The Forum is Being Sold to Group Builder

[crofter]

Thanks Bob for all your work keeping the forum going. I too would like to hear more about the new owners and what their goals are for the forum. It would be great to proceed as a place to feel supported and to get help with all those van living conundrums, and for those who have been there to share their wisdom in a kind way.

Wishing you much fun in your retirement years.
-crofter

 

[gallica]

As is obvious now, we have sold the forum. I know just how much of a shock and surprise that is, and I’m certain that your initial thoughts when it happened are of grief, anger, sadness and even doom. But, before you let your emotions run away with you, please hear me out—there is a reason why it happened and we hope it is not a negative thing, but in the long-run we believe it is a very good thing.

In fact, I have reason to believe that instead of being a disaster, its sale ensures the long-term future and health of the forum.

First, I’ve been doing this a very long time now and I’m getting older (66) and tired. I’ve reached the point in my life where I want to actually slow down and enjoy my golden years! But, it’s very important to me that all the work I have done in the last 16 years to spread the good news of nomadic living not die out with me—I want it to go on for many years to come to bring hope and joy to as many people as it possibly can.

Here’s how selling the Forum fits into that.

When I started cheaprvliving.com in 2005 and the forum in 2011, I did all the work myself and because I have very low technical skills and knew nothing about websites or forums I did a pretty poor job of it, as you are aware, on a regular basis it crashes and we cobble together solutions and have just barely been able to keep it running.

Recently I decided to bring in an editor and webmaster to restart, redesign and modernize the main website, cheaprvliving.com and to do that I must update to the very latest version of PHP. While the website is built on Wordpress, Wordpress itself runs on PHP) because the forum is a subpage of cheaprvliving.com/forums, the forum is also running on PHP and it must be updated as well.

The problem is that both the website and forum are running on very old versions of PHP because every time in the past when we went to update to the latest version, the forum crashed and would not run again until we went back to the old version of PHP.

It’s just some weird, buggy, fault of the old MyBB software that the forum is built on that will not let it work with the latest versions of PHP.

We have reached the point where we are ready to publish the redesigned and rebuilt cheaprvliving.com, but it must be on the latest version of PHP to work properly with the latest versions of Wordpress, the Themes and Plug-ins—they all expect the latest version of PHP.

However, because the forum will not allow me to update to the latest version without crashing, the new website is dead in the water. That forces me to choose between them.

My decision to sacrifice the forum is based on the certainty that the crap software the forum is built on will ultimately breakdown and no longer work, and at the same time will hold back rebuilding the website until then.

That way we would end up without either of them. Obviously, that isn’t acceptable to me. The only option was to build a whole new forum built on good software, but I am looking for a way to do less, not to begin building a whole new forum.

The decision was made, if we couldn’t find a way to allow the forum to coexist with the modernized website, we were going to close the forum. In fact we were searching for an alternative, and couldn’t find one so the plans were in the works to close the forum.

Then, out of the blue, I got a letter from a company offering to buy the forum. We looked into the company and what they had in mind and when we were satisfied they were legit, we met with them and began discussions with them. All of us felt really good about the new company and felt like they really wanted what was best for the forum in the long run.

So we completed the sale and transfer of the forum to them. I’m certain this is the only way to continue the good works the forum is doing for so many people.

And don’t forget, if they weren’t buying it, this would be a “Why I am Closing the Forum Letter” instead!

I know this was a long letter, but I thought it was important that I told you the whole story about how we have arrived here. I want you to know that with all my heart I believe this is the very best thing for the long-term future of the forum, this is the only way it is going to keep going and keep serving people in the future.

It will require some minor sacrifices such as having a few ads—but we will all gain so much more than we will lose that eventually we will all look back and be very glad this sale happened!

Thank you for the update. God bless you!

 

[yonate]

Thank you for an awesome 16 years, Bob!

 

[wanderin.pat]

Well, I could whine and complain and act childish, or I could remember the debt of gratitude I owe you. You provided for me a real , concrete, set of recommendations and instruction; how-to videos and inspiration. This gave me not only a sense that "Yeah, I can do that!" but also access to a group of people with either prior experience or people going thru similar things. People I met at the RTR in 2017, people on the CRVL forum; some of them are still close friends. So, Bob, may the good Lord bless you and keep you. I most certainly thank you!

 

[Southbound]

Thanks Bob for all your work keeping the forum going. I too would like to hear more about the new owners and what their goals are for the forum. It would be great to proceed as a place to feel supported and to get help with all those van living conundrums, and for those who have been there to share their wisdom in a kind way.

