In the latest of things that WBCCI probably should NOT do to help itself, the newly created forums, which will be presented at the International Rally in Madison, is going to be hosted on a site that is not owned or operated by the WBCCI. In fact – it will be on a site belonging to a commercial vendor that has zero responsibility or ties to WBCCI. He is a member of WBCCI however – at least that much.
Looking at these new forums, it is apparent that a lot or work has gone into upgrading the forums. But it also appears that little thought was given to the multitude of issues that can and inevitably will arise from NOT hosting those forums on a site that is owned, managed and controlled by the WBCCI. The address will be forums.vintage-airstream.com. They are locked right now so you can't really see anything, but you can get a preview... Just read a little more.
Look at things like Identity, backup issues, loss of data or the forums itself. What if the vendor goes out of business? What if?
I think these questions were not thought of. But if they were, they were discarded as unimportant.
Speaking of discarded as unimportant, I offered to host those forums on a site that would honor the WBCCI’s identity. I went one better than that – I offered to GIVE WBCCI the hosting and domain name. I don’t think they will take it – especially after this letter….
Hey, if you don’t want to read all of this history,
CLICK HERE to see the final point of my message. But come back to read the history and see how this situation
COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED.
Back in November I was asked to be on the Electronic Communications Sub Committee – actually, Leo Garvey was but he thought I would be a better candidate for the job. Chairman Mr. Charlie Burke and I started communicating (I still have all of my email correspondence between he and I). The goal was to build new forums and recover the content of the old forums. I have experience in forums (and web server administration, mySQL administration, email server administration and all sorts of other web stuff) so I looked into what it would take to get the content off the old forums site. The easiest way would be to do a database dump and get that data. But it was quickly apparent that there was no simple way to do that and any work performed by OTS (the company that currently maintains the WBCCI’s site) would cost the club money. In fact, they wanted to charge somewhere between 8,000 to 12,000 just to create that new forums and move the old posts to a new forums. I guess that it will have to be done by hand – copy and paste each post, post after post, thread after thread. In the early stages the vision was that the
members would take the website to a new server – imagine, members with the skill for server administration saving the club $3000 per year by contributing to the club, what the club is currently paying for. I loved it!
All through November we were talking about who owns the WBCCI.org domain name and how the club could take over, design, build and maintain a web site. I was giving lots of advice on searching domain name ownership, hosting companies, forums software, content management systems and all sorts of web geek talk. It was looking really interesting. Heck, there were even plans on building and presenting at Madison a “web support team” to get the job done and I thought for some reason, that I just might be on that team. Heck, we were even talking about shopping around for a host “who could handle where we want to go”.
Enter the Mid-winter IBT meeting and the 20/20 report. In that they are talking about having a design firm come in and redesign the whole thing and put it all together, then having the members maintain some of the content. Want to guess how much that would cost? I was disheartened and I said so. It was nothing like we were talking about. I mention that the VAC is doing this with the assistance of a –professional designer who is a member, and of course a web guy who is also a member – cost to the VAC – minimal. The WBCCI could do the same! What are the 20/20 folks talking about, I wonder to myself…
Listening to the IBT meeting I walk away with the impression that the IBT does not really understand how forums work. There’s talk of moderating and disciplinary action, finding imposters posting as other people. All sorts of things . I express my concerns about the direction that the IBT wants the forums to go – overmoderation leads to non-use of the forums and that leads to the death of them. I start to feel that things may not go as smoothly as I first thought, especially if the IBT gets into the mix. And what are the Terms of Service I ask. I had not seen them…
But still, things are looking positive, talk is that once the forums are done, the web site is next “and that is where the rubber hits the road”. One stumble to get over is the Terms of Service that the members are going to have to agree with in order to use the forums.
