Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren all have their own *chat sites with multiple forums. Why don’t we?
I tried speaking with Fchat management a few months ago about separating the Maserati section from the F company, which is decades younger, explaining there would be fat more participants AND sponsors but it was an busy unsuitable time... I have two potential sponsors though these entities are very busy with other things right now and obviously Covid is complicating everything now, including the virtual world. I will push again this month.
That would be a very good idea and would give more visibility to Maserati. Only considering the french speaking forums devoted to Maserati, there are two of them: maseratitude.com and casatridente.com. They are more focused on the youngtimers or more modern cars though (biturbo era up to the Ferrari engine cars), the classics are less prominent, unfortunately from my point of view. Having a "global" english speaking Maserati forum, also largely addressing the classic cars, would be very welcome if that could happen!
Well, sceptical about that idea. I personally like to have a look at the Ferrari chapter(s) and then scroll down to the Maserati section.
Do you own a Maserati? If all you do is browse about Maserati casually of course you are skeptical. Do you own a Ferrari? Would you like it if your Ferrari were squeezed in with all the other models in one subforum? If you owned both, wouldn't you want them treated the same? A lot of us are devoted to buying, selling, driving, maintaining and restoring them, just like Lamborghini and Ferrari owners, and the current situation means that the information online is piled into a disorganized mess. For example, the only "forum" devoted to the Khamsin model is one single thread that is now nearing 100 pages. But the real question is, regardless of your tepid level of interest in Maseratis, why should that brand be treated any differently than the others?
They at least have a subforum for vintage Maseratis, that could be further subdivided by models. As-is it would be way better than what we have here. If we don't get a positive response on this site my next move is going to be to move over there, or to set up a new group on Groups.io, and I will then suggest you all do the same.
Covid has been with us now for well over a year, and is no longer a good excuse for anything but outdoor dining in bad weather. A friend of mine sent in an articulate and polite request regarding this a while ago and got no response whatsoever. So if we get nothing this time, I want to take us and our sponsors (and I know of many more than two) elsewhere where we are appreciated. We are not asking for much, and are offering a strong financial incentive in return. There is already a better existing site we can simply move to with no effort. To do a proper hosting job for us here is not much work; this particular forum product is well-known for being easy to set up, and I am quite capable of doing so myself. And I will if necessary. Regardless of that, I have already set up several groups on groups.io and can easily do one more. I will be happy to cash those sponsor checks myself.
There is a Maserati Forum in Germany that is not very active and a Maserati section on carpassion.com and there is a Maserati owners club. Classic owners seem to be quite inactive in the internet.
i think this section should stay same as it is now. in the past we occasionally [i think most readers of fchat] visited lambo and mclaren along with this sections, now they got their own different forum and it requires different registration and log-in criteria so some may don not like this extra hassle and when they like to talk about those cars just create threads on italian and british sections. so this section should stay as a sub-forum and would be even better if lambo and mclaren froums come back here.
I have been on both for years, but have posted and read more in LIFE recently. I find it somewhat absurd to go to a Ferrari forum to follow discussions about Maserati.
The UK-based SportsMaserati site is also rather good, and has subsections for models, including classic.
Your reaction to Walter is rather embarrassing. Did you know that, for example, he wrote a book about the Maserati 300S? Not exactly a case of “a tepid level of interest” I would say. Actually, if you are as interested in Maseratis as you claim to be, you should have known that. And about the fact that there’s one thread for the Khamsin: I actually like that, I don´t think it´s a “disorganized mess”. When I want to find something (information about a chassis number for example) It’s easy to find using the search function. And sometimes when I’ve found something I browse a bit more through the pages and often find more interesting things. That could be an advantage of having everything about the Khamsin in one thread and not scattered over the forum. That it’s part of Ferrarichat is maybe a little weird but I hardly notice it because I always go directly to the Maserati section using this link: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/forums/maserati.87/
Its easy to show that Maserati is the step child in the family. The Ferrari California was supposed to be a Maserati. Ferrari rebadged it as a Ferrari because they needed a convertible GT. Do you think the California would have sold better as a Ferrari or Maserati? Now you know why Ferrari did it -- and how it hurt Maserati.
Sorry you're embarrassed. BTW nobody impugned anyone's knowledge. "I personally like to have a look at the Ferrari chapter(s)...." implies only casual interest. If Walter'd usage is not, then he shouldn't describe it that way. This is all about user experience and has nothing to do with credentials. However, with the most vocal of you so utterly satisfied with the current arrangement, far be it from me to suggest disrupting your cozy existence. Consider the suggestion and offered support void.
