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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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#2 ·
Hello everyone,

My name is Philip, I am a community manager for AutoGuide.com, I work with a small team that will continue to manage the webmaster duties for vwt4forum.co.uk

We are here to help primarily with the technical end of things and help make the jobs of the current Mods/Admins easier. I posted a real basic run down to answer common questions below. If you have more questions or concerns please feel free to post them in response.

What are our intentions?

We bring reliability, support and the infrastructure needed to ensure that the community will continue to be around for years to come. It’s our goal to work with the mod/admin team to help provide the resources and required work to give this community a broader reach, to attract new members, and to better the overall knowledge shared in the community.

Will leadership change?

Continuity is the focus here, YOU as the membership work very hard to keep building this community while your mod/admin team keep the walls and the roof up in this place; we are primarily here to make sure the lights stay on. Every community is unique and should always be respected in that regard. You all have established your own unique rules and regulations and a strong reputation that is carried by all of this. For us it’s paramount to maintain this level of integrity and enthusiasm.

What am I here for?

Our primary role is to be the technical contact; you all contributed to building the strong foundation the site was built on. Moving forward we will all work together to keep the momentum and the community growing. We will be on the forum checking in daily to make sure regular maintenance is taken care of and keeping things running smoothly from behind the scenes. We will also be setting up a help desk on the site for when you have questions or issues with the site or your account and need assistance.

Looking forward to working with you all.

Thanks,

Philip
 
#12 ·
Will leadership change?

Continuity is the focus here, YOU as the membership work very hard to keep building this community while your mod/admin team keep the walls and the roof up in this place; we are primarily here to make sure the lights stay on. Every community is unique and should always be respected in that regard. You all have established your own unique rules and regulations and a strong reputation that is carried by all of this. For us it’s paramount to maintain this level of integrity and enthusiasm.
Phil, no disrespect, but you've just supplied a non answer to your own question ^^ These soothing corporate platitudes may fool some..

Lets cut to the chase : have we been sold out ? who actually owns this forum now ?
 
#3 ·
Hi Phil and your team

Welcome to the Forum

I have every confidence you will be able to push this forward to new heights and do this justice.

The Forum has come a long way in the last 10 years since I came up with the idea in the middle of a field on a rally.

Happy and sad to be handing the Forum keys over, but its time things moved on, very much looking forward to seeing how this progresses

Jimbo
 
#7 ·
I agree with go ferret about the testing members but would advise Philip and his gang most of the moaners are in the T5 section so keep an eye on them please

I'm hoping my subscription doesn't have to go up

I'm also concerned to know does will the new forum still have a Coventry section ?

Good luck and all that to us all :D
 
#68 ·
I'll chip in with the others, but a smartphone/tablet app or compatibility is certainly top of my list.

Another essential improvement would be for For Sale posts to be be moderated and published much quicker.

Whilst I'm at it, the search facility is rubbish too - for example, I can't see any listing of the top tabbed forums in the box of "Search in Forum(s)" box - very confusing, and a Google search is far superior.
 
#35 ·
If I could only afford to own one of each of all the vehicles represented on our entire network. We would need to build some kind of giant automotive arch to store them all with no time to enjoy any of them. I live in the center of a big concrete jungle so vehicle ownership for me personally is not in the cards at the moment. I have a wedding coming up that needs to be paid for before I can consider all the other overhead. In theory if the parking laws where more lax here I might be able to acquire a t4 and just live in it.

-Phil
 
#40 ·
I will add this to the suggestions.

Toronto is a nice city Phil.

I was over in April ?

It's a shame you weren't on board sooner we could have had a beer?
If you come back I will buy a round for sure. The city is usually great, for the next few weeks with the pan american games happening the infrastructure that runs the city is a little messed up making my typically short commute not so short. Otherwise its a nice city and even nicer when I can get away to places with a little more green and a little less smog and humidity.

-Phil
 
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