To All my Fellow Rod-Builders and Visitors at RodBuilding.Org (RBO): A Survey: What's RBO, etc Worth to You?
First, Imagine a world –and your life– without any of these:
RBO: No more RodBuilding,Org. No more Forum. No more Search Engine. No more Thread Tracking. No more RBO to answer your questions, show what you know, help out your fellow rod builder or try out some new ideas.
RBO Photo Gallery: No more RodBuilding,Org/PhotoPost. No more eye-candy. No more place to show off what you got. No more place to see if you can do that, too. No more User Gallery as a mini-monument to your skills, or good buddy feedback system to spur you on. No more psychedelic marble or fire-breathing dragons.
RMM: No more RodMaker Magazine. Zippo. Nada. Gone. No more anticipation at the mail box for the last 3 weeks of every other month. No more stimulating articles. No more instructions with pictures for new tools and techniques. No more in-depth discussion of the art & science of rod-building. No more industry news. No more thought-provoking interviews or rebuttals. No more slick centerfolds or grip templates. No more growing archive of great stuff for future reference.
RBO Show: No more of the World’s Largest and Most Successful Rod-Building Show in history in Charlotte, NC, … or anywhere else, for that matter. At least not by comparison. No one place to go to see what’s really going on in the industry. Or attend all those seminars for things that don’t make sense to you on paper. No one place to go to meet all those characters you’ve been posting with at RBO. No way to meet that buddy face-to-face and go over some things in person. And no annual pilgrimage for the largest haul of blanks, components, supplies and resources your wallet (or your marriage) can handle.
How would you feel if one day, 20 months, 20 weeks, 20 days or 20 hours from now, if all that were GONE? … Poof. No more. A Dios. … Or even just one part of it: No more RBO, or PhotoGal, or RMM or The Show. … How would you feel?
I don’t know about you, but it would feel like someone in the family had died, or a communal loss, like 9-11 or Hurricane Katrina had happened, to me.
NOW here’s the real question: WHAT WOULD YOU PAY TO GET IT BACK? If it is anything less than the original cost of your rod wrapper, please think again.
Let’s learn a lesson from New Orleans. They knew it could happen. They knew what needed to be done. The time for us to act is before it’s too late. They sang “Fat Tuesday†for weeks on end. But let’s not forget that Ash Wednesday and some leaner days could lay ahead for all of us if we are not careful now.
Membership dues in professional societies and associations, and subscriptions to their trade journals usually cost over $100, if not hundreds of dollars, annually.
We all know how to learn thru trial and error. And we all have been thru some version of the School of Hard Knocks. And most of us have survived. But one thing we all should have learned by now is the real value of RBO to us. In dollars and common sense. And one more thing that we all should have learned by now is that we don’t have as much time or money or patience for all those mistakes, as we did when we were young and foolish. RBO has helped immensely to cut down on our mistakes, and given us many ways to improve our skills.
I would much rather pay a little more up front for RBO and it’s related operations, than turn around one day and hear that RBO was just a season in rod-building history that could soon come to an end because of finances. A service is worth its fee, and a servant is worth his keep. If we are our brothers keeper, and have feasted at his table of plenty, and drunk deeply of the wine of his knowledge, then let’s put our $$ where our mouth is and give the man his due. And leave a proud tip.
It is important to note that access to this site is without cost to the Visitor. That seems to be taken for granted here at RBO. It’s taken as a given. And who is doing most of the taking around here? - We are. But who is doing most of the giving? - Mr. Tom Kirkman.
We’ve all sung Tom’s praises. And said what a great resource all his products have been. And some have said thanks openly. But the day may come when it’s time to open our wallets as wide as our mouths and show we mean business. If this website eventually needs a dedicated server to continue to be able to handle the traffic, then that’s what it needs. Otherwise, you may soon have to sit there in front of your computer so long for your Pages to load, that you don’t even have time to get from the website the very information you came there to get in the first place. Just because the Server speed is too slow. Or RBO may need something else to keep running a tight ship. If enough people don’t do their part, then we all get more frustrated. Both Visitor & Moderator alike. If there are 100,000+ Visitors, then at least a few hundred of us should be at the ready with our finances to stoke the fire.
Who will keep the lamp in the lighthouse burning if the Keeper gets burnt out? If you’ve been doing some of the taking around here, you may need to do more of the giving. As soon as possible. Before it’s too late. Please.
Let’s see what Mr. Kirkman wants to do with and about all this. He has said in the recent Thread “Forum Load Speed†(9-11-05): “The idea of a button (on the RBO website) that allows people to send donations of their own accord is a nice idea, but it just goes against my grain. I'll forego it for the time being, but I do appreciate the idea.†Let’s all be ready to do our part once a strategy for continued success gets put forth. Otherwise, we all lose, and what we lose may never be re-gained. Remember New Orleans.
Most Sincerely, -Clifford M. Hall, Gainesville, FL-USA+++
[End of rally speech]
P.S. - The genesis of this whole subject can be found in the recent RBO Thread, and is worth your review: "Forum Load Speed" [Mike Barkley Sept. 8, 2005] [
www.rodbuilding.org] . Thanks, -Cliff Hall+++
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2005 04:59AM by Cliff Hall.
