Hey Gang,
Sorry for the late official announcement. I've been a bit consumed by work this past week and haven't had a decent chance to write up something official. I was also trying to give Coop, JW, Gus and some of our senior members a bit of time to find any little bugs. I think we're all squared away now as far as I can tell.
So here goes!
You may remember that some time ago we had a thread in the board feedback forum, where there was a discussion about the possibility of us starting an additional, or sister message board and website. The basic idea that was tossed around at the time, was about the possibility of starting an additional sister site which would run along side this one, but with the new site being geared to the topic of all types and brands of boats. The motivation for the idea, was somewhat born out of some comments that were made by some members who had sold their Checkmates, and therefore felt that they had to move along as our site is more or less a strictly Checkmate geared website. So out of those comments came the idea of starting a second non-brand specific site which would be for all of us to chat about all our other non-Check boats and water toys.
Well, since shortly after that period, I've actually been quietly putzing away at making the idea of having a sister site a reality. I've slowly worked away at the project for about six months or so now. It actually takes quite a bit of work to put one of these things together at least if you want to make it somewhat unique. There are quite a number of steps involved as you can probably imagine, and some are admittingly more about developing the actual concepts of what you'd like to do, more than it is actually about doing the work itself. And sometimes part of the challenge is that you get a great idea but the domain is not available so you go back to the drawing board. God I hate that!
So in creating the new sister site, the idea I had for it was that it's primary mandate should be that it should like an extension of this site. What I imagined when I developed the new site's concept was that it would be like our open boating forum but rather than it being all cluttered together, it would be broken apart and all organized like the rest of our forum is. I also wanted the new site to support the discussion of multiple brands and also multiple styles and types of boats. So more or less, I wanted to develop a site that was inclusive of anyone and every type of boat. Be that a Checkmate, I/O, Jet boat, Wood Boat, Performance Boat, Family boat etc. And my hope was, by setting the site up to be about the basic love of boating that the site could have the opportunity to become a true boating resource for the larger boating community as well as ours, very similar to how this site has become a great resource for Checkmate owners.
And as much as it would be neat to do that under the Checkmate-Boats banner, after five years, I've come to the conclusion that it's going to be near impossible for us to really nail the open boating category on this site. For us here, we're always going to be first and foremost about Checkmates. That's the perception and that's the reality.
So given that, I've put together this new site. The idea is that the sister site will be a little unique site of it's own, with it's own unique domain name, it's own little sense of style, but hopefully with the same vibe that we have here which many people have mentioned that they really like.
As I've said previously in other postings, the truth of the matter is that the members make a forum what it is, or isn't. Sure, Administrators can influence to some degree I suppose, but the members make or break a site. And there is no doubt, that we have a really great group that hang out here.
Now what we aren't trying to do with this new site, is to emulate the other sites that are already out there. To me that would serve no purpose at all.
So what the new site isn't intended to be about, is who's boat is fastest, who's is biggest, or which one has the ability to attract the hottest babes.
It also isn't intended to be about what brand of boat you own, or what kind of boat you own for that matter. Instead, what I would like to see this site be about, is about fostering the true love of the boating pastime. No matter what kind of boat you own. On this new site everyone should feel like they have a place! I'd also like to see this site be about the love of fixing and restoring boats. I think that's one of the coolest aspects that we have going here, in that we have a large number of members that enjoy bringing back boats from the brink of death.
And really and truly, I've set this site up mainly for all of you. With this site, now if you sell your Checkmate, you'll still have a room with us.
Anyway, I think y'all get the idea.
I'm sure there are a few logistical questions, so I'll try to answer the obvious ones. If you have additional ones, just post them in this thread and I'll respond.
With regard to the supporting member program...
For the new site, all the supporting members here who want to participate in the new forums will also get the benefit of being a supporter on the new site. So if you're a supporter on either site, you get to enjoy the benefits on both. All that will be required, is for you to send me a PM letting me know your two board names so that I can manually enter the additional subscription into your profile and set you up on both sites as a supporting member.
With regard to our supporting vendors...
