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Old 09-12-2005, 04:01 PM   #1
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Rivet Commercial Vendor Titles

In an effort to reduce ambiguity between members that are just enthusiast and those that are commercial vendors we have started tagging known members that have a commercial interest in participating in our community.

In the near future we will be offering a sponsorship program and the vendors will be marked in a another manner to let you know they support our community and that it would be a nice gesture to support their businesses in return. But for now, all vendors will be marked as 'commercial vendors' only.

If you know of any commerical parties that are not marked as such, please send a Private Message (PM) to and of the administrators or moderators (listed here).
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Old 09-12-2005, 04:16 PM   #2
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I suppose you have a measurable cut-off to figure out a demarcation between those of us who buy & occasionally sell trailers at a profit & those who ONLY buy & sell? Or commercial trailer haulers vs. those who post when they are headed one way & could tow the other?

Before the sponsorship thing will there be a list of the "commercial vendors" (so that we could go to them first for services before turning to ebay or non-forum strangers)?
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Old 09-12-2005, 05:03 PM   #3
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No we dont have a measure in place yet, but that is a good idea. I will discuss how we are going to handle this with the other mods. Do you have any suggestions?

I am not sure if a list of commercial vendors will be a available but the list of commercial sponsors will certainly be available once that offering is finalized.
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Old 09-12-2005, 05:31 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy R
In an effort to reduce ambiguity between members that are just enthusiast and those that ...
I have no problem with this idea.

May I suggest doing the same thing with Moderators since boldfaced type may not be sufficient for some people to identify who's in charge?

Just a thought,
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Old 09-12-2005, 06:04 PM   #5
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Eeeek, dang, wish I did. Chikagurl is an easy one, he has a Web site; RichardT, same thing because he ALWAYS has some cool trailer for sale. Other people I know here buy & sell all the time but seemingly never through the forum, so that's more ambiguous (and I have no problem with any of them) ... robandzoe, for instance, is always ferreting something out but he seems like more of a rainmaker than someone trying to make a buck. I know some people are suspicious of the motives of anyone with a financial stake in Airstreams but, to a certain extent, we all do. I'm not stockpiling the older tiny trailers because my neighbors adore the look of them, believe me. I just sold a Silver Streak; in the next few months I'll be parting out a GT, selling a Westcraft as well as either another GT, a '59 Traveler or a '62 Bambi. Am I approaching commercial status? I hope not! So far, all I know how to do with them is run the battery down on the Bambi.

Could there be degrees, like ebay has, to rate the occasional entrepreneur up through the mega-vendor that is Inland Andy? Some possible criteria: Do you advertise your services, is it your main source of income, do you represent a hitch/tire/appliance company ... am I helping or just sounding stupid??????
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Old 09-12-2005, 06:14 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy R
... Do you have any suggestions?...
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Old 09-12-2005, 06:15 PM   #7
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Definition of 'Commercial Vendor'

Andy -- It seems a long time since server upgrades and reader interest allowed you to accept donation solicitations in this forum. Are the forums profitable? (no need to answer) We are here for our self interest in an it-so-happens-to-be American made product. Let's keep this alive! (same issue with the stickers, etc) My two donations in the past pale by comparison with any magazine subscription vs. value I have received here.

I have strong feelings about 'Commercial Vendors' in continuing to have a frequent and prominent voice in some of the more recent political discussions in the Off Topic Forums! Keep Airstreams Pure!!! (Aww-w-w....)

summerkid -- You only go commercial when the ASForums singles forum takes off into a private business!
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Old 09-12-2005, 11:48 PM   #8
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Rivet

The Google ads have become more profitable over the last 6 months and I have been able to reduce expenses significantly by leveraging economies of scale with my other forums. That being said after annual software maintenance & server costs the forums is on track to operate at a profit this year!

As some of you know I quit my job, took a MAJOR pay cut and moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina to focus on developing more forum communities. In case you did not know Buenos Aires is one of the cheapest places to live in the world and the lifestyle is an amazing value. I have been working with programmers here and will be acquiring some Spanish based forum this fall.

I was basically living in the movie 'Office Space' and was burned out from being on three committees at a firm with only 50 people. I could not afford to stay in Dallas so I started looking at other places in the world where I could live at a rate that would allow me to stay focused on building forum communities (which is my passion).

