what hurt the bcs area was the website change.....
Looks to me that only the few regulars on the boards have came over....
Im really pushing AmericanGeisha to make the trip...
Originally Posted by jpjohnson7454
Excellent point, JP.
I would agree that the demise of the former board left a lot of people in the dark.
Participation on the B/CS board was light, but I do not equate that to an extremely low participation rate for B/CS in the hobby, rather not that many people in B/CS (who were members here) posted, and certainly many do their "hell raising" in other cities. Some felt uncomfortable posting here, while living in such a small town.
To put participation here in perspective, you can look at the other forums and keep in mind the populations they represent.
Waco has an MSA of 230,000; Killeen/Temple/Belton, 380,000; Bryan/College Station, 207,000.
Corpus Christi has its own forum and its MSA is 415,000
When you read the DFW board, consider that the MSA there is 6,300,000.
Houston is 5,700,000. San Antonio is 2,000,000 and the Austin MSA is 1,600,000. The good news in that is that not only is the board participation heavy, but there are plenty of great providers willing to travel from there to see us.
When I signed on to ECCIE, I pushed the ownership to establish a separate Killeen/Waco/BCS forum and they were quite responsive. We had our own board in less than a week after I asked and offered to moderate it.
If you have contact with any of the "old" members, please encourage them to join ECCIE and to post.
(LADIES: Please encourage your customers to join ECCIE, especially in the smaller towns where the numbers are low.)
I think it is great that you are trying to entice a lady to travel to B/CS. Frankly, that is the best way to get a provider to visit. Contact them, encourage them and pre-book them. (And I see nothing wrong with posting here that "I am trying to get XXXX to come to town, because other hobbyist can do their research and decide if they want to see XXXX as well.) Another thing is to write a good review of your time together and post it here. It need not be a "tell all" kind of review or overly graphic or even a novel. Plain and simple is just fine. The reviews help both the providers and hobbyists.
If a lady posts an ad or comment that she is "thinking about coming to town".... read that as she is trying to make the business case to make the trip or not. What is the temperature of the hobby pool today?, so to speak. If it is a lady who sparks your genuine interest, I would suggest PMing her, even if you can't pre-book her for current visit. Tell her you are excited she is thinking about coming to town, sorry your schedules don't line up and let her know you would like to see her when she does come back. At least then, the lady can gauge if there is any interest in town and what the interest level may be.
I would also suggest that if a lady looks like she is planning a visit at a bad time or a good time (due to local events, of which she may not be aware) you gently point that out as well. "Glad you are coming that week, I won't get to see you, but it looks like 5,000 firemen will be in town." A little southern hospitality goes a long way, in many books.
Hobbying in a smaller town usually takes more advance planning than in a big city, where literally, a guy can take an early lunch and start dialing numbers until he gets a lady who is available on a short notice. It takes some advance planning on the part of both parties. It is handy to be able to call a lady up and book short notice, but somehow, you have to get the lady to your town to do so. There is the catch.
I am glad to see more posts here in the BCS, Waco and Killeen forums.
I promise to do my best to find 3 people this week who aren't on the board, that hobby, and encourage them to join.
I think once we reach a "critical mass" of members here, things will pick up even more. In Waco and Killeen, we *finally* have a couple of steady, excellent, true GFE providers.
I hope y'all find this post informative and helpful. Things are "picking up" around here, and word-of-mouth will go a long way to speeding up that process.
As always, respectfully submitted,
OldSarge