Post by Administrator on Jul 25, 2008 13:18:22 GMT 10
It’s timely to look back at the origins of this forum, and reflect on what the objective was in 2004, and what it is now.
In August 2002, Mark’s new website "vintagecaravans.com" was uploaded onto the ‘world wide web’. The purpose was for Mark to share his hobby with others via the relatively new technology, the internet .It was a first in so far as being the first Australian website on the subject of old caravans. Mark’s influence for the idea came from frequently visiting the American website “vintage vacations”.
The original text was written by Mark, and all original pictures were scanned from prints of pics that had been taken specifically for the website (with a non digital camera). These was then handed to professional website designers. By mid 2004, the vintagecaravans.com website had been running for nearly two years.
Meanwhile,enthusiasts from all over Australia were emailing Mark with photos and stories of their old car / caravan combinations. The problem was, he couldn’t share them with anyone else. Not being able to show these on his website caused much frustration, all he could do was chat to these people, reply to their emails, and talk about their caravans / projects, and discuss the caravans on the actual website (Joker2 etc).
Current forum member “Don Ricardo” was one such person, who sent Mark a very detailed email about his Don caravan.
Each time a change to the website was needed to include a new section with fresh pics, he had to pay the website designers a premium to do it. Their business was building web pages, and, of course they charged for their services.
Mark regularly viewed the “vintagecaravans.com” website stats (website hits) and says it was really interesting watching the daily No of hits slowly but surely increase from the date the website started in August 2002.
It was fascinating, the increase in statistics (website hits) after only two years was huge, ……… yes, there was potentially a lot of interest in old caravans.
There had to be a way, to share stories & pics from other people without the high cost of paying web designers.
In 2003 the FE FC Holden club of WA was formed, Mark was one of the clubs early members. The combined FE FC Holdens of Australia had a great discussion forum, which Mark joined. This planted the seed …….
Mark knew this was the way to go with his website, but not being computer savvy, had absolutely no idea how to set up a forum. A couple of emails to Ret, the I.T. guy who set up the FE FC Holden forum, really confused him, the computer jargon and terminology was far superior to what Mark knew.
So, over the next couple of months Mark perused the "computer" services section of the local community newspapers, and eventually found the services of a young uni student who was advertising computer services. Mark employed him to set up the proboards forum , which Ditzy (Jenni) launched on the 25th July 2004 with the first ever post “welcome”. That post is now permanently located in the 2004 to 2007 General discussion section.
The rest of the story unfolds in front of you via the forum via a number of our old posts & pics which still survive. And the forum’s objective remains the same today, as it was back then.
Admin
In August 2002, Mark’s new website "vintagecaravans.com" was uploaded onto the ‘world wide web’. The purpose was for Mark to share his hobby with others via the relatively new technology, the internet .It was a first in so far as being the first Australian website on the subject of old caravans. Mark’s influence for the idea came from frequently visiting the American website “vintage vacations”.
The original text was written by Mark, and all original pictures were scanned from prints of pics that had been taken specifically for the website (with a non digital camera). These was then handed to professional website designers. By mid 2004, the vintagecaravans.com website had been running for nearly two years.
Meanwhile,enthusiasts from all over Australia were emailing Mark with photos and stories of their old car / caravan combinations. The problem was, he couldn’t share them with anyone else. Not being able to show these on his website caused much frustration, all he could do was chat to these people, reply to their emails, and talk about their caravans / projects, and discuss the caravans on the actual website (Joker2 etc).
Current forum member “Don Ricardo” was one such person, who sent Mark a very detailed email about his Don caravan.
Each time a change to the website was needed to include a new section with fresh pics, he had to pay the website designers a premium to do it. Their business was building web pages, and, of course they charged for their services.
Mark regularly viewed the “vintagecaravans.com” website stats (website hits) and says it was really interesting watching the daily No of hits slowly but surely increase from the date the website started in August 2002.
It was fascinating, the increase in statistics (website hits) after only two years was huge, ……… yes, there was potentially a lot of interest in old caravans.
There had to be a way, to share stories & pics from other people without the high cost of paying web designers.
In 2003 the FE FC Holden club of WA was formed, Mark was one of the clubs early members. The combined FE FC Holdens of Australia had a great discussion forum, which Mark joined. This planted the seed …….
Mark knew this was the way to go with his website, but not being computer savvy, had absolutely no idea how to set up a forum. A couple of emails to Ret, the I.T. guy who set up the FE FC Holden forum, really confused him, the computer jargon and terminology was far superior to what Mark knew.
So, over the next couple of months Mark perused the "computer" services section of the local community newspapers, and eventually found the services of a young uni student who was advertising computer services. Mark employed him to set up the proboards forum , which Ditzy (Jenni) launched on the 25th July 2004 with the first ever post “welcome”. That post is now permanently located in the 2004 to 2007 General discussion section.
The rest of the story unfolds in front of you via the forum via a number of our old posts & pics which still survive. And the forum’s objective remains the same today, as it was back then.
Admin