Eagles International Forum

UPDATE 11/17/18. All further updates will be posted on this thread: http://eagles-international.net/forums/ ... 2cd7142972

UPDATE 11/12/18. The new webmaster designate is slowly getting acquainted with all of the workings of this website/forum. There is an update post at the end of this thread.

UPDATE 10/22/18. The chapter has selected and approved a new administrator. A plan is developing to restore and upgrade this site. More details at the bottom of this thread


UPDATE 10/11/18. The deactivation of the website and forum is on hold. The forum continues to be active. More details at the bottom of this thread

In the second or third week of September we will be taking the Eagles International website and forum off line. Likely this will be a permanent action.

[[Update: this action has been delayed pending discussion at the Eagles International board meeting in October.]]

As most of you know, the website and the forum are sponsored and funded by The Eagles International Chapter of FMCA. In 2008 we created the website and forum with the goal of developing a platform that would allow anyone owning (or interested in) Eagle buses to share information or ask questions about Eagles. Over the years the forum has resulted in a huge database of technical information.

However, in the past couple of years many members have adopted Facebook as their choice for Eagle discussions. That has resulted in a steady reduction of posting on our forum. Surprisingly traffic to our website has held steady at around 3-4,000 views a month and it appears that views of our forum also remain reasonably good. When you consider our very limited focus, the numbers are pretty impressive. However, we must still face the fact that posting activity (and technical help from the members) has become quite limited.

Administration of the website and forum is a significant resource hog. It has reached the point that the resource allocation to maintain the site is no longer justified.

I am in the process of preserving all of the data on both the website and forum. A chapter member has expressed the desire to be the custodian of the information. All of the software and code will remain on a server and the fees will be paid by the chapter or the data custodian. This will permit re- activation of the website and forum if deemed justified by the chapter at a later date.

Comments can be sent to LeRoy Willis (Eagles International President): lrwillis45 at gmail dot com

Jim

Thank you for all the time a effort you put into keeping the board going Jim you did a good job,I'll miss it but now it a different time, older Eagle owners are moving on and a different generation owning Eagles now.I just hope the club survives it has been a good run

luvrbus wrote:Thank you for all the time a effort you put into keeping the board going Jim you did a good job,I'll miss it but now it a different time, older Eagle owners are moving on and a different generation owning Eagles now.I just hope the club survives it has been a good run

I'll second that, it is sad to see this site go. You have done a great job of keeping things going. There are a lot of valuable post's in the archives, I hope they have a safe home with multiple backups.

We too, thank you Jim for all of your hard work and dedication, we count you as a dear friend.

We agree with you Clifford(you're also a dear friend too), sure is a different time and class of owners. When we have folks on this site and others that do not want to buy batteries to start their bus or tires because they cost too much? I am not a man of much means, but I want my bus to be safe and trouble free to make any trip we take it on. We never want to operate in such a way that would cause damage to the reputation of other fine Eagle owners. We want to be accepted in RV parks with "Wow, what a nice bus, it doesn't matter what year it is, you're always welcome here". We know owning and maintaining an Eagle is not a cheap thing to do, but we love the ride and take pride in the fact that we own a "Classic". That said, I will miss this site, heck it was because of finding this site that we joined Eagles International back in 2009 after attending the Louisiana rally. But, the club is and will be a club with or without this website and forum. In fact, we believe there has been a lot of confusion concerning club membership as a result of those joining this site.

Clifford, thanks for the kind words. And a special thanks for all the technical advice you have rendered over the years.

Walter, you are a recent addition to our forum and in that short time you have contributed greatly. I wish we had more forum members like you. Thank you! You mentioned data preservation. Part of the delay in deactivation is making sure that the data is backed up using several techniques. That said, it is sad that the backups may never see the "light of day" on the internet again.

Jim & Denise, we too value your friendship.

Jim

A situation has presented itself that suggests that the deactivation should be delayed till mid-October.

Jim

Not that it means anything important ,I was just was wondering if it took a club vote to disband the forum ,seems like I recall it took a vote to start the board. I would still vote to let it go

The thought just occurred to me that instead of closing up, maybe a merger with the Bus Conversion Magazine forum would help serve everybody and preserve the important archives. Many of us access several forums related to buses, and the BCM one has the most traffic. Maybe Eagles International could be a separate section within their forum, in some way. It would help to maintain the status of Eagle as a special coach. It seems the Eagle viewership numbers would boost BCM numbers and help ad revenue. I think the idea should be explored.

Clifford, I had quite a bit of email conversation with LeRoy (current president) and he did not ask me to hold off for a board meeting. Indeed, he seemed to think it was OK to close down our site.

That said, I have delayed to shutdown until after the board meeting in Branson.

One of my reasons for going slow on this process was to see if there might be someone who would be willing to put in the effort to somehow revive this site. I have no idea what magic that would take, but I have not been able to do it.

Wayne is going to discuss possible options at the board meeting, and thus the delay.

Jim

I have been able to make several changes that have reduced the time I spend on this site to a very reasonable level. That, in turn, has reduced the urgency of closing things down.

The deactivation of the site will still take place in the near future unless prince charming rides in on a white horse.

Jim