Anthony and I Have Some News to Share with Everyone.

[ScottHalliday]

As most of you are already aware, Anthony will be leaving, in the not too distant future, for his big overseas adventure. In light of this, and in working with Anthony, I have stepped in to take over ownership and day to day operations of managing the site.

Anthony will continue to be involved with the site and will continue on as a site administrator. As for me, I am a big time car and bimmer enthusiast and am very excited about the opportunity to be a part of this community. I am also looking forward to getting to know each of you and to helping out with the site wherever and however I can. So please, let me know what I can do to help out.

Thank you all for this great opportunity to be a part of your community.

Cheers,

[Blackice]

Great news !

Thanks in advance for your effort.

[direction88]

No offense Scott but I as well as others on this site are less than impressed about being left in the dark regarding the sale of Bimmerclassics.net . I had been thinking of a way to bring this up without upsetting anyone and I guess the cat is out of the bag at this point. I will get right to the point. I'm not sure how much Anthony sold this site to you for but I would like to discuss the possibility of buying the site back from you at the same price so that a group of senior/supporting members could govern it in a democratic council rather than a one person rule. You seem like a good guy and we are all glad to welcome you here but a group of us had planned to one day buy this site if it ever came up for sale and we are rather upset that we were never informed or given a chance to purchase and run the site ourselves.

[carter]

I recall a post where Anthony stated that he was considering a sale and was looking for interested parties. That being said, if I saw a car I wanted to buy I would ask if it was for sale rather than wait for a For Sale sign to appear.

I hope Anthony made a nice profit from his sale. This site has been an amazing, and though that is a reflection of it's members, he put in the drudgery. I think the members will still determine the quality of the site regardless of the ownership.

Good to meet you Scott!

[motoyen]

The discussion about selling the board has come up a number of times and I have never received a single email, pm or phone call about the potential purchase of the site from existing members.

I chose a buyer who I felt would be best suited for the future growth of the board. Scott runs one of the largest Ford Mustang forums on the web and has vast loads more experience than me in running a successful board.

And just because I know some of you are curious, I didn't make a profit on the board. With the donations and sale of the board I pretty much broke even from what I've spent since day one.

Now if I could just break even on the sale of my car!

[direction88]

Originally Posted by carter I recall a post where Anthony stated that he was considering a sale and was looking for interested parties. That being said, if I saw a car I wanted to buy I would ask if it was for sale rather than wait for a For Sale sign to appear. I hope Anthony made a nice profit from his sale. This site has been an amazing, and though that is a reflection of it's members, he put in the drudgery. I think the members will still determine the quality of the site regardless of the ownership. Good to meet you Scott!

Regardless a post giving members a chance to buy the site seems like a no brainer. Just because someone is thinking of selling something doesn't mean that they are. It would have been quite simple to announce that the site was in fact for sale.

[rkettner]

the day that there are ads here is the day that i never return. i prefer this site to any other for that reason.

i would prefer a membership fee to ads.

[Initial D.oug]

Hey Motoyen, just leave the M3 at my place, I'll give a good home while you're overseas!!!

[ScottHalliday]

Thanks Blackice and carter thank you for your kind remarks,

And direction88, no offense taken. I deserve and accept the criticism since I surely did take my time in making matters known.

I did so in respect of Anthony since he is the original site owner and founder of this community.. Anthony started this site in 2004 and since then has devoted considerable time and money, supporting this community. I know first hand what this is like and I fully appreciate the personal commitment it takes. As founder, you get a personal attachment to both the site and its community. I am sure you can all agree it is only fair Anthony be given the opportunity to inform the members of this community, himself.

When I last spoke with Anthony, he told me most of you now know about the sale so I posted this thread to get this conversation going. Like many of you, I too was unsure how to bring this up without upsetting anyone so I figured this was probably the best way to do it.

With regard to how this was handled, I certainly understand why many of you feel the way you do and in hindsight, I also recognize now how it has turned this into a somewhat awkward situation all around. For that I do sincerely apologize because that was definitely not my intention or Anthony's, for that matter.

As to who knew what about the site being for sale, is not something I can or will address since it before my involvement. What I can and will address is this “one person rule" perception, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. The site I founded in 2002 was a team effort from day one and remains so, to this day. Our team is comprised primarily of senior members who are committed to the community and to our members. As a team, these members work together to help set the objectives, purpose and direction of the site. As active participants within the community, they are in the best position to know what’s best for our community and decisions are made through communication and discussions. When something is broken, they let me know and I get it fixed. When new features or enhancements are needed or requested, it’s handled the same way. The site is definitely not a “one man show” but instead, it is a team and community driven site, which is how I believe this site should be run also.