For our supporting vendors, the same deal applies to you as it does with the supporting members. So, if you're a supporting vendor here, your privileges also extend to the second site. Again, all that's required, is for you to send me a PM with your board names (I'd recommend the same one) and I'll manually enter the additional subscription information in and you'll be good to go.
With regard to advertisers...
For our current advertisers, I've extended the advertising to include both sites at the current rate agreements. My intention is to try to keep that policy in place for our current advertisers (assuming they like the idea) and I suppose we'll review this area as we go forward depending on what our advertisers find effective for them, and based on what they would like to do. For our current three, Randy, Unique and Lakeside Restoration, I've already put your ads up on the new site, but if you don't want them on the new site for some reason, let me know and I can remove them if you wish. I figured you'd want them up so I proceeded on that basis. I hope I guessed right! If not, just let me know.
With respect to your membership here and there...
In order to run the new board on it's own unique website url address, a completely separate board has been used. So the database on the new site is totally different. You will therefore have to register on the new site separately. So you may want to register your name sooner rather than later if you want to make sure you get your favorite handle!
Is there some evil plot to abandon this site and move to just having the new one?
None whatsoever. For me this will always be home. But like many of you, I love may types of boating. And also own more than one boat. The actual hope is that this new site will add to this site in that it gives us an even better venue for discussing our other toys.
What's else is coming if anything?....
Well, I'm always quietly working on stuff. Right now I'm working on adding a really neat resource feature to this site which I think you'll really like. It's something I looked at adding last fall actually. But our current servers specs didn't support this new software package. So what I have done is set up our sister site on a separate and more powerful dedicated server, which allow us to run multiple domains off of it. So what is coming will be run off of the new server, but will be a feature that we will add to this site. Personally, I think it will be absolutely killer when it's done.
Anyway, that's all for now. I hope all of you will take some time and wander over to the sister site join up and participate. We still have a bit of finishing work to do. Perhaps you can help us! I'd certainly love to see all your non Check boats and hear all about them! And it would certainly be nice to see a few old faces that sold their Checkies, pop in, join up and make Endless Boating one of their daily internet stops.
I hope you enjoy the additional forums.
-Chris
Sorry for the late official announcement. I've been a bit consumed by work this past week and haven't had a decent chance to write up something official. I was also trying to give Coop, JW, Gus and some of our senior members a bit of time to find any little bugs. I think we're all squared away now as far as I can tell.
So here goes!
You may remember that some time ago we had a thread in the board feedback forum, where there was a discussion about the possibility of us starting an additional, or sister message board and website. The basic idea that was tossed around at the time, was about the possibility of starting an additional sister site which would run along side this one, but with the new site being geared to the topic of all types and brands of boats. The motivation for the idea, was somewhat born out of some comments that were made by some members who had sold their Checkmates, and therefore felt that they had to move along as our site is more or less a strictly Checkmate geared website. So out of those comments came the idea of starting a second non-brand specific site which would be for all of us to chat about all our other non-Check boats and water toys.
Well, since shortly after that period, I've actually been quietly putzing away at making the idea of having a sister site a reality. I've slowly worked away at the project for about six months or so now. It actually takes quite a bit of work to put one of these things together at least if you want to make it somewhat unique. There are quite a number of steps involved as you can probably imagine, and some are admittingly more about developing the actual concepts of what you'd like to do, more than it is actually about doing the work itself. And sometimes part of the challenge is that you get a great idea but the domain is not available so you go back to the drawing board. God I hate that!
So in creating the new sister site, the idea I had for it was that it's primary mandate should be that it should like an extension of this site. What I imagined when I developed the new site's concept was that it would be like our open boating forum but rather than it being all cluttered together, it would be broken apart and all organized like the rest of our forum is. I also wanted the new site to support the discussion of multiple brands and also multiple styles and types of boats. So more or less, I wanted to develop a site that was inclusive of anyone and every type of boat. Be that a Checkmate, I/O, Jet boat, Wood Boat, Performance Boat, Family boat etc. And my hope was, by setting the site up to be about the basic love of boating that the site could have the opportunity to become a true boating resource for the larger boating community as well as ours, very similar to how this site has become a great resource for Checkmate owners.
