Tom
Administrator
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2005
- Posts
- 51,975
I was asked to summarize the RV Forum history for attendees at the 2009 Quartzsite rally, and subsequently thought it might be appropriate to post here in the hope that others will find it of interest. It's a long story, but I've tried to spare you some of the details.
BACKGROUND
The RV Forum was originally formed in 1993 when Ed Juge retired from Tandy Corporation & bought an RV. Unable to find any online forum for Rvers, Ed approached Compuserve, signed a contract, and the RV Forum as born.
Late in 2001 Ed became seriously ill and, being unable to continue to run the forum, passed the baton to yours truly. We arranged for the Compuserve contract to be transferred, and I was on the hook. I made a commitment to Ed to run the forum for the benefit of our members, and hopefully have lived up to that commitment. Sadly, Ed passed away in March 2003, but his legacy lives on in the RV Forum and its members.
Due to the fact that Compuserve's URLs were virtually invisible to search engines, I set up a web site with the rvforum.net domain to act as a portal and attract visitors from the web. This proved to be successful, as many new members were finding us via that route.
Over the years, Compuserve was acquired by H&R Block and later by AOL, but there was little or no investment in forums. As AOL made further acquisitions (e.g. Netscape), we'd see new names/faces 'in charge of forums'. My challenge was to maintain a rapport with the changing AOL staff, and to be an advocate for retaining their HMI (host-micro interface) software, which allowed our members to use off-line reader software. The latter minimized members' use of slow connections or expensive cell phone minutes.
AOL's business model became one of 'maximizing eyeballs on paid advertisements'. They introduced new forum software and loaded up the message pages with lots of ads. Slow downloading of these ads, combined with a maximum of 3 messages/page, made it virtually impossible for many members to participate, resulting in a significant decline in forum activity.
Attendees at the 2005 Quartzsite rally voted to move the forum from Compuserve to the internet. Hosting was secured, and software packages were evaluated before one was selected for forum use. Staff testing began in February 2005, we opened the doors to the re-made forum in March 2005, and members began to arrive. Fortunately, we saw a mixture of returning long-time members from the old place in addition to many new members.
FORUM RESOURCES
Today the RV Forum comprises our web site/portal, message boards for the daily exchange of information, a library of files and articles, live chat in our Virtual Campfire, photo albums, and much more. We are continually adding new &/or improved resources and features to help improve the forum experience for our members.
WELCOME NEW ADDITIONS
In mid 2008 we were asked if we could open a message board for RV owners in the UK. We see many folks from the UK visit the forum and ask about RVs and RVing, and "American RVs" are popular over there, so this was a good match.
Late in 2008 we were approached by a group of Winnebago Owners to see if we'd be prepared to open a manufacturer-specific board for them. After some initial discussion to investigate common ground, the board was opened, and long-time forum member John Canfield volunteered to be the Moderator.
We also opened several boards for activities that folks conduct in connection with RVing (or, as I prefer to say, activities for which an RV is an enabler). These include, fishing, boating, photography, and 4-wheeling. A more recent addition was the Making Music On The Road message board.
We welcome all the folks who have joined as a result of the new boards, and existing members who participate; We appreciate the addition of their combined knowledge and experience.
FORUM MEMBERSHIP & STAFF
The forum exists for the benefit of the members and, without the wonderful group of members who come here regularly to share their knowledge and experience, this would not be a forum.
No discussion of the RV Forum would be complete without acknowledgement of the dedicated group of volunteers who make up the forum staff. They come here regularly to welcome new members, answer questions and/or help to find answers. Without their tireless efforts, the forum would not be what it is today. Many of these folks have been with us for a very long time, and some are more recent volunteers. Click the Hosts button above to see who these folks are, and to read a little of their backgrounds. If you meet one of these folks at a rally or some other event, please say a big thank you for their efforts.
Several other forum members served as volunteer staff in prior years, while a few others have either passed away or moved on; Their efforts are also very much appreciated.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the many folks who have contributed their time in other ways, such as writing articles, creating/uploading files, or providing advice to fellow members. This work is much appreciated, and serves as a good knowledgebase for folks in search of information.
PAYING THE BILLS
Our forum staff are unpaid volunteers, but our server resources cost real $$$. We could not operate the forum without the generous donations of forum members and the small number of forum sponsors. We owe a big thanks to all these folks who help keep the lights on.
MOVING FORWARD
We continually update the forum software as mods and patches are released by the developers, and security updates are installed immediately. Major revisions of the forum software are usually accessible to our forum staff for testing while still in beta. We usually have several other software packages under evaluation at any given time.
Our menu system occasionally gets tweaked to provide greater visibility and easier access to the numerous resources here. We encourage you to investigate the menu and sub-menus; You might find resources you didn't know exist.
Security is a continual game of cat & mouse with hackers & spammers. Suffice to say that this takes up quite a bit of our time and that of the software developers.
