ex-webby

RSOC Forums - An offer of a solution.

Hi All

We have been trying to contact the webmaster of the RS Owners Club Forum for a few months now, but have not received a reply.

It is clear that the forums have been having technical difficulties, and this is no surprise, as a site of that size takes considerable resources to host and manage.

It seemed to us that we already have these resources available to you all.

So, our offer to the members of the RS Owners Club is this.

We will host and manage the RS Owners Club Website and forums free of charge. We will ensure that the site is effectively moderated to YOUR WISHES, and is fast and reliable - similar to scoobynet. We will cross benefit RSOC BBS with any appropriate facilities and features we develop for scoobynet (where possible), and will listen to you all in order to deal with the "moron element" on the boards that we see you are all tired of.

In exchange for this, we would ask for the commercial rights to the site, so that we can sell advertising, etc in order to pay for the bandwidth and associated costs.

Nobody should be too hard on the existing webmasters as running a site of that size is no simple task. The fact that we already have the resources to cater for scoobynet (which has many times the traffic of RSOC BBS) means that we in a better position to make a success of it.

This would mean..
- A fast and reliable site
- Professional moderation based on what YOU want
- The club (and therefore the members) will save all the costs of hosting the site

It would NOT become part of scoobynet, it could still be exactly the same, but just faster (if that's what you want). It will still be your site. It will just be maintained by us.

As the RSOC is a club, we assume that your votes count, and as we have been unable to contact the webmasters over the past months, we ask you to vote here if you would like this solution.

If you wouldn't, we have no problem (and you should vote that also), it will never be a "money earner" so it's no skin off our noses! We can just see that we could make a decent job of it, and could sell enough advertising at reasonable rates in order to cover it's costs.

Let us know.. make sure you vote, your vote will definitely count.

All the best

Simon / Shaun

[Edited by webmaster - 5/21/2003 9:04:48 PM]

47 NAT

You've got my vote!!! Do you need membership numbers as well?
Nath

dave cos4x4

Got mine too!!!!


Dave.

apples24

iTrader: (1)

im in, the rsoc site has been a complete shambles for over a year now, and i dont see any other large sites having the same problems , so it can only be down to one thing.

rswoza

i would like to hear what the rsoc chairman has to say first but that offer sounds good

johnfelstead

As the RS owners club is the owner of the site, why dont you contact the chairman/secretary of the club directly by letter/email? (not the webmaster but the people who run the club, maybe the webmaster is the problem there in the first place hence no response via that method)

I am sure if you emailed mike rainbird or any of the well known RS Owners club members who are regulars here they would furnish you with the correct contact details so you can deal direct and offline to set something up which is mutually beneficial, should the RS Owners club wish to go down that route.

neilm

Gets my vote....

BUT Some how... I feel Gizmo wont want to let it go...

If he doesnt then time to register the domain

www.notthersownersclub.co.uk and just run it there.....

Redkop

You get my vote as an RSOC member

Redkop

John the Webmaster is the Chairman of the club

spiky

you get my vote

JjCoDeX75

You got my vote!!

XRTypeRS

Yes you definately have my vote 100% and thank you very much for offering I have been saying that you should take over on the RSOC BB for MONTHS!! - we need someone with the technical knowhow, resources and commitment to make the RS BB work once and for all - and that is you. I think Scoobynet is excellent and if you can develop the RSOC BB in the way you have scoobynet with scoobyshop etc then good luck to you as the current regime obviously see the web as a necessary evil rather than the huge oppotunity it really is.

Some points maybe to think about...

1). I know you have signatures / avatars turned off on scoobynet but these are a rather integral part of the RSOC BB culture and Im sure you might not be too popular if you wanted to do away with them. There has been debate over wether these drain resource but I cant see how they do apart from the slight overhead of pulling back the image ref from the database as all the images are hosted remotely. Thus I hope you would leave them on.

2). I wouldnt want to see a charge for people selling cars and spares on the BB as this is an important aspect of its purpose - keeping our old heaps going!.

3). You would have to transfer peoples current post counts over otherwise their would be a riot!!.

4). Reading both boards I honestly have to say that there is a bit of a culture gap between Scoobynet and the RSOC which I think you might have to keep in mind when moderating etc. I think the banter on the RSOC can get a bit more out of hand than on here and historically it has been allowed up to a point. I totally agree that a line should be drawn but some of the charm of the RS BB are its characters and it would be a shame to ruin that. I suggest a large well padded muppetroom!! LOL

So please lads GO FOR IT, you will make a lot of people VERY VERY happy!!

Thanks

Stu

RSOC Member 36691

stu @ msport

Well,
Certainly gets my vote but im not a member

However,
being the number one user with 5000+ posts and 90% of it is my free technical advice i can at least offer to continue this support on the new BB if that helps?

Best Regards,
Stu

Alex zetec cabrio

sounds good to me

STUCOS

got my vote 100%

cheeRS stu

XRTypeRS

Wheres the link thread to this gone on Turbosport??, cant see it anymore

Shaun

Please feel free to post a link to this thread, on any forums you see fit etc. The post on Turbosport was removed by the moderators (which is probably understandable) Just to make it clear to Turbosport and all, we are not trying to take over the world here, we just know that we can provide the service that the RSOC BBS members have been asking for.

