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[cosgo]

Today I recieved a message from the ltl hotshot forum. It was abundantly clear that Gary would like to keep his forum open to only those hauling LTL freight (his LTL freight mostly). While I find nothing wrong with his rules on his forum, I think he is forgeting that people who haul stuff other than LTL freight can benefit his site and its readers. As a top 5 contributor on that site, Im a little let down by the numerous shots he and other members of that site have taken against car haulers, semi truck drivers, medium duty truck drivers, etc... Ive put in plenty of input and answered lots of question for people who needed some advice out there regardless of what they drive or the freight they haul. Enough is enough, today I withdrew my membership and will not frequent his site anylonger. Its a shame that it got to this, but I personally felt that theyve beaten the point to death that LTL is the only way to go and its their way or no way

Let me be clear. No one has ever targeted me personally, and the few exchanges ive ever had with Gary have all been positive. I know what his site is about and how its used in business. I just feel that its turned into almost a "cult" like atmosphere, and has become very close-minded. They are going to lose some good info by excluding so many people, but that is their choice. Its his site, so his rules go. It was good while it lasted, and it spawned this meeting place which has worked great.

Good luck guys, best wishes.

[h2oskibumz]

Angelo,

I've found I've naturally migrated over here, its just more on target for the topics I want to discuss.

I never posted much at Gary's anyway, but your 100% right, there was A LOT to learn from over there NO MATTER what type of freight you haul. Every personal exchange w/ Gary has been positive, which makes it even more difficult to understand. I don't understand why it has continued that direction, but I've watched it too.

I still visit there, but... less and less.

[cosgo]

Yeah, it got to the point where if someone even mentioned the word "car" some member would answer "this is not a forum for that discusion, youre not welcome here, you need to have a dodge 4500 to speak to us"..... it went something like that anyway... (exagerating a tiny bit - LOL) it just annoyed me. Funny thing is, look at the pictures of member rigs... lots of cars being hauled out there by those guys... I guess when they need to fill a spot its ok, but otherwise NO CAR HAULERS ALLOWED. I heard it loud and clear. Too bad so sad. What difference does it make what you haul, if a discussion is about a dexter axle that most of us have experience with?? Whatever...

[ColoradoRVHauler]

I havent been back to that forum since I came here. Shoot.. Prolly been months.

I got the email too.. Made me laugh. Im sure he will delete me. Ran flatbed and step decks for 10 years. Im not good enough to be there, lol

I guarantee you all those boys haul full loads of cars from time to time to get em to a decent load. All of you guys who enjoy running cars more often were pretty much sent a packin, at least there attitudes were against ya.

I decided if you arent leased to Gary, he'd rather not have you there. Just because I have taken a break from truckin and now enjoy rv haulin doesnt mean I couldnt help a guy or two with truckin. Thats ok. I havent missed being there. You guys are laid back and are very helpful to anyone who joins up here. Thats the way a forum is supposed to be. Very glad to be here! Forums with a bunch of rules arent my cup of tea.

Carey

[Tosch88]

That's the same reason I left that forum a few months back & deleted most of my post's there. I felt that I wasn't welcome because I [B]upgraded[B] to a larger, safer & more profitable truck that fit my business model better. It was a good forum with a lot good information & sucks that it has changed so much. Oh well, to each there own.

[ColoradoRVHauler]

Yep Tosch, anytime a guy can upgrade he needs respected for it. And when it comes down to it, a car is an LTL. No matter the trailer, it takes more than one car to make a full load.

[Buster]

I also got the message loud and clear! If you dont step to there "goose step" then your not wanted. I belive I helped a lot of guys over there. I wish them well. I'll say more on the subject later but for now I'm just to offended.

[short stack]

must be nice to have your bus. so good that you stop all your 'old custumers' and limit all your 'new' custumers. i've been in bus. for over 20 years and i've never got to the point of turning away any one. i'll try to keep my door open because you never know where your next bus. deal is going to come from. it's too bad.
mark

[Haul-A-Round]

they can kiss my ass plain and simple ! I went out of my way to help and answere questions either by pm , email or up to 2 hour phone calls only to be slammed in the dirt and told what a sorry s.o.b. I was . the whole time they never tried to understand what I was pointing out. it all came from my web site , there are 3 different size drop decks I build. 1 is for a 1 ton , 1 for a 2 ton and 1 for a semi. I tried to explain the differance and why the hotshot rig was not built for a 1 ton , the one ton would require a Tracer rig , only to be told that the trailer linked in that thread was to heavy for the 1 ton someone wanted to put it on. you can't fix stuppid and I don't even try anymore.

