johnhardy1

?

mvigod

Only when it is truly ready...we were a little too eager to get the site online so everybody could see it that we didn't catch a few issues which came up only on the final merge. We have some sophisticated hardware and the configuration and programming is not run of the mill so those need to be further optimized. We have 9 servers total running RCU after the merge as opposed to 2 now.

What we will do is have a free for all open beta test for RCU members. We will announce a window of testing one night on the new site and allow everyone to go in and look around, test the features, we will give a fake credit card so you can play in the auction, stress test the system, ensure all data is correct with your account and logins working and give me feedback on any user interface or cosmetic issues I need to address. Once we get a clean bill of health we will go live. This may take 1, 2 or even 3 testing sessions. I hope many of you will be available to kick the tires and provide feedback for what will be your future home here at RCU. Your suggestions of the majority truly do make the site what it is.

bearmech

My Feedback: (1)

I'll help!!

trioval00

My Feedback: (17)

but i really, really, really like this site, even though i did go into the new one, maybe it just needs some time to get use to it, but if it aint broke dont fix it, rcu , now, is a great site

as always just my thoughts

mark

Bill Vargas

My Feedback: (5)

Glowplugs anyone??? $1,000,000.99 ea


BV
RCU Show Girls,,, Priceless

mvigod

Unfortunately, ain't broke don't fix it doesn't always work.

1) Remember the horse? They thought nothing could replace the horse until henry ford decided it was broke.

2) Remember the candle? Edison decided that was broke and along came the lightbulb.

If everyone had the attitude that if it ain't broke don't fix it then nothing would ever change or improve. We all heard the expression "if your not moving forward your moving backward". We are planning for a great future here at RCU so members have the best services available on the fastest site.

I promise...you will really, really, really, really, really, really like the revamped RCU

johnhardy1

OK. In fact the small amount of time that I perused the new site I didnt think it was that different than the original AND Im interested in checking it out some more.

BUT, what kind of time frame are you looking at ? I realize you cannot be definite about this but ....how long ?
1 or 2 days, 1 to 2 weeks, months ?
Or maybethis is better....when do you hope to have the new site up and running again ?

- John

brschmid

will it be free to post to, or will there be a fee. i don't like the idea of a mandatory fee, if it was a donation system i would donate.

branded

My Feedback: (9)

Hopefully it will never be "up"..... This is clearly deja all over again.

History repeats over and over again.

Enjoy this site at it's apparent plateau as in my opinion, it's all down hill from this point out.

GRANT ED

I missed the trial of the new format but after reading a few storied about it I'm thinking the change is not going to be a good thing. Every report about it that I have read has been negative. There were quite a lot of people that said the new style was much slower than the current format. This would be very frustrating to me as I only have a normal dial up modem. I also don't like the idea of ads popping up every 10 seconds. As I said, I didn't get to see it first hand but it seams to me the only people that like the change is the people who are changing it.

Frankenthumb

My Feedback: (2)

I have weighed in on this subject before, and I will again.

My first experience with the new format was (in deference to the illustrious MikeL) less than great.

However, I am willing to wait and see how the new Universe works out.

This maybe the 24th time I have said this, but Marc has his record to stand on. RCU rules, and if history repeats it will continue to do just that. However, history is fickle, as anyone that remembers RCO can tell you. Marcs record is only as good as the last entry. Lets all hope that the next entry is as glowing.

mvigod

If you read all the posts you will note that I stated 100 times there were bugs slowing down the system. The new site will be significantly faster than RCU is now. We have 2 servers running RCU now. The new site has 9 total servers. Why would it be slower? It won't be...trust me. That is why it is down now. We are optimizing hardware and software.

To those who posted negative I would expect that. Our site was slow on launch due to these errors (of which will all be fixed), login issues were present (all will be fixed) and further optimization will be made. I posted a screenshot in some of these threads.....if you missed it here it is.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/homepage.jpg

you will see it is super clean, graphically pleasing and easy to navigate. Those who have tested it on a closed system on our beta site have all loved it and are blown away. Once it is up and running correctly it will be fantastic.

To the poster above (and I've said this 100 times in 100 threads now....) it is free to post in our forums which appear almost identical in every way to current RCU. The negative posters are those who witnessed some of the errors which won't be present on the relaunch.

If I never listened to a members requests here at RCU and this site was perfect and never needed to change we would be dead meat in a year or less. Members are crying for things we cannot do with this software on RCU. It is abound with login issues for users as the vbulletin developers never fixed cookie and session issues. Our new platform will not be riddled with these issues and we won't officially launch until they are fixed.

Search by location for classifieds or auctions (state or region)

Track categories for listings your interested in

Track and manager all your own ads from one spot

Ability to close your own ads

Ability to customize forums so you see only the categories you want to see and even customize the forums within those categories. Don't like warbirds? Mark it off your list and it never comes up. Don't like electric cars? Mark it off your list. It's your forum and you make it just the way YOU want it.

Fees for an auction at 50% of ebays

Prepopulated ads which include specs and stock photo (you can override any pics or specs if you want)

No sniper option for sellers (seller can choose to make his/her auction a no sniper auction)

Customize your ad viewing prefs...if you only like cars you see just car ads. Like just planes then only plane ads. Like cars and planes then you will see both.

Compare 3 motors or any radio equipment side by side to see specs in one view. Helps make purchase decision for what servo or motor is correct

Free magazine reviews and user reviews

Compatibility guide which allows you to read what motor or combos they used in a certain model.

User feedback (karma) for both classifieds and auctions in one view. See retracted bids and other info.

