Re: Why do you stay on iboats?
A little history about these Forums. It has been most interesting for us at iboats to see the Forums grow and really blossom over the last 5+ years. As soon as we took iboats.com live online, in mid 1999, we began getting daily emails from people all over the world, and many phone calls every week, asking for help with engine and boat-repair questions of all kinds. My son and I were not, and are not engine and boat-repair experts. We just love boating and everything associated with it, whether fishing, skiing, diving, sailing or just hanging out on the water with family and friends.<br /><br />It really didnt sound or feel good to us to just tell everyone who came to iboats with a boating-related question to just answer them by saying, Sorry, we dont know and cant help you. Go try somewhere else. That felt and sounded a lot like a brush-off
something that doesnt make anyone feel very good. So we came up with the idea of starting a boating-related Forum as a way to see if boaters would be willing to help other boaters. Thankfully, over time and with a LOT of wonderful help (that means many of you spent
and still spend
amazing numbers of hours every day and week helping others in our Forums!) it began to work. <br /><br />It started as a few people every day asking us technical questions in a few emails and by phone (since we splash our toll-free number on every page we build
instead of hiding any and all phone numbers like so many web sites did and still do). Today, we receive 1,000-1,500 phone calls per day and from 350 to 800+ emails a day. Many of these people have boating-related questions which we still cant answer, so we continue to refer them to our Forums, telling them that they will get the help they need, free of charge, by just going to our Forums and reading through the thousands of posts already there. Then we say that if they still cant find the answers they need, they can register and ask their questions, and they will get the help they need in most cases. We also encourage all these new people to then help others whenever they can by sharing their own boating-related experiences and knowledge with other Forum visitors. <br /><br />So the iboats Forums will continue to have many new people from all over the world fed into them every day for help and reassurance
and through the process, most of these people will get that specific help they need, PLUS they can find wonderful new friends in the process.<br /><br />In todays world where there seems to be too much of whats in it for me
and how much can I charge
and how much can I get away with or take from others for nothing, I believe that the iboats Forums are a most refreshing anomaly where thousands of very talented, and yes, mostly very ordinary people like me can come together in the common spirit of helping each other and learning from each other without asking for anything in return except mutual respect and common decency of treatment. It is, of course, always nice to see those who are helped to then thank those doing the helping
and not surprisingly a good amount of that go on every day.<br /><br />So thats why and how the iboats Forums started, and why they are successful today, and why we strongly believe that they will continue. I really dont think its the subject matter nearly as much as its the people that make our Forums work so well. Its all of you! We were blessed early on with a few people willing to spend the time and provide the tone necessary to make this work. To JB first, and then to all the rest of you who continue to come and help and share and laugh and tell funny stories, and share poignant moments in your lives with the rest of us, and are willing to ignore the occasional detractor, thank you from the bottom of our hearts
and God bless you for your decency and genuine interest in giving to others in need. You are a rare breed and I count it a real blessing to be associated in any way with you. BV