I am with Walter on this. Although I own a 1960 Maserati, I also enjoy reading the Ferrari posts, and have probably posted more about Ferrari than Maserati. One make car clubs go down the same route, obsessed with their own cars as if no other marque never existed. I own a number of cars from 1912 to 1980 all different marques, and it is a love of old cars which I like to share and read about. The balance of classics on this forum is about right for me, as I have no desire to read about any make of car post 1980. (although I understand many others do, which is fine) I appreciate your concerns, and desire to make changes, but I am happy here on Fchat. Lets face it Maserati has being playing underdog to Ferrari since the late 50`s, it is one of the charms I love about it.
Maserati “played underdog”? You suppose the brothers discussed that goal and included it in all their decision making? A kind of deliberate mediocrity? If that truly is the spirit of Maserati it certainly explains a lot about this forum. That aside, it sounds like your answer to my initial “2nd class citizen” question is simply “Yes,” but with the further proviso that you like it that way. I don’t think most of you are actually thinking about anything having to do with the usability and organization of the site as a reusable archive of useful and actionable knowledge, given the superficial nature of the objections raised so far. I suppose this is consistent with the use of the word “chat” in the site’s name. Just one big cocktail party of random and ephemeral chatter, with a library of books organized by size and binding color in big heaps piled on the floor and no card index. However, here I have to strongly object to the parallel you attempt to draw with other “one make car clubs”. As an active restorer of cars from over 10 manufacturers I’m active in researching and contributing to many more than that many associated discussion forums, and none of them suffers from having all the natural subject areas crammed into the intellectually tiny space this one is. Perhaps coincidentally the discussions in all the other forums are far larger in volume, more focused in subject matter, with many more active members with deep experience contributing useful knowledge, and that knowledge is much easier to find after the fact because the forums are divided into useful isolated categories, each post carries a matching subject line with threading that keeps each conversation internally linked and separated from the others. Compare that to (as just one example) the absurd 100-page Khamsin thread here. However, if you don’t notice those differences among the many marque forums, I would expect you to react negatively simply to the prospect of change no matter how minor. Thus, whether or not you understand the alternatives, it’s a waste of my time and yours to try to improve it over your objections or likely even to try to explain the differences when the resistance is so internalized that you would say anything like “we’re 2nd class citizens and our cars are underdogs and we like it that way.”
Here’s something to think about in what it would mean to abandon this forum and migrate somewhere else. While Maserati * Life does have a vintage forum, it is primarily focused on the Fiat/Ferrari era cars. There are also dedicated forums for specific models like the Ghibli lll, Levante, GranTurismo etc. plus numerous Facebook pages. This particular forum has been where the Vintage GT owners and Historians gathered after the Maserati GT yahoo email list died off. Unless it’s under the same ownership, consider that going to a new forum is not going to be able to secure the entire 82,000+ Postings for research. Thanks to Marc, there is more information here on the Khamsin than anywhere else. Many of us old time Maserchists remember when MOCNA dissolved, a lucky few were able to get copies of their Parts Cross Reference list. Yes maybe if the Maserati section could be expanded and enhanced, it would be better. What must be avoided is BS that was and maybe still is in the Lamborghini forums, in addition to Lamborghini chat, there was Lamborghini talk, Talk Lamborghini and the Flamefest Lambo Power. No thank you.
Alan, I just got home at lunchtime and am waking at five to travel again. I promise I will write my thoughts here in the next couple of days. In a nutshell: Am I keen on separating, this, the most in depth Classic Maserati forum on earth from the Farroree prancing donkey world? Hell yes! BUT certainly NOT at the expense of loosing the data and knowledge gathered here for years, including the Khamsin thread started in 2008, now at 1.3 M views, almost 10k posts, THE lighthouse in the dark for K's. Over my dead body!!! Now food for thought for you, we all have qualities and flaws right? I am very good at languages, six though I never get to speak Portuguese so that one is very rusty...but numbers, I HATE numbers, stupid, obtuse, artificial, unromantic things that they are. You are brilliant at software but and I say this as a friend, after all we traveled through half of Europe together in 2014, your patience and diplomacy need some work; I am saying this very respectfully with a smile, think of the word compromise, that is the route for this, splitting yes but properly. Good evening, Marc