User discussion area directly under every classified ad. Like a forum ad but with a structured ad for the first post so no bumping and ensure all ads have prices.

Less clutter and easy to find categories let you browse or pinpoint what you are looking to buy.


This is the tip of the iceberg...why one would say that providing all the above features (all of which were requested by members here) represents the beginning of the end is beyond me. My experience tells me that if you listen to your customers that your business will grow. Well I've listened. The vocal minority here may not appreciate the new site but the majority of better than 90% will appreciate it since those that requested these things far outweigh those who are complaining. Like everyone says...you can't make EVERYONE happy but we will make most of the members here happy. Sounds like politics, huh? We just do our best here and users will accept it or not. I know the other choices available on the internet for RC and I'm comfortable with all the work we have done here at RCU.

As far as timeline..we expect launch around August 1st. Everyone will have access to kick the tires on the new site and help us test and do final debugging...this will give you time to get used to it as well...I expect the learning curve for most users to be under an hour. If you only like forums your curve is 10 seconds.

johnhardy1

How does anyone really know how bad or great its going to be ? I saw it yesterday but only in limited functionality. What have you seen that I havent ? I remember RC Online too but that guy, IMO, didnt have the money or the marketing ability to make it work. When he "upgraded" he was obviously joking.

The new upgrades in hardware alone are substantial enough for me to wait and see. Plus the promise of more bandwidth and much greater speed are nothing but encouraging. Its just like with new MMORPG's. It'll take time for the bugs to be ousted. No doubt the folks that are running this site are trying to make a viable product. Theres big costs in this kind of bandwidth and naturally they are trying to make some money. Who can imagine them to start asking for money and then make the site worse ? No one this far into something like this could be that stupid.
It's obvious there has been some deep pockets paying for this site all along and I cant believe that its even come close to breaking even insofar.
I see some tremendous possibilities down the stretch for this place. I hope they act on them and their plan is sufficient.
As I understand there'll be no pop-ups, just ads every so often when you go to a post...who cares???....thats the way all other popular forums work.....rc folks love ads anyway. You may read mostly complaints now because alot people like to complain and whine because its easy. Most are willing to wait and see.

-John

Frankenthumb

My Feedback: (2)

Marc, if it lives up to your expectations and standards it will be unbeatable.

The beta version that I saw was frightening, but so was Frankenstein to those that didn't know him.

I have every faith that you know what you are doing.

THIS IS GONNA BE FUN!!!

Camshaft

The screen shot looks pretty and I can't wait til you get the site up again.

Dago Red

My Feedback: (11)

Looks like a cross breed between RCU and RCA.

nick.wright

My Feedback: (16)

Just a quick thanks to Marc and the whole RCU team. If everyone remembers when the former RCU server crashed, Marc worked day and night to get the site back up as quick as possible. We should expect no less from the team on this new site issue. ALL of the bugs WILL be ironed out before Marc or anyone allows it to go permanently on-line. The RCU/RCA team has spent numbers of dollars trying to make the new site as best as it can be, so WE the hobby enthusiasts can have somewhere to call "home" on the net. I don't think they will allow any repeat of history (former RC sites) with the new site. From the fees I saw and what comes with those fees, I don't think there is too much room to gripe. The fees will go to further improvements to RCU. As time passes, more servers and better software will be needed, as with this new site.

Marc, keep up the good work. I'll do the same on my end.:thumbup:

Billiam411

I have a question about the URL, if I type in www.rcuniverse.com (when the new one is up) it will take me to that picture you posted. If I type in www.rcairport.com, will it take me to the same place?
I'd love to do a beta test

hookedonrc

Marc: IMHO, you need not continue to justify your decisions until, an if the new site is running. You have provided your reasons, and believe we can not judge until we see the real thing. I have read the threads on the merger and read your documentation. Maybe it would be best to point repetitive questioners to the other posts. I figure you are taking away valuable time to respond to the same things over and over.

mvigod

After transition...when you type www.rcuniverse.com you will come to the new RCU page. If you click www.rcairport.com you will see a link to redirect you to www.rcuniverse.com

We will have everyone here help beta test and load test the new site prelaunch. I will be fine tuning cosmetic issues like button locations, font sizes as well as any functionality issues or bugs. If the site isn't as fast or faster than RCU is now we can see in realtime what collisions are occuring in the database or file locks and program out any bottlenecks. With nine (9) servers coming online to run the new site it will be blazing fast and have plenty of room to grow to 100,000 plus users.

Also...we just hit new daily posting and thread creation records this past week. RCU continues to add over 100 new registered users daily and our daily post count has been exceeding 4000/day!

tiggerinmk

Good luck with the testing, I'm looking forward to seeing the new site

mvigod

Thread closed...all suggestions, bug reports or complaints should be made directly to me. Email me at "[email protected]".

This action made necessary as I do not have all day to continue to defend and correct misinformation about the new site. When the site is up everything you need to know about it will be right in front of you rather than hearing 3rd party statements which are not factual here on the board. Users will like it and use it or they will hate it and leave. I've done my best and poured my time, savings and blood into it. That is all I can do. It will be appreciated by some and I'm sure a few may not enjoy it for whatever reason.

As always I listen to suggestions but those should be only made directly to me via email. I have always built RCU based on user requests. The new RCU is a culmination of suggestions by users wrapped into one revamped super site. It also balances some of the economic realities that exist with a site that is heading for 100,000 users rapidly. To continue with the positive or negative debate here in the forums is not productive for me or RCU. I can handle all suggestions via email rather than spend time here correcting untruth's