This is where I first learn of “
the offer”. Greg from Vintage-airstream.com has offered to setup and maintain forums for the club
in exchange for a sponsor link. Of course the forums would be hosted on his servers. And my request to see the TOS – well, that would be forwarded right away. See, at some point Charlie thought I “wasn’t a fan of the team approach” so didn’t tell me what was going on. Team? What team? All I knew about was the work Charlie and I were doing. I was never informed of anybody else being involved. Certainly never informed of an offer. I also was not informed that talks were ongoing with OTC about still doing the work. By now I am getting the impression that I am not being informed of a lot of things.
It is now the 14th of January – 2 months have passed and over 44 email correspondence has been exchanged on the subject. I am feeling really uncomfortable about the forums being hosted on a site not related to WBCCI and I express that to Charlie. I also make Charlie an offer. I will, free of charge, build the forums using Simple Machines forums – the same software that Save Wally is using and I will host those forums, free of charge! Or, I will set-up new forums on the WBCCI’s existing site if we can get access from OTS. And I will do it all for nothing. No sponsor link, no recompense of any sort.
Fast forward a few weeks and I hear nothing of progress happening to the site. Then I come across a post on the AirForums that progress is being made on the new forums. I am surprised because the whole time I thought I was going to be a part of this, it got REAL quiet, real quick. Then all of a sudden it is happening – or rather should I say happened and passed me by. Team indeed! I get the impression I am already out the door, the decision has been made. Vintage-Airstream.com is going to put it together.
Oh, the good news! There is a place for me! How would I like to be a beta tester?
What?!? Are you kidding? Oh, better news; the forums will have their own domain name! Whew, and I was worried. They will also have a blog and a wiki! Wow! All of this and somehow I was passed over when discussing the details. I guess my offer to host free was thrown out the window.
4 months pass (present day) and suddenly Charlie is at my doorstep asking how my work on the Vintage Airstream Club web site is going along – just like that, out of the blue. I am surprised. He says that the new WBCCI forums will be operational by the 24th of June and will be released on the 26th of June. Really? Where is it? What’s the address? Ready for this. The “new domain name” I was told about is
forums.vintage-airstream.com. That is it – it is just a sub domain of a commercial vendor’s site. We couldn’t do better than that?
I don’t know if anybody else if feeling like I am but the WBCCI looks like it really short changed itself. That is another whack at selling the club’s identity right down the river. And it never had to happen. The club should have invested in the server space and domain name to maintain its identity and certainly could have utilized the services of it’s many talented members to put a forums together. Oh, and those “recovered posts “from the old forums – a copy and paste job which is archived so they can be read over.
I for one feel cheated and I was very angry about this. But I still believe that there is time to correct this situation. I think that given the choice, the WBCCI could alter course before it’s too late and get that domain name and server space and put a forums where they should be – under the direct and complete control of the WBCCI.
And for that I am willing to try ONE LAST TIME – I am offering FREE of endorsements, sponsor links, fees dues or recompense OF ANY KIND to host the new forums under a site that is owned by WBCCI. And if it can’t be on WBCCI.org, no problem – I have purchased the domain name
WBCCIforums.Org and I will give that to the WBCCI free of charge, endorsements, sponsor links, fees dues or recompense OF ANY KIND so that the new forums can be hosted on a site that is owned and controlled by WBCCI. This offer is such that if WBCCI wanted, they could also transfer WBCCI.Org to the same server space and start maintaining that for itself, freeing them from OTS and saving $3000 per year. These items I am giving to WBCCI if they will take it.
FREE!
I am just a member who is concerned that the WBCCI leadership should really consider the implications of hosting such a valuable asset off site and out from it’s direct control. It doesn’t have to. These new forums SHOULD be under the WBCCI umbrella. WBCCIforums.Org is a far better choice than a name which is misleading at best, will confuse many members (hey, is this a vintage site I am going to?) and eventually will have to be moved to WBCCI’s site sooner or later. Why take a chance at losing all of that data? Let’s make the right move NOW. Either park those forums at WBCCI.org or if that can’t be done, move them to a web site that the WBCCI can own right now for zero cost.
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Topic: WBCCI Forums - Missing The Mark? (Read 2487 times)