Archive - May 1999

Auspuff

May 12, 1999

Dear Boxster Boarders,

I just returned from a self-imposed, secret location (3 days, off and on at vacant condo with no phone line) to try and summarize my thoughts on the State of the Boxster Board. I needed an opportunity to give the Boxster Boarders more information about the history and potential future of the Boxster Board website. The past few months have been even more turbulent for the site as I have really been struggling with the effects of being a fast growing and high-traffic site. Hopefully this information will help everybody understand today's situation.

Past

Porsche Pete's Boxster Board started life in July 1997 as nothing more than a whim and an interest in information about the Porsche Boxster. At that time Boxsters were relatively brand new and there were very few worthy "Boxster" sites on the internet, other than Mark Christenson's Boxster.org, Berkeley Johnston's, Andrew Pott's site, and an email list at PorscheFans.com. I had only seen just one Boxster, with a sold sign on it at my Porsche-Audi dealer. The site was conceived as a way for me to deal with a slim spark of fascination with the car, yet inability to own one. I had sold the last of my 3 Porsches 2 years earlier, and with my wife's input :) had pretty much lost most of the desire to have one again.

Less than two hours after the site was uploaded utilizing Matt's WebBoard script, Mark Christenson posted a message, then Rob Langley, the original "welcome" thread turned into a disscussion on colors with some lady named Betty having an Ocean Jade Boxster on order, yet looking for a picture of Ocean Jade cause she had never seen one. A few hours later this same lady posted something about the beginnings of a Boxster Cult and settling in for her "daily fix". In the first two weeks nearly 100 messages were posted. Wow. That initial thread led to more threads on colors, options and pricing, paint durability, order delays, Z3's, Dealers and disappointments, pathetic factory sound and aftermarket sound systems, Valmet, performance exhausts, boomerangs, Boxsters For Sale posts, and extended warranties all within the first month. Wow, what more could be said or learned? I was amazed and figured something was happening.

In late August 97, I had already run out of storage space, and thus implemented a new script which was much less space intensive - an early version of the current Webbbs script. There was already an initial discussion of sponsorship and help, ending with my statement "I think I can handle it myself, don't worry." By October 97, the site had been tweaked here and there and because of requests and input, I went ahead and gave sponsorship and advertising a try. That same lady with the cult and daily fix thing sent the first donation, and oddly enough she is still here today. Next months ISP bill wasn't such a chunk anymore. A couple advertising banners came and went after I figured out how much work was involved in soliciting, maintaining, software tracking, and reporting to corporate sponsors. By November 97, message archiving and storage was fully implemented. A couple squirmishes with spammers led to the implementation of the Boxster Classifieds page. The site's traffic and following had grown from only a handful of people to over 200,000 hits per month, got the first hint of an evil-eye from my ISP, and I heard of two Boxster Boarders (Mark Lysinger and Betty Choate) actually meeting in person. With Nita Burrows, the 3 then decided to have some gathering thing where people would actually meet - The Boxsters Have Landed. Wow.

In January 98, we were up to over 500,000 hits per month, we temporarily shut down the server due to the load from the logging software I was using. The logging software was trashed, modifications were made, and we were allowed to continue. I think it was about this time that psychological counseling resulted in Martin, just Martin. I started to notice the advice of some Texan, John Cochran, figuring maybe someday I would actually heed it. I started noticing the programming advice of some Californian, Walt Bilofsky, figuring maybe someday I would actually heed it. I started to notice something called the Boxster FAQ, developed by Greg Reddick and Larry Whatley, figuring maybe I would need it someday. I started to notice answers we couldn't get in America from some German working on his English, Christian H. Kramer, figuring someday I would actually figure him out. I started to fall behind in keeping up with Message Museum and Links and have never recovered. Our first Corporate Sponsor made it through trial, Clair Parts Express, and oddly enough, they are still here today. Some stranger from North Carolina, via the internet, Bruce Davis, came to my house for a visit and a drive in his brand new Boxster. He left a friend. Wow. I started to at least ponder webmaster functions, servers, and the ability of one person to keep this going... We were on a roll!

