Tony, Hebe, and all--
Yes, the idea is based on a strategy, properly grounded in my opinion, to emphasize more technical issues, both in general relative to marketing and particularly relative to this forum. IWC has many strengths, but it is a great manufacture with outstanding technical skills, and that will be emphasized more.
In my view there are now many social media channels --for IWC generally and also competing venues to this forum. This forum has the unique strength to deal best with these "serious" topics, and provide in-depth reports and discussions on these issues. We have all of IWC at our disposal, and that provides a real competitive advantage.
The initial idea will be that there will be about two of these articles a month, plus of course the ensuing discussions that will result from them. I believe that word of this approach will spread, and attract new audience and participation.
I'd like to take credit for the survey, but the idea was proposed by Goris Verburg, the new director of marketing when he and I met about a month ago. Several of the topics were proposed by me during our discussions, but most came from people at IWC. He also proposed the survey, which I greatly seconded and in fact hope to have more in the future. The survey then was actually developed in Schaffhausen, and I just posted it.
But --the idea is that the forum is very important to IWC and will be re-emphasized greatly in the coming months. I think you'll like where we're going.