And as much as it would be neat to do that under the Checkmate-Boats banner, after five years, I've come to the conclusion that it's going to be near impossible for us to really nail the open boating category on this site. For us here, we're always going to be first and foremost about Checkmates. That's the perception and that's the reality.
So given that, I've put together this new site. The idea is that the sister site will be a little unique site of it's own, with it's own unique domain name, it's own little sense of style, but hopefully with the same vibe that we have here which many people have mentioned that they really like.
As I've said previously in other postings, the truth of the matter is that the members make a forum what it is, or isn't. Sure, Administrators can influence to some degree I suppose, but the members make or break a site. And there is no doubt, that we have a really great group that hang out here.
Now what we aren't trying to do with this new site, is to emulate the other sites that are already out there. To me that would serve no purpose at all.
So what the new site isn't intended to be about, is who's boat is fastest, who's is biggest, or which one has the ability to attract the hottest babes.
It also isn't intended to be about what brand of boat you own, or what kind of boat you own for that matter. Instead, what I would like to see this site be about, is about fostering the true love of the boating pastime. No matter what kind of boat you own. On this new site everyone should feel like they have a place! I'd also like to see this site be about the love of fixing and restoring boats. I think that's one of the coolest aspects that we have going here, in that we have a large number of members that enjoy bringing back boats from the brink of death.
And really and truly, I've set this site up mainly for all of you. With this site, now if you sell your Checkmate, you'll still have a room with us.
Anyway, I think y'all get the idea.
I'm sure there are a few logistical questions, so I'll try to answer the obvious ones. If you have additional ones, just post them in this thread and I'll respond.
With regard to the supporting member program...
For the new site, all the supporting members here who want to participate in the new forums will also get the benefit of being a supporter on the new site. So if you're a supporter on either site, you get to enjoy the benefits on both. All that will be required, is for you to send me a PM letting me know your two board names so that I can manually enter the additional subscription into your profile and set you up on both sites as a supporting member.
With regard to our supporting vendors...
For our supporting vendors, the same deal applies to you as it does with the supporting members. So, if you're a supporting vendor here, your privileges also extend to the second site. Again, all that's required, is for you to send me a PM with your board names (I'd recommend the same one) and I'll manually enter the additional subscription information in and you'll be good to go.
With regard to advertisers...
For our current advertisers, I've extended the advertising to include both sites at the current rate agreements. My intention is to try to keep that policy in place for our current advertisers (assuming they like the idea) and I suppose we'll review this area as we go forward depending on what our advertisers find effective for them, and based on what they would like to do. For our current three, Randy, Unique and Lakeside Restoration, I've already put your ads up on the new site, but if you don't want them on the new site for some reason, let me know and I can remove them if you wish. I figured you'd want them up so I proceeded on that basis. I hope I guessed right! If not, just let me know.
With respect to your membership here and there...
In order to run the new board on it's own unique website url address, a completely separate board has been used. So the database on the new site is totally different. You will therefore have to register on the new site separately. So you may want to register your name sooner rather than later if you want to make sure you get your favorite handle!
Is there some evil plot to abandon this site and move to just having the new one?
None whatsoever. For me this will always be home. But like many of you, I love may types of boating. And also own more than one boat. The actual hope is that this new site will add to this site in that it gives us an even better venue for discussing our other toys.
What's else is coming if anything?....
Well, I'm always quietly working on stuff. Right now I'm working on adding a really neat resource feature to this site which I think you'll really like. It's something I looked at adding last fall actually. But our current servers specs didn't support this new software package. So what I have done is set up our sister site on a separate and more powerful dedicated server, which allow us to run multiple domains off of it. So what is coming will be run off of the new server, but will be a feature that we will add to this site. Personally, I think it will be absolutely killer when it's done.
Anyway, that's all for now. I hope all of you will take some time and wander over to the sister site join up and participate. We still have a bit of finishing work to do. Perhaps you can help us! I'd certainly love to see all your non Check boats and hear all about them! And it would certainly be nice to see a few old faces that sold their Checkies, pop in, join up and make Endless Boating one of their daily internet stops.
I hope you enjoy the additional forums.
-Chris