In February, I started working with and conversing servers with Mark Christenson at Boxster.org. In March, the death of Ferry Porsche, God rest and bless his sole. I went and put a deposit on a July-build 99 Boxster. Whoa. In April 99, the site trial at Boxster.org didn't work out, I wasn't trying hard enough. A complete redesign of the site and a new url were in full tinker mode, I don't know why. Then the awe-inspiring weekend of April 17-19... 28 Boxsters all in one place out in Las Vegas and another 12 in Washington, DC. Magazine articles in Panorama and Excellence. Wow. The Events Page was immediately designed into the site re-design. At the Boxster Rebellion, I met the likes of John and Janet Barney, Nancy Bastian, Mike and Mary Ellen Gannaway, Bill Gainey, and others, many of which I would see again in Asheville. Wow. All of which helped transformed this little computer monitor world into life and visions. I met some guy from DC, or California, or Texas named Major Print Maggard, who was figuring he would eventually see the Boxster he owned, and I have been laughing with him ever since - he still won't go away. In May, the first of the mini-gatherings sprung, with Bingo's, Fest's and Bash's to follow, bringing more and more Boxster enthusiasts together. Wow.

In June, 1998 the re-designed Boxster Board went online, including the still-not-yet-disabled Boxster.net (gee, hope I can at least still say that) domain. The Boxster Web was built-in, with the sites of always-makes-me-laugh-out-loud Dane Boren, the as-yet-still Mark Christenson's boxster.org, old-timer Berkeley Johnston's, the refreshing uniqueness of Walt Bilofsky, CFG's Boxsterfans or whatever url it was back then, and the Read-The-FAQ! site of Greg Reddick and Larry Whatley. It was an initial attempt to assure visitors that this site was just a part of the many Boxster experiences one could find on the internet these days, and should have long ago been expanded. The Boutique debuted as a blank page, it has returned to almost blank with visions of t-shirts and magnets long past dancing in my head. CFG and Walt Bilofsky became official deputies / assistant webmasters (whatever that means). Upgraded software went into beta-trial while my ISP placed a limit of 500 messages on the Board. Somewhere around here, probably earlier, I noticed this 14 -15 year-old kid from Canada, Matthew Marcelissen, with enthusiasm and a growing knowledge of Boxsters just dripping from him. He had already graced the Editor of Road & Track about the Boxster- he became known  here as Matt the Car Nut and later, Director of Photo Archive Retrieval. We just recently met in a parking lot in Las Vegas, I hope to see him with his first car someday, even if he doesn't marry one of my daughters.

Throughout the summer, then turning into fall, I relied on the private psychological counseling of Betty, CFG, Randy Kamperman- who I could always and still exchange nasty curse words with about Porsche (you can't do that on the Board, you know) and am continually amazed with some of the inside info he knows, Print, and Mark Christenson to get me through the "I'm not sure I'm really going to ever take delivery" waiting stages. Without them, and this place with all of you, I am still convinced I not would be driving one today.

By October, 1998 we started going over the 1,000,000 hits per month mark and were approaching 500,000 KB bandwidth per day. Greg Reddick was added to the Deputies list, then he disappeared, until I caught up with him for lunch and a drive in Wilmington, NC. The latest version of the Webbbs software was installed with inherent glitches and bugs. Slight modifications were made and it is still in use today. Space limitations reared up again resulting in William Lewis and Brian Langley taking on the task of providing online archives that I couldn't keep on my server. A trial of the UltimateBBS software occurred and was immediately disliked by most, so trashed. Started to notice a substantial increase in visits to the Board from porsche.de... hmmmm. Some hotrodder from Florida, Cecil Thorpe, stopped in for dinner (he ate, I drooled over his car) and a drive in his supercharged Boxster, which one should never do if you are convinced your stock Boxster is underpowered. Wow. Soon after, the Boxster I ordered 7 months earlier landed in Greensboro, NC and I was driving a Porsche again. Like riding a bike, you never forget once you've ridden one... the smile was instantaneous.

February, 1999 brought me a 60 page lawsuit package from an attorney representing Porsche regarding the boxster.net domain. It is documented elsewhere, but by mid-March the domain was released to Porsche and the case against boxster.net was dismissed... oddly enough, the domain is still here. Randy Kamperman acquired the 986Board.com domain and graciously transferred it to me for installation on my ISP's server. A couple of reminders and requests later, the domain has still not been activated... oh well. Through the tireless efforts of Christian Kramer, another 3 deputies were added- Betty Choate, Larry Ullman, and Viken Bidrossian.

April 99 brought year two of The Boxsters Have Landed (up to 80+ Boxsters now) and it's Eastern US equivalent, Blue Ridge Boxster Summit (up to 40+ Boxsters now)... Two weekends I will never forget as long as I live. Meeting hundreds of Boxster nerds from all over the world and having to say "NO. Thank YOU!" to all the greetings and Thank you's, then trying to put all the faces and screen names together. Server overload, no... brain overload. A large portion of the people I had come to know through the internet I had now met. Wow. A gift from Rene' and Candida Weenick from the Netherlands that I had only seen on my monitor up until then, now is on my wall. The Stutsman's Wedding that I still can't believe happened on a crowded boat surrounded by Boxster enthusiasts. In Asheville, the first Boxster Event I have had a Boxster at and the graciousness of the entire group. Utter amazement.

