Attention Stateside Caddys

[VW TRUKN]

Check out our local yahoo group, we're working on putting together a rabbit truck club. :thumbs_up

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/vwcaddy/join

[VW TRUKN]

Website Is Live (Under Construction) & Forums Are Up...

http://www.vwrabbitpickup.com

[Iowa Caddy]

Website Is Live (Under Construction) & Forums Are Up...Wow!!! Where did you get the idea for a forum dedicated to the VW Caddy/Rabbit pickup? How original. :tb :tb

Your reason(s) for starting this??? Let me guess (choose any that apply).

1. Ego trip

2. You want to dilute this existing forum.

3. You think you can do a better job than Al.

4. You don't like any Brit-speak.

5. Delusions of grandeur.

6. Hubris.

7. Too many "furriners" posting.

Any members who even check out his forum -- let alone sign-up/ post there -- are contributing to the dilution of the VWCaddyForum and should be ashamed of yourselves. You don't deserve the right to post here or to receive the benefits of this forum.

[VW TRUKN]

Wow!!! Where did you get the idea for a forum dedicated to the VW Caddy/Rabbit pickup? How original. :tb :tb

Your reason(s) for starting this??? Let me guess (choose any that apply).

1. Ego trip

2. You want to dilute this existing forum.

3. You think you can do a better job than Al.

4. You don't like any Brit-speak.

5. Delusions of grandeur.

6. Hubris.

7. Too many "furriners" posting.

Any members who even check out his forum -- let alone sign-up/ post there -- are contributing to the dilution of the VWCaddyForum and should be ashamed of yourselves. You don't deserve the right to post here or to receive the benefits of this forum.

Woah there guy...I contacted Al via email & private message a few weeks ago about me doing this.

The idea is that a lot of us Stateside owners didn't really have a place to communicate and plan events/get togethers. My intentions aren't in the least bit to dilute this forum. I LOVE THIS FORUM!!! If anything I think the added exposure to our vehicles will actaully increase traffic on this site.

If there is a problem with me posting information about these forums then I'm sure Al will let me know and I will remove all information from my signature and never mention it again on these forums.

I am really surprised with the negitive response to the idea of trying to bring fellow caddy owners together and strenghten the community. :(

[Iowa Caddy]

Woah there guy...I contacted Al via email & private message a few weeks ago about me doing this.I salute you for considering that he might not like it. :tdThe idea is that a lot of us Stateside owners didn't really have a place to communicate and plan events/get togethers.Yes you do. http://www.vwcaddyforum.com/

My intentions aren't in the least bit to dilute this forum.Okay, I'll grant that isn't your intention but, to a greater or lesser degree, it will be the result. If you do indeed "LOVE THIS FORUM!!!", then I would think you wouldn't do anything that had a chance of even slightly diluting it and reducing its value.

If anything I think the added exposure to our vehicles will actaully increase traffic on this site.I can understand how you might think that, but I obviously completely disagree with you. I can give you chapter and verse of more than one instance of enthusiasts' groups that have become splintered and fractured by having more than one website/forum dedicated to their relatively narrow, but focused and targeted interest. It's easy to think that everyone can check, read and post to both/multiple sites, but the truth is that most people don't have the time/inclination to keep up with both/many and inevitably end up with their time/allegiance devoted to only one of competing websites, thus diluting the value of both/all.

[/QUOTE]I am really surprised with the negitive response to the idea of trying to bring fellow caddy owners together and strenghten the community. :(My response is not negative -- it's positive to the VWCaddyForum. As above, there already is a forum dedicated to "bring[ing] fellow caddy owners together and strengthen[ing] the community". If you want to contribute to it's continuing service, strength and utility, your site only needs one page for people who happen to find it by search -- it will redirect to http://www.vwcaddyforum.com/ where anything your site proposes to achieve can be done better.

[Iowa Caddy]

Just to clarify my position in case it's not clear. I have nothing against anyone having their own Caddy website. In fact I encourage it as the proper place to post huge and slow-to-down-load ego-pix that can be linked to rather than burning up forum band-width. And as a possibly more long-lived repository for hosting forum pix than off-site photo storage locations. My objection is to the forum aspect of your website, which adds NOTHING to http://www.vwcaddyforum.com/ and potentially hugely detracts from it.

[VW TRUKN]

Just to clarify my position in case it's not clear. I have nothing against anyone having their own Caddy website. In fact I encourage it as the proper place to post huge and slow-to-down-load ego-pix that can be linked to rather than burning up forum band-width. And as a possibly more long-lived repository for hosting forum pix than off-site photo storage locations. My objection is to the forum aspect of your website, which adds NOTHING to http://www.vwcaddyforum.com/ and potentially hugely detracts from it.

I understand your point of view but I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree. As I stated before, I think that the added exposure will drive further traffic to this website. This place is the "holy grail" of caddy websites. It's kind of like how vwvortex rules the over-all vw forum traffic. There are probably hundreds of other forums out there (this being one of them) and the only real tangable effect they probably have is positive...directing people back to the "primary site".

I have pm'd Al again and sent him a link to this thread to let him know about our discussion. I will respect any direction or feedback that he has to give.

And just so I'm clear, I have no issue with you personally for not agreeing to the forums. Everyone is entitled to there own opinion and I hope there isn't any hard feelings... :cheers:

[zoso]

Regardless of this site (which is great) there is a demand for US VW truck owners to have a place to congregate. It started out with a good number of us in NorCal wanting a dedicated location to discuss the vehicles and to plan a GTG. Numerous US truck owners requested that the site be non CA centric so it was opened up.

