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TCCOA Ownership Change

9K views 99 replies 34 participants last post by  Nativedetroiter 
#1 ·
As many of you know, I bought this website from Sir William a few years ago with intentions of cultivating its growth.

Unfortunately I never put into it the level of attention needed to accomplish that. I decided to sell the website to a company who is a specialist at operating automotive enthusiast websites, Autoguide.com.

I feel very confident I am leaving the website in good hands, and I expect that the experience of being a part of this community will improve with the change in ownership.

Now you may be wondering how this will affect you. The great part is that it doesn't affect you at all. All the moderators will remain the same and the members can continue to enjoy the site as always. Other than some new staff support behind the scenes to handle the technical aspect of the website, TCCoA.com continues as it always has.

Thank you to all who have been a part of the community!
 
#2 ·
Hello Everyone,

Just wanted to introduce myself to you all. My name is Marco, I am a community manager for Autoguide.com and will be joining the site to assist with the Web Master duties.

I am here to help primarily with the technical end of things and help make the jobs of the current staff easier. I posted a real basic run down to answer common questions below. If you have more questions or concerns please feel free to post them or send me a message.

What are our intentions?

We bring reliability, support and the infrastructure needed to ensure that the community will be around for years to come. It’s our goal to work with your board staff to help provide the resources and required to give this community a broader reach, to attract new members to better the overall knowledge shared in the community.

Will leadership change?

Continuity is the focus here, You as the membership work very hard to keep building this community while staff keep the walls and the roof up in this place; We are primarily here to make sure the lights stay on. Every community is unique and should always be respected in that regard. You guys have established your own unique rules and regulations and a strong reputation that is carried by all of this and it’s paramount that we maintain this level of integrity.

What am I here for?


My primary role is to be the technical contact as I said earlier you all built the foundation and keep the roof from falling, I am here keeping the lights on inside. I will be on the forum checking in daily to make sure regular maintenance is all taken care of and keep things running smoothly from behind the scenes.

I do look forward to getting to know you all and this unique community better.

Thanks,

Marco
 
#3 ·
Hello Marco, and greetings from Dodge City, KS.. Welcome to the forum.

Thank you for posting your introduction, and intended goals.

It is my sincere hope that this ownership transition is as seamless as possible. That TCCoA stays TCCoA, and continues to cater only to the specifics of our particular cars.

Wishing you, and yours, all the very best. Looking forward to growth, and a prosperous TCCoA club.

Cheers,
Race Rushton.
 
#4 ·
Thank you for the welcome!

We don't plan to make sweeping changes to anything on this site. You all set the tone here and this is a good community and a place to share knowledge with all generations of enthusiasts. I am open to suggestions if there are things you feel can help improve your experience on the site.

- Marco
 
#5 ·
Not as frequent a poster here but I'm always willing to give anyone the benfit of doubt.

I welcome the new light bulbs and hope they continue to illuminate without any harsh spectrum changes, shadows, and without any significant increase in cost to operate.
 
#11 ·
Welcome Marco to the TCCoA!, my only suggestion would be to do something to encourage more membership, Like welcome packets, shirts or??,And I don't want to much change,But a little wouldn't hurt either.....Take care
+1 :headbang:
 
#9 ·
Welcome to the boards. If you want to see what an Autoguide website looks like, go to http://www.taurusclub.com . The place will have a modern feel once they are done.
 
#10 ·
Welcome Marco,

I have to say I'm much more comfortable with the future of the site after perusing Autoguide's forum page, turns out I'm actually registered to a few of the forums listed there and I had no idea they weren't community owned.

I'm sure many will be distressed about not being able to get the forum back into our hands, but under the circumstances I'd say this is about the best alternative ownership we could have hoped for. When Bill first sold the site to AAN I remember peruising their homepage as well and looked at the site lists, which were mostly just ad laden home pages with no community forum(no working ones anyway). That certainly didn't leaving me brimming with confidence :tongue:

My only suggestion(or request I guess) would be a updated homepage with input from other members (particularly to the tech articles which have been frozen in time since the site was first sold) that can be accessed by our current forum admins for revisions or updates. A pic of the week/month kind of thing wouldn't hurt either.