Present

Today the site has been supported by over 100 personal sponsors, has 10 corporate advertisers (more on a waiting list - I love making others be waiters! :-) It generates over 75,000 hits per day, over 2,000,000 hits per month, and upwards of 1 GB bandwidth transferred per day. Most importantly though, are the 92,000+ messages that have been posted to date, all of which still reside in safe keeping on my home computer. It is a site that has finally, yes finally, brought me to my knees in exhaustion, frustration and joy.

The current situation is nothing more than a result of our overwhelming success and my overwhelming desire to keep the site under my control in my own little town. While my ISP does not substantially penalize us for the bandwidth that we use, they abruptly concluded last Friday that they could no longer provide adequate server resources for the site. Put simply, the software scripts that run the Message Boards have been placing and ever-increasing, extreme load on our ISP's server. The site is leaving its current server. Period. Whether we consider it shut down or born again has not been decided.

As a result I am finally examining all of our options and opportunities. I have a real full-time job outside of the Boxster Board. I have a family I love and depend on, an upcoming last summer at home with the family intact as our eldest daughter heads to Duke University in August, and other interests and chores besides cars and the web. Maintaining this site is a time-intensive hobby.

With all the talk of hits, bandwidth, and server problems, I think the vast majorities have not fully recognized the real reason I have been sporadically announcing retirement. Retirement, actually, isn't the right term - you retire from a job, this was not a job, it was just plain fun. It has nothing to do with servers, that's the least of my concern, easily changed. Servers and/or server space, donated or purchased, seems to be plentiful, judging from the many emails I have received on the subject. I could load my living room with servers and still not have what I am seeking nor what this Board needs to successfully continue. Only a couple individuals have even hinted at being able to devote any of their time. As I've pretty much exhausted my vocabulary, I'm going to refer you to a message I received from Brian Langley back in February. And anyway, I couldn't say it any better myself:

"I've been doing a bit of thinking about the future of the board as I watch all of the posts this weekend responding to your notice of "The End". After reading a few replies, I was going to post something to the effect of.... It's the time, stupid :-)

It's not money, and it's not really the changing tone of the board. It's the time commitment. For example, everyone would think it really cool to run the hottest nightclub in town. What a great place to hang out! But, as the owner, you also need to clean the bathrooms and throw out the drunks. Sometimes being the friend of the owner is the best.....

Didn't want to assume your intentions, although I think that your second post indicates that the time commitment is major consideration. Some people are willing to pony up some bucks, but not everyone will give some time. I guess that shows you what is more valuable!

I guess that it all depends on whether the board and the rest of the soon to be renamed boxster.net is to be considered a commercial venture or as an organization. If it is the former, then some single individual would have to step forward and buy the business. If it is the latter, then there are more options.

Up until now, you've pretty much shouldered most of the load. Yes, some help from deputies, but that probably hasn't saved you much time. So how about forming a b-board board, where you can 'retire' as chairman. The board will be charged with controlling the direction of boxster.net, and with recruiting volunteers to help with the actual running of the b-board. I don't know if it is at all feasible, but could several people split duties? One person controlling hardware, one controlling web software, perhaps assigning museum, archives, etc to different people. Maybe have at most 3-4 people dealing with the inner mechanisms, and a few more deputies. Maybe by splitting up the job, people can handle the load indefinitely. Or maybe different people can rotate through on a yearly basis.

I don't really know if this is feasible." It is, Brian, and the time is now.

In conjunction, I will be sending out an initial email to a group of individuals I think could pave the way to Boxster Board II (for lack of a better name). If you're not on the list and want to WORK (not just listen in), send me an email with the SUBJECT: Boxster Board II.

Future

Many have come and gone, many more have come and stayed; Some, like Stryker, have come and gone, yet oddly enough are still here. For all of us to have a place to continue this great resource and the unheralded camaraderie we have now, as we know it, I have just two requirements: 1) The site will off my ISP's server, and 2) I will not be administering or maintaining the site. I've got a little surplus in donations, largely from the generosity of those at the Blue Ridge Boxster Summit to re-donate to the cause, with permission and need. My term is expiring. I certainly will be able to and like to play a smaller role in any future Boxster Board, if needed. The rest is up to you all... On or before July 9, 1999. My underlying belief is that the Boxster Board should remain independent if it is to remain, and must be run to it's full potential or not at all. I'm sure that's what Ferry would have said.

Surely not my final post, but it at least it was long,

Chuck

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