Rant/current events.

[blazerparts]

My apologies if I am oversimplifying here. If a section is heartburn (IE parts for sale) discontinue it or make it into free or trade. If a member is not complying with the rules kick them off.
If more money is needed to run the site how about members submitting pictures and creating calendars? 69-72 blazer calendar, truck calendar, 4wd calendar, etc. I'd be happy to pay $10 or so for a calendar, perhaps they could even be offered on ebay. Another potential money maker is put some of the FAQ topics in hard copy. There again those could be offered for sale on this board and possibly on ebay.

[RED72blazer]

I don't buy or sell much stuff in the parts board but would gladly pay for it's uses. To be honest I think we need to have a Mandatory subscription. Regardless of if you sell parts or not, we all use the site and should contribute to help keep this place going. If you want to post you have to pay. i don't have paypal, but I would like to send in for a membership. I think that if you can't pony up 25 bucks to be a member you probably can't afford to put gas in your truck. So let's try and give Josh a hand, He deserves it for putting up with all the crap that comes along with this site.

oops, just read the help support the board thread, when I get payed I'll send some money out. thanks red72

[tomatocity]

Buying and Selling is important for me for more than one reason but the main reason is I learn more of what is and is not available and what the value of these parts are.
I don't see where there should be a problem with B&S. It is not eBay and the Board (Josh) should not have to put time into disputes. The deals are between the buyer and seller and the Board has little to do with it. We are big people and should be able to make honest deals. The buyer should always ask lots of questions and ask for written statements if their money and the parts ar eimportant to them. The seller should be as good to the buyer as they would themselves. Honesty is not that difficult to accomplish. If you are dishonest and/or a crook then you have to live with yourself.

[boogie67]

I have not sold any thing on the board . I have bought alot of little parts that I need for my 67 here.I really enjoy this site and anything I can do to help I'll be glad to do it.The site is very helpful to those of learning how to work on our trucks.

[woodridge]

Just sent in next years subscription, I know it's not much but I want to show my support is more than just a post! Keep it clean and honest guy's n gal's and we will be able to enjoy this for a long time.

[ChevLoRay]

After I got off the board on Sunday, I did the paid subscription. I have done this before, but actually lost interest in my '69 for a while. Still got it...still needs paint....interior.....etc. Still runs great and drives like it should. Got waaaay tooooo much invested for the way it looks, but driving it is a hoot. My grandson wants to get it painted, but I've had to pay too many of his momma's car payments, insurance payments, house payments, medical bills, school tuition, etc., to do both. I'm glad she's on her own, for now and making money, instead of siphoning mine off. Now, if I can only get enough of it back to get started on the body work......

This is a great website and I have enjoyed it immensely over the past several years. I have gotten a lot of helpful information and I've tried to share some of what I know. It's really been almost two years since I was really into the scene on a daily basis. The garage is full, because I hoard stuff......you never know when you might need it, right? But, for those who have not yet considered the paltry $25 per year, give it a little more thought.

Like I said before, Josh, you're doin' a great job. I know your plate if full....if not running off all the edges. You've got to take care of your mom, while you've still got her. It's what we do, right? Take care of each other.

[al's71gmc]

Originally Posted by blazerparts

My apologies if I am oversimplifying here. If a section is heartburn (IE parts for sale) discontinue it or make it into free or trade. If a member is not complying with the rules kick them off.
If more money is needed to run the site how about members submitting pictures and creating calendars? 69-72 blazer calendar, truck calendar, 4wd calendar, etc. I'd be happy to pay $10 or so for a calendar, perhaps they could even be offered on ebay. Another potential money maker is put some of the FAQ topics in hard copy. There again those could be offered for sale on this board and possibly on ebay.

