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Looking Back - Looking Forward, 2003 - 2004
It's been a while since I've actually sat down to write an editorial for this column so I figured I'd make the time now and just do it.
2003 was a rough year for me both personally and professionally. As some of you may have noticed, I wasn't around here much during the last quarter of 2003. For various reasons, I had to realign my priorities which, to say the least, were pretty screwed up. A lot of reflection and soul-searching was done in respect to various aspects of my life and some of it proved to be positive and productive while some of it proved to be catastrophic and destructive. You win some, you lose some...
I think one of the most important lessons I learned out of 2003 is, you can't please everyone and there are some people who you will never be able to please. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way through the loss of someone that I cared for a great deal. As you go through life, you realize, some people will never be happy and can never be pleased - no matter what you do or say or think. The lesson to learn here, is how to identify those individuals quickly, before you end up putting yourself six feet under trying to understand them.
Freedom of Speech
Here within the forums, we saw a tremendous amount of growth. In many ways, we're starting to experience some of the teething problems associated with large amounts of growth in short periods of time. The primary teething problem that we ran into was the question of freedom of speech here in the forums.
Just so that we're absolutely clear on what the first amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights states:
It's interesting to note here that this Amendment basically states, that the U.S. government cannot make any laws that prohibit freedom of speech, etc. This law was established for the U.S. government and not the citizens of the U.S. The freedom of speech is something that we all understand to be a basic, inherent freedom of a human being. Some would argue that it's a God-granted right.
December of 2003 proved to test this amendement in respects to how it's handled here in the forums in relation to honoring embargoes; particularly the embargo set forth by General Motors on certain C6 Corvette pictures and documentation that was leaked.
Because we were working with automotive journalist, Hib Halverson in conjunction with General Motors to release that information here, AFTER the embargo was lifted at 12:01 am, January 1, 2004, I chose to honor that embargo and establish a public rule, or law stating that if any forum members posted those select C6 photographs, or the information (RPO codes, specifications, etc.) that were covered under the embargo, those individuals would be banned from these forums.
Was it an extreme stance to take? Yes, and maybe I should have exercised just a little more ease. However, given past experiences, when I've been easy and vague on some issues, there's always been those few individuals who feel the need to test the boundaries and see how far they can push the limits. Due to the nature of this issue - the GM embargo, I made it a point to be extremely clear and concise on where I stood leaving no room for interpretation or argument. From that point on, members had a choice - either go along with the rule and honor the embargo, or don't honor the embargo and risk being banned.
As expected several individuals decided to take an opposing stance and clearly state that I had no right to infringe on their first amendment rights. On the contrary, I have every right to do so if I so choose. I am not the United States Government and I have no responsibility to abide by the first amendment. What some people forget to realize is, I own and operate the Corvette Action Center. I pay the bills such as the software, the servers and the bandwidth. I pay the bills for some of the content, such as the C6 Intro article by Hib Halverson as well as another feature article coming in May of this year. We have some revenue that comes in from company advertising and a little bit of money comes in from those forum members who wish to contribute whatever they want and become a Supporting Member, but for the most part, the money for this web site comes out of my pocket.
I have a separate job that pays to put food on my table and pays to keep this site up and running for everyone to access on the web. Therefore, when I choose to honor an embargo set forth by General Motors, that is my choice, and I have every right to make that choice, honor that embargo and enforce it here in the forums.
Since I've heard more lies and mis-information regarding this issue in the last few months, I want to clearly state, yet again: General Motors does not financially support the Corvette Action Center in any matter, shape or form. I do not work for General Motors. I am not an employee of General Motors. I am not an independent contractor working for General Motors. There is no legal or insitutional documents outlining any type of working relationship between me/the Corvette Action Center and General Motors.
It was my choice to honor the embargo set forth. Why? Because by doing so, we will hopefully be able to continue to provide exclusive Corvette information, like the C6 Intro. article by Hib here before anyone else does. The other reason I chose to honor the embargo is because those pictures and information were secured as "confidential only". Information is deemed "confidential" for a reason. It was my personal choice to insure that the Corvette Action Center kept that degree of confidentiality. These are the two, and only reasons why I chose to honor the embargo.
If you choose to view that as kissing GM's ass, or sucking up to GM, so be it. When you run your own web site and pay the bills for its operation, you can do what you want when it comes to dealing with GM.