[LBZ]

That place died when we all left. It is probably more managable getting to a target group he needs for his business now. I cancelled my membership last night too & had been there since the start, though rarely even go there for anything these days.

I started with Gary in 07, learned alot from him & appreciate that, but not a fan of the way that system worked.

We have a place here whether it be for Cars, RV's, LTL's & generally most anything, all are welcome.

[smr500]

I got the message also. I have talked with Gary on many occasions and quite frankly would never have gotten this far without his forum. He was/is always very nice and helpful to me. It is a tremendoud wealth of knowledge. There is no reason this forum cannot grow to be the same. I will still refer back to his forum for the business aspect of things etc.

Tony has given me admin rights to this forum awhile back so I will try to keep it up to date with removing old posts (for sale, load deletions etc). I'm not sure how many rights I have past that.

I am very grateful that this forum is here. I consider many of you my friends even though we have not met personally. I hope to change that in the future and will go out of my why to have lunch, drink a beer, help work on your project, etc. This is a great group.

[Brisco]

I too got the e-mail yesterday.

Here lately all I've been doing over there is reading the board without logging on. Since he switched over to that format he has now, it's been a problem for the security settings I have on my computer. After he made the format change on the board, my computer was attacked. It took me a little bit to get the planted Trojans off my computer. I kicked my security settings up another notch, and sure enough, next time I logged onto his board, all my bells and whistles went haywire and stopped whatever it was that is hidden within his board. Did have 2-3 emails with Gary over this and he has tried to reassure me it's not coming from there. I know my discussion boards and participate on probably a dozen or so regularly (Trucking-Automotive-Hot Rod stuff) and another dozen or 2 here and there. I have not had any problems with any boards until he switched to that board format he has now. (with the exception on the HS board a few months back when that board was attacked) So I've really only been reading it since.

Like it was discussed in previous posts, the participation and number of discussions has died 10 fold since he made that last "cleaning of the house" and ran off you guys and the RV Haulers by deleting all the forums he opened up for them, but I also sort of understand Garys reasoning on why he is now limiting the conversations that are allowed there. It's a tough job trying to keep up with a discussion board that one owns. You truly do have to be "on top" of the board 24 hrs a day. If one is running a company during the day time hours and has a discussion board with dozens of members on it not directly linked to that business he is running, it does open the doors to possible problems that could effect their business overall. Remember, Gary has said many times over there that you/us drivers are not the only ones that are reading/participating on his board, but so are his customers, his brokers, his insurance reps, possibly DOT personel, and so on.

You have to admit, we do get into some deep conversations on these boards. Some stuff we discuss is dead on correct, some of it comes from opinions of how we "interpret" what our beliefs may be when it comes to DOT regs, the correct equipment to use, how we run our businesses, what is expected from us and what the customers expectations are, so on - so on - so on. If Gary has a set "plan" in place for how he wants his business to be portrayed to both the drivers running under his dispatch service and on how he wants his "customers" to have some sort of understanding of how he runs his business, then he has the right to run that board the way he sees fit. With the way our discussions go South, as well as West, East, and North at times, that might not be a risk Gary is wanting to take any longer. One wrong discussion (and Yes, many here on these boards have been wrong at times, even me) could make or break a potential driver or customer that Gary may be wanting to sign on.

A lot of the big named freight haulers (Fedex-UPS-Swift) have their own internal discussion boards that they only allow their personel on to keep possible conflicts from arising from amongst each other. (IE- a UPS driver discussing UPS crap on a FedEx board)

Now, I'm not defending Garys decision here, nor am I at disgust with his decision either. It's his choice, his board. I'm just taking at a intuitive stab at why he has made the decision he has. I've been around a lot of you guys since 2004, Gary too over at the HS board even before he opened his own board. We have all gone from board to board to board together. What we really just need to do, just my opinion, is to participate where we can when we can and respect the owner of that board we are on at that time with regards to how and what that owner of that board wants to have on their board.

Or maybe I'm just kissing Garys board butt here in hopes that he will keep me on as a "mascot" or something. (Hahaha)

Nah, really, we're all doing just fine here on Tonys board for now. Let's not worry about what goes on over on Garys board. None of us here (maybe 1 or 2 are) are using Gary as our dispatch service. So we musn't degrade "his" decisions. He's not over here, or on the HS board, or EOL, etc pushing his agenda. One thing for sure we can all agree on, the information supplied on his board, minus his company information, is a great asset to anyone wanting to learn the ins and outs of hauling LTL and Hotshot trucking. Hell, he's got more "stickied" threads that contain useful information when it comes to trucking than any other board out there that I know of. At least he is allowing us to have access to that, whether we're a member or not. So let's just let it go, know what I mean.