So I have a 1MB connection (my Dallas phone number works using Vonage service) and a little apartment that is quite cozy but very comfortable (like an Airstream). The culture is very interesting and I cannot tell you how cheap everything is here after the economic collapse in 2002.

We have been discussing at length in the mod/admin forum the details for the vendor program. One of our goals is to reduce the amount of moderation needed on discussions where people discuss there experiences with certain vendors. We understand the need for an open community where we can freely express information but the work that this is causing us is signaling that we might need to enforce a policy to divert those discussions to an organization like the Better Business Bureaus.

We also understand the value that our vendors bring to the community and want to develop ways for them to contribute their expertise to the forums and connect with potential clients.

We have had policies for this but have been lack in enforcing them over the last few years. We are working on a way to better enforce the policies so that vendors understand they will have to interact following the same rules as other members even though they might have to pay a fee.

Many people have donated a lot of time & money to make this community what it is today (the #1 Airstream Community online) and we hope that you learn a lot, meet great people and really enjoy yourself here.

I for one think that we are a tremendous asset to the legacy of Wally Byam, the Airstream community and Airstream, Inc.

It would be great to hear from you your thoughts about the value of our AirstreamForums.com and its influences on your overall Airstream experience.

So lets hear it...
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Old 09-13-2005, 12:30 AM   #9
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Andy and all,
You can mark me as a vendor and boy do I wish I could tell the story as to why I became one years ago but I can't. I am glad you are doing this and I will support you 100 percent. My biggest regret is not contributing to the forum as much as I could have because of two reasons...First, it comes across as drumming up business (which I did occasionally and hate that) and second, I don't have time to watch other vendors do their thing and compete when I’m just giving an opinion unrelated to business so I don’t post. My hat is off to Steve at Airstreamdreams.com and others for the restraint they have maintained and I have no affiliation with them but admired how they let the wash cycle run.
Tag me Andy. I will read the new rules and follow them.
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Old 09-13-2005, 01:06 AM   #10
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Well, I'd never heard of airstreamdreams so .... to my mind i've learned something tonight. but so now i'd like to know what, excatly, 68overlander does as "commercial vendor." all in good time?

and then i will move to southwestern france & do something like Andy is doing. but that, and the profitable singles forum, will have to wait a bit since That Man I Used to Date came crawling up the stairs a few nights ago & mewled & puked & offered to pay my mortgage & complimented my trailers & even offered to go on a rally ... and wore me down until i agreed to stay in chicago long enough to give him another chance.

and then i promptly spent a bunch of that mortgage money on another trailer.

So! Tagging those CV's among us might be a good idea! I had no idea they were so rife & possibly dastardly!
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Old 09-13-2005, 03:43 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by summerkid
Well, I'd never heard of airstreamdreams so .... to my mind i've learned something tonight. but so now i'd like to know what, excatly, 68overlander does as "commercial vendor." all in good time?
Kid,
Randy sells the replacement converters for the infamous univolt...I am sure he does other stuff too Also I can't believe you have never heard of Airstream Dreams ...they are a good source of repro parts for the 60's units to include the platinum plated Corning glass windows

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Old 09-13-2005, 08:13 AM   #12
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I don't mind being tagged as a commercial vendor. It's kind of hard, though, because my wife and I have owned our Airstream (and been enthusiasts!) for longer than we've owned our park. Stuck in the middle, but that sure seems to be the story of my life anyway!

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Old 09-13-2005, 09:01 AM   #13
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I think being tagged as a vendor is a good thing. I'd rather buy the stuff I need from (or go camp at parks owned by) those who are easily accesible and support our forum community. We use the same system on another forum I am a member of, and it works very well.
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Old 09-22-2005, 04:53 PM   #14
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In an effort to reduce ambiguity between members that are just enthusiast and those that are commercial vendors we have started tagging known members that have a commercial interest in participating in our community........
Andy, did we decide against this policy? I appreciate knowing who has a commercial interest in the hobby. I noticed that this policy was in effect for a while, but is not at the moment. Any guidance?

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Old 09-22-2005, 04:59 PM   #15
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It may be that we lost them in the system upgrade - Checking......
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Old 09-22-2005, 07:10 PM   #16
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It may be that we lost them in the system upgrade - Checking......
You are correct Janet, it was lost in the upgrade but now the labels are back.
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