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Tom M

Tom M

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It's finally time for me to post something about the changes on the forum you may have noticed over the last few days.

I have gladly hosted and operated the Babblers forum for the 13 years of its existence and also helped to keep things going the best I could after having moved to the Midwest back in 2007. It's been exciting as well as challenging and now that I'm no longer a Porsche owner, at least for the time being, I have decided to hand the reins over to John Shaw. I will continue to hang around and have some moderator ability.

John and I have discussed this for quite some time and the initial move, as far as hosting goes, was completed over the weekend with very little interruption in service. The look and feel will hopefully be somewhat restored over the coming days as some of the features will need to be modified to accommodate the new server configuration. John has also been busy upgrading the software over the past few days to the most recent versions and has plans to switch the gallery over to the fully featured version at some point in the future, so he should be a good caretaker.

John plans on making a more formal announcement so be sure to be on the lookout for it.

With all that said, I'm hoping that there can be some more group functions in the coming months as more than anything the Babblers was geared to be a social forum where friends could get together for a BBQ or Pizza after a local drive and just have a good time. Perhaps it's not too late to begin plans for Boxsterfest :D
 
Thanks for all your hard work over the years Tom, you've done an excellent job.:)
 
Hi, I'm the new guy...

Hello everyone!

Thanks Tom!

To tell you more about me... I'm a long time Porsche enthusiast and fanatic, have always loved cars and this wide world of motorsports. When I'm not doing the work thing, driving is my biggest passion, from road trips to track days.

While I've always been a long time fan of the 911, I absolutely fell in love with the new Porsche Cayman. The mid engine handles like a dream, and it's so easy to put the car wherever I want it in a corner. This happened about a year ago, which was when I first discovered this site and first inquired with Tom. I cannot begin to tell everyone how I excited I am at the chance to really try and grow the community we have here, and I tip my hat to Tom for allowing me to take the site into a new chapter. My intent is to keep the site in line with the original vision it was created, I sincerely mean that.

I will always recognize Tom as the Site Founder. As I join the community, I want to focus on building a better website and helping to continue building this awesome Boxster and Cayman community.

It's also very important that I make sure everyone knows that there will never be any charge or any kind of subscription to use the site. Every function and feature and use of the site will always be 100% free for the community. I cannot stress that enough. I mention this because I have seen some communities change hands and then the new owners start charging the users, and that will not happen here so I want to squash that thought before it ever comes up.

So what will change?

Well, I have already moved the site to a new dedicated server so the website should be loading fast! Eventually, I plan on making some upgrades to the forum, simply to provide some more functions and features for everyone.

My personal focus is going to be improving and supporting the website, not the vision or the community. I hope there is a distinct difference that everyone can understand.

And if anyone has any questions for me, please post up and I'll answer as I read them.

Thanks!
 
Tom,

Thanks for your hard work through the years. More importantly thanks for the great memories from numerous events and gatherings organized by you or others on this site. Still can't believe how much time has passed since our early drives to Lick Observatory, Laguna Seca, and Persido toy drives. Thanks again.
 
Thanks for starting and moderating this forum over the years.
 
Lash said:
Hello everyone!

Thanks Tom!

To tell you more about me... I'm a long time Porsche enthusiast and fanatic, have always loved cars and this wide world of motorsports. When I'm not doing the work thing, driving is my biggest passion, from road trips to track days.

While I've always been a long time fan of the 911, I absolutely fell in love with the new Porsche Cayman. The mid engine handles like a dream, and it's so easy to put the car wherever I want it in a corner. This happened about a year ago, which was when I first discovered this site and first inquired with Tom. I cannot begin to tell everyone how I excited I am at the chance to really try and grow the community we have here, and I tip my hat to Tom for allowing me to take the site into a new chapter. My intent is to keep the site in line with the original vision it was created, I sincerely mean that.

I will always recognize Tom as the Site Founder. As I join the community, I want to focus on building a better website and helping to continue building this awesome Boxster and Cayman community.

It's also very important that I make sure everyone knows that there will never be any charge or any kind of subscription to use the site. Every function and feature and use of the site will always be 100% free for the community. I cannot stress that enough. I mention this because I have seen some communities change hands and then the new owners start charging the users, and that will not happen here so I want to squash that thought before it ever comes up.

So what will change?

Well, I have already moved the site to a new dedicated server so the website should be loading fast! Eventually, I plan on making some upgrades to the forum, simply to provide some more functions and features for everyone.

My personal focus is going to be improving and supporting the website, not the vision or the community. I hope there is a distinct difference that everyone can understand.

And if anyone has any questions for me, please post up and I'll answer as I read them.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I have two questions for you. Why do I have to log in every time I visit this site now? Never had to before once I entered log in info and checked "remember me." Now I'm seeing "all cookies cleared" and have to reenter all info.
What happened to "Active Topics" heading?
Thanks.
 
offshore said:
I have two questions for you. Why do I have to log in every time I visit this site now? Never had to before once I entered log in info and checked "remember me." Now I'm seeing "all cookies cleared" and have to reenter all info.
Click to expand...
I did upgrade the forum software, which required everyone to log back into the site. But if you click the Remember Me button, it should keep you logged in. It's been working good on my end.

What's probably happening is there are still old cookies in your browser. On your browser, can you please close all your browser windows and go into your Setting and remove all cookies and temp data. Then load up your browser again, and login to the site, and you'll create a brand new cookie which should keep you logged in.

Another way to test this out, is to try logging in from another browser and see if it keeps you logged in.