Look forward to hearing more of your comments, concerns and opinions.

Regards,

[tedski]

Scott:

Welcome aboard.

I think it may help if you would share future ideas and directions that you may take this site towards. Frustrations and un-comfortable feelings does arrived from uncertainly of changes, I believe the regular and supporting members would love to hear your insights.

Regards

Ted

[evo3]

Welcome!

[sha1234]

holy smokes... this also comes as news to me... i know there were a couple posts about this but i just lied to myself... and i will agree with direction88 in the fact that an Official FS or something along those lines would have been nice...



BUT....

I do support all new interest in the site.. the fact that someone man'd up and bought it is great... and along with tedski i would love to hear the input you have on the future


Tim


GL

[Mr. Red]

so where do you see this sight going in the future Scott? I am intrigued.

[ScottHalliday]

Thank you all for the welcome!

Where the site goes from here depends alot on all of you. You guys are the core of this community and hopefully will have lots of ideas and suggestions on how the site can be improved for its members and what direction you would like it to go in.

Let me start by sharing what changes I have already made to the site, so that you are all fully informed. They are:

• Had one of my programmers clean up the site template
• Upgraded the forums and homepage software to the latest versions.
• Made up a "Gallery" button and used it to replace the "Artilces" button in the header.
• Purchased and installed a ChatRoom product since you guys were asking for it. The Chatroom fully integrates with the forums and forums member database.
• Purchased and installed a Dynamic Links software product to replace the static links page which was (a) difficult to update, (b) had a lot of dead links and (c) no way for anyone to submit links but me. The new links directory is not static but dynamic and ntegrates with the forums and forums member database so members can easily add add links to the directory.
• I have started to do some search engine optimization on the site but would like to do more to improve the site's placement and ranking in the search engines.
• Added links back to BimmerClassics tn several of my other sites, as well submitting it to numerous free and paid directories. Last week, I signed the site up for a "slow" submission campaign where it will be submitted to 300 plus directories over the next three weeks.

And thats about it. I discussed much of this with Anthony before proceeding and that includes the chatroom and links directory.

As for what other ideas and suggestions I have to offer, well......

1. I would like to either upgrade the Gallery software to the latest release and more fully integrate it with the look and feel of the site, or simply replace it with a better Gallery product that does fully integrate with the forum, much like the links directory, so that it (a) uses the forums style and template design (b) provides more features and integrates with the forums member database so that it is both accessable and usable for members. If you guys are onside with this, we can discuss which option is better in another thread.
2. Install a video gallery section that fully integrates with the forums and forums member database. If you guys are interested at taking a look at this, we discuss it more fully and see what would be best for the site.
3. I wold like to see a discussion about whether any new sub-forum categories should be added to the forums, and if so, what should they be.
4. Give more access rights to senior members so they have more authority to better moderate the forums and member accounts. This is typically how most forums are managed and the forums software already has several member account authority levels built in, including forums moderator, super moderator and administrator.
5. Otherwise leave pretty much as is, and operate as a team to manage and improve the community for all members.

------------------------------------

So,

1. What do you guys think of these ideas and suggestions?
2. Any you like and agree with, and which ones are you not too keen on?
3. How about any ideas, suggestions or comments you would like to add?
4. Did I address the questions you asked and if not, please ask it again so I do.

Looking forward to your replies and continuing our discussion....

.

[ScottHalliday]

Here is a live example of the video gallery I am suggesting:

CarDriven.com Video Gallery Section

• members can upload their own Videos in every Format. The gallery software automatically converts the videos to the needed .flv Format to show it with the Flash Player. It supports more than 10 Video Formats: avi, mpg, wmv, mov, flv and many more.
• easily add videos from more than 20 different video sites.
  Supported:
  YouTube, GoogleVideo, MyVideo, GameSpot, Koreus, Sapo, LiveLeak, GameTrailers, Veoh, Sevenload, Vidmax, Izlesene, Vidiac, OnSmash, GodTube, Dailymotion, MySpace, BrightCove, LiveVideo, Expertvillage, Redtube, PornoTube, PokerTube, PikNikTube, Filmpjes.nl, stream.cz, videotube.de and many more.
• members can easily comment and rate videos.
• create unlimited categories.
• fully integrates with forums and forums member database.
• fully adopts forums style and template design.

Thought it would be a nice addition to the site. I already own an extra license for the video software, it's fairly easy to install and I can make up a "Video" button to add to our main navigation menu. Anyways, take a look and post a reply whether we should add it or not. I'm cool with it either way.