[Wayne 962]

Hello everyone. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am the current owner, founder, and CEO of Pelican Parts (http://www.pelicanparts.com), and I am excited to announce to the 986Forum community that Pelican has recently acquired the 986Forum. Who is Pelican Parts? We're a leading online community-based resource and retailer for DIY enthusiasts, and our primary focus over the past 13 years has been the Porsche and BMW marques.

As you may know, Pelican currently has the Internet's largest collection of Boxster technical articles and photos, pulled primarily from my latest book, "101 Projects for Your Porsche Boxster". BruceLee and rkwei have done a marvelous job of growing and nurturing the site. BruceLee is planning on continuing his frequent posts here. Rkewi (Richard) will be missed, but we like to think he has left the forum in good hands.

Just a little info about me - I'm a regular guy who loves to work on his cars, just like you guys. I've written quite a few how-to books on Porsches and BMWs and I started Pelican (in my garage a long time ago) to help out and assist people just like you and me. I'm a hands-on guy who works on his own cars, rebuilds his own engines, and does his own oil changes (okay, well the wife's minivan usually goes to JiffyLube). I'm on the Pelican forums all the time, posting and helping people with issues there - I love to get involved and help.

You might be thinking: "oh great, these guys think they know everything and will start making incredibly annoying and stupid changes on the forums." Let me assure you, that is not the plan. However, as you probably noticed, we upgraded servers and software last night to the latest version, and that created a few minor issues we're still working on. The forums software that was on the site was from 2005, more than six years old. The site had already been hacked quite a few times because of these security holes. In addition, the performance of the site was terrible because the software was so old. No one likes change, but in this case, it was *absolutely* necessary to update the site's software into this decade. In addition, the speed of the site should be lightning fast now, which is pretty important as well. We're not planning on integrating the 986Forum within the Pelican site, but we will be looking for ways to mix the two together in some fashion to draw upon their individual strengths (like have the search engines search both sites, etc.). Any changes will be nothing major, nothing earth-shattering, and I like to think we're smart enough to know that we need to get input and feedback from *everyone* prior to making major changes.

Finally, forum members are a very valuable asset. We know great members are the key to a great community. We're all very excited here about the 986Forum, and we hope to have your continued support as we grow the site into the future !

-Wayne