Regards,
Shaun.

s2 rs turbo

God idea, BUT
The board is suffering difficulties due to a hacker invading the site, this has been reported to the hackers isp and we will see what happens there first, but it would be nice to have a solid reliable bbs

AndyRS500bhp

Deffo gets my vote the RSOC board has been going downhill for the last 12months, a site as quick as this one would be a godsend

DROPTOP

not a member but like xr said if it happened the bb cant change. the reason i use rsocbb more than any other is cos its a laugh but also has some serious stuff on. think its good that the mods arent lil hitlers too n u can post anythin anywhere without it bein moved.

needs to stay blue too

chrisp

I would have thought you would follow the same forum rules and guidelines as scoobynetters do :

see here

[Edited by chrisp - 5/21/2003 10:24:05 PM]

chiark

I'm in no way speaking categorically for scoobynet here, as I'm just the moderator of the ICE section primarily, but I thought I'd try and clarify a couple of things

Just so everyone's aware, the software running this BBS is not off the shelf. Sigs and avatars aren't "turned off", they've not been written.

Implementing them would require full design/coding/testing cycles, it isn't just turning them "on".

That isn't a huge technical challenge, but it needs recognising that it isn't just a switch in the software

The comment about moderation is something that would have to be debated; the moderation on here is always done for a reason and, despite what some regulars may think, is *always* with the best intentions. There are clear guidelines which we all now try to adhere to.

Perhaps it'd be worth getting RSOC to comment on the guidelines and accept or amend as is seen fit?

Whatever, I think this offer could be a great step forward that'd help not only RSOC but scoobynet and the performance car "culture" on the net.

Cheers,
Nick.

stu @ msport

The 2nd link to this post has been deleted by Turbosport

I sense a conflict of interests somewhere guys

XRTypeRS

I agree chrisP, but as an example what do you think scoobynet would do to a post that was on the RSOC BB some months ago (and did get deleted) about PACE intercoolers.

Basically it had been proven independantly by a number of people that PACE intercoolers do not perform well compared to some others on the market and this was simply being discussed and people with experience of these products where airing their views (mainly negative). The thread was deleted but surely people expressing their personal views in this way cannot legally be a problem for the BB can it?, the RSOC has a disclaimer on its signup as Im sure you do so would this thread have been deleted on here - just interested?

Chiark - I see!, maybe thats why this performs well if it hasnt got all the lard of an off the shelf BB app - I personally am not bothered by sigs either way but I admit they do make things more interesting and its nice to recognise someones car when you go to a show etc from their sig . Like you say wouldnt be too hard to add, just another DB column or 2!. What is a "PlusMember" by the way?, does it mean your payed up?, if so that would be a great idea to extend to the RS BB, so club members could have an indicator like that - might encourage more people to join!

Shaun

XRTypeRS,

A ScoobyNetPlus Member, is a member of the ScoobyNetPlus scheme, which enables the member a ScoobyNetPlus member icon, ScoobyNetPlus members pack, entry into various exclusive competitions and a 10% discount on all products sold through Scoobyshop! These are only the base attractions of ScoobyNetPlus membership, more advantages are planned.

Regards,
Shaun.

ex-webby

thanks for the replies so far chaps, it's really important that people continue to vote, otherwise we'll assume it's not that important and just set you up a RS forum on scoobynet.

Just to clarify.

The ScoobyNet forum guidelines would NOT be inflicted on the RSOC board. The scoobynet guidelines are what the scoobynet members wanted. If the RSOC members want something different, then that's what they'll get (as long as it's legal, etc!! sorry!!)

The scoobynet software will not necessarily be used as the software for the RSOC BB unless that's what the RSOC wants. We would be happy to look at ways of implimenting the same software, we would even be more than happy to take on the database so that the club does not lose the wealth of discussion, and member history already on there. I personally think this would be essential.

The RSOC BB would continue to be the RSOC BB, it would not be the ScoobyNet RSOC BB. We will not change anything unless you want us to (which is the same rule we apply to ourselves on scoobynet).

Hope that's clear.

All the best

Simon

DROPTOP

CHRISP , this is the first time ive used scoob net so dont know exactly how the mods like to keep things goin but the rsocbb is the most relaxed ive been on n alot of ppl like it that way , fair enough it sometimes gets a bit ott (at times ive been involved) but no 1 really holds grudges n a good **** takin most of the time ends up with ppl chattin to new ppl (alot of ppl i talk to the most i first spoke to when we were callin each other).
if the rsbb was hitlerized i think quite a few users would find new bb's to waste their lives on

kevin sharp

gets my vote too
but then im not an rsoc member so mine might not count

spiky

stu it hasn't been deleted it has been moved to the muppett section

chrisp

So they would be two complete separate BBS and you would need a separate account/login to access the RS BBS ?