If you'd like, let me know what browser you're running, and I can give you some info on how to clear the browser cookies.

offshore said:
What happened to "Active Topics" heading?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

It's still there, but the forum upgrade I think replaced the name of it... In the Navigation above, click "New Posts" which shows all new posts since the last time you logged in. You can also goto the Home Page (babblers.org) and it shows all the most recent topics regardless of your last session.

Let me know if you have any other questions on anything. I'm here to help.

Thanks!
 
Lash said:
I did upgrade the forum software, which required everyone to log back into the site. But if you click the Remember Me button, it should keep you logged in. It's been working good on my end.

What's probably happening is there are still old cookies in your browser. On your browser, can you please close all your browser windows and go into your Setting and remove all cookies and temp data. Then load up your browser again, and login to the site, and you'll create a brand new cookie which should keep you logged in.

Another way to test this out, is to try logging in from another browser and see if it keeps you logged in.

If you'd like, let me know what browser you're running, and I can give you some info on how to clear the browser cookies.



It's still there, but the forum upgrade I think replaced the name of it... In the Navigation above, click "New Posts" which shows all new posts since the last time you logged in. You can also goto the Home Page (babblers.org) and it shows all the most recent topics regardless of your last session.

Let me know if you have any other questions on anything. I'm here to help.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'm running Safari and know how to clear cookies but I'm not going to clear all cookies and have to log into all my other sites just for this one because it can't remember my log in, which by the way, I had to log in again just to answer your replies.
So little goes on on this site any more that it is not worth the effort of having to log on every time when it wasn't an issue before.
 
offshore said:
I'm running Safari and know how to clear cookies but I'm not going to clear all cookies and have to log into all my other sites just for this one because it can't remember my log in, which by the way, I had to log in again just to answer your replies.
Click to expand...

Hey Ron, since you're running Safari, it's super easy to just clear the cookies for this one website instead of wiping all of them out. In Safari, go to Preferences, and under the Privacy tab under the Cookies section, you'll see a button called Details. Just go in there, search for "babblers.org" and you can remove just this one website's cookies.

Then when you login again, a new cookie will be created and you'll be all set.

Attached is a screenshot I took to show you.

offshore said:
So little goes on on this site any more
Click to expand...
I agree, but that's why I approached Tom asking him to let me breathe some new energy into the place. I'm a single guy, so during this holiday season, I plan on making some updates to the site and try to grow the community in place. I want to see this awesome community continue on and become much more active!

Any feedback and help is greatly appreciate. I sincerely mean that.
 

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Lash said:
Hey Ron, since you're running Safari, it's super easy to just clear the cookies for this one website instead of wiping all of them out. In Safari, go to Preferences, and under the Privacy tab under the Cookies section, you'll see a button called Details. Just go in there, search for "babblers.org" and you can remove just this one website's cookies.

Then when you login again, a new cookie will be created and you'll be all set.

Attached is a screenshot I took to show you.


I agree, but that's why I approached Tom asking him to let me breathe some new energy into the place. I'm a single guy, so during this holiday season, I plan on making some updates to the site and try to grow the community in place. I want to see this awesome community continue on and become much more active!

Any feedback and help is greatly appreciate. I sincerely mean that.
Click to expand...

I don't mind clearing the cookie for this site if I know what it is.
Not being able to identify it means I'd need to clear them all. It is this site that is saying it has cleared all cookies when I come to it and asks me to log in again. I've been here twice today and haven't had to log in so perhaps the problem is solved? Thanks.
 
Tom, thanks for keeping the site up for all these years! I appreciate the Babblers community and the friends I have made here! I'm sure the unavoidable urge will result in another P-Car in your garage in the future.

Bob
 
I second Bob's sentiment. Thank you Tom for hosting this site for oh so many years. It will always remain my virtual home for Bay Area Boxster needs. Through this site I've me some great, knowledgable people in-person that are just as passionate about Porsches and Boxsters as I am. I've learned a lot here, and I am sure that others have as well.

I'd love to see some new life breathed into this site/community. I think organizing some local meet-ups and drives is a critical first step to revitalizing the community. Anyone can go to a wide range of forums to read opinions on IMS failures and which weight motor oil to run, its the community on and off the site that makes Babblers unique.
 
Thanks to all for the kind words.

I would love to get back into a P-Car when I can afford another one. At the moment I'm still in search of a job...

As far as the "Active Topics" link goes it was a little different than the "New Posts" link in that it excluded certain forums and searched a limited number of days, but did do a similar function.

The cookie problem would also be encountered from time to time whenever I did a SW upgrade so deleting all the babblers.org and www.babblers.org cookies could sometimes be required. It was very hit or miss on which browser/user was impacted but clearing the site related cookies usually solved the problem.

ETA: If you want to recreate the link to the "Active Topics" as a local bookmark you can use the following...

http://www.babblers.org/search.php?do=getdaily&days=7&exclude=75
 
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Tom, the link I have always used caused me to miss all these changes, although I did see that there were changes to the site from someone new. But your announcement missed my attention until today when my old link did not work and when using another way into the site I discovered this. I wanted to thank you for all your work over the years, the great communication, and the friendship I have felt. I check this site every day for new post, lament when there are none, and read intently when there are, although I usually have nothing to add. I hope you will continue to post. Your knowledge is always appreciated.

Again, thank you for everything.
 
Thanks Tom

I just wanted to give a big thanks to Tom for all the advice and knowledge over the years. I have tackled pretty much every job my car has needed over the last 10 years thanks mainly to the babblers and Tom. The confindence to dive in and get dirty derived from this site. I also got to take part in some fun drives and auto x's/track days in where I meet some of you.

Thanks again Tom, and if I win the lottery I will give you my Boxcar. I cant take my eyes off the New Cayman:D
 
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