Wishing you much fun in your retirement years.
-crofter

Hi crofter. We are just a three person team based out of Texas called Group Builder. We manage technical aspects of the forums but the Admin/Mods, rules are staying the same. We have made sure that Bob, Suanne and rvwandering know and to keep the updates of the RTR and other events being posted.

 

[flying kurbmaster]

is Group Builder the new owners or are you contracted to manage the site by Russian obliarchs, trying to collect data on unsuspecting van dwellers, to sell to Sirian SAS teams, in order to steel mag wheels to melt down for magnesium L400 missiles.

 

[Southbound]

@flying kurbmaster We are what is termed the owners. But more like caretakers. The only Russians I know are in books, and the spammers I keep deleting.

 

[Quinn]

As is obvious now, we have sold the forum. I know just how much of a shock and surprise that is, and I’m certain that your initial thoughts when it happened are of grief, anger, sadness and even doom. But, before you let your emotions run away with you, please hear me out—there is a reason why it happened and we hope it is not a negative thing, but in the long-run we believe it is a very good thing.

In fact, I have reason to believe that instead of being a disaster, its sale ensures the long-term future and health of the forum.

First, I’ve been doing this a very long time now and I’m getting older (66) and tired. I’ve reached the point in my life where I want to actually slow down and enjoy my golden years! But, it’s very important to me that all the work I have done in the last 16 years to spread the good news of nomadic living not die out with me—I want it to go on for many years to come to bring hope and joy to as many people as it possibly can.

Here’s how selling the Forum fits into that.

When I started cheaprvliving.com in 2005 and the forum in 2011, I did all the work myself and because I have very low technical skills and knew nothing about websites or forums I did a pretty poor job of it, as you are aware, on a regular basis it crashes and we cobble together solutions and have just barely been able to keep it running.

Recently I decided to bring in an editor and webmaster to restart, redesign and modernize the main website, cheaprvliving.com and to do that I must update to the very latest version of PHP. While the website is built on Wordpress, Wordpress itself runs on PHP) because the forum is a subpage of cheaprvliving.com/forums, the forum is also running on PHP and it must be updated as well.

The problem is that both the website and forum are running on very old versions of PHP because every time in the past when we went to update to the latest version, the forum crashed and would not run again until we went back to the old version of PHP.

It’s just some weird, buggy, fault of the old MyBB software that the forum is built on that will not let it work with the latest versions of PHP.

We have reached the point where we are ready to publish the redesigned and rebuilt cheaprvliving.com, but it must be on the latest version of PHP to work properly with the latest versions of Wordpress, the Themes and Plug-ins—they all expect the latest version of PHP.

However, because the forum will not allow me to update to the latest version without crashing, the new website is dead in the water. That forces me to choose between them.

My decision to sacrifice the forum is based on the certainty that the crap software the forum is built on will ultimately breakdown and no longer work, and at the same time will hold back rebuilding the website until then.

That way we would end up without either of them. Obviously, that isn’t acceptable to me. The only option was to build a whole new forum built on good software, but I am looking for a way to do less, not to begin building a whole new forum.

The decision was made, if we couldn’t find a way to allow the forum to coexist with the modernized website, we were going to close the forum. In fact we were searching for an alternative, and couldn’t find one so the plans were in the works to close the forum.

Then, out of the blue, I got a letter from a company offering to buy the forum. We looked into the company and what they had in mind and when we were satisfied they were legit, we met with them and began discussions with them. All of us felt really good about the new company and felt like they really wanted what was best for the forum in the long run.

So we completed the sale and transfer of the forum to them. I’m certain this is the only way to continue the good works the forum is doing for so many people.

And don’t forget, if they weren’t buying it, this would be a “Why I am Closing the Forum Letter” instead!

I know this was a long letter, but I thought it was important that I told you the whole story about how we have arrived here. I want you to know that with all my heart I believe this is the very best thing for the long-term future of the forum, this is the only way it is going to keep going and keep serving people in the future.

It will require some minor sacrifices such as having a few ads—but we will all gain so much more than we will lose that eventually we will all look back and be very glad this sale happened!

Thank you for the information Bob!!. I appreciate hearing the steps how it unfolded and it helps me understand how it makes perfect sense. It really isn't a selling so much as an update of your site, an incompatibility with defunct hardware which forces the closure of the forum, and someone else who steps in to rescue the forum from its seemingly inevitable closure with whatever skills and plans they have.
It is AMAZING to think back just a few short years ago when you started your Youtube Channel how much one needed a forum. And CONNECTIVITY and INFORMATION SHARING has changed so much in that time that I basically never visit this forum for company. Your life has dramatically changed.
Deep inside I look forward to when you drive away from it all and make a simple video hete and there telling us what you are up to.

