just remind yourself that we are now spam and blue box bug free 
Yeah, very true.. although I'm not sure what the blue box bug was
But anyways, I dont know if there are some underlying motives/reasons or something, but why not keep the old domain name, but upload/revamp or change to this new forum software thing?
This is a reasonable question - as it's what I thought at first too (over one year ago).
First and foremost I want to say that every time I've personally interacted with Todd he's been nothing but a nice guy (albeit busy).
So rewind just over a year:
Castle and Pete approached me about doing some upgrades to dtw. I said sure -- at the time PHPbb was a great software package and doing a few little things didn't look that challenging. Only caveat, was that to do any of that stuff, I would've needed ftp access to the site files and the database password. I've worked with data a lot more sensitive than a car clubs website forums and database so I didn't feel bad asking for it. Castle and/or Pete came back to me about a week later though and said there was no way Todd was going to "give that up". They said it was a bummer and that Todd had promised them some updates/etc... anyway. We all went on with our lives.
7/8 months later:
Castle and Pete ask me again, and I remind them of the whole login/password conundrum. There was some discussion amongst us and several others about starting a new site, but in the interest of being reasonable it was decided we would wait a little while.
About a month ago:
7 of us sit down for dinner and the topic of the new site comes up. We realized that such a dramatic shift as making a new site was a big one, but that if any of us wanted to keep doing stuff with the club, having someone running the main point of contact who was MIA wasn't a good start. Todd at first kept saying ok give me some time - which turned into waiting - which turned into no one even being able to raise him on the phone - it was slightly ridiculous. It was clear that setting up something new would alleviate someone working very hard to support a family.
DTW had experienced some pretty good growth in the last 6 months too, and we wanted to capitalize on that in attempts to grow the number of members who were showing up for local events etc...
With the growing traffic, using small advertisements on the site to get some $$$ for the club was becoming feasible.
Word on the street was that the SEA ads running on DTW got Todd his APR programs. There were also some banners showing up for AoA, and if there was any revenue from those where it was going who knows. Although I can completely understand looking for a little reimbursement for the costs of the site from advertising revenue, keeping that information in the dark does bother me, as turning a profit from the website traffic generated by a car club should not be a private thing. Those dollars can go back into the club via stickers, discounting the cost of track days for members, printed banners, food&drink at events, who knows etc...
At this point in time MotorCityAudi website costs are taken care of by me, and I can sustain them into the foreseeable future. When we get quite a few active members (4-600+ registered members visiting the site every day) costs will go up, but advertising revenue at that point will fully be able to cover any excess costs.
When advertisements are setup on MotorCityAudi, how much revenue generated and what bank account it's going into will be fully available to
all registered members who have been with us for a short duration (TBD) in hard copy format or via private email.
When dollars get involved there are a lot of legitimate concerns which will be addressed transparently, and we will establish a treasurer etc...
Todd is going to notice a drop in traffic and his reaction to this move will be unknown. I know he knew about the site before the mass email was sent out on dtw. I'm going to be very honest here.... those of us who've worked to set this up didn't do so simply to raise Todd from the abyss. This site will be a permanent establishment. We foresaw updates appearing to DTW with the launch of this site, but aren't interested in having the whole cycle repeat itself a year later. We are not interested in bouncing all over the web.
A last and
very important point:
Everyone of us is interested in making MotorCityAudi a great car club with a lot of local involvement. There will be much more transparency.
Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us.
P.S - That's everything written in a reasonably concise format. I hope that answers any lingering questions.