-Matt
 
#15 ·
Welcome Marco,

My only suggestion(or request I guess) would be a updated homepage with input from other members (particularly to the tech articles which have been frozen in time since the site was first sold) that can be accessed by our current forum admins for revisions or updates. A pic of the week/month kind of thing would be great!
Welcome. This^^ when was the last time the homepage and tech articles updated?
 
#12 · (Edited)
erggbdd said:
Thank you to all who have been a part of the community!

Goodbye Eric..Good Luck




Welcome Marco!

This comes as kind of a shock actually..Our current administration was supposedly in talks to purchase TCCoA back from Eric..

I guess he didn't accept what they were offering..lol

Nonetheless welcome to TCCoA!

Care to share a little bit about yourself?..Do you own an MN12?..We won't hold it against you if you don't.. :tongue:

Are you a car enthusiast?

I don't have much in the way of changes on my mind..Like others have said..An update on the main page for the Technical Articles would be great..


One other thing..Can you post where new TCCoA "Club Members" should send their club dues to keep their account active?

Your contact information, and are Club dues costs staying the same?

Thanks



Rayo..
 
#14 ·
I'm with Vic on this one. I instantly knew to look here when I saw ads at the bottom of my page while logged in.
 
#17 ·
Welcome sir, From Warren, Tx, home of two or three MN-12 owners.
 
#18 ·
I hate the ads as much as everyone else, but...

Is there another way to "keep the lights on"..so to speak..

We've already established that many of you are not willing to pay for a membership..Besides that..I don't even know if club dues would be enough.. :zdunno:

Remember when Eric turned off the ads..From that point on..There was almost no revenue being generated besides new "club members" paying dues..

Before the "big heads" say "Rayo doesn't speak on behalf of the members here".. :rolleyes:

I'll say it myself..I don't speak on behalf of everyone here..I'm all for solutions though..So let's hear it before everyone starts ragging on the new owner..

I'll get off my :zsoapbox: now..lol



Rayo..
 
#35 ·
I hate the ads as much as everyone else, but...

Is there another way to "keep the lights on"..so to speak..

We've already established that many of you are not willing to pay for a membership..Besides that..I don't even know if club dues would be enough.. :zdunno:

Remember when Eric turned off the ads..From that point on..There was almost no revenue being generated besides new "club members" paying dues..
For me at least that is a yes/no statement. I for one have only payed my initial back in 2007. Then when I bought my second bird I renewed once when AAN was in control. I did not receive access back to my gallery nor did I even get my "membership expired" to change. Therefore I felt there was a major flaw in the membership section and AAN did not care to fix it. I am very excited with what Marco and AG are going with this. And after he gets his feet wet I am more than willing to start paying my dues again. I only speak for myself with this but I believe others might of felt the same.

Welcome Marco!!

-Kevin
 
#19 ·
Many sites will turn ads off for paying members as an encouragement to support the site more directly. There are even more ads for people browsing the site who aren't logged in.

Most ads: Casual browsers, web crawlers, anyone not logged in.
Normal/less ads: Members logged in.
Few/no ads: paying members.
 
#24 ·
I think a majority of us wanted to buy the site back, but this would be the next best option for the club to "Keep the lights on" I guess, I can be grateful for that aspect. I did look over autoguide.com and seems like a nice collection of active forums to keep a good flow of interest on your part. I'm all for keeping TCCoA going and moving forward. I’m going to repeat what other members said, but these are some of the things I'd like to see happen as well.

Some ideas, if not already pointed out above.

1) I would like to see the "Picture of Week" come back, but month would be ok too.

2) New home page with a fresh look

3) Update the vBulletin with a newer version. Member page, activity feed, vehicles, etc.

4) Lastly, what Brandon stated above with paying members and non-paying members with Ads

Thanks and welcome again,

Josh
 
#26 · (Edited)
Ok guys

I have setup the TCCoA paid membership sign up on the forum.

It can be found in the UserCP under Miscellaneous > Paid Subscriptions

http://forums.tccoa.com/payments.php

I am still trying to setup the description that comes along with the Paid membership.