Excellent ideas!! If someone could set it up where you could chose the trucks you want on your calender, that would be way cool!! (I don't know if that's practicle? Printing costs might be excessive.). For those of us that have average daily drivers it would likely be the only time I'd see my truck on a cal. But I'd buy one with board member trucks on it anyway.
Another thought might be having different levels of contribution.
$0-read only
$10- Post only, no sales, no PM
$25- full benies
To many board members $50 or $100 would be easy. Maybe diff color sigs?/user names? Or even just having a choice of how much to contribute?
Thanks again Josh and all the Mods for this board.
Al

[lamar]

Sounds like a great idea. I work for a larger sized printing company that could do a very nice calendar if that happens. I could save a few bucks on the cost and put in my time for free to futher lower costs. For a nice book store caliber calendar the cost is not cheap at all, but the end results and the sales would far out weight the cost in the long run. Also like most everything else the more you buy the lower the price per peice is. Lamar.

[thejoker]

I think some may be missing the point. Josh and the mods have enough on their hands maintaining the board without having to organize and handle fund raisers.
Who is going to take care of organizing and deciding what trucks go on the calendar?
Who is going to store the printed material?
Who is going to take care of shipping?
Who is going to build the Ebay auctons and process those orders?
Who is going to handle orders not received?

The list goes on and on. Why not just chip in $25 for your year and get it over with. Most us spend more than that a weekend at the parts house. Those who use the board to buy and sell definitely should be chipping in. Go buy a book at the book store with all the info you can gather from this site, how much will that book cost you? Probably more than $25 and not come close to giving you as much info.

This site is the greatest truck site on the net, period. Take a second and think about this, what if the site wasn't available anymore what would you do?

Of course these are only my opinions.

Kudos to Josh for the best truck site ever!

DP

[Mongo]

Josh,
I can say that you have 100% support form me. Even though I may not totally agree with your decisions I will support you, because that is what being part of a team, no being part of a family is about. I have been a Member of this board for a long time and have seen people came and go. I am glad to still be here and continue to contribute in anyway that I can. Anyway I do appreciate the effort you have put in to this site and am proud to be apart of it. Again if there is anything I can do to help you don't hesitate to ask I will help out in any way that I can.

For the rest of ya'al
I can remember way back when this site fairly new. Josh was...well a lot younger then, and I must say I was impressed that someone of his age could manage such a feat of building and organizing such a great site. I have seen this site grow as more members join.I have gotten to know some really great people over the years. though we have never met face to face. I would not hesitate for one second to invite them in for a cold one (even if it were my last one). I can't count the times I have come here looking for and found answers to questions that the "pros" at the local shop could not answer. I owe a lot to Josh and others on this site for just being here.
If the time has come that the hammer must fall and some fingers get smashed then so be it, Maybe it will make some sit up and pay attention as to how the conduct them selves.

[lamar]

I can't speak for every body but I like alot of others have sent the 25, but I'm sure it still isn't close to what it takes. These are only ideas and some pretty good ones. Nobody said it would be easy to carry out any of the new ideas, but with all the great people we have here in one place it would be easily handled. Sure alot of time and effort will have to be put forth, but we owe it to Josh and the board itself to do something to take some of the pressure off of Josh and give him some much needed rest. Lamar.

[HuggerCST]

I like the idea of a calender also, and have talked with Josh about putting one together in the past, but I haven't gotten serious with it yet. I'd like to do one using board member's trucks, and maybe even truck of the month trucks. Doing it locally, my estimates had each calender costing me way more than $10 each though. How many people would buy a $20 calender? I'm interested in looking into it if you are lamar.

[junkyardjohn]

