RV Forum has a new, exciting future

[Tom]

RV Forum Members,

Over the years we have built a really amazing community here on The RV Forum.  Many of you I know from our days on Compuserve, and I've met a number of our members in person, both at rallies and at each others' homes.  The friendships that have formed here are very special, and I'm extremely proud to have been able to host this forum for so many years!

I wanted to share with you all some news about The RV Forum.  Over the past decade I've been in touch with Andy from RV Life.  He's an RVer who runs a network of RV related websites including RV Park Reviews, Do It Yourself RV and many other RV forums.  Andy would pop-up in my email box every so often, expressing his desire to have The RV Forum as part of their network. 

Recently Andy reached out again and it finally felt like the right time for us to figure something out.  As a result, RV Life has acquired The RV Forum.  I know this might be surprise news for our regulars.  Please don't stress out too much, as it's going to be business as usual around here.  The forum staff team was informed of this change a few weeks ago, and had time to ask questions and understand what the plan is.  Everyone was very positive about the change.  I'll let Andy follow up and post an introduction and give you all an update on what the plans are for The RV Forum in the long run.

I'll still be around here working with the forum staff team, and look forward to many more years hanging out with you all.

Best wishes to all, and special thanks to our regular contributors for readily sharing your knowledge and experience with others, making this forum the source of knowledge it has become.

 

[Andy R]

First off, I'm honored that Tom has passed the torch and entrusted us to have The RV Forum as part of our network of RV websites.  This is a very special place, vibrant with so much knowledge being shared.  We'll work hard to earn your trust and help foster RV Forum for decades to come.

I know these these changes are big news and often members wonder who are you, what are you plans and what can we expect?

A little about me.  I started my first forum in 2002 on Airstream Trailers, www.AIRForums.com.  Through a bunch of random events I ended up quiting my job, moving abroad to live on the cheap and trying to build a small business fostering online forum communities.  It's been a fascinating adventure and a lot of fun to be part of so many special communities.  I currently have a renovated 1959 Airstream Tradewind (24') but it's getting a little small for our family of four.

Janet was a moderator then an administrator on AIR Forums and over the years, she's helped me work with the various forum communities that we have adopted.  We consider it our responsibility to support the Moderator and Administrator teams to make sure they have the tools, training and processes to manage the community effectively.  We are excited to work with the team here because it's been so well run we won't have much to do (we can kick back and share campfire stories).

Our plan is to continue with business as usual.  For the short term we will leave The RV Forum on the current platform but in the longer term we will likely upgrade to a new software called XenForo.  It's the new leader in forum software and we feel it would be an improvement to switch at some point (already discussed this with Tom and the rest of the team).

I understand that we now need to earn the trust of everyone here.  If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.

Kind Regards,

Andy

 

[Tom]

Our intent was to have this announcement 'open' so folks could reply & ask questions. Due to board-level permissions, it wasn't open for the general membership to reply. A separate, but related, discussion was started here. Feel free to respond and ask questions in that discussion.