A new year, a new start, a must read!

[Mux213]

Hey everyone,

We're nearing the last month of 2006, it's time to take a look at 2007. Why? Because we've got ALOT of changes in store for you!!!

First of, today was a big day for me and Banpei as today we visited the dutch Chamber of Commerce and officially registered AEU86!

Yes, as of today our little website no longer is a faceless nameless entity but we've gone legal! Well, actually as of the 1st of January 2007

We basically had two reason for doing this. The first was that the costs of running our little site is being paid out of our own pockets (and your generous donations, thanks again!) and that from the old structure we're basically not enjoying any financial or legal benefits or protection.
The second is that we started selling some small merchandise since last year (like stickers) and that this resulted in a number of developments along commercial lines. We've been approach by a number of people to see if it was possible to sell other goods through our site. This initially resulted in the introduction of the commercial subforum but it also resulted in me and Banpei talking alot the past year about the possibility of doing some small business ourselves.

Over two years ago we noticed that in Europa there was no place on the web for European Hachi owners to communicate and find information about their favorite car, it made two computer guys with little car knowladge jump to the opertunity and start a forum for European owners. We never expected the responce we got, we never expected it to become this big, but look at where we are now, and we still have plenty of future ahead of us!

The past year made us realize there is another thing missing in Europa. Most of the aftermarket stuff we need needs to be imported. To import goods yourself tends to be expensive, you pay alot for shipping costs, tax laws are vague, language is often a problem, so is paying over European borders. To save money we can do group buys but on the board group buys are failing because its hard to bring people together, European laws make it difficult to import goods, prices are often a big unknown and fluxuate. There is to much uncertainty.
And very simply put, nobody, not a single person, has currently risen up and said, lets start importing goods regularly, invest in them, save on shipping, and sell them from within the European borders so we have fixed prices, fixed shipping costs, protection of buyers, etc.

So we've desided to pick up that challenge and see if we can make this work. Starting from the 1st of January our shop will slowly begin with selling products specifically for the AE86. We'll be stocking certain parts that we feel will be in demand, and will offer some other parts that we'll order on demand through our own suppliers. Within the future we even have plans to have certain parts custom made.

Will this be the end of the commercial section of our site? Definately not! Eventhough we realize that we'll be in competition to a certain extent with some of our members it is our intention to give them an equal and fair chance of selling their products through our site and hope that they will not see this development as a thread but as a chance. In all honesty, I doubt much will change. Our board has become bigger then just an outlet for European owners and we are still only going to be selling a small collection of parts. Also in the end, this board, and our shop for both me and Banpei for now and in the forseeable future, is still nothing more then a runaway hobby. We do not have the intention to make this our dayjobs.

But there is more!!!

Besides a major increase in our shop activity, our board will drastically change aswell! Banpei has been working very hard completely reworking the site. For a long time we've been unhappy with the front page of the site. Its hardly visited and there is little information on it. For us to maintain it is a drag. Also sticking to the default phpbb look does not give us any identity of our own. Now we're not great site designers so you can jump high or low, taste is a matter of perspective, but we came up with our own little design that we hope you will like.



The new site does have loads of new features. Most noticably is the new front page that now is fully within the same style as the forum and is well integrated within the site. It means that it will be much easier for us to put information on the front page but also for instance move a how to that was written on the forum into the front page as an articel. It should add much more value to the front page and make information much more valuable to our visitors.



For our members the most noteworthy change is the new garage mod that has been added. Credit fully goes to another forum (no idea which) that originally made this mod allthough Banpei practically had to rebuild it to make it work correctly . This mod allows you to register the car(s) you have, add information about the car(s), add pictures about the car(s), list the modifications you have done to it, etc. The whole database is searchable and has lovely features like being able to compare dyno sheets and stuff like that. Its a great mod for getting a complete list of hachis that are out there. We wanted this for a long time ever since we started the benelux owners list and the croation owners list. It just makes so much more sence to make it maintainable like this.



Offcourse there are many more changes but most are just below the surface. The latest patches for phpbb are in there, the attachment mod has been approved, loads of new small features are in there.

We're still finishing it off, we're hoping to move the current database over for a test run in the coming weeks and give the site a good testing and then go live somewhere before christmas.

We hope you will like the new site

Feel free to comment on this thread or comment on our plans through PMs if you feel like it. We'd love to know you're comments, both good and bad!

[oldskull]

cool!!! Congrats

Congrats for the name registration! I am liking the name AEU86 alot even its simple but its mean alot

I would like to see the website become a professional one. Yes there you go! GO BANPEI!!!!

[delange]

job well done.
can imagine the work that's put in to this, hopefully all changes wil go smooth for you guys
can't wait to see the whole NEW site

[alimonos]

THESE ARE REALLY GOOD NEWS !!!!
CONGRATS TO YOU GUYS !!! KEEP UP WITH THE GOOD WORK !!!!
CAN'T WAIT FOR YOUR ONLINE STORE ...

[nmwisima]

OK BUT WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING ALOIMONOS??

Great Job done guys, what can I say??


And new donnation just done.

PEOPLE FOLLOW UP PLZ!!!!

(now thats a reason to shout, George :wink: )

[SekiguchiUeno]

yeeesss

i like your ideas with the gallery and complex services for ae86 and waiting for nuwe jahr .

[alimonos]

I CAN SHOUT OUT AS MUCH AS I LIKE !!!!
AND THESE ARE DEFINATELY GOOD NEWS TO SHOUT OUT !!!

you see NMWISIMA I shout when i have a real good reason to do so and not only when i want to PROMOTE MYSELF like some other guys do ... :wink:


DONATION SENT ADMINS !!!

[Ivan141]

I will be following everything with great interest.. BTW, it might be a nice idea to put up some bigger examples of the new site (or just the link) for people to see on the forum, and maybe ask for some feedback/input.. You never know what people come up with..

BTW, I saw that garage function on toyoxtreme.nl ( run by a (former?) corollaclub.nl member) You get it from there by any chance?

[The Big Yin]

congratulations guys

glad everyjting is going good for you

will send another donaton when i have spare cash

been a while since i last donated lol

[Mux213]

Ivan, I believe that we first saw it on the MR2 forum but they aren't the first to use it...

As for making the test site available to everyone, not something we're planning to do but if anyone really wants to give it a run send me a PM. We'll wait until Banpei finishes the next batch of changes and uploads those together with a copy of the current database though. Then we can do some serious testing.

As for everyone else, thanks for the great responses so far