HMMM ... THIS SITE HAS GROWN INCREDITABLY IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. 19,000 MEMBERS NOW?? I HAD NO IDEA. ALL OF THESE FUND RAISING IDEAS ARE GREAT, BUT JUST FOR A MINUTE LETS FIGURE ON A $25 FEE TO BE ALLOWED TO SELL. IF EVEN 1/2 OF THE MEMBERSHIP PAY THE $25 ANNUAL FEE (9,550 X $25 = $237,500.00) & IF A MANDITORY ANNUAL $25 MEMBERSHIP FEE IS IMPLIMENTED, THATS 19,000 X $25 = 475,000.00 . ADD THE TWO TOGETHER & YOU HAVE 712,500.00. NOW YOU WOULD HAVE TO SELL AN AWFUL LOT OF CALENDERS OR T SHIRTS OR STICKERS TO COME UP WITH OVER SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. NOW I KNOW IT MUST BE EXPENSIVE TO RUN THIS BOARD.. BUT $712,500.00 WONT EVEN CRACK THE NUT??? (DO THE MATH YOURSELF) IF A $25 MEMBERSHIP FEE IS IMPLIMENTED EVERY QUARTER (THREE MONTHS) INSTEAD OF ANNUALLY
(19,000 X 4 X $25 = 1900,000.00) THATS ALMOST TWO MILLION DOLLARS & THATS WITHOUT THE QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS FROM THE SELLERS FEE. AND THATS NOT COUNTING THE VENDOR FEES. MAYBE THAT WILL KEEP THIS BOARD AFLOAT FOR THE NEXT YEAR. THE GENERAL CONCENSUS SEEMS TO BE THAT $25 ANNUALLY IS CHIKEN FEED. WELL.... $100 ANNUALLY TO RAISE 190,000.00 SHOULD BE OK TOO. HEARS AN IDEA ... HOW ABOUT PICKING A MONTH (MAYBE JANUARY) WHERE THE PROCEEDS FROM EVERYTHING SOLD ON THIS FOURUM GETS DONATED TO JOSH.( TO JOSH & ALL THE MODS... LET ME TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SAY THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK. IT IS APPRECIATED JOHN

[Liz]

well damn john when ya look at it like that he could even buy a fully resto'd truck then, and a weekend getaway island to host events.

[1969 C/K CST]

Originally Posted by Liz

well damn john when ya look at it like that he could even buy a fully resto'd truck then, and a weekend getaway island to host events.

For all his friends.

[junkyardjohn]

LIZ...WELL I DON'T KNOW ABOUT BUYING A ISLAND, BUT I DON'T THINK ANYONE COULD BEGRUDJE (SP) JOSH FROM BUYING A FULLY RESTORED TRUCK. AFTER ALL HE'S BEEN DOING THIS FOR A LONG TIME FOR NO PAY.
I'M NOT TRYING TO BE A SMART ASS HERE (ALTHOUGH I'M QUITE CAPABLE OF IT). I'M JUST LOOKING AT THE NUMBERS REALISTICKALLY (SP. D@MN I CAN'T SPELL) FROM SOME OF THE PROPOSED FUND RAISING IDEAS. JUST TRYING TO BE HELPFUL HERE & IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR MY IDEAS OR THE NUMBERS, JUST TELL ME TO SHUT UP & I WILL. JOHN

[cableguy0]

chances are not every member here would pay up regardless of how much was wanted. its about time time that josh could actually profit from all the time and money he has spent thus far on the board.im willing to be if he billed his actual time even at 10 bucks an hour this board would owe him a ton of money. he likes doing it though so thats not really an issue.

[junkyardjohn]

Originally Posted by cableguy0

chances are not every member here would pay up regardless of how much was wanted. its about time time that josh could actually profit from all the time and money he has spent thus far on the board.im willing to be if he billed his actual time even at 10 bucks an hour this board would owe him a ton of money. he likes doing it though so thats not really an issue.

THE SOLUTION SEEMS SIMPLE TO ME... IF YOU DON'T COUGH UP THE FEES..... YOU WILL BE DENIED ACCESS. I HAVE A TON OF IDEAS RUNNING THRU MY LITTLE BRAIN, BUT I GUESS I'LL JUST KEEP THEM TO MYSELF UNLESS I'M ASKED. JOHN

[cableguy0]

lol john i have probably the same exact ideas and im pretty sure i know what your getting at. for example a chiltons or haynes manual is about 20 bucks and cant touch the info that can be had here just to throw things into perspective.25 bucks aint a ton to ask for the info alone. ebay charges fees for selling. the last car i sold on ebay cost me 46 bucks just to list it. and that was once not as many things as you want to list for 25 bucks.once put into perspective 25 bucks aint much

[junkyardjohn]