It's been quite a ride, and I personally have had a lot of fun. I learn something new here every day.
Edit: Several updates.
BACKGROUND
The RV Forum was originally formed in 1993 when Ed Juge retired from Tandy Corporation & bought an RV. Unable to find any online forum for Rvers, Ed approached Compuserve, signed a contract, and the RV Forum as born.
Late in 2001 Ed became seriously ill and, being unable to continue to run the forum, passed the baton to yours truly. We arranged for the Compuserve contract to be transferred, and I was on the hook. I made a commitment to Ed to run the forum for the benefit of our members, and hopefully have lived up to that commitment. Sadly, Ed passed away in March 2003, but his legacy lives on in the RV Forum and its members.
Due to the fact that Compuserve's URLs were virtually invisible to search engines, I set up a web site with the rvforum.net domain to act as a portal and attract visitors from the web. This proved to be successful, as many new members were finding us via that route.
Over the years, Compuserve was acquired by H&R Block and later by AOL, but there was little or no investment in forums. As AOL made further acquisitions (e.g. Netscape), we'd see new names/faces 'in charge of forums'. My challenge was to maintain a rapport with the changing AOL staff, and to be an advocate for retaining their HMI (host-micro interface) software, which allowed our members to use off-line reader software. The latter minimized members' use of slow connections or expensive cell phone minutes.
AOL's business model became one of 'maximizing eyeballs on paid advertisements'. They introduced new forum software and loaded up the message pages with lots of ads. Slow downloading of these ads, combined with a maximum of 3 messages/page, made it virtually impossible for many members to participate, resulting in a significant decline in forum activity.
Attendees at the 2005 Quartzsite rally voted to move the forum from Compuserve to the internet. Hosting was secured, and software packages were evaluated before one was selected for forum use. Staff testing began in February 2005, we opened the doors to the re-made forum in March 2005, and members began to arrive. Fortunately, we saw a mixture of returning long-time members from the old place in addition to many new members.
FORUM RESOURCES
Today the RV Forum comprises our web site/portal, message boards for the daily exchange of information, a library of files and articles, live chat in our Virtual Campfire, photo albums, and much more. We are continually adding new &/or improved resources and features to help improve the forum experience for our members.
WELCOME NEW ADDITIONS
In mid 2008 we were asked if we could open a message board for RV owners in the UK. We see many folks from the UK visit the forum and ask about RVs and RVing, and "American RVs" are popular over there, so this was a good match.
Late in 2008 we were approached by a group of Winnebago Owners to see if we'd be prepared to open a manufacturer-specific board for them. After some initial discussion to investigate common ground, the board was opened, and long-time forum member John Canfield volunteered to be the Moderator.
We also opened several boards for activities that folks conduct in connection with RVing (or, as I prefer to say, activities for which an RV is an enabler). These include, fishing, boating, photography, and 4-wheeling. A more recent addition was the Making Music On The Road message board.
We welcome all the folks who have joined as a result of the new boards, and existing members who participate; We appreciate the addition of their combined knowledge and experience.
FORUM MEMBERSHIP & STAFF
The forum exists for the benefit of the members and, without the wonderful group of members who come here regularly to share their knowledge and experience, this would not be a forum.
No discussion of the RV Forum would be complete without acknowledgement of the dedicated group of volunteers who make up the forum staff. They come here regularly to welcome new members, answer questions and/or help to find answers. Without their tireless efforts, the forum would not be what it is today. Many of these folks have been with us for a very long time, and some are more recent volunteers. Click the Hosts button above to see who these folks are, and to read a little of their backgrounds. If you meet one of these folks at a rally or some other event, please say a big thank you for their efforts.
Several other forum members served as volunteer staff in prior years, while a few others have either passed away or moved on; Their efforts are also very much appreciated.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the many folks who have contributed their time in other ways, such as writing articles, creating/uploading files, or providing advice to fellow members. This work is much appreciated, and serves as a good knowledgebase for folks in search of information.
PAYING THE BILLS
Our forum staff are unpaid volunteers, but our server resources cost real $$$. We could not operate the forum without the generous donations of forum members and the small number of forum sponsors. We owe a big thanks to all these folks who help keep the lights on.
MOVING FORWARD
We continually update the forum software as mods and patches are released by the developers, and security updates are installed immediately. Major revisions of the forum software are usually accessible to our forum staff for testing while still in beta. We usually have several other software packages under evaluation at any given time.
Our menu system occasionally gets tweaked to provide greater visibility and easier access to the numerous resources here. We encourage you to investigate the menu and sub-menus; You might find resources you didn't know exist.
Security is a continual game of cat & mouse with hackers & spammers. Suffice to say that this takes up quite a bit of our time and that of the software developers.
It's been quite a ride, and I personally have had a lot of fun. I learn something new here every day.
Edit: Several updates.
