Updating Unofficial Alpina homepage - Page 2 - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

greg1234 · 28th October 2006, 00:04

What about the wishes of founders / owners / moderators who may simply not want to merge...?

Taipan · 28th October 2006, 00:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by hythe

Taipan, when originally announced, the B7 was supposed to have 475PS and it was subsequently uprated to 500PS.

I remember that very well

just wanted to point out that the page hasnt been updated in a while.. (which I totally understand as I am well aware that they are a hobby and not the day to day work so it gets done when there is time

)

hythe · 28th October 2006, 13:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by greg1234

What about the wishes of founders / owners / moderators who may simply not want to merge...?

That's absolutely fine, if not!

Doesn't mean that it cannot even be suggested, though...

hythe · 28th October 2006, 13:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taipan

I remember that very well

just wanted to point out that the page hasnt been updated in a while.. (which I totally understand as I am well aware that they are a hobby and not the day to day work so it gets done when there is time

)

Fair enough...

It's actually a good reason to share the burden between two or more enthusiasts when developing these things.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the E31 Club - www.clube31.org - is an interesting case - started by one obsessive young French guy, he got others involved in running it when he went off to college and no longer had the time.

If Kees and Neil didn't want to work together, that's cool, obviously. But the opportunity is there for something bigger and better than probably either could manage on their own.

Taipan · 28th October 2006, 13:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by hythe

Fair enough...

It's actually a good reason to share the burden between two or more enthusiasts when developing these things.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the E31 Club - www.clube31.org - is an interesting case - started by one obsessive young French guy, he got others involved in running it when he went off to college and no longer had the time.

If Kees and Neil didn't want to work together, that's cool, obviously. But the opportunity is there for something bigger and better than probably either could manage on their own.

totally agree on all points..

kees · 28th October 2006, 13:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by hythe

If Kees and Neil didn't want to work together, that's cool, obviously. But the opportunity is there for something bigger and better than probably either could manage on their own.

We've actually had a discussion several months ago but nothing came of it other than me starting to link from some records in my Alpina register to the fastsaloons website.
http://m5board.com/alpina/rege39b1033.htm

The impression I get regarding the fastsaloons/alpinaregister group is the following:
* Neil wants to build a community of fastsaloons websites where people can discuss their cars and upload pictures an owners' gallery. Long-term goal I assume is to grow this community and not just focus on Alpinas?
* The Alpinaregister.com website incorporates the public register for the BMW Car Club UK (maybe a more appropriate website would be alpinaregister.co.uk?)

What I intend to do is:
* Continue with a historical overview of the cars - with the approval of Alpina
* Continue with a global register of information about each Alpina car such as color, option, location and interesting background history (such as motorshow cars, etc). In total over 3200 vehicles now (25% of all Alpinas produced). Quite a lot of information is not public but can be accessed upon request.

I've sent a PM to Neil to see if we can come to some agreement which of course needs to be beneficial to all parties to make sense.

hythe · 28th October 2006, 14:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by kees

We've actually had a discussion several months ago but nothing came of it other than me starting to link from some records in my Alpina register to the fastsaloons website.
http://m5board.com/alpina/rege39b1033.htm

The impression I get regarding the fastsaloons/alpinaregister group is the following:
* Neil wants to build a community of fastsaloons websites where people can discuss their cars and upload pictures an owners' gallery. Long-term goal I assume is to grow this community and not just focus on Alpinas?
* The Alpinaregister.com website incorporates the public register for the BMW Car Club UK (maybe a more appropriate website would be alpinaregister.co.uk?)

What I intend to do is:
* Continue with a historical overview of the cars - with the approval of Alpina
* Continue with a global register of information about each Alpina car such as color, option, location and interesting background history (such as motorshow cars, etc). In total over 3200 vehicles now (25% of all Alpinas produced). Quite a lot of information is not public but can be accessed upon request.

I've sent a PM to Neil to see if we can come to some agreement which of course needs to be beneficial to all parties to make sense.

No doubting that the register you've built so far is a fantastic and worthwhile achievement, while the historical information is also very useful (and more detailed than Alpina's own website, of course).

As for Neil's site, I'm sure he does harbour yearnings for world domination - don't we all - but in practice, the Alpina register forum has already outgrown fastsaloons.com and it's likely to remain that way. While the BMWCCGB Alpina Register is at the core of that site, thanks to Andy, the forum does seem to be dragging in international owners, as of course has this forum.

BTW, I'd happily contribute a B5 review, if you want one.

kees · 28th October 2006, 14:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by hythe

As for Neil's site, I'm sure he does harbour yearnings for world domination - don't we all - but in practice, the Alpina register forum has already outgrown fastsaloons.com and it's likely to remain that way. While the BMWCCGB Alpina Register is at the core of that site, thanks to Andy, the forum does seem to be dragging in international owners, as of course has this forum.

Of course - but that's annoying in its own right. This forum was around a long time before fastsaloons and no attempt was made to help grow this forum instead of just starting something seperate up and then complaining later on that there was no cooperation.

Gustav · 28th October 2006, 15:44

Agree Kees. This was the worlds first Alpina forum, and we never used other peoples material or consequently post in competing sites to gain traffic. We made unique material. I think that should be a rule of thumb of other sites as well.

Alpina community here was been growing from scratch with the excellent help of Mr Janne Unofficial Alpina page from late 1990's:

http://www.m5board.com/alpina/

Why would m5board be interested in growing a competing forum-nonetheless make material for that forum-, that indirectly could have the result of this forum Alpina forum be decreasing in activity?

hythe · 28th October 2006, 18:27

Personally, I don't get the whole "competition" thing, especially since about 50% of members seem to be in common. But since I wasn't one of those who built up the forum and its content, it's entirely up to you guys, of course.

I believe that the point of these forums is to spread knowledge, both among Alpina owners and potential owners / marque enthusiasts, as well as to provide mutual support in resolving technical and practical issues. Competition doesn't really come into it. The UK Alpina Register website grew out of a physical club register which was intended to achieve the same aims, as I understand it - the forum there was a logical next step.

By all means, keep the forums separate - my suggestion is merely that the information sites - Kees/Janne's profiles site and the non-forum part of the Alpina Register site (the bits that require continuous effort to keep updated), could safely be merged (possibly under its own domain name), with equal promotion of both the M5board.com and fastsaloon.com Alpina forums, as well as Kees' universal register, which as he points out already has some linkages to the members' register on the Alpina Register website.

I'm not quite clear why that would be so controversial, but maybe I'm missing some of the history...