Hi John,

FMBC's web forum works well enough, but they are no longer the group
they were before the web forums went online. They originally used an
email list to keep their group in touch between campouts, and their were
complaints similar to the ones vented here recently. Since the web forum
went online that core group has been considerably diluted by people who
aren't part of that demographic. The groups a lot bigger, but many of
the original members have lost interest in the web forums. Luckily I can
still catch up with them at campouts, or on other lists.

They also get multiple/repeat postings regularly. Search for Verdier.ca
there, for instance, and it comes up repeatedly. Tires, Oil,
batteries... it happens all the time, same as here.

Picture posting is nice, but for a group the size of Vanagon.com it'll
break the bank quite promptly. FMBC has been forced to subsidize their
server with advertising, and I would rather not go there. There are only
so many sympathetic advertisers out there, and only how much screen real
estate should one have to give up? As many people have already said: If
it's a web forum you want, they already exist elsewhere.

I participate on an active Yahoo group; they do a good job of combining
email with a web-based service but you are still out of luck in terms of
attachments and inline graphics. And the service has been going downhill
lately since they started embedding ads in messages. Quoting has been a
real hassle lately.

My $.02 would be to keep the vanaon list as-is.

Happy Trails,

Greg Potts
1973/74/79 Westfakia "Bob the Tomato"
1987 Wolfsburg Weekender Hardtop
www.busesofthecorn.com
www.pottsfamily.ca

John Runberg wrote:
> Huh. who woulda thought people loved the volume of email so much :) ?
>
> Alternate position (at least to most I've read) -- use forum software
> that emails new posts out to those that want them. In a perfect
> world, allow people to post from email. Alright, who's first to swing
> at me?
>
> Seriously, there are a couple distinct benefits to a more modern
> system (note, I didn't say forum, just something more modern).
>
> - ability to post pictures
> - ability to do a decent search in a reasonable amount of time
> - possibly a large reduction in duplicate posts (tires, coolant, etc...)
> - ability to link to older posts / threads that answer a common question
> - ability to easily ignore topics that don't interest you (instead of
> wading through page after page of it)
>
> Full Moon Bus Club (if someone mentioned it already, I'm sorry.
> Haven't been keeping up on my Gerry) works really well using a forum
> and honestly I think it's better in some ways and not as good in others.
>
> To each their own...
>
> john
>

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