New Owner Introduction

[TimesTen]

I recently bought the community, about 3 hours ago in fact, from Nathan. My name is Bob and I've been involved in buying and building community forums since 1995. In the past I had a forum for Ford Ranger enthusiasts and another for Harley riders as part of my network. I sold the the 2 sites to concentrate on a new business venture. I always knew I would get back in the field again and when Nathan put this site for sale I decided, after reading through the threads, that this would be the perfect site to do it.

In the next few days I will be re-arranging the forums and looking to make the community run more efficiently. I will be doing this to make sure your user experience is better than ever.

I run most of my communities ads free so I will be removing the ads and sponsor listings. In the future as the site grows I will talk to companies to sponsor the community. I will promise you this. You will never see more than 1 ad if you are logged in as a member.

I will keep this thread updated with the changes as they happen. If you have any questions feel free to ask them. It's your time to make this community the way you want it.

 

[El Mamito USMC]

so i guess GRT is no longer the owner..

welcome to our community... not to comfortable about removing the ads from sponsors but its not my site..

hope its stays as good or better than what it is today...

 

[TimesTen]

If a company wants to sponsor the site I will negotiate with them.

 

[Baileyguns]

Wow... 5 owners of this site since it started... 2 of which took member money through PayPal and disappeared?

Phantom
Cousehunter
Nathan
Grhatt
And now AWS

Good luck bob.. I hope you get it to work.

 

[ghott]

Good to hear, hope all works out well!

 

[bvet4dog]

Which is why i never donated! I've seen several forums being shut down or owners taking off with donation funds.

Bob I'm curious to see what your plan are with www.offtopic.forum? a complete overhaul on the forum? I like the thoughts about the ADS disappearing however, if it's a site sponsor, their ads should be up.

 

[foretrax]

Yeah love the empty promises about not selling the site from the first guy. Oh well keep us up to date on the changes and welcome to the forum

 

[TimesTen]

I had no idea that previous owners took the money and ran. You can be sure that will not happen with me. I am in this for the long haul.

As of now the only sponsors the site has are the ones setup by the previous owners. I don't know what kind of contract they had so I am leaving them. I will also look for other sponsors. I still have some contacts from when I ran my Harley forum. I will not be looking for money I will be looking for them to give prizes for contests.

I will keep everyone up to date with the changes. I have already removed the ads and donations. I am weighing my options as far as software goes. I might stay with vBulletin although I haven't used it in a few years. I use IP.Board and I also use XenForo and right now I am leaning to converting to XenForo. Whichever way it goes it will not be done without input from all the users.

 

[Burke]

Best of luck Bob... as far as ads go, I think we are all pretty well OK with the one small banner with the site sponsors randomly appearing in it. as far as the sponsors go, I'm not really sure if they all know they are "sponsors"... there is some very good info in some of their sections, so if you do delete them, are we at least going to retain that info?

 

[TimesTen]

All posts and content is staying. If I remove anything it will be the banners on the forums.

 

[woodwardspecialties]

Glad to hear!! Hoping to see this site grow! Woodward Specialties is glad to be part of it!

 

[Nathan]

Wow... 5 owners of this site since it started... 2 of which took member money through PayPal and disappeared?

Phantom
Cousehunter
Nathan
Grhatt
And now AWS

Good luck bob.. I hope you get it to work.

Just wanted to clear this up. There has not been 5 owners.

I created this site for Devon the user 450rhq that never paid for the the development, vbulletin license, and quit paying his hosting. After trying to contact him several times without answer I offered the site to anyone that wanted to take it over. That what Grhatt. He then also disappeared and quit paying the hosting fees. I then was alerted that he took a copy of the database and started an exact clone of the site on .org. I've only ever maintained and hosted the site. Due to them not paying their hosting I can only assume they pocketed the money you guys donated.

AWS purchased the site now and is hosting it on his own. He has a long background of running forums so I don't imagine there will be any more changes in the future.

Also AWS, I like the new skin or skin changes a lot, good job.

 

[TimesTen]

Thanks Nathan. I was unsure if I'd stay with vbulletin or not. Once I made that decision I chose the skin.

 

[airmobile101]

You know.......... not to be a azz,but DO NOT EXPECT ME TO DONATE ANYMORE!!!!! AWS........ I wish you the best and pray you can get this thingrunning in the right direction.

 

[TimesTen]

I'm not expecting any donations from anyone. If I need to generate revenue I have other options available.

 

[El Mamito USMC]

Just wanted to clear this up. There has not been 5 owners.

I created this site for Devon the user 450rhq that never paid for the the development, vbulletin license, and quit paying his hosting. After trying to contact him several times without answer I offered the site to anyone that wanted to take it over. That what Grhatt. He then also disappeared and quit paying the hosting fees. I then was alerted that he took a copy of the database and started an exact clone of the site on .org. I've only ever maintained and hosted the site. Due to them not paying their hosting I can only assume they pocketed the money you guys donated.

AWS purchased the site now and is hosting it on his own. He has a long background of running forums so I don't imagine there will be any more changes in the future.

Also AWS, I like the new skin or skin changes a lot, good job.

i was one of the members that donated so this site could keep running.. and i hate thieves BTW

 

[bvet4dog]

Same here. I put one in before :/

 

[ridingred]

Maybe we need to find out who to contact if a donation was made. Who took the money and ran?

I really like that this site is undergoing new ownership. AWS, you seem to be serious and experienced with public forums. I think this is finally a step in the right direction. Previously (not you Nathan), we had newbie owners who honestly had a tough time managing. It's important that the owner not be involved in a certain click of riders, but instead offer the forum to any and all types of riders. Deven had issues as far as favoring and supporting his friends instead of keeping this open for everyone to enjoy, it sounds like he went shady, definitely not something we need around here.

Best of luck AWS, i see a better future for this site already.