Lee - No problem. I was indeed a Corvette owner, although not as many as you, given our age difference.
I have actually owned a couple and felt welcomed by all in the Corvette club, regardless of what year they happened to be. We had our local meetings and shows, our parties, and a heck of a lot of fun together. Didn't matter if your Vette was five years old or 25 years old. You were treated with respect. While this board is wonderful, the true spirit of the VCA is in its events: Meetings, cruises, Viper Days, shows, VOI's, etc. If you think these two separate forums are going to create a rift in the VCA, I can only say that I could not disagree more. Heck, of the 35 members in the Kansas City Club there are only five or six members that even READ these boards. The creation of another forum will be completely ignored by the majority of VCA members. For those that do read the boards, the majority appear to like it and some rather vocal people do not.
This is not 20 "main" forums, 10 forums, or even three. It is all of two. I can see where a few folks would feel challenged by an extra mouse click, but that is really all it amounts to. We could keep it simple like the original board and lump every single post in one group: Technical questions, Zaino posts, tuner bashing, header questions, race results, latest crashes, problems with key fobs, time slips, Supra bashing, problems with soft tops, political commentary, car comparisons, brake upgrades, stain removal, movie reviews, computer questions, picture posts, dealer complaints, gas mileage - well, you get the idea. As was pointed out earlier, with the number of owners rapidly expanding. The topics will be posted so quickly that they will disappear from the "front page" anyway - forcing another click anyway.
When it comes to get togethers and that type of thing, those get relegated to the "Regional meetings" forum anyway. So if those haughty 2003 owners that think they are better than us try to organize a meeting, we will know about it as long as we check yet another forum.
Just as any FYI, I do like the idea of merging a couple forums myself, but continuing to offer two separate forums for the two different cars. I am absolutely dumbfounded that an extra click is causing so much concern.
Here is another interesting exercise: Go check out the current roster of "members" to these forums (hundreds upon hundreds of them) and you will find that many have never posted a single thing. If you are worried about camaraderie, start with those folks. Sorry, but for those lurkers that are "insecure" about having a car that isn't the latest body style, they have more problems to worry about than an extra mouse click.
We are just trying to make the forums the best they can be and easier to navigate. I think it could indeed be streamlined a bit, but not at the expense of hundreds of confusing posts about two entirely different cars in the same forum. Should they combine the Windows '95 and Windows '98 forums together? After all, they are the same family. Well, probably not, as they have numerous different issues.
I am tired and I digress. It may be that a few squeaky wheels do indeed get the grease anyway. It is rather pointless to continue arguing this because I will not change my opinion and you will not change yours. I am delighted to read these different forums and don't find it the inconvenience that some seem to. I have been pushing for a "Gallery" forum for people to post their Viper (and other) pictures. Probably stupid, as we can just randomly find pictures in almost every forum anyway - we just have to search for them. I just thought it would be nice to provide a little better focus and a specific place to look for pictures. Kinda like those looking for information on the SRT/10.
Chris
