>I did consider the Wings Forum when Sean first invited me to moderate it. >In fact I WAS the moderator for a month or two. But there were about 3 >posts during that time, and I found that I never even checked it, and >certainly didn't do any moderation.
One of the goals I had with the forums was to reduce what work was needed to moderate a forum. >I wouldn't say that I was ever "very interested". I did it reluctantly on a >trial basis, and after the trial I decided not to do it. Part of the reason >was that I'd asked 7 of KRnets oldest (and most internet savy) users what >they thought about it. Their decision was unanimous AGAINST changing over >to it. Part of the reason is that what we have works, and like Michael >.Gaskin says, archiving data would no longer be in my hands. As it is right >now, I have every email ever sent to KRnet sitting on my hard drive and >burned to DVD, and John Bouyea has another copy of it in his archive. I >know what it means to have an internet company that you've trusted all your >data to disappear one day. I saw it happen to a photo forum that I was on >at one time. The users had all this time involved in setting up photo >galleries, and one day they were gone, with no warning at all. And I don't >see a problem with the KRnet archive search engine located at >http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp . It does everything I need for >it to do, and instantly. I can easily set the forums to automatically send you a daily or weekly copy of the Corvair and KR forums' database. >Another reason given by the seven was that there are a lot of folks on KRnet >who have a hard time even reading and replying to email. Swapping to a new >kind of forum would derail a large percentage of KRnet members until they >could figure out what was going on. It just seemed needless. At the top of my list of reasons for creating http://www.WingsForum.com was that I was having "a hard time even reading and replying to email." topics and threads were always becoming disjointed and hard to follow. >One other area that I wonder about is advertising and email address harvesting. I >can't see somebody going to the kind of trouble Sean is investing without >expecting to cash in someday somehow. I may be completely wrong about that, >but I like the advertising free, no-cookies-required, "private" KRnet email >list, and I want it to stay that way. I've seen way too many of these sorts >of things start out as user interest groups, but eventually turn into paid >mouthpieces for vendors and manufacturers. Not gonna happen to KRnet. I do this because I love general aviation and experimental aircraft. My father is a pilot, I began flying with him when I was 7 years old; It is truly in my blood. After the Army, I attended Embry-Riddle for Aerospace Engineering. I am most interested in the KR and Corvair community because I have a pair of KR2S fuselage sides and a disassembled Corvair engine in my garage. It is clearly stated in the privacy policy that user information will never be used commercially, sold, or even given out. If I were interested in harvesting and email list of users on KRnet or CorvAircraft I would run a simple perl script that would replace " at " with an @. On http://WingsForum.com email addresses are NEVER divulged in any way. Users can email each other using private messages or a form based email that never reveals the recipient's address. The only advertising on the site are 2 google.com banner ads that do not use cookies and are unobtrusive. These ads don't really make any money but do cover my hosting and registration costs. >What finally did me in was when Sean sent a post to KRnet saying something >like "I have a question for you guys, but you'll have to check the >Wings Forum to see it". That cooked my goose, because he could have just as >easily posted it to KRnet, but deliberately sent it to KRnet (or maybe it >was CorvAircraft) to focus attention on the Wings Forum. I'd already >decided that it made no sense to swap over at that point anyway, so I asked >him to take me off the moderator list. And it simply doesn't make sense to >have several different KR forums for everybody to check. We're all right >here, and people know where to come to get KR building information. If this offended you, I apologize. This post was on the Corvair list and I linked to the forum because it had a picture of a cylinder with some broken fins that I wanted an opinion of. I figured that a picture was worth a thousand words and it would make it a simple matter for someone who knew the engine to visually assess. I made a similar post to the KR list about spars for the AS504x airfoil that in hindsight I should have just copied and pasted as it did not include pictures. >I didn't build either one of these lists from the git-go, although I was on >them both from almost their inceptions. I eventually took them both over >when the previous list-owners got tired of doing it (and I wasn't real >thrilled about how they were being run anyway). Over the years I've come to >the conclusion that I care too much about KRnet and CorvAircraft to let >anybody else run either one of them. I like to be able to set the tone and >keep things from getting out of hand. And on three occasions so far, I've >thrown people off permanently for flagrantly violating the rules. I don't >brag about being the owner, I just do the job. This particular incarnation >of the list is a little clunky, but it does work. You will still be able to manage, delete, edit, and ban users as you always have. You will run the Corvair and KR forums on the site. >KRnet pays for itself out of voluntary contributions every few years (can't say the same for CorvAircraft though). I do not, and will not, ask for contributions. All cost are covered out of my pocket and by the 2 Google banners. >Bottom line is that anybody that wants to go to the Wings Forum is welcome >to it, or start you own KRnet. Matronix has one too, and it had about 3 >posts on it last time I checked. But I'll still be right here in the dark >ages of email lists. And what's the difference in me getting hit by a >truck and Sean getting hit by a truck? End of discussion, as far as I'm >concerned. If I'm hit by a truck you can have the site. I don't think I can take it with me. >Sorry, but I've got an airplane to get ready to haul to the airport... Now that's something that really matters! Happy Flying! Sean Caranna http://www.WingsForum.com
