??? Something happen Gary that I'm not aware of? I know you've gotten tired (A phase I bordered on) for a while, and you'd been getting some pressure from your wife, but that seems overly harsh.

 

I don't think this is an abandonment of what GreenHybrid stands for.

I did talk with Jason and Stan and I'm not concerned this forum is headed in the wrong direction. I was at a forum (not auto-related) that the founders built up, then took off in a different direction, leaving the members betrayed. I don't see either hidden adgenda or a redefinition of what GreenHybrid stands for.

I don't know how many of you realize the time and money that is involved in getting a domain name, a good webhost that can handle the volume of members, and setting up the forum - it's a challenge. The hardest thing is to get people to come. It's a lot like setting up a business, requiring knowledge of the technical, interpersonal, and the forum topic. Not many forums succeed like GreenHybrid.

Also consider Jason has plans for law school. In case you are not aware, Rice University is top academic university in the Southwest and among the best in America. I'm just higllighting the obvious he has a lot on his plate It was a matter of time before Jason would transfer ownership. It seems to be in good hands.

Some may be concerned GreenHybrid no longer be a haven for hypermilers and the environmentally concerned. Some probably fear that we would get a large population of members seeing hybrids as a way to continue to drive aggressively or in gas guzzlers. The best way to keep GreenHybrid to maintain a theme of using less fuel and polluting less is for our hypermilers to remain.

 

Good job and good luck! You did what you felt was right for you, and that's what matters.

 

Good job Jason. $Remember$, think about #1 = yourself first. Hopefully the site will flourish, I'm sure it will. I just hope it doesn't become plagued by pop-ups and advertisements.

 

I know there is some concern about the future of GH. But, thanks to Jason, we have a community which can meet the challenge.

Jason has put a lot into this site, making it as democratic and respectful as any I have seen. It is not now just Jason's dream, but the ideal of an entire community.

It is bound to change - as are all living things. It is up to us to see that it changes in the directions that we want to see.

I know that you will be leading us for a while yet, Jason. Feel no guilt as your redirect your efforts. We have learned from you and will continue the community you gave us.

Thanks for that. And best wishes for your future - even if as a lawyer.

 

Firefox + Adblock + Filterset.G is your friend

 

I've got all the adblocker/popup blocker stuff. Lot of people out there still aren't that savvy. (my parents are the perfect example, they consider popups and ads the price of business for browsing the internet - they sometimes get frustrated using it)

Hopefully the site won't turn in that direction. Off course many things will probably change though, that's the circle of life.

 

I have no problem with a couple of popups or ads at the top. Now six popups or embedded spyware that spams - that's different.

 

In case it's helpful, I wanted to chime in with the Internet Brands perspective. My name is Stan Holt. I head up the publishing team at Internet Brands, and I've been working closely with Jason since the acquisition.

Needless to say, I am a big fan of the site, having come across it when I began researching my next car purchase, which will probably be another Honda Civic. I manage the editorial team at CarsDirect.com and Autos.com, so I thought I had a good handle on hybrids, but 45 minutes on GH reminded me that a community site offers insights and data that traditional editors can never match.

I thought the discussion boards were very useful, thanks in large part to moderators who kept the dialogue on-topic, injected personal and industry knowledge where appropriate and provided something lacking in many discussion-driven sites -- a kind of institutional memory that allows you to quote or paraphrase comments or data that may have been posted months before, providing a rapid response to the person asking the question while sparing regular contributors from having to answer the same question over and over again.

Another thing missing from many community sites is structured presentation of the collective wisdom. GreenHybrid's Real Hybrid Mileage Database seems to me to be the perfect wiki-like application for the automotive area. We plan on promoting the database as much as possible in the links to GH we put on CarsDirect, and it has been a prime talking-point when we've walked through the site with press and partner contacts.

In conversations that Jason and I have had with moderators and power users, we've been asked what GreenHybrid is going to get out of the deal. Other than additional infrastructure and development resources, the best answer is traffic and content. The traffic part is pretty straightforward -- we plan to generate a lot more contributors and readers to the site -- but let me elaborate a little on the content.

CarsDirect has what we like to think of as the most comprehensive and accurate pricing and spec data in the industry (as the only independent automotive ecommerce site still alive, data is even more critical to our bottom line than it is to research sites like Edmunds and KBB). While I would never want to undermine GreenHybrid's community focus, I think some GH users would welcome optional access to the specs, photos, pricing and other research content. If they're interested, they can pursue that info; if they're not, they won't click. Initially, we'd just link to CDc for that content, but the goal is to integrate it into GH so that users don't have to leave the site if they do want research content.

Other content that could be useful to the community includes our options configurator and compare tools, as well as our reviews and review summaries. The compare tool, for example, offers detailed comparisons on an unlimited number of models or even trims, so you can compare a Highlander Hybrid to a Ford Escape Hybrid or, if you really want to get detailed, stack up every Highlander Hybrid trim.

I don't want to ramble on too long. I just wanted to share some initial thoughts and get out there how excited I am to be working with Jason and the team that built GreenHybrid. We really hope to expand the site's resources and audience, and I hope as much of that team as possible stays involved for a long time.

 

Sounds like positive growth. Look forward to the reviews and summaries section.