"Oh where oh where has our moderator gone?"

[ShrimpBurrito]

To borrow from a line from the famous nursery rhyme:

"Oh where oh where has our moderator gone? Oh where oh where can he be?"

Well, fortunately, he's still here, for now, but based on his recent for sale ad for his TM (http://www.trailmanorowners.com/forum/showthread.php?p=144466), I can only wonder if there soon may be a time when he is no longer. And that, to me, would be a travesty. It will be a real sad day for this community whenever he decides to hang up his moderator hat.

I think I speak for everyone here in saying that he has tremendous institutional knowledge and memory, obviously, which is immensely helpful because members here come and go as TMs are bought and sold. But you don't have to be around here very long to see that he's also very skilled in maintaining online decorum that seems to evade so many online spaces. There's no bickering, political jabs, or petty arguments. Everyone just seems to help out whenever they see the opportunity. It's a pretty unique place. It really "classes up" the TM owner experience, I think. But the supportive community he's fostered here also seems to sell TMs. Quite regularly a newbie posts about their excitement of buying a new TM, but also says something along the lines of, "The help I saw on this forum also played a big role in my decision. After perusing all the posts, I realized that I could pretty much fix anything." <--- (I always reference my work, ahem, so that quote comes from a recent post here (http://www.trailmanorowners.com/forum/showpost.php?p=142830&postcount=2).) So everyone seems to win: current owners, prospective buyers, and the factory.

And so, Bill, I hope you decide to stay on board for awhile, even if you one day become TM-less (gasp!!).

Dave

[Larryjb]

Quite regularly a newbie posts about their excitement of buying a new TM, but also says something along the lines of, "The help I saw on this forum also played a big role in my decision. After perusing all the posts, I realized that I could pretty much fix anything." <--- (I always reference my work, ahem, so that quote comes from a recent post here (http://www.trailmanorowners.com/forum/showpost.php?p=142830&postcount=2).) So everyone seems to win: current owners, prospective buyers, and the factory.

And so, Bill, I hope you decide to stay on board for awhile, even if you one day become TM-less (gasp!!).

Dave

...

Any new members that sign up because of this quote, I demand royalties! (I still consider myself a newbie)

Seriously, I hope Bill does stick around. He is very knowledgeable, and equally humble.

And I would miss watching new for sale ads pop up and waiting for Bill's " Please EDIT".

[tentcamper]

I hope that Bill is selling his TM so he can get a different one. If he is not and is leaving the community. We will miss his professionalism, attention details, and the dedication he has given this form. He has done an outstanding job watching over the content of this form. He has been an asset to all of us with his technical knowledge, Trailmanor experience and knowledge, and great research skills.

Bill if you are headed off the form. We wish you the best of luck, health and hope all is well with you and your family. Thank you for all the work you have done for all of us.

If you are getting a different TM. Best of luck with the sale of your TM and the new TM.

Sincerely,

Art & Joyce

[TrailManorMan]

Ditto the above!!

[Bill]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words about the forum, and my participation in it. I have actually received a few dozen messages - by email and PM, plus those in this thread and the For Sale thread. They have expressed concerns for the future of the forum, and a lot of questions about me and our traveling future. It has been very gratifying.

For my wife and me, our traveling future is not yet fully planned. We have been TMing for nearly 20 years, and loved almost every minute of it. We enjoy traveling too much to quit entirely, and there are so many beautiful places left to see. Beyond that, we have friends and family spread across the country that we don’t want to miss. We know that we will continue to split our time between Maine and Arizona. So the question we are wrestling with is how to get back and forth. At the moment, anyway, we don’t plan to buy an upright trailer, though that may be open to review if nothing else works out. And although age and health are becoming issues, they are not yet the defining issues. So we have a number of options.

As for my presence on the forum, I don’t have a clear answer there, either. I was one of the original architects of the forum back in 2001, and have run it alone since then. Chris, the forum’s owner and admin, has allowed me to do this, and I’m rather proud of what the forum has become. We set out to build something different, something better than other on-line gathering places, and I think we’ve succeeded.

