PDA

View Full Version : ORR.net open under new management!


Radio
08-23-2016, 09:51 AM
Well, I have some good news, and I have some more good news. :headphones:

In a nut shell: Open Roads Radio .net is now open under new management, having been acquired by Social Knowledge, LLC. They host a huge number of RV related sites, plus specific interest sites from aquariums to computers to what ever else one might be interested in.

Welcome aboard please Andy R and Janet H. as administrators, who unlike me know what they are doing not only technically but with an eye to increasing traffic/posts, growing the ORR.net family but maintaining the sense of community we have here on ORR.net. They have both complimented me on the quality of content and community we have built here since 2007.

A bit of history… Open Roads Radio .net was a sister site to Forest River Forums. Mike Rimmer (now SK) started Forest River Forums and later he and I started Open Roads Radio as he and I both had interest in RV camping and Ham Radio. I was a moderator at FRF and admin at ORR.net. When Mike came down with cancer, he placed the better established Forest River Forums in the capable hands of Andy R, Janet H and the Social Knowledge team. Mike then gave ORR.net, still in its early stages, to me. I have admired the community and growth at FRF over the years while maintaining a warm community. It seemed to me the best care takers of ORR.net in the future would be the folks at Social Knowledge.

Why now?

Personal reasons on my part. I need more time to look after my mom who is 93. I am also getting my finances in order, so I am now relieved of paying the server bill. There are some vBulletin (the software ORR.net runs on) housekeeping issues that need to be addressed that I simply do not know how to do or have time to do. So the transition is good for me.
And BTW, I’m not going anywhere. I get to stay and do all the fun stuff. Andy R gets to do all the heavy lifting! I’ll be around for quite a while. Looking forward to taking longer trips knowing ORR.net is in good hands while I am away.

What about the future of Open Roads Radio .net?

Open Roads Radio will become a part of the Social Knowledge network which will drive the community membership from their other sites and better promotion. The forum will improve with features and upgrades. Things will work better. We already have superior server hosting. And these folks have mastered the technical side of running forums, which I most certainly have not.

All this and the ORR.net family we have built together over these years remains the same. There simply is no down side.

Imagine a family living in a house. A new landlord buys the place and fixes it up. Nice new neighbors move in next door. Same family but things are better.

This is gonna be great!

Radio
08-23-2016, 09:55 AM
Here's a link to the Social Knowledge website if you want to know more about them:

http://www.socialknowledge.com/

Andy R
08-23-2016, 10:09 AM
Wade, I'm honored you are allowing us to adopt ORR. It's a really nice community and we look forward to meeting the members. One of our programmers who logs in under the name Tech Admin is also into HAM radios.

It's our hope that it will be business as usual around here. We like to foster our forums by providing support to the mod/admin teams to make sure they are empowered and have the tools needed to keep each community on track. So it's really an effort to work together that helps us keep the communities growing.

We will do some articles on ORR and find ways to cross promote it to the other RV sites to see if we can drum up more radio operators.

kd2iat
08-23-2016, 11:07 AM
I'm a long time member of sunlineclub.com which is also part of the Social Knowledge family. Life is great over there and they've accumulated over 8,000 users. I think we'll all find this to be a very positive move.

Janet H
08-23-2016, 12:04 PM
I'm a long time member of sunlineclub.com which is also part of the Social Knowledge family. Life is great over there and they've accumulated over 8,000 users.

Small world - I'm a member there as well :)

Wade - thanks for the warm welcome I'm really pleased to be able to get to know everyone and help out. Sunline and ForestRiverForums are wonderful communities and a great resource and I think this has entirely to do with the folks who hang out there - I see a bunch of familiar faces here as well.

A little about me - I live in the Pacific NW and have been helping Andy out with day to day details at his forums. In my spare time I am a musician with an acoustic trio and a quirky summer tour schedule. You'll see me logging in at odd hours. I'm also an RVer and have a restored vintage Airstream and a second one in progress. I love to camp and often take my rig to music festivals. Both my DH and son are Hams but I am not. My best role seems to be supporting their gear addictions at holidays with small, copper filled and nicely wrapped presents.

Over the next few weeks we'll be updating software and making a few small updates. Down the road a nice new look for the forum might be in order and a few new features but we'll keep you in the loop and of course Wade will be here as well to make certain we don't get into too much mischief. :)

coupevillefish
08-23-2016, 01:56 PM
I also belong to a couple of the forums - Forest River and IRV2 nets as well as FiberglassRV, which is the same format but I'm not sure if it is managed by Social Knowledge. I appreciate the Android app that those have and hope to see it here in the future.

Also looking forward to expansion of the net which will hopefully generate more traffic and knowledge sharing as well as just plain fun.

Also from the northeest.

W7DAF

Radio
08-23-2016, 02:06 PM
I appreciate the Android app that those have and hope to see it here in the future.

Me too, as my brand new Kindle Fire HD 10 just arrived this week and I am itching to try it out

:jitter:

Tech Admin
08-23-2016, 02:35 PM
I'm a long time member of sunlineclub.com which is also part of the Social Knowledge family. Life is great over there and they've accumulated over 8,000 users. I think we'll all find this to be a very positive move.

This is Jeff. I help Andy out with some of the back end stuff along with Jake (who may also use this account). Your post caught my eye because our call signs are very close. Mine is KD2AIT. :) Glad to be aboard.

- Jeff