While there are many similarities between US and Euro VW Trucks there are many factors the lend themselves to having a seperate site (or at least a seperate section of this site). Classifieds, local community and GTG's being the most obvious area in which a US site (or again a bigger US section here) would be much better equipped to handle.

So like I said, the demand is obviously there. We probably have 20 enthusiasts with modded trucks in the Bay Area/Sacramento/Central Valley area and we want an area to congregate.

[Iowa Caddy]

And just so I'm clear, I have no issue with you personally for not agreeing to the forums. Everyone is entitled to there own opinion and I hope there isn't any hard feelings...Not here -- I (try) never to hold a grudge. ;) Hope no hard feelings from you when I wish you the worst of luck attracting any members and postings, other than 20 members who want their own little place to plan local events. :cheers: I hope it remains what you seem to profess to want -- a very limited place with limited utility to anyone other than a few people who for some reason seem to want a separate place to plan GTG's. (Have you heard of e-mail/PM?) If you envision it to be more than that -- or if it bcomes more than that through no intent on your part -- it un-necessarily will have forked the Caddy community.

...there is a demand for US VW truck owners to have a place to congregate...wanting a dedicated location to discuss the vehicles and to plan a GTG...While there are many similarities between US and Euro VW Trucks there are many factors the lend themselves to having a seperate site (or at least a seperate section of this site). Classifieds, local community and GTG's being the most obvious area in which a US site (or again a bigger US section here) would be much better equipped to handle.I have yet to see any discussion as to why that is not already possible -- and just as easily, if not more easily, done -- within the framework of the existing forum. What are the "many factors the lend themselves to having a seperate site"? And why can't they be incorporated into this forum?

If multiple websites narrowly dedicated to the Caddy had earlier been independantly and concurrently started, with a few members at each -- some belonging to, posting, and reading all forums (but most people not bothering because of all the duplicate posting of the same questions, answers, and info) -- there would have developed the desire and possibly a movement to combine them all into one central location to eliminate the time and effort necessary to read them all, while eliminating the hassle of wading through duplicate posts and info at the multiple sites. Why work to create that type of situation and create less usablity than what can be achieved within one central -- and i might add more complete -- location of Caddy info that already exists? Let's honor Al's foresight in creating THE Caddy forum. I can't imagine that he wouldn't be amenable to creating some kind of California section for you guys. In fact, why isn't this very section [Shows, Meets, and Events in the (US)] suitable?

...Numerous US truck owners requested that the site be non CA centric so it was opened up...So why not open it up to non-US owners, too. Oh, wait -- that already exists.

So like I said, the demand is obviously there. We probably have 20 enthusiasts with modded trucks in the Bay Area/Sacramento/Central Valley area and we want an area to congregate.And I hope all 20 of you enjoy your forum.

I know the following will sound negative, but I mean it only in the positive way that I don't want to have to slog through multiple sites with duplicate info: I hope your forum evolves into all 20 of you discussing the things only you 20 are interested in.

Again, I hope no other VWCaddyForum members post anything there other than what only those 20 people could be interested in. There already is a great forum dedicated to discussing ALL aspects of VW Caddys, whether California, US, or world based. There is already a central place for any questions, info, discussions, etc. and to spread it thinner among multiple sites will only decrease the value of this forum.

edit: corrected typo

[zoso]

Wow man, you sure do run your mouth. :tb

[mortskeg]

Can't we just dress up like Native Americans and throw Al's tea in the harbor? :D :D :D

[mortskeg]

For the record- I caught wind of of another pickup forum that was started- vwpickups.com. Supposedly Pac NW & neighboring states. Regardless of how I felt about the branching away, I did create a mortskeg there and reposted some of my bigger informational posts in thier DIY/How To section, the sole reason being that in case something were to happen on this forum (heavens forbid), all those keystrokes would not be in vain, and someone would still be able to see how I changed my transmission seals. :rolleyes: However, this new forum has been hacked by some dude and no longer works, so maybe that was like a karma thing for starting a new pickup forum? I don't know. I just know that it is much easier to get my pickup related info off one site, and that one site is- 4crawler... I mean vwcaddy.com. :D Thanks again Al for the great site. ;) :cheers:

BTW truckin- I'm sure it took some work to set up a new site, cheers for that. Make sure that if you get some good how to's going to drop us a line/repost here or at least provide a link. :)

[DeadBunny]

Hey IOWA, you okay? Need a hug? Someone piss in your cornflakes? Take away your birthday? If someone wants to branch out what do you care? Don't visit their site. I don't think he's trying to take anything away from you. If his site sucks it will go away,people won't use it. Maybe just maybe it will improve the community as a whole,maybe not. Thats just my take,it means just about as much as yours. DB

[Darth Garry]

Wow, things are getting pretty hot and heavy around here. VW Truckin, good luck with the new site. I'm sticking around here personally, as I get anything I've ever needed from the people on this forum, but anyone that wants to go start your own, DO IT.

Morts - I hear you on the Roger Brown thing! He is the man, and one of my greatest inspirations!

Garry

[Al]

Right im not opposed to any sites regarding caddy's, or afraid of a rival site, as after all this is a community and not a profitable entity, so I stand to lose nothing personally (apart from the effort and cost of running this site)!

The only thing that concerns me is that this new site has now obviously effected long standing members of this site (which is what actually makes this site what it is), as I have had several PMs from nameless members showing their discomfort over this post!

Good luck with your site and concider this post locked

Al