scirocco.org club, list etiquette, etc

[Brett Van Sprewenburg <brett@netacc.net>]

I've read with great interest the support for taking our club to higher
levels.  I've been interested in this myself for many years, and I do
what I can with the time I have.  In case some of you don't know, I
maintain the scirocco.org website to the best of my abilities.  Chris
has done us a great favor for years by hosting the mailing list, and we
all really appreciate his efforts.  I have been hoping to improve the
online presence of our club by doing a couple of things.  One, is
getting scirocco.org off the privateI machines so that we can do
what we want with the site.  They don't allow me to access the cgi-bin
directory, which extremely limits the kind of improvements I can
make...like I am unable to fix the search mechanism.  The site is
space limited, and I am unable to finish putting up the archives that
I have access to.  Finally, while Chris Mende has kindly hosted our
list, and put up with all of the issues that goes with hosting this
mailing list, he is no longer an active member / subscriber.  This is not
meant as blame or anything like this, it's just that the person
that admins the list probably really needs to be an active member, and
can see problems like a Mike Weiler, and the Jonas typing threads coming
and put them down before they get out of control.  I have sat on
my hands during many of these issues for several reasons...they
always go away.  Always.  Second, I didn't have control of the mailing
list and couldn't make people sit in the corner for a few days...
figuratively of course.

Chris, I used to have access to neubayern.net, but I don't think I do
anymore...not that it would have ever seemed alright to mess with
your machines or configurations as we never officially outlined what
I would be allowed to do...

So, to solve the above problems, I've been working on a solution. On a
small personal budget, I have secured a decent bit of hardware and
bandwidth.  This is for moving the web site and the mailing list back
onto the same machine, and under the relatively steady control of
myself.  I still need a couple of things to make it all happen,
but I am working on it.  (As a quick aside, please don't suggest
using a freebie email list system, I'm not a fan for a variety of
reasons.  I've been a Unix professional and software engineer for a fair
number of years, and I work developing architecture and server side
applications at Kodak.com. I know a little bit on How Stuff Works. :))

It is important to note that some of the solutions that I'm having
to come up with are limited due to the fact that I am putting my
own money into securing the machine, routers, bandwidth, and drives.
So, the concept of a member supported infrastructure really intrigues
me...as I could be online far more quickly with a better service if I
had a budget to work with...we should talk more about this.  Fixed IP
is really where it's at, but it's expensive, for instance.
We could take this offline if someone would like...

Also, as for some of the other advantages of being more club-like, we
already have...I think as some others have pointed out.  We get
discounts are a variety of venders.  Both Mike and Mark get a lot of
business from us, and cut us a bit of break...but their margins are
the best in the business already so they can't afford to cut us
much more.  Just yesterday, I was asked by Adrenaline Motorsports
to post a link to their site, and they would offer all the members
of scirocco.org 10% off.  So I happily added the link, and now I'm
telling you all.  Oh, those are the guys that had the Mk1 Scirocco
1.8t and Corrado 1.8t at Waterfest 2k.

Feedback is welcome as always...but not if want to discuss if you
should put the lock rings on 100mm inner CV joints attached to 90mm
axles. :-)!!!!  I'm still smarting from that one...ha!

Basically I have a great interest in seeing a high quality online
scirocco community, and will do what I can to make it happen.

later gang.

==Brett
 \/  '84 Scirocco (ITB racer 2B) | "Hot VW's, take two home. They're small"
\/\/ '88 Scirocco 16v (Show), '92 Passat 16v (Winter+) | - brett@netacc.net

--
Email LIST problems to: scirocco-l-probs@scirocco.org. To unsubscibe send
"unsubscribe scirocco-l" in the message to majordomo@scirocco.org