I can only speak for myself, but maybe after being on that site (too frequently) over most of 7 or so years, I started to view it as that buddy’s garage (or family room, corner bar, etc.) where you & your friends all hung out back when life was simpler. You learned stuff, shared laughs, broke ball$, stayed current on each other’s lives, made plans, offered your $.02 on each other’s problems, projects, successes, etc, etc.
So when the corner bar got sold, and the new owners changed everything, and your buddies either stopped coming around or were asked to stop coming around…that’s a little tough to take. And you go through the 5 stages in some fashion. In acceptance now (I think)
Personally, I find my self in the enviable position of “I truly couldnt care less.”
A great site was sold. The new admin told a bunch of members to take a walk, and they did. Why cant some people accept it? It’s like looking for a cure for the cancer that took out grandpa, a year after he’s been gone.
Bill stepped up, started a great site and now gets my financial support. Thank you Bill.
As for the silliness of moderating being a “tough, thankless job”? I’m going to counter with, bullshit! Someone point out the person holding moderators hostage. Anyone being forced to moderate against their will? Now’s your chance to speak up… people leave bad jobs, bad marriages… hell, even bad countries on a daily basis, I’m to believe “someone” is “stuck” in a thankless position?
Human nature is to surround yourself with things you like, and push away the things you dont like.
You nailed it Bob. To the members the intrinsic value IS exactly what you say. But the value equation for Vertical Scope is not measured in happy members, to them intrinsic value is measured in eyeballs that see ads. The interests of the members do not line up with the interests of the owners of the site. The site could be packed full of happy members and it would be worthless to them if it didn’t generate click throughs.
It doesn’t have to be one or the other. But with this site owned and operated by a man who loves the hobby, and that site owned and operated by a big automotive forum conglomerate who have demonstrated that they kinda don’t care, then the question is where do you want to contribute, where do you want to add your invaluable knowledge? To the site run by and for classic Cougar lovers, or to the site run by a somewhat faceless corporate entity that could easily throw the content in the garbage if they concluded that MCN wasn’t worth their time? We can’t say with 100% certainty but so far everything I’ve seen of Bill seems to indicate that he would want to make sure the knowledge stored in this forum’s database would stay around and accessible to the people who care about it.
So it does sort of come down to a one or the other mindset, for some of us at least. It’s kinda like this site is the mom and pop store and that site was the mom and pop store that grew big and strong and was then bought by a Chinese investment firm.
I agree. There are actually a bunch of Cougar sites out there. I wrote a pretty long post trying to make this exact point. As a community we lose out when we create unnecessary divisions. Now people will tend to gravitate to what ever they are comfortable with, and that’s fine, but participation on one forum should never make some one unwelcome on another.
The difference between all of the rest and MC.Net is that all of those other sites are run by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts. The dilemma is this: I post on MC.Net to help other Cougar enthusiasts. I really don’t know how committed Vertical Scope is to the hobby. I am pretty sure that they are mostly committed to their wallet. But that doesn’t stop me from helping out a brother if I have the information they need. What it does do, is to stop me from creating new content there. They could pull the plug and never look back. So for things like: the Registry Sites http://gte.mercurycougarregistry.com/, the http://www.classiccougarcommunity.com/dreamcougar/Window sticker generator, the great tech articles on http://www.classiccougargarage.net/ it makes a lot more sense to put this stuff where it won’t be lost.
Creating these new sites isn’t about attacking MC.Net. It is about acting in the best interests or the community, as opposed to the financial interests of a big company. However, there are some members that did not understand this. My goal is for people to realize that to participate here, they don’t have to chose one or the other. Of course if we do a good job here, then people will decide on their own where they want to spend their time.
I’ll never catch up when you post stuff like this.
If you think there is so much content on MCN that needs to be preserved, do it! Write articles that you are willing to give to the community and not hoard. Let them be open so others can edit out the mistakes, insert additional information or other points of view. What ever you want to see done, just do it. Quit talking about it. A wiki makes this really easy, BTW. I would much rather see community corrected articles than swim through a bunch of forum posts, which could be wrong for all I know, for a bit of golden information. The banter is fun to read in the moment, but when it is 10 years old, who cares? IMO, the junk out weighs the useful content by a long shot.
Also, MCN got along for a long time without a ROTM. It is really cool that CCCF has one, but it doesn’t make or break the site. BTW, do we have a June nomination thread yet?
Remember their Bock beer? I never got into their shandy or other flavors, but the original is probably my favorite all-around beer, the bock was awesome, but seasonal and stores sold out quickly. The red beer is pretty darn good too.
Oh boy… IF you guys are wondering what happened to the posts nominating 2NDXRND’s car, I moved them to the June 2012 Ride of the Month thread so that it would not be missed. Congrats to 2NDXRND on the nomination! Heavy handed moderation here I come!
The Leinies 1888 is very similar to a seasonal brewski called Leinies “BIGG BUTT”. Had a ram on the label “back in the day.” “BIGG BUTT” went the way of the Do-Do bird about 8-ish years ago.
I think the “bigg butt” was a “heavier” beer… just my opinion. (Insert audible groan here )
I want you to know… you would have LOVED “Blazing Saddles night”. I had a garage party a while back… brats simmered in hot sauce. Baked beans and beer on the table while “Blazing Saddles” played on the DVD. Good times. Movie night the month before was “Tropic Thunder”. We had Pizza in the garage pizza oven that night. (Well… and beer.)
One of my new neighbors here in MA keeps threatening to have a garage night. He’s got a sweet '69 Super B 383/4sp, but has a big soft spot for Cougars. I met him when we coached baseball together, but never knew he was a motorhead until I brought the '67 to a game. He 'bout crapped his pants when I brought R Code out. Good times.
that is some funny stuff right there.