i can understand the part about not feeling the need to take photos at the time. the couple times i've been out and about the Gallardo and TR/R5T, recording the event doesn't seem like such a priority compared to enjoying it at the time... but as soon as i'm out of the car and it's leaving i'm like CRAP! quick get some pics.

to me these cars are like hot chicks, always look most desirable just as they're leaving you.

 

then you might like my Diablo pics from the other day , they were taken at the bottom of Mends St near the jetty
I posted them in the Lambo section:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57108

 

John
I am not suggesting member info should be available unsecured. I am very aware of the laws and security issues involved, being not only a Managed Service Provider, Regional IT outsourcer covering Aust, NZ, Japan, Singapore, Dubai and Toronto and hopefully soon the UK, but also an business only ISP operating for close to 10 years now. (note the subtle plug )

 

So you'll do me a deal on hosting my on-demand project/business management systems and provide me with your database for marketing purposes!
WOW I always knew you were a good guy