 

[Quinn]

Hi crofter. We are just a three person team based out of Texas called Group Builder. We manage technical aspects of the forums but the Admin/Mods, rules are staying the same. We have made sure that Bob, Suanne and Karen know and to keep the updates of the RTR and other events being posted.

Wow, just 3 people, well thank you guys!!! Hope it isn't too much work!

 

[Quinn]

Thanks Bob for starting this Forum. Although I did not join until 2017 and learned most everything solo and frequently the hard way of definitely got my solar chops here.

I’ve also seen how many people have been helped here. I do believe I personally have helped a significant fraction of those.

However I presume that also with the similarly positive Scadden RTR, this move in response to the pressures of successful growth will be a fail.

If you wish to be a community leader you need to find ways of leading in ways that extend beyond a single campfire. The biggest part of that would have been to remain engaged in the forum itself including raising these current issues. Connecting HOWA to the forum would have also been important.

The spirit of what you created will live on, in the many campfires at Scadden and numerous other events as well as in other online groups.

Thank you again for that, but please spare us the BS rationalizations when you are clearly in over your head.

Wow, I'm surprised that you would talk to Bob this way. If you don't like what he does git out there and do it better.

 

[DLTooley]

@flying kurbmaster We are what is termed the owners. But more like caretakers. The only Russians I know are in books, and the spammers I keep deleting.

Feel free to delete me if you wish.

 

[DLTooley]

And my 1400 positive unpaid contributions to this forum.

Ok boomers?

 

[justlucky]

this is a bit like going to your local pizza shop to find out one of big chains bought it out, which one you wonder. You arrive home hungry to find a letter from Flavio the old owner thanking you for your years of patronage then tells you that he gave your name, address, email and phone number out to the new owners, so they can keep delivering and sending out menus.

No doubt I feel like we just got our pizza cold late over priced and not what I ordered either not fond of change with out my permission or if I wanted to or not !!!

 

[RoamerRV428]

Who is buying this forum? Who is the new owner?

 

[TomGeiger]

Hi crofter. We are just a three person team based out of Texas called Group Builder. We manage technical aspects of the forums but the Admin/Mods, rules are staying the same. We have made sure that Bob, Suanne and Karen know and to keep the updates of the RTR and other events being posted.

What was the incentive to purchase?

 

[txmnjim]

i will be pleasantly surprised id Bob answers any of these question but its his forum and he already gave
more information than most forum owners would probably give. i'm sure the incentive is the same in all
capitalist endeavors, to make money! we're already seeing the ads cropping up and if it gets too much we
are free to go elsewhere. good luck Bob and thanks for all that you do and have done!

 

[JamesAdam]

It's nice to know that this Forum will go on. It's like a Harbor for Nomads.
My 1991 Toyota Previa MiniVan lives on with 400 Watts of Solar, 3000 Watt Inverter, Diesel Heater, Twin XL Bed, 40" Smart TV, Black Painted Reflectix, and more coming... All because Bob said "Paying Rent Sucks".

Thanks Bob.

(To Bob; You think 66 is old? Personally I'm pulling a George Burns. Living to 100! Get to 50 and count backwards! That makes you 34, for the second time!)

(Waves)

 

[tx2sturgis]

Angie...I hope you have a thick skin! This can be a rowdy bunch!

 

[RoamerRV428]

yea all our info sold to who knows who and our posted info being intercepted and more and WHILE I absolutely get this happens alot, geez some answers about who bought this forum and their 'why' which the seller would know in the process of that sale would be nice, but yea, I get the 'seller' won't disclose so we are left hanging. Hey been there done that before, lol. But as usual the smalls are left out to dry in the sun and forgotten in any explaination of real truths. WE ALL seen it and this is just another one to hit us OK just personal thoughts on it and I get it and it is what is it is! Just left out in the rain to get wet of course as we all have experineced many times in our lives. Forums are just another rain parade on us all.

 

[Malamute]

Im unclear on how the change of ownership is negatively affecting us. I see comments about it being doom and gloom, cold pizza we didnt order, the end of civilization as we know it....but Im just not seeing it. It sounds more like negative thinking people rather than a real issue.

We have ads, OMG!!! Sorry, but thats the reality of building, running and maintaining a forum. the old software was badly outdated and crashed a lot, it costs to rebuild it and use updated software. Its a private enterprise, regardless of who owns or runs it, we are guests. Its still free to users. I dont get the angst.

My .02