RV Life Network, Drilling Deeper

[vonzoog]

^^There is a lot of truth in the above post. I too really miss having Emily joining in. I'm not sure why Grand Design has run, not walk, away from this forum. There is a reason, they just are not stating it.

And not trying to be funny here, but I too am not keen on the new header. It looks like something from the Partridge Family.

[Gyro Gearloose]

^^There is a lot of truth in the above post. I too really miss having Emily joining in. I'm not sure why Grand Design has run, not walk, away from this forum. There is a reason, they just are not stating it.

And not trying to be funny here, but I too am not keen on the new header. It looks like something from the Partridge Family.

I think its because we are now associated with the GD competition. I made comments about data mining before and now there is no loyalty to GD on where any of our stats/data go's.

[Jking46]

I have enjoyed this forum for the nearly year and a half I've been a member. I'm also open to change. In today's world, nothing remains static, so I usually just go along for the ride.
I'll stick around til my 12 bucks run out and I'll reevaluate at that time. Until then, if I want to see what Emily is saying, I can visit the Facebook GD owners and Imagine owners pages, as I'm a member there also.

[Andy R]

Sorry - but the rose colored glasses are leaving me a little bit nearsighted.

Thanks for sharing your perspective. There is a lot of truth to it, I'm not going to deny that. One thing that people often overlook is the fact that it takes a large group of minds to build comprehensive resources. The first forum I started was on Airstream Trailers when I was doing a restoration of a 60s Airstream. We noted that members were asking each other for campground recommendations. We then added a campground review system. It worked okay (you can see it here) but the problem was we were a small group so we didn't have the ability to cover a lot of campgrounds. Now, a decade later, we only have 271 campgrounds added to the system.

I recognized the above issue a while back and noticed members posting about www.RVParkReviews.com. It didn't take me long to see that they had great coverage of campgrounds and that the collective contributions were made the platform great. I reached out to the owner and chatted with him for 5+ years before he finally allowed me to adopt the site from him. My vision (which is no secret) is to try and build tools that campers will find to be useful. That's why we rebuilt RV Trip Wizard. That's why we built the RV LIFE app.

Yes, we are running a business and trying to grow it but at the same time, I don't know of any other company investing as much into tools to improve the RVing experience as we are.

The reason I'm so passionate about forums is because they are in my DNA, it's what we do best, we have been working with forums every single day, 24x7 for 17 years. We take a tremendous amount of pride in our communities. We understand that you must be authentic to be able to foster the sites. We make sure they are managed by peers from the specific site. We work hard to make sure our communities are welcoming places where members are happy to visit and not filled with the vitriol that gets spewed by the aging trolls at that other forum mentioned.

So yes, we are making a business out of providing tools for RVers but we are not doing it in a nefarious way or in an attempt to undermine our users. Unlike Facebook and countless other services we take the high road and focus on our users with hopes they will support us and we can do great things together. I totally understand your being weary of me, the change, etc and hope that in many years from now you can look back and say that Andy is a stand up guy and that we did a fine job managing the forum. Time will tell and I'll try my hardest to earn your trust and support.

^^There is a lot of truth in the above post. I too really miss having Emily joining in. I'm not sure why Grand Design has run, not walk, away from this forum. There is a reason, they just are not stating it.

And not trying to be funny here, but I too am not keen on the new header. It looks like something from the Partridge Family.

It's my understanding that GD's activity here was waning in recent months prior to the ownership change. I've worked with various RV manufacturers and there is a bit of a love/hate relationship with forums. They understand how important they are from a customer perspective, it's amazing that users can help each other with problems, that members will be brand ambassadors and bring value to the company offline and online, etc. The problem is that forums can be a very public way for issues to be surfaces and that can feel weird, I get it. So when they see people complaining about things or maybe a group of members all upset about the same issue, forums (or Facebook groups) can do the opposite of their intent (ie. connect people with issues making customer service difficult). I can't speak for GD on what's going on but I'm hoping I can chat with them to show them how other manufactures have used forums in successful ways. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that we will be able to have a nice long productive relationship with them.

I think it's because we are now associated with the GD competition. I made comments about data mining before and now there is no loyalty to GD on where any of our stats/data go's.

We have a privacy policy and terms of service that speak to this. Basically we don't share any information with 3rd parties unless you, the forum member, consents. Since 2002 when I started my first forum it's been the same policy and I have never once allowed users an option to give consent. That means no members have ever consented to share their data with 3rd parties and thus we have never shared data with any 3rd parties.
http://www.socialknowledge.com/tos/
http://www.socialknowledge.com/privacy/

I think the important thing here is treat people like you would like to be treated.

[vonzoog]

Thanks for the response. Keep putting input into the forum will go a long way in building a positive relationship.

Please do do whatever it takes to get Grand Design involved again. They may have reason to back off, I just wish we knew why.

[chunker]

I'm also a newer participant here and came when I became interested in GD quality. I'm here for the technical information NOT campground info and such. I became a sponsor to continue to follow the brand and the NO ad formula. If this forum degrades to what you see in some other forums I'll not be here much or ever. If the current forum owners have run off contact and direct participation by GD then the value of this form has gone down several notches and so will relevant postings. One of my likes was being able to know that GD read, saw, and responded here. Since they apparently are gone the forum value is diminished for me.

I'll take a wait and see position but frankly not encouraged by what I'm reading on this thread.

[Leon T]

I find the RV park reviews extremely useful and I use the app on my phone all the time. I'd rather hear from actual users of the RV parks than look at an ad from the owner. Plus, I've found the reviews to be extremely accurate overall. The reviews by someone with an axe to grind for a trivial reason or a glowing review that doesn't seem real are easy to spot and ignore. I've been burned by slick ads for RV parks enough that I don't even look at them any more.

[Janet H]

I find the RV park reviews extremely useful and I use the app on my phone all the time. I'd rather hear from actual users of the RV parks than look at an ad from the owner. Plus, I've found the reviews to be extremely accurate overall. The reviews by someone with an axe to grind for a trivial reason or a glowing review that doesn't seem real are easy to spot and ignore. I've been burned by slick ads for RV parks enough that I don't even look at them any more.

Thanks for the good words about RV Park Reviews. I use it as well and am pleased to be involved with that site now. It's is managed by a group of dedicated volunteers who oversee review moderation, work hard to suss out fake reviews and generally keep the place humming along. They are Rvers themselves and so the site reflects the info they want to see when they are making choices about which park to stay at. RV Park Reviews is getting a little facelift in the coming months and an updated name (CampGroundReviews.com) to more accurately reflect the content it contains but will be the same great source of info that we all rely on.