Hi Folks,
Well, we're approaching the start of 2020 now and I have some hard decisions to shortly make. This system has been active since 2013, and it has seen, at best, minimal use. When I started the forums, I wanted a landing zone for the Revcon users from the Yahoo Groups system in case something happened there and that system crashed, ceased to exist, or otherwise became unusable. If you followed history with the Yahoo Forums sites, during the last years the forums were basically on autopilot with absence of forum management keenly noted. Yahoo had gone through numerous iterations of what to do with their forum side, two or three times over the years saying different things. Stability was not there with Yahoo eventually being acquired by Oath, so it was basically like limping a terminally ill patient through the last functional stages of life.
Well, fast forward to 2019. There has been a major downward trend in activity for Revcon coaches on-line. Whether the coaches are all going to dirt and being parted out, the owners are dying off, or what the story is I'm not certain. I can definitely state that there are coaches still around and in service, however do the owners of those coaches have sufficient support resources to keep them running, on their own, with the factory, all former dealers, and the last coach-specific service center now gone (Marty Moore)? Owners have always been a valuable part of the equation for support of Revcons, information exchange has always been invaluable in keeping these niche coaches running.
The Yahoo Group essentially vanished for on-line forum support earlier in the year, with the archived resources going away via Yahoo on December 14. 2019. This site archived the files and a majority of the group messages, but not the pictures unfortunately. I do hope someone took the time to download them. With the moderator of that group being mostly AWOL, there was no real consensus as far as what to do out of the group before the switch was pulled. The group via Yahoo is now reduced to an EMAIL list, I don't generally participate in EMAIL lists so I'm now out of the loop as far as any remaining group traffic.
This system has very minimal usage at best. I can probably count the number of messages on one hand within the last three months, same with new user registrations (I believe two). Complicating things is that last year I had to take some draconian measures to insure that we were not invaded by more bots, now requiring manual registration validations. I have another system active centered around the Chevrolet Caprice PPV that has around 800 or so users, it also has the same standards. As of today we only have 90 active user accounts on the Revcon Forums.
SO.... the point of this soapbox speech.
The system is running an older version of PHPbb, also the system flowchart is pretty convoluted. To get the system up in a hurry during the great bot attack of 2012 over on the Yahoo forums, I made this site as an "overlay" on my existing Policeinterceptor.com website so as not to have to pull web space for a separate new website from my host. Ultimately the system needs to be modernized to current software versions, the system flow cleaned up and properly channeled, and possibly moved to another webhost down the road due to a bug in the EMAIL system associated with IP flagging that is extremely hard to have undone.
Since I pay all the expenses associated with the system out of my own pocket (and have NEVER accepted commercial ads or sponsorships), due to the lack of use & interest I am now forced to ask the question if this resource is worthwhile to continue to support and throw money at, or would it be better off freezing and then just decommissioning the forums and eventually the site. Hiring the system developer that I used on the New Caprice site to make all the necessary changes on this system will cost easily several hundred dollars, plus require a good investment of my time for making the changes and modifications to bring everything current and work as it should. I don't mind spending the money or time if it's warranted, but I'm having problems justifying the decision to move forward to myself given current usage.
The Revconeers ceased to exist a number of years back due to a number of factors including advancing age and diminishing interest in the coaches. My commitment was to keep this system active until at least the demise of Yahoo groups, then take a step back & re-evaluate. On the other hand, the GMC coaches seem to be undergoing a resurgence. Jim Bounds over at the Co-op is doing marvelously. So, the time's now here to take a fresh look from the 40th floor folks.
What I'm going to do is leave this question on the table for open discussion with the members through the end of January, 2020. The responses I receive by the end of January will assist in determining what's going to happen going forward. If you have interest either way (preserving this forum site or if you think it should be shot in the head), please speak up - I can't tell what you're thinking unless you say something. Post your comments, good or bad in this thread please. It's stickied so it stays at the top of the menu.
Thanks Eric
_________________ System Manager and your tour guide for the day. REVCON ALUMNI - former owner of 1989 Revcon 31' MB #2752, sold in 2022 to a new next-gen owner!
|