[ColoradoRVHauler]

I agree with ya Brisco. Pretty much everything you mentioed.

Got nothing against his forum. But if a guy goes from owning a 3500 to a 4500 to a med duty to a semi, he should be able to stay on the forum he started with way back when he had the 3500/4500.

A forum isnt all business. Its about friendships. Its about working together to become more successful in whatever you are intersted in.

I could tell that he'd rather keep it all business that only pertains to his biz. So when he made it clear, I left.

I agree if a guy wants to go hotshottin. His place is the place. But if he succeeds and gets bigger than he must leave. Aint right..

Carey

[haulin rv]

Well I've been locked out, so much for being a top ten poster. And I don't think I ever caused any problems either, I know I never got a suspended or even a stop it PM. But hey I guess I haul cars, but wait a minute look at the pic on the top of the forum there is a car on it...

[Buster]

Ya me to. Locked out. I know its his forum but this is no way to treat the people who made it what it is. Thats ok though. I've been checking in over there on and off and all I here is crickets.

[ccoop769]

Gary didnt send you that message. Its a automated message for being part of the freeforum. He has no idea thtat message was sent out.

[ccoop769]

dont blame gary, business is business!!!! and that is where he makes his money, through the forum, no forum, no money.

[ColoradoRVHauler]

Rebels we've become...

[haulin rv]

He makes it off the poor recruits from the forum...

[Dorsey]

The way I see it is, its Gary's forum and he can run it as he see's fit. The forum is a business tool. Just like this one was(or is?) and Chris's is(not very popular though). I've talked to him(Gary) several times and he was always very helpful and pleasant to talk to. I did feel like a red headed step child too when he changed the forum. I do still go to his forum but very seldom as it doesn't interest me like it use to. I'm sure Tony would take off the RV section if he thought it would help his business also. Now that I have a semi I do disagree with him on that as I get great fuel milage with it and have a nice comfortable bed to sleep in. I'm know if I was pulling 80,000 lbs I wouldn't get good fuel milage but doing this kind of work it rocks.!:D

[ccoop769]

WE NEED ARCADE ADDED!!!! That is addicting, and yes my forum is not popular, but my forum wasnt intended like this is, mine is more of a marketing tactic once I get my butt in gear and start putting some hours in her. I need a blog too. ANywho, its boring over at my forum with the arcade cause its just me and my wife competing.

Id rather get the arcade over here since its populated quite nice. ARCADE PLEASE, and dont forget the smack my monkey game!!!!! hehe, oh and my forum looks better then both of urs!!! lol, too original here, needs some customizations, just my opionion though.

[ccoop769]

Not to mention ive got my forum posted on my central dispatch profile stating to LOOK FOR BAD BROKERS COME TO MY FORUM. Reading all my stats, the bad brokers catagory is my most viewed catagory by far from any other catagory. So im getting the word out on crap head people. If for any instance you guys would like to add to the bad brokers be my guest. But please remember, my forum isnt intented to be like garys or tonys site. I never intended for it to be a dispatch service forum or a helper forum. Just something to learn, have fun, market, and let other people know about the bad people out there. I just need to add about 500 links so more bots will attack it along with all the bad brokers websites so my forum catagory of bad brokers wont be to far down in ranks/list from there main website. So if you do add, try and add there website link to. :)

[NDanecker]

Chris - add vBSEO. It will help a lot in the search engine ranking.

[ccoop769]

Chris - add vBSEO. It will help a lot in the search engine ranking.

Laying low on the marketing till I get the brokering thing going. Just trying to build a few ranks slowly. My site now is nowhere made for internet. seos, links, everything, its just a 5 minute jobber.

[NDanecker]

Laying low on the marketing till I get the brokering thing going. Just trying to build a few ranks slowly. My site now is nowhere made for internet. seos, links, everything, its just a 5 minute jobber.

When you are ready make sure you are listed in dmoz.org. They are the 'source' database for most of the search engines. Many people don't know this. Trick is to find a category that is somewhat empty that the editors are trying to fill. Make your submission and get listed. Once listed they will crawl your site. Doesn't matter what category you are listed with --- you'll still come up with key terms.

[ccoop769]

Thanks.............