Respect Your Fellow Forum Members
The other issue we've had to deal with recently is the "perceived quality" of a few select members in terms of what they do or do not contribute to the overall quality of the Corvette Action Center.
Sexual orientation has suddenly come under the spotlight here in the forums. Since I've already dealt with this whole issue over and over and over again, let me just simply restate a few points:
- The Corvette Action Center will not discriminate against anyone regardless of race, color, creed, religion or sexual orientation.
- If you feel that a member is providing information that may be erroneous, it is your responsibility as a member of this community to speak up, and correct that member and help out your fellow forum members by providing the correct information.
- If you feel that a member is intentionally providing mis-information, then you have a responsibility to bring this member to the attention of someone within the administration so that they can handle it properly.
- If another member irritates you, or you just want to ignore that member all together, click on the UserCP link in the upper left hand corner of the blue navigation bar. In the left hand menu on the next page, go to Buddy/Ignore List and enter that member's username in your Ignore list. Simple as that.
- These forums exist for the exchange of Corvette related information between owners and enthusiasts. There are no requirements for membership here - regardless of ownership status, sex, race, color, creed, religion or sexual orientation.
Looking Ahead
In looking ahead to 2004, we are once again on the brink of breaking 10,000 members. Yes, we did get up to around 10,250 members as of last week, however, I have pruned the Member Database and removed 250 members who have not logged into the forums since 2001. Once again, this is just an example that post counts and membership numbers are irrelevant here. Quality, not quantity....
We have our first annual Corvette Action Center CruiseFest coming up in Auburn, IN in May. For more information on this, please visit:
http://corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=208
and:
Corvette Action Center 1st Annual CruiseFest 2004
As you can see, we've upgraded the forums with the next generation of forum software. The software has been completely re-written for greater optimization and more user options. As a result, we have found that our hardware resources are incapable of handling peak loads and as a result, we are now looking to upgrade our servers. Because of the increased traffic we've seen and the expected rate of growth through 2004, we need to move the Corvette Action Center to more robust equipment that is capable of handling current and future growth.
This is something that will not come cheap. We are currently looking at several different avenues and this will take some time.
Supporting Members
Although we do have some companies that pay to advertise here, for the most part, the Corvette Action Center was not designed to be a business or revenue stream. I've always been happy if the operating costs balance out with the revenue intake and we break even, however, that is not going to be the case for 2004. Because of the server upgrades that we need, we need to explore new avenues for generating revenue. I cannot continue to personally foot the bill for the site. If I was a millionaire or had a much larger salary than I do, I wouldn't care, but that is simply not the real world that I live in.
As a result, we decided to implement a "Supporting Membership" level here in the forums. For a minimum payment of $5.00 per year, you will have:
- Access to the Members' Galleries where you can upload photos for use here in the forums. You will not be able to link to those photos here from other web sites. Please keep in mind that this does not give you the ability to upload photos that are enormous and coming in at 250KB+. Photographs that are that large are unnecessary and there are several free software programs out there that you can use to decrease the size of your photos.
- Member Profile Photos. Member profile photos have returned once again and Supporting Members can now upload a profile photo to be used in their Member Profiles.
- Although not implemented just yet, Supporting Members will be able to choose which forum style they wish to use when viewing the forums. This is something we're working on right now.
If you wish to become a Supporting Member, simply click on the UserCP link in the upper left hand corner of the blue navigation bar and scroll down to "Paid Subscriptions" under the Miscellanous heading. You can see this thread for more information:
http://corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44519
I think I've rambled on, long enough. Here's to hoping that 2004 is another prosperous year for the Corvette Action Center!
I am enjoying the crowd here and find your site to be very informative and well managed. I took the liberty of copy/paste your editorial over on the AudiWorld TT forum so that many could learn and understand about running forums. Unfortunately, about a year+ ago there was a MAJOR falling out of about 50 forum members with the owner of AudiWorld over the issue of moderation (aka censorship) that resulted in a wholesale depart of them over to another site. The TT forum was truely like a family and it was sad to see the breakup...now I have to be on two TT forums to keep in touch with everyone. Anyway I hope the new year is smooth sailing for you and whether or not I end up buying a C6 (will decide when I finally see/touch/drive one) I am enjoying your site and the forums...
