Post by Atomic Addiction on Jun 18, 2013 23:51:42 GMT -5
AS of now, the Vintage Shasta Trailer Forum is closing.
The forum will not be taken down for sometime for folks to collect any data or images they would like to take for their personal use. However, no new topics or conversation will be taking place.
Why is this happening?
Several reasons.
1. No time. I have no time to continue being the owner of the VSTF. I had enlisted help from Vikx and was doing a fine job. Then the "upgrade" happened. More on that later. I am quite a bit younger than many of the members here. Life is constantly changing for us. We had our second child last month, house hunting for the last year and actual work have been taking its toll on my personal time. I am not complaining. Just making sure people understand my position. I am fine and life is good but busy. Very busy. The VSTF doesn't really factor into life.
2. The Proboards "upgrade". For those that don't know, Proboards (our board host) did a upgrade to their forums that they host. While I actually like the new updates and more modern user interface. Proboards has ruined itself...they want money. They are now charging for more storage and attachments. This breaks the VSTF has alway been a place to archive and keep old information for new and old folks to reference and turn to when looking for old topics that had been covered before.
I REFUSE TO ASK MEMBERS FOR MONEY! I will NOT ever do fundraising to make the VSTF into what it was before. I know many forums do this and have options for members to become "gold membership" and that sort of thing. I am not interested in this. One of the reasons I picked Proboards in the beginning to host the board because it WAS free. Nothing for anyone to pay. It was a nice feature. That is no longer possible. I know some members have offered to pay for the extra storage and whatever. I do not want that. While I am glad people are excited enough about the forum to pay money out of their own pockets, I would rather people don't.
I have been kicking around ideas of what to do after the update. I had thought about trying to take the controls again and making things better. I had though about doing the fundraising thing but that really made me uneasy and goes against the principles of offering the VSTF for free. I was really kicking this around in my head. Again, Vikx had been helping me out in my absence. She had asked for more control to get things done and I had given her full power. The only thing that had not been done was actually handing the "ownership" of the forum to her. I wasn't entirely sure I wanted that to happen. While I don't show up or do much around here anymore, this is something I made and it is tough to hand it over to someone I don't even really know. BUT, I had come to the conclusion to actually do this. I guess that was not happening fast enough for some people and they have jumped ship. I can't complain. If they want to leave they are more than welcome. It was described to me that the forum was a "sinking ship". I can't blame people for wanting to go. I have been telling people for years to hit the door if they don't like things.
A note about this... Folks, I kid you not. I have been messaged over 50 times since the birth of the forum telling me how I should run the forum. Everything from helpful hints to very shitty comments. You would be surprised how shitty people can be on something they aren't even paying for. I have often thanked people that were actually helping and told the know-it-alls to kick rocks and start their own forums if the VSTF and the way it was being run was not what they wanted. I don't see a lot of those people starting forums. They just like to message you telling you what you are doing wrong.
Anyways, I would like to THANK those that are here and made the forum a good place to be. I have more problems with some members than I would like to share. The good members made it worth keeping the doors open. I liked talking to many of you and members that moved on in the past. I connected with a few of you off of the forum. I think if I had actually met these people in real life...we would be good friends. Some folks have helped me and others here on the forum. I salute those members.
To wrap this up...
I don't hold any ill will against anyone even if they spoke badly of me here or other places. I am happy in my life and life moves on. The original VSTF was a great experience for me. It took off more than I ever thought it would. If I had to do it over again, would I start the VSTF? Yep. I would change a few things right off the bat and change the course of things. Hind sight is 20/20.
I WISH EVERYONE THE BEST OF LUCK. I hope to meet some of you out there in the real world. If you see me at a rally...come say "HI".
Thanks again everyone.
Brian
VSTF ADMIN
The forum will not be taken down for sometime for folks to collect any data or images they would like to take for their personal use. However, no new topics or conversation will be taking place.
Why is this happening?
Several reasons.
1. No time. I have no time to continue being the owner of the VSTF. I had enlisted help from Vikx and was doing a fine job. Then the "upgrade" happened. More on that later. I am quite a bit younger than many of the members here. Life is constantly changing for us. We had our second child last month, house hunting for the last year and actual work have been taking its toll on my personal time. I am not complaining. Just making sure people understand my position. I am fine and life is good but busy. Very busy. The VSTF doesn't really factor into life.
2. The Proboards "upgrade". For those that don't know, Proboards (our board host) did a upgrade to their forums that they host. While I actually like the new updates and more modern user interface. Proboards has ruined itself...they want money. They are now charging for more storage and attachments. This breaks the VSTF has alway been a place to archive and keep old information for new and old folks to reference and turn to when looking for old topics that had been covered before.
I REFUSE TO ASK MEMBERS FOR MONEY! I will NOT ever do fundraising to make the VSTF into what it was before. I know many forums do this and have options for members to become "gold membership" and that sort of thing. I am not interested in this. One of the reasons I picked Proboards in the beginning to host the board because it WAS free. Nothing for anyone to pay. It was a nice feature. That is no longer possible. I know some members have offered to pay for the extra storage and whatever. I do not want that. While I am glad people are excited enough about the forum to pay money out of their own pockets, I would rather people don't.
I have been kicking around ideas of what to do after the update. I had thought about trying to take the controls again and making things better. I had though about doing the fundraising thing but that really made me uneasy and goes against the principles of offering the VSTF for free. I was really kicking this around in my head. Again, Vikx had been helping me out in my absence. She had asked for more control to get things done and I had given her full power. The only thing that had not been done was actually handing the "ownership" of the forum to her. I wasn't entirely sure I wanted that to happen. While I don't show up or do much around here anymore, this is something I made and it is tough to hand it over to someone I don't even really know. BUT, I had come to the conclusion to actually do this. I guess that was not happening fast enough for some people and they have jumped ship. I can't complain. If they want to leave they are more than welcome. It was described to me that the forum was a "sinking ship". I can't blame people for wanting to go. I have been telling people for years to hit the door if they don't like things.
A note about this... Folks, I kid you not. I have been messaged over 50 times since the birth of the forum telling me how I should run the forum. Everything from helpful hints to very shitty comments. You would be surprised how shitty people can be on something they aren't even paying for. I have often thanked people that were actually helping and told the know-it-alls to kick rocks and start their own forums if the VSTF and the way it was being run was not what they wanted. I don't see a lot of those people starting forums. They just like to message you telling you what you are doing wrong.
Anyways, I would like to THANK those that are here and made the forum a good place to be. I have more problems with some members than I would like to share. The good members made it worth keeping the doors open. I liked talking to many of you and members that moved on in the past. I connected with a few of you off of the forum. I think if I had actually met these people in real life...we would be good friends. Some folks have helped me and others here on the forum. I salute those members.
To wrap this up...
I don't hold any ill will against anyone even if they spoke badly of me here or other places. I am happy in my life and life moves on. The original VSTF was a great experience for me. It took off more than I ever thought it would. If I had to do it over again, would I start the VSTF? Yep. I would change a few things right off the bat and change the course of things. Hind sight is 20/20.
I WISH EVERYONE THE BEST OF LUCK. I hope to meet some of you out there in the real world. If you see me at a rally...come say "HI".
Thanks again everyone.
Brian
VSTF ADMIN
Someone, take over! 
See my rebuild pics at: 