TCCoA Club Membership will have the following vs Registered Member:
- Can upload attachments
- Storage Space for 500 Private Messages
- Can Upload Larger Avatar up to 100 x 100
- Club Sticker Package
- Access to the Member Only Forum
- Add your car to our Gallery
- No Ads
 
#27 · (Edited)
Ok guys

I have setup the TCCoA paid membership sign up on the forum.

It can be found in the UserCP under Miscellaneous > Paid Subscriptions

http://forums.tccoa.com/payments.php

I am still trying to setup the description that comes along with the Paid membership.

TCCoA Club Members will have the following benefits vs Registered Users:
- Can upload attachments
- Storage Space for 500 Private Messages
- Can Upload Larger Avatar up to 100 x 100
- Create a custom username subtitle
- Receive a Club Sticker Package
- Access to the Members Only Forum
- Add your car to our Gallery
- No Ads
Fixe it for you.

BTW, welcome. It's great to see someone taking an active interest/roll in updating the site.

I guess you're adding the ability to upload attachments and increasing the PM mailbox size?

You may want to make some benefits distinction between Registered members and Lifetime members in order to make Lifetime membership more appealing...

My avatar is up to 140 x 100. Are you keeping those dimensions for Lifetime members?
 
#32 ·
Ok, after looking at it, you (or I at least) can log into the Members only section from the homepage with your forum username and password. However once logged in there is no information in my profile.

I think this section of the website was just left to rot at some point in time.
 
#37 ·
I don't mind the adds actually -- they are hardly what I'd classify as intrusive (the ones where every other word in someone's post is a link to an unrelated product).

Personally, I also find it amusing that you look at one product at Sears and the items in your "shopping cart" follow you in banner ads all over the 'net.
 
#40 ·
Our ad operation team is still working on the ad placements for the site. Hopefully we can get this fixed by tomorrow.

In the meantime, my tech manage to shut down Member Only Section and also those who had the status expired below their username.

The premium membership is now through the UserCP under Paid Subscription going forward.
 
#46 ·
For those who are already or have recently purchased a club member, you will retain the club member status on your profile up until your one year subscription has expired. Then that is when you would use the new method to acquiring the club membership through the forum.

If we are talking about suggestions, could we ax the pictures at the top of the forums? Most are not t-bird related anyway. Taurus Car Club (one of your other forums) has a nice garage function, let's do that instead. :)

Out with the old....
Are you talking about the current Gallery at the top tool bar? http://forums.tccoa.com/vbpicgallery.php?

I will check if the current vB version of this forum is compatible to the garage plugin feature instead.

Tapatalk integration has been asked for in the past if we are going to upgrade our VBulletin as well.
Well as of right now, this forum is at 3.6.8 vB. Typically we like to stay with 3.8 vB as anything higher (ex: 4.0 vB) have a lot more bugs reported from our previous experience.

I will check with our tech is this is something we can add in our agenda for TCCoA.

I will also check if our Autoguide App plugin would be compatible to the current vB version.


- Marco
 
#44 ·
If we are talking about suggestions, could we ax the pictures at the top of the forums? Most are not t-bird related anyway. Taurus Car Club (one of your other forums) has a nice garage function, let's do that instead. :)

Out with the old....
 
#47 ·
I actually like the gallery pics on the top of the pages..It's nice seeing different members cars..

It would be nice if it was just cars though..Not random pics like a bulldog with a stogie..lol


Anyone seen our founder?

Hey Marco..Is the hosting going to change, or stay the same?

Keep up the good work.. ;)



Rayo..
 
#45 ·
Tapatalk integration has been asked for in the past if we are going to upgrade our VBulletin as well.
 
#48 ·
I might be opening a can of worms, but I had a couple questions regarding the ownership of the site/domian versus ownership of the club itself.

Up until now the two have been very closely related, but are they necessarily one and the same?

Obviously the site, domain name, forums and its operating expenses and revenues are now in AutoGlide's hands. But does that prevent the members from reorganizing a formal club structure? AutoGlide owns tccoa.com, but does that mean they also own TCCoA - the club?

I'm just thinking that the website itself should not be the complete extent of the TCCoA - but rather an online extension to activities and events nationwide. With active management and interest, I think it could become that. Step one is determining how much freedom we have in that respect...
 
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