Keeping you informed

[ivatvan]

G'day forum members,

You will have noticed that in the last 2 days the old dot net forum has come back online. 

When that forum suddenly went offline,  Aidan (MYT105) and myself (ivatvan) discussed what affect that would have on Tvan and Topaz  owners as well as what actions we could take to make up for the loss.  We assumed that the domain name registration had lapsed so our first option was to contact the forum owner Anthony (SSM) to clarify the situation.  Apart from what caused the problem we needed to know if Anthony still owned the site as we had seen it advertised for sale.  Without the forum we had no email contact so we tried phoning, googling his name, sent a snail mail letter and approached Track for help.  Nothing worked.

With time ticking by we turned to option two and established the new forum.com site (blue one) because we were convinced that the old site had gone for good.  We enlisted the support of Andrew (amaruskanic) and Carl (obeeone) and owner of the Yahoo Group site to assist in Administrator and Moderator roles.  We received great support from all of you and all was going well when the old site suddenly re-appeared online.   

As soon as that happened I sent a Personal Message to Anthony seeking to clarify the issue.  He responded immediately indicating that the domain name registration had lapsed, however he had renewed it for 12 months and during that period would be prepared to pass the site on to Aidan the owner of the new site as his personal time was limited.  This means that the old site in its present format may only continue to operate for a further 12 months. 

Aidan is "away in the distance" with his trusty tvan in tow and will not be returning until next week.   When he does he and Anthony will get together to work out how to integrate the old forum into the new one.

In the meantime it is business as usual for this forum, we have an experienced team of administrators and moderators and a brilliant site which we hope you all enjoy using.

Regards and thanks for supporting us.

Jeff (ivatvan)

[Alpaca]

Jeff,
Thanks for all your efforts in getting this and the old site up to date.
I'm guessing that there is a personal cost in registering a web site and I for one, would be happy to contribute to those costs. I'm an absolute dinosaur on the computer so I am of no assistance in the physical capacity of the site.
Is it feasable to keep the old site going as there is a wealth of information there and it would be sad to lose it all.
Thanks again

Alpaca

[Tanami TVan]

Thanks for the update Jeff
It would be great if the old forum could be merged into the new one.
I guess there's 12 months for one of the IT Guru's to work out how.
Thanks again for Your's  and Aidan's efforts in making the new forum a goer
Norm

[Camperman2]

It is a relief that we still have access to the old site which of course was deemed a gold mine of information for Tvan owners to the extent that it was largely the site that got me into a Tvan because of the research I could do on the forum.  It is essential that we continue to have access to the data and in some way that data is blended with or accessible through, the new site.   A lot of effort went into the new site and I think it should continue, at least in parallel with the old site until its future is determined. 
I believe it essential that the new forum be protected from any single 'owner' deciding (for whatever reason) to not continue with the site or sell it or whatever and I believe its future would be best served by a management committee of responsible Tvan owners.  With such a structure the demise of one administrator might cause some disruption but it should not see the whole site disappear.
I realise that such sites cost money, that the cost or work burden should not be left with one person and I believe there are processes available to the administrators for this to be funded from several avenues.

[ivatvan]

Thanks Camperman2, Norm and Alpaca for your feedback,
You have asked some questions and I will endeavour to answer them.  Firstly retaining the information from the old forum should only be a technical issue, Anthony has limited time available and we are keen to assist in retaining the information.  Maintaining the two sites in parallel as Camperman 2 suggests sounds like a good solution.

Camperman2:
The new forum has two independent administrators (essentially 2 owners) in Aidan (MYT105) and Andrew (amaruskanic) as well as two moderators Carl (obeeone) and myself.  We are the current management committee, all are active on this site and all of us own and actively use tvans.  Aiden is currently off camping in outback NSW.  (Given the weather we might have to organise a rescue committee.)
Several sources of funding would definitely be of interest, where do we have to go and what do we need to do please?

Norm:
I'm pretty convinced the IT people will work something out.

Alpaca
Aidan has picked up the cost of getting this forum going I believe, he says it isn't much, thanks for your offer of assistance.       

Regards
Jeff

[whisky_mac]

Thanks to you four guys, it is a shame the other site went off line but at least the hard work of establishing the new site with a management of four should help it survive.

I look for to using this site as my main site for Tvan knowledge.

Jim

[Camperman2]

Jeff:  Will you accept some paid advertising (relevant of course) to help with the upkeep costs or are you keen to keep it totally free of it?  Frankly, the advertising wouldn't bother me provided it was not too obtrusive and was limited in number.  It is unlikely that users will pay an annual fee or if they did, that only adds another layer of activity in keeping track of such payments and non-payers of course.

[ivatvan]

G'day Camperman 2,
Members of this forum prefer no commercial advertising but have no objection to personal items being sold through the" for sale" section.  This is to ensure that members enjoy an environment which focusses on Track Trailer products and to maintain the integrity of the forum as an unbiased platform for members to express their views.

Where a specific event for Track Trailer product owners has been organised and the event has sponsorship, it may be possible for the sponsor to be mentioned on this forum subject to the approval of the management group.  I would request anyone who is contemplating  a sponsored event to please run it past the management group well in advance of the event taking place.

I believe that there may be a provision for members to list their individual websites which may contain commercial advertising.  Will check this with the management group and provide an answer asap.

Jeff     

 

[Tanami TVan]

My personal view is the forum would be much better received without adds
Should there be a need to raise funds to keep the forum online
I'm sure there would be enough of us willing to contribute to keep it going.
Just my two bobs worth but it's nice not to have ads flashing and telling
me I need to buy.
Norm

[MYT150]

Just to keep everyone informed.

We, as in the management team, have been discussing the issues raised here, in particular advertising, and the general view is that we see no need for it at present and will not be looking for advertising or sponsorship. But if an offer of sponsorship should arise in the future then it will be considered at that time.

The cost of running a forum like this is not that high, the domain name is about $12 dollars a year and the hosting is using some of the unused hosting that I have for my Tvan hire business, so unless the forum grows to over 1,000 active members and the gallery gets really full of pictures there is not really going to be any issue with regard to space or traffic on the hosting account.

There is also the other issue that if we do collect money then we have to account for it and it adds even more headaches.

As regards personal web links in members profiles and signatures that is fine as long as they are within the guidelines of the forum rules.

Regards

Aidan

[davandeb]

Personally, I am very pleased that there are Fourums (should that be fora) that will continue into the future.  Like others, the .net forum and the information and enthusiasum expressed there by Tvan owners was very influential in my purchasing our Tvan.  The .net (Orange) Forum contains a wealth of information and hopefully the boffins can make it morph into the Blue one. 
I would like to express my thanks to Anthony (SSM) for the Orange forum and all that it has provided to us in the past.  Circumstances change and so must we.  It sounds like the costs of the new forum are manageable for the present but if that should change, then I am sure the goodwill and enthusiasm of the Members will be able to pick up any shortfall or even Track Trailrer for that matter. 
Thanks again to the Moderators and Administrators  "Great Work" ands "Well Done"!!

[rksbjs]

Great job all round guys, time can soon disappear with webs etc.,  .
Having come back to the forum after a bit of an absence had trouble logging on with old details but registering on this site fixed that.
Then found the old one still working all good.
Hope we don't lose all the other forum stuff as there is a wealth of great info there.