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This Forum...moving forward!!

46K views 249 replies 61 participants last post by  24084 
#1 · (Edited)
Folks

This announcement is to let you know that the future of the forum is bigger, brighter and stronger than it’s been so far! Why?

Because we’ve partnered with a company called Autoguide.com – you might be familiar with them if you're on other car type forums.

There are a number of reasons for this.

Over the years the forum has grown beyond all expectations! I got involved in about 2003 (ish I think) and at that time there were about 700 members. You could read everything everybody had posted throughout a whole day in a couple of hours. Now there are over 130 thousand members and about 800 posts a day. Every day between 3500 and 4000 members log into the forum! Whilst we’re really proud of the success of the forum unfortunately it now takes an incredible amount of time to administrate it properly – from membership and trade enquires to password resets, legal challenges and trying to sort out disputes, the list of things required in running this place is massive and with full time jobs and families in the background we are simply struggling to make it work as well as it needs to.

Another big problem for us is the technical development of the site. We’ve been promising a mobile suite or compatibility with a forum reader app for YEARS and even though work has been progressing on them we’re still not there. Our forum platform, vBulletin requires upgrading to help with the mobile side of things and for many other reasons too, and Jim Doodle has been working on this for a long long time but again, he has to balance the time he puts into the forum with the time he puts into his family and his day job.

So the answer has finally presented itself in the form of Autoguide.com. In moving the site across to their management the daily administration and the technical development of the forum are both assured. The mobile suite or forum reader compatibility that will be such a great benefit to the members in todays mobile age is already in place with them because they have established the same for many other forums. The daily management and administration can be tended to in a timely manner because they already have teams in place undertaking these tasks. And all of the benefits of having a professional organisation running the forum (rather than the piecemeal efforts that we provide at the moment) won’t actually change the way you use the forum right now. In fact you’ll see very little difference in the forum from the way it is today.

Personally, I think this is what the forum really needs! It will allow Jimbo, Jim Doodle and myself to actually focus a little bit more on what we all came here for in the first place; our vans and the community that’s grown up around them, and whilst the responsibility for the management of the forum administration will be elsewhere, we’ll still be here – but without the stress of dealing with everything ourselves!

The forum rules will still apply in the main and the “Family Friendly” ethos, which I hold wholly responsible for the success of the forum, will still be expected to be complied with. The moderators, who’ve been the saviours of the community on so many occasions will remain moderators for as long as they want and there’ll probably be some new moderators joining the team as well.

While I’m on that point I just want to thank all the moderators for everything they’ve done over the years. Moderating can be a thankless task which many of the more ‘testing’ members fail to appreciate and it’s done because moderators enjoy and appreciate the community as it is and want to do something to keep it the way it is. They’re amazing people and deserve real recognition and thanks for their efforts – even if you might not agree with their decisions the fact is they’re making them for the right reasons and at the end of the day, someone has to. A virtual round of applause is due!

I hope you, the community, will welcome these changes and understand that they will actually be beneficial to the future of the forum. You, as individual members coming together to form the greatest VW community in the UK should feel as proud of this place as we do and give yourselves the credit for its past, its present and the success of its future. As a group of people together in one place you’re unique and you have created a social environment that is diverse, welcoming, caring and helpful, and a pleasure to be a part of.

Thank you for what you’ve been and I’m sure what you’ll be in future years – it’s been a pleasure to help bring the forum this far, despite what I might have thought of as some tough times…I’m sure there’s going to be more of the same in store!

Simon :)
 
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#232 ·
at the end of the day Rod, if you aren't the owner you are the customer. Your opinion means absolutely fuck all.

As someone that has put an inordinate amount into this forum. More so than pretty much most members. I can honestly say get the fuck over yourself.

You know absolutely jack schitt of the personal journey or sacrifice the previous owners have made. It's all speculation. It's all bullshit. Why don't you just bow out like you did a couple of years ago and put your wooden spoon away
 
#239 ·
I look after the website of a non-profit organisation and a mailing list (a much, much smaller enterprise than this forum!) and I know how much time this voluntary work takes out of my week (and mostly weekends).

At some point, the project gets too big and has to move on to a different structure to survive and operate efficiently. If this means being sold or whatever to a professional business that specilaizes in maintaining forums, then so be it. Time will tell if the move works or not. If it doesn't, the members will show their displeasure by saying rude things and leaving.

As for the forum losing its 'roots' or 'identity' (my shortcut to summarize the feelings of some), surely its up to the contributors to make sure that doesn't happen.

And look on the positive side - maybe with the new set-up, I'll be able to tell fellow members where I live without getting censored: Mille!

Note for our new Canadian friends: a-r-s-e is no longer considered inappropriate language outside the Bognor Regis Conservative Ladies' Club. People call me one all the time.
 
#247 ·
The advice has been for you to raise a dispute with paypal for your tenner and get it back, then take out a new subscription from your control panel Del :(

I think the payment API is broken from when the previous owners handed it over, or it's not been set up properly by the new owners, so the above advice is from them.
 
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