CABLEGUY ... YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. $25.00 IS NOT MUCH MONEY TO MOST PEOPLE, BUT MULTIPLY THAT Xs 9,500 (1/2 THE MEMBERSHIP) & YOU HAVE CLOSE TO A QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS. THAT MY FRIEND IS NOT CHICKEN FEED & SHOULD GO ALONG WAY TO KEEPING THIS BOARD AFLOAT IN THE UPCOMING YEAR. I'M ALL FOR IT JOHN

[shifty]

Originally Posted by junkyardjohn

BUT MULTIPLY THAT Xs 9,500 (1/2 THE MEMBERSHIP) & YOU HAVE CLOSE TO A QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS. JOHN

Which is about what it would cost to have a site that uses as much storage, bandwidth and resources as this one does, with this kind of information and a dedicated admin or two running it for a year under the hands of a professional company or business.

I have faith that the subscription price wouldn't be so dang high if other people actually contributed. If 9,500 people contributed, it would probably be less than $10/head and $95,000 would pretyt nicely pay for about a year of hosting, parts, software upgrades and maintenance and a dedicated pair of people to work on this place 24/7, which, if they could work on it that much, things like the search woulda been fixed months ago, I would guess.

But, the sad part about it is, everyone thinks they know everything about how a site like this works and so I see them type comments like yours without looking at the other sides of the coin.

[junkyardjohn]

(QUOTE BY ****FY)But, the sad part about it is, everyone thinks they know everything about how a site like this works (QUOTE)
DO YOU MEEN LIKE YOUR REPLY?? MAYBE YOU SHOULD PROOFREAD YOUR OWN POST BEFORE MAKING SMARTASS COMMENTS JOHN

[shifty]

PS - if there's any question, I used to run a website hosting company in Florida - I setup all of the servers, helped design the e-commerce portion of it and worked to build up the business, doing all administrative tasks, helping with a team of 5 other developers and a project manager, with 4 servers and several workstations in the office. This is the company: www.infotogo.net

I can tell you from the professional side of the business that the things Josh does and says are not unreasonable. I've also been moderating BBS's and forums for the past decade on the internet and a lot of the people I see post here are so jaded and clueless about what it takes to run something like this that it disgusts me sometimes because I see both sides - user and admin.

I think a great general rule of thumb is this:

If you don't know how it works or couldn't do it yourself, go try to learn how complicated it is or ask questions before you act like a stupidass and say dumb s#@t in public that is degrading, defaming or insulting to the guys that put their heart, soul and all of their free time into it.

It only takes 60 seconds to be an asshole and insinuate something; if you want to say stuff like that, at least have some experience or knowledge to back it up. The "Minute man" insinuator is the bane of every admin's existence. If you do those kinds of things, it really doesn't say much about you as a person.

[shifty]

Originally Posted by junkyardjohn

(QUOTE BY ****FY)But, the sad part about it is, everyone thinks they know everything about how a site like this works (QUOTE)
DO YOU MEEN LIKE YOUR REPLY?? MAYBE YOU SHOULD PROOFREAD YOUR OWN POST BEFORE MAKING SMARTASS COMMENTS JOHN

There was no sarcasm or smartass comment there, nor was there a grammatical error that I see (feel free to correct me). If you feel like you're being targeted, maybe that says something about you as a person.

PS - You're an adult. Try acting like one. Misspelling my name to be some cuss word is something an 8yr old would do. Don't try to tell me it was a typo. I've read other things you've posted, I've seen the kinds of things you do and this would fall right in line.

As for the subject at hand, I'm stepping out on this one. Flame me all you want (beats having people flame Josh for running the place and keeping thousands of people in check with good success). I won't be replying to your posts.

[CPNE]

Originally Posted by shifty

...But, the sad part about it is, everyone thinks they know everything about how a site like this works and so I see them type comments like yours without looking at the other sides of the coin.

And the ironic part is that a thread started by the board's owner regarding sniping, in-fighting and general BS has itself begun to degenerate.

The board needs to be managed in a more business-like manner (for profit), as it appears its no longer a labor of love. I suggest we let the powers that be decide how best to proceed, I see pros and cons for all suggestions, but I have not been hired on as a consultant, so I'll STFU