Problems with the BCM website - explanation?

[buswarrior]

If/when something goes wrong...

To be fair to those who only read here at BCM/MAK, might I suggest a back-up plan for communication?

If BCM/MAK goes dark, remembering that this web domain is an asset of a company in serious financial trouble, with many upset creditors, and resigning owners and IT staff...

Anyone who launches a rescue mission should post over at BNO as to where the castaways have landed.

You don't have to register to read the board at BNO.

http://www.busnut.com/cgi-bin/bbs/discus.cgi

save this link, just in case. Once there, you just click on "The Board" to see the threads.

Or get your wife, or grandchild, or busnut friend to save it for you, so you aren't lost in space if this is your only connection to the world.

Hopefully we won't need it, but us internet busnuts have to stick together!

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[Chaz]

Good idea. I would hate to loose my "Bus Family". I'm not on BNO but I'll make note.

[plyonsMC9]

Good evening bus folk,

I would like to clarify my comments as well as update the status of our bus conversions site. 

Leaving the ownership team was for personal & family reasons.  Those that know me well know that I am currently struggling to have any personal time at all for family & friends.  Part ownership in BCM provided no relief to that situation & actually was making it worse. 

"Help out as best I can" I think in my mind was meant to be "help out technically" but candidly due to frustration with some changes on the site came out sounding as it did.  As someone who was very discouraged, and maybe bailing.   But I'm not a bailing kind of guy, so here is the latest. 

Mike k & I had a long planning session & discussion and I think the direction is very positive.  In fact there have been a number of discussions including Nick, Mike K, Mike Sullivan & myself at different times.  Mike Kadletz'  goal in changing things was to try to right the ship financially by making the site easier to use & provide more features.  Well, it didnt work and the site was destabilized.  I hasten to add that it is a struggle to keep a small site & magazine self- supporting.  So i think the goals were good. 

Now something must be done to continue to first stabilize the site then have it evolve to continue to meet bus enthusiast's needs in years to come. Beginning tomorrow morning, Mike Sullivan will begin removing links to Ning & the new classifieds.  There may be a couple of hiccups, but maybe not.  We think we have identified some of the causes of the issues and these are the first steps towards stability.

There may be some other stabilizing changes after that, but we'll wait to see what develops.  Future changes will likely be more Simple Machines add ons, and so will be very smoothly integrated with the overall site.  Also, we will be moving to the next major release of the forum software which should bring more benefits, but be very stable as well.

The forum data continues to be regularly backed up via multiple methods so our bus repository of information is very safe.   

If I could add anything else it would be for those who have been on the site less than 5 or 6 years would be to mention that Mike K started this site over a decade ago & has funded it for many of those years, and paid for countless server and software upgrades in that time.  I can't really think of a time that I asked him for an upgrade for our community site that he said "no".

Well this is more than I usually say in a couple of months, please let me know if I can answer any questions & thanks for all your help & support over the years. 

Kind regards, Phil

[jackhartjr]

Phil, when I say thanks, it is a HUGE thanks!
Jack

[rv_safetyman]

Phil, thanks for the very informative and encouraging post.  And of course, THANKS for all that you do.

There are lots of bus forums out there.  Some are "hosted" by organizations (such as our eaglesinternational.net), some are hosted by individuals, some are hosted by special interest groups. 

In my mind this forum is quite different.  It is a "commercial site".  It is part of a business.  It is here to generate income (probably wishful thinking, but it is a business never-the-less).  Lots of folks support this site by their subscriptions to BCM.  Many of us support this site by being contributors to the magazine part of the business.   So, we have a somewhat different view of what we expect and have come to love and appreciate.  We think that the business owes us this site.  Of course, it doesn't, but that kind of thinking probably prevails.

Because many of us have contributed one way or another, we think we have a right to know what the heck is going on - that is the reason I started this thread.  Some of us have become so concerned about the forum that we have thought about doing our own archive of the material that we "contributed" to this forum.  There is a huge amount of useful data in the archives of this forum and the thought of loosing it is a huge concern.

As we all know, there is no guarantee that any business or forum will be around forever.  When the leaders of this business/forum go into a non-communication status, folks like myself jump to a very negative scenario of what is going on.  When that happens, folks who support the effort withdraw and things begin to tank.

Your post goes a long way to help us understand that our worst fears are not as bad as we think and there is a plan to keep this wonderful forum alive and well.

Jim

[eagle19952]

i am not absolutely certain if this site solves the what  if scenario,but there is an archive of this and many other forums here...
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
Simply  paste the URL for this site in the box..and i believe the search function will work also...
http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php
And a calender will appear.
Liked the rest here I hope that the situ resolves itself, but MANY forums are sustained by user donations.
Just a thought.