So will I continue with the forum? I’d like to. And apparently, most of you, the members, hope I will. I have enjoyed being a Moderator and forum historian. And being an engineer, I’ve enjoyed being a Technical Contributor as well. But I have been doing it for almost 20 years, and from Day 1, I’ve done it on a purely volunteer basis. It requires a lot of time, and like most of you, I have other interests in life. It is apparent that if we sell our TM, my technical knowledge of the trailers will gradually become stale, and I will be less helpful to owners. Already, most of you have TMs that are newer than ours, and I hate it when I find that I have given bad advice to an owner because something has changed.

A new TM would be a really good option, but the new units coming out of South Dakota are beyond our budget. Over the years, though, a lot of members have posted that “We bought our Trail Manor because of this forum!”. That makes me realize that the forum has been a very effective sales tool for the Trail Manor companies. Perhaps if a groundswell of concern about the future of the forum reached the factory, they would consider helping out. There are several ways they could do it - we’ll see. Your thoughts and concerns might make them aware. They should also reach Chris, of course, who will make the final determination about the forum. He hasn’t owned a TM in years, so there is a real possibility that the Forum would close.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of things that will go into our decisions, things that are not of general interest here. We’ll see how it all plays out. But thank you again for your interest and concern.

Bill

[BrucePerens]

If Chris decided to quit operating the Forum, I would host it on my server. I would keep a static copy of this forum online, for archival purposes, and would run conversation going forward on open source software. We have more powerful software available today with no need to write text codes.

[Marklee]

Thanks Bill for sharing more about your situation. I've sent TM a message about how very valuable the forum is to us owners, and suggesting they provide some sort of support.

Bruce, my husband is an amateur and has heard you speak. He thinks it's great that you've offered to help. Your postings have also been valuable to us new owners, and we thank you very much for offering to host the forum.

Diana and Doug de N6LTU

[trailbiker]

I would be more than willing to contribute to paying a stipend to the folks that contribute to making things like the forum such a valuable source of information. I would hate to lose this resource.

[tentcamper]

+2

[Shane826]

Wait don’t we already pay a “stipend” every year to the forum?

[bheisser]

How many active forum sponsors are there?

[Bill]

How many active forum sponsors are there?

I have no way to get an actual count, but by doing a quick look down the Members List, I would guess there are about 400 Site Sponsors. There may be a few more than that, since some members insist on using a self-assigned Custom User Title like "Silly Camper", which replaces the words "Site Sponsor" on the list.

Of course, it depends on what you mean by "active".

Bill

[B_and_D]

Bill, I would like to say "Thank You" so much for all your efforts over the many years on this board that we've had our TM. You definitely contributed to our decision to buy our TM in 2003, and have benefited from all of your posts since then. I will miss you should you choose to leave the board as moderator, but I understand why you need to do this. God bless you and your DW, and your family.

D'

[Chris]

All,
The forum isn't going anywhere. Actually, since we have a new factory, and new trailers coming out of it, I am as excited as ever! I started this forum originally back in 1998. I am on my 20th year hosting this. There is no reason to change anything.

Bill has been a dream. You couldn't ask for anyone better to help run this. He has been a great partner to help develop this in to the premier resource for TrailManor information anywhere on the internet.

Depending on what he decides to do moving forward, I am going to keep the forum. If there comes a time when hosting it is no longer in my wheel house, I will transfer it to a volunteer to continue running.

I appreciate all of you staying with us for as long as you have. I look forward to our next 20 years together.
Thanks,
Chris

[tentcamper]

Bill, +2 on the great job you have been doing.

[B_and_D]

Thank you Chris for all you do!

[Bailey'sMom]

Bill, hope you do stick around. You have been invaluable to all of us.

No matter what you choose to do, we all wish you and your wife and family good health and happiness in every thing you do.

Chris thanks for continuing the forum.

I too was a paying member long before I found my perfect TM. Without the help I have received from you all, would have made my experience much different.