Abarthisti was launched nearly ten months ago, with the stated objective of promoting a more mature style of discussion on all aspects of Abarth vehicle ownership, whether through electronic means or at real-world events.  Today, Abarthisti can boast over 375 members and has several successful events tucked under its belt.

However, our continued success depends on you, the membership, and we'd like to offer you the chance to have your say on a range of issues – what you feel we've achieved, where we've gone wrong, and how we can improve.

We've created an online survey to make it easy for you to send us your feedback.  The survey consists of 28 questions, but should only take a few minutes to complete:

http://www.abarthisti.co.uk/survey/

As a thank-you to those who complete the survey, we'll select one person at random to win a free Abarth T-shirt in a size and style of their choosing (subject to stock availability).  We'll close the draw in two weeks' time (Tuesday 4th August), giving you plenty of time to submit your responses.

If you have any comments you'd like to make outside of the survey, please feel free to send them via email, or by using the 'Contact' link at the top of the page.

Thanks for your feedback!

A quick reminder that the competition closes tomorrow.

Get your responses in if you haven't already!

alex, what were the results of the survey?

I'd have done this if I wasn't on holiday.

Was there a "Do you spend far too much time on the forum?" question?

Congrats to Alex_gregory_uk who won the prize draw for the T-shirt!

My apologies for the delay in sorting this out - I've not had two spare minutes to rub together lately, but hopefully I can get around to going through everyone's responses very soon.

Quote from: AlexK on August 14, 2009, 03:58:20 pm

Congrats to Alex_gregory_uk who won the prize draw for the T-shirt!

My apologies for the delay in sorting this out - I've not had two spare minutes to rub together lately, but hopefully I can get around to going through everyone's responses very soon.

Nice one Alex G.
I could have done with that T-Shirt though...mine shrunk in the wash bah...

hope you told her off ! hehe im playing!

congrats alex!

Sorry it's taken so long for me to get around to writing about the results of the survey.

The response was better than I'd hoped for, with nearly a third of the membership (at the time) completing the survey.  Many also took the time to offer further constructive comments, particularly in response to the questions about what we do particularly well or poorly, and it's this kind of feedback that really helps us to make decisions for the future.

I intend to cover those areas in greater detail - and pick up on some specific feedback and ideas submitted by some - on another day, but for now I wanted to put together a quick summary of the results for those that are interested.

Membership Age Breakdown



Vehicle Ownership



A surprising near-50/50 split between GPA and 500 owners - I was expecting 500 owners to feature much more strongly here.

What encouraged you to register?



At the time of registering, what did you hope to gain from your membership?



No real surprises here.  Most people are looking for info about the cars prior to purchase, and assistance with any niggles once it's arrived.  Although I was a little surprised to see that only 15% are looking for info on modifications, given the frequency of threads of that nature.

Considering the reasons that originally made you join, has Abarthisti fulfilled your expectations?



The surprise here was that not one single person said their expectations hadn't been met.  Still, there's 20% who believe we can do more.

What’s your opinion of the name ‘Abarthisti’?



Abarthisti’s mission is to promote mature, friendly and respectful discussion of all aspects of Abarth vehicle ownership, whether this is through electronic means or real-world events. How strongly do you agree with the importance of this mission?



Not one person disagreed with the Abarthisti mission statement, although clearly some felt more strongly about it than others.  Abarthisti started originally as an attempt to get away from the usual bickering and confrontation that's present on other forums, and this result, in my opinion, indicates that we are not alone in believing there's a genuine niche for such a place.

Do you believe Abarthisti has so far been successful in achieving this mission?



Surprisingly, no-one said that we'd failed in achieving our mission so far.  While 45% clearly indicated that we've been successful so far, a greater proportion (~55%) feel we've still got some work to do.

What’s your opinion of the visual style of the website?



How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the layout of the website and the ease of navigation?



96% are generally happy with the ease of navigation.  I believe there are a few simple changes we can make to improve things - a more prominent search facility, for example.

How would you rate your satisfaction with the various forum categories, i.e. General Abarth, Off-topic, etc?



92% general satisfaction with the forum categories.  We're already kicking around a few ideas for changes to the way the categories are laid out, but I'd be particularly interested to hear from the 2% who indicated they were dissatisfied - please do drop me a line via private message so I can understand what you feel is missing.

How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the way the discussion forums are moderated?



Moderation is a topic in its own right, and one I should probably come back to later in greater detail.  What I will say, though, is that moderators are damned if they do, and damned if they don't.  There have certainly been some bad calls in the past, and we know there are some specific issues to be addressed.  But if there's one thing the current moderator team does extremely well it's peer review - by discussing any action as a group, the chances of making a poor judgement call are minimised.  I will also add that being a moderator is an entirely thankless task - they consistently give up their free time and generally all they get in return is abuse.  So, Missing-in-Action, DevilAndGod and Olopboy, my sincerest thanks.  And that of at least 51% of Abarthisti.

Abarthisti sends out emails regarding events, competitions and special offers only very occasionally; we make a conscious effort not to annoy anyone with streams of emails. However, do you feel we should be in touch via email more often?



As part of a trial, we will shortly begin sending out emails regarding events more frequently.  We're not interested in bombarding people, but there are a significant number of people who don't read the forums on a regular basis, but would still like to be kept informed.  I have a few other ideas that'll help here, and I'll talk about those another time.  Remember, if you would prefer not to receive these messages, de-select the 'Receive forum announcements' option within your profile.

I hope that gives a flavour of some of the responses we received.  In a few days' time, I hope to be able to go through some of the more specific feedback we received, and to outline the changes we'll be looking to make as a result.  Thanks for reading.

Top stats, keep up the good work and thanks for all that's been done so far 
No criticisms from me