Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General ANNOUNCEMENT: The future of contour.org [is bright]

The T1 line on which we are hosted (Matt's) is in the process of being deprovisioned, so this as good a time as ever.

I have decided to shut contour.org down.

At least for a while anyway. The forums for the last few months have deteriorated into squabbling, insults, bickering and general chaos. The technical discussions are mainly rehashes, with little or no new information being shared. The main section of the site seems to be regularly ignored even though this is where most of the really good information is.

If/when the site goes back up, the forums will likely not return. If they do, they will be seriously scaled back to encourage the sharing of pertinent information. I know many of you enjoy the other aspects of the forums, but it was never my intent to create a grand, online social experiment. The forums today appear mainly as that: social. When off-topic discussions consume a majority of the traffic, it is hard for me to justify the amount of time, energy and abuse I have to put up with.

Many of you will be bitterly disappointed, but after five years of putting up with a frequently unappreciative online community, I'm done with it. I may change my mind after a break, but we will see.

I intend to put around 80% of the main site back up, but I don't know when. It depends on hosting or how much my DSL line will handle.

Comments are welcome, of course.

-Lance

There is an effort underway to save the site.

--perry

Sorry to hear that Lance,but I understand how you feel.Thank you again ,....

wow, sorry to hear about this. i've only been here shortly but i have gotten a lot of good information. thanks for the oppurtunity, hopefully after the break things will be better. thanks again.

Wow, As I have to agree with you that a lot of people flame everyone and never talk about cars, I am going to miss the forums. It has been very helpful to me and hopefully they will return.

Will the forums/site be archived so users can still search/read information?

Thanks.

Lance,

Thanks for all your effort man. This site has been invaluable to me through 2 of these cars. It?s a shame the forums have to go, but I certainly understand your stance. I hope to see the main page (sans forums) up soon!

-burgman

Despite the apparent abuse of the Forums, I do find it interesting to hear the general talk of those who own Contours and Mystiques. I've been rather enlightened by some of the topics posted since I've been a member.

I don't think removing the forums is the answer, but do feel that they need to be scaled down as you noted. I make visiting the CEG site a part of my very busy day. Furthermore, I find the technical support freely shared by the members therein priceless. I have personally saved hundreds of $$ by following the suggestions and do-it-myself directions given by the members. To them, I thank you.

Thanks Lance for all your hard work, diligence and patience. It would be interesting to do a demographic survey which would include ages of the CEG members.

Lance,

this is a sad news...

Unfortunately I have to agree with all that you said, so it's a welcome news at the same time.

Thank you for all your efforts. I hope the site will come back online.

There is always the mailing list... We used to get around w/o forums just fine.

Part of what is happening should be attributed to the naturally changing demographics of contour owners, so no matter what will become of CEGthe maturity level of the group will not be the same.

Thanks again,
--al

There is a lot of good information in here. I hope that archives and how-to's at least can be made available somewhere.

This site truly was a gold mine for me, who still has a lot to learn... but I've caught the bug.. need $ for another mod! And someplace to find out how to do it right!

Thanks (sniff) it was good while it lasted.

hard pill to swallow, but you won't get any whining from me. I hope you have a good break. thanks alot. (five years is a looong time)