Happy New Year Everyone!

The Ride of the Month had some issues the later part of last year, then with my personal family issues, I wasn't able to find the time to resurrect it and keep it going for that I would like to apologize. I believe there are many of us here that enjoy the Ride of the Month and would like to see it continue as a way to enjoy and give a little bit of recognition to our fellow members and their rides.

I know one common issue has been getting enough nominations each month as well as getting a unique field of rides every month. Unfortunately there seems to be a bit of a stigma for some that their cars aren't nice enough, cool enough, finished enough, or popular enough to compete much less win the voting. I also am aware that we had the same cars nominated multiple times that caused some issues.

I am also aware that more and more Forums are losing members and visitors to the FB pages which is a constant issue for not only this Forum but many others. I personally am not on FB and really have no desire to join the masses as I have too much going on my life already and adding one more daily chore of checking my status and that of all my friends just doesn't work for me. Please don't take that as FB Bashing. My wife is on FB all the time and I really don't care either way. I am sure being a bit older (49 this March! ) I am just not the social media type and I am fine with that. With that said, I would really like FEP to have the ROTM and have a great one every month to help showcase not only the Four Eyed Pride that we have, but to help show the rest of the internet what cool cars they are and how much we enjoy them.

So . . . . The reason for this post is to try and get some input on how we can improve the ROTM and make it easier, more enjoyable, and more inviting to as many members as possible. I have posted questions like this before and we have had some good suggestions, comments, and ideas. We have also had the Anger, Disappointment, Frustrations, and Irritations too! Unfortunately all the great Administrators, Moderators, etc. here on FEP are unpaid and unsung Heroes. This is all done in spare time, after hours, when possible, and at times labors of love for the FEP Website, members, and the cars. That means that unfortunately everyone involved still has to earn a paycheck somehow/somewhere else which always limits their time on FEP. For me personally in regards to the ROTM I generally spend 30 minutes to an hour to get the First Nominations Open post of the month up. Then the Voting Poll Thread can take on average 1-2 hours depending on photo issues, etc. (Thanks! PHOTOBucket! ) Then there is the Ride of the Month Feature Article on the Home page that can take multiple emails, PMs, etc. to get the information needed and then sometimes a couple of hours to put it all into some semblance of a readable/interesting article. Then finally 30 minutes to an hour to actually post the article on the home page. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing all of this and actually enjoy the process when I have willing and helpful nominees and winner. When the nominees are MIA and the winner provides me with little to no information or details about the car, well then it becomes much more difficult and less enjoyable. I stated all of that not to whine and cry about this, but to give some of the behind the curtain issues that myself and others deal with when doing these types of "Projects" I hope that will entice others to put forth a bit more effort and thought into their participation in these "Projects" as well.

That's enough about all of that, so the big question here is what do the members want to see, want to do, how do we move forward, how do we make this better, Do we even mess with this at all?

The last couple of years I have tried to put together a calendar for FEP members to enjoy and help support the site as much as possible. The ROTM is an excellent way to get the photos needed to put together a nice, decent calendar. Again we need the help of the members and the participants. Decent quality photos are a MUST! Now not everyone owns a professional camera, but some people do. You probably even have a friend that does. The cameras on our phones these days are pretty impressive in many ways, but again we as the photographer need to do our best to take good/great pictures of our cars. This isn't really that difficult it just takes a little bit of extra time and planning to make an ok picture turn out to be a really good if Not Great picture. There's even a sticky at the top of the thread to help out those of us who are inexperienced and/or challenged with taking good pictures. Bottom line is if we can all help out with this then I believe we can keep the ROTM going and also have the ability to put together a nice yearly calendar to enjoy all the Four eyes every month and help support our favorite Mustang site.

Thanks for reading thru all of this! I appreciate it and look forward to the discussion and ideas that hopefully I have stirred up!