lol are they not aware that rochester is part of ny?
Normally a community site’s purpose is based on region (albany underground), car club (swat), make/model (nasioc), or sport (scca forums). rspeed.org will try to fill a void of a community not limited to any one of those categories, but instead filling all them them.
There will be sponsors/vendors of the site. Some will choose to offer special discounts to members of the site. In fact, we have partnered with Detailed Image already and they will be offering 10% to all members of rspeed.org. We plan to grow the amount of sponsors ad vendors who will offer an exclusive deal to members of the site. In this respect its much like various “owners clubs” out there which are again specific to make/model.
Merchandise will be offered in various forms but not limited to stickers, t-shirts, mugs, hats, hoodies, pens, squishies, coozies, etc. The benefit is that a minimal amount of merchandise comes with both flavors of membership.
Actually, the profitability of the membership isn’t very high because of the upkeep of the server, and the fact that between 50-75% of the membership fee is spent on the merchandise that is shipped to the member.
From a technical standpoint, the forums will run the latest code of vBulletin, modified to suit our needs. