Porsch Pete's Boxster Board is dead

[Jake Raby]

PPBB filled a void with a certain demographic... It was certainly my least favorite forum, really because of the "vendor hating" that was so widespread.. Those people seem to forget continually that without vendors their cars would be piles of junk. There it didn't matter if you were someone who sold bumper plugs or engines, some wise ass had something negative to say about what a company sold, how they sold it or how it cost too much... Never seen anything like it. Amazing.

When they kicked off a client of mine just because he posted that he visited my shop and was blown away, I was done with that crowd..

I'd bet PPBB will be back, someone will take it over or time will heal the wounds, it happened before a couple of years ago. If not that group will start a spin-off and it'll probably be full of vendor haters too.

Sorry for the stereotyping guys, lots of good people frequented PPBB.

[Boxtaboy]

What I want to know is how both Merlin33 and Ericindallas posted on PPBB long AFTER Rob shut it down! Did he turn it back on temporarily?

As for PPBB being vendor haters, I'm not sure they really were. I mean, they still welcomed Bumperplugs, Suncoast Porsche, Pedro and others. The board in general, just had a general rule that they didn't want vendors to overinfluence the main board itself because it actually detracts from the experience. A perfect example is 6speedonline where that board is flooded with vendors harassing folks with their wares...I mean how can you enjoy discussion on the forum if all you see are vendor ads disguised as informative posts on ECU reflashes, plenums, replica GT3 seats, sport exhausts...and how many wheel photoshoots does one need to see? They even have a subforum dedicated to vendor posts, but when I asked the board owners why they allowed vendor ad posts in their main boards too, they said yes, it was unfortunate, but their paid vendors told them that not enough people paid attention to their ads in the vendor forums, so they wanted to post in their main forums too. Ugh.

PPBB perhaps was extreme in filtering out vendors, but IMO, that was refreshing. I mean, if one wanted to get info on wheels, plenums, rep seats, and yes...even upgraded engines or engine parts, one could always just go to any of the other Pcar boards around. It's not like you can't find the info elsewhere, and even though PPBB was mostly vendor free, people there still had running cars that weren't a pile of junk....even without all those plenums, sport exhausts, fancy wheels, etc installed on their Boxsters. They just didnt need any vendor money to keep their board running. It was noise free discussion..except for the occasional politics.

[Iflylow]

I am new to PPBB, and it looks like they are shuttting it down? Is this a temp thing? I enjoyed the board, and got a lot of useful info.

This is my first time on this site, hopefully it will be the same.

[mikefocke]

that occurs when you try and run a public forum with thousands of users each wanting it their way. In this case "run" means everything from maintaining the hardware to providing the ISP to configuring the software to doing backups to answering users requests/emails/demands... And the fact that you are running it at a 90% loss so your family is funding it factors in. Where do you start and stop your commitment?

Anyone who operates in the public with competing demands on their time and fortune faces the same pressures. (As one who got 14 calls from his constituents the other day in addition to putting in 8 hours on the job site ...and I'm retired and a volunteer.) And probably has to face the family requests to share less of yourself with the hobby and more with them. (I'm so busy attending to other people's long neglected issues, I hadn't had the Boxster out in 2 weeks, for example.) So you ask yourself why you continue to do this. And when someone seems to challenge you...it is so easy to say "take this job and shove it...I don't need to take this".

Sometimes you rethink that emotional outburst but sometimes, on reflection, you feel that you feel better for stopping the pain.

While I much preferred the highly moderated politics free environment that existed when Chuck ran the board, I grew to tolerate Rob and Cecil's occasional forays into political opinion as a small price to pay for maintaining the active forum that it was...perhaps 5 to 10 times more active than any other I've found.

[DaveinMD]

Originally Posted by mikefocke

that occurs when you try and run a public forum with thousands of users each wanting it their way. In this case "run" means everything from maintaining the hardware to providing the ISP to configuring the software to doing backups to answering users requests/emails/demands... And the fact that you are running it at a 90% loss so your family is funding it factors in. Where do you start and stop your commitment?

Anyone who operates in the public with competing demands on their time and fortune faces the same pressures. (As one who got 14 calls from his constituents the other day in addition to putting in 8 hours on the job site ...and I'm retired and a volunteer.) And probably has to face the family requests to share less of yourself with the hobby and more with them. (I'm so busy attending to other people's long neglected issues, I hadn't had the Boxster out in 2 weeks, for example.) So you ask yourself why you continue to do this. And when someone seems to challenge you...it is so easy to say "take this job and shove it...I don't need to take this".

Sometimes you rethink that emotional outburst but sometimes, on reflection, you feel that you feel better for stopping the pain.

While I much preferred the highly moderated politics free environment that existed when Chuck ran the board, I grew to tolerate Rob and Cecil's occasional forays into political opinion as a small price to pay for maintaining the active forum that it was...perhaps 5 to 10 times more active than any other I've found.

Overall, it was a place for friends. I made so many through it and at BRBS. Something that many of the people who came and went there never seemed to get. As friends, the diversity of opinion was tolerated but attacks on your friends were treated harshly. How may sites on the Internet have you felt sad to see its passing?

Life moves on and there are other places on the Internet but the friends from there will persist with or without the board. Something that few other Internet sites can do. To my PPBB friends, hope to see you at BRBS.

Dave In MD

[MikenOH]

Though I've never done it, running one of these boards has to be an all- consuming activity, if it's going to work properly.

Add in technical glitches, unhappy campers and your own money, the reasons for doing it can disappear quickly.

Having said that, Given the number of people that frequent the site, I'd be surprised if someone didn't pickup banner.

Originally Posted by mikefocke

that occurs when you try and run a public forum with thousands of users each wanting it their way. In this case "run" means everything from maintaining the hardware to providing the ISP to configuring the software to doing backups to answering users requests/emails/demands... And the fact that you are running it at a 90% loss so your family is funding it factors in. Where do you start and stop your commitment?

Anyone who operates in the public with competing demands on their time and fortune faces the same pressures. (As one who got 14 calls from his constituents the other day in addition to putting in 8 hours on the job site ...and I'm retired and a volunteer.) And probably has to face the family requests to share less of yourself with the hobby and more with them. (I'm so busy attending to other people's long neglected issues, I hadn't had the Boxster out in 2 weeks, for example.) So you ask yourself why you continue to do this. And when someone seems to challenge you...it is so easy to say "take this job and shove it...I don't need to take this".

Sometimes you rethink that emotional outburst but sometimes, on reflection, you feel that you feel better for stopping the pain.

While I much preferred the highly moderated politics free environment that existed when Chuck ran the board, I grew to tolerate Rob and Cecil's occasional forays into political opinion as a small price to pay for maintaining the active forum that it was...perhaps 5 to 10 times more active than any other I've found.

[Lawdevil]

Well said, Mike.

I will certainly miss the board as I made a lot of friends there - although I can't say I will miss the political discussions which often became nasty and personal. As one of the few resident liberals, I always tried to keep my political views civil and respectful of the views of others. That became increasingly difficult and I found myself just biting my tongue and hitting the delete key more and more. I guess it is not surprising that the vast majority of folks on a Porsche board would be of the more conservative persuasion.

I know Allegator is getting a lot of flack for this - but lets face it - Allegator had absolutely no power to shut down the board - I think Rob was just looking for a reason to get out of what had become a very frustrating and possibly unrewarding job for him.

It would be great if someone would take over the board or provide something similar - however, if that happens, I would hope that the political discourse could either be eliminated or moved to a separate forum on the board.

Cheers - hope to see some of my old friends here soon (and at BRBS).

mike (Lawdevil)

Originally Posted by mikefocke

that occurs when you try and run a public forum with thousands of users each wanting it their way. In this case "run" means everything from maintaining the hardware to providing the ISP to configuring the software to doing backups to answering users requests/emails/demands... ....

Sometimes you rethink that emotional outburst but sometimes, on reflection, you feel that you feel better for stopping the pain.

While I much preferred the highly moderated politics free environment that existed when Chuck ran the board, I grew to tolerate Rob and Cecil's occasional forays into political opinion as a small price to pay for maintaining the active forum that it was...perhaps 5 to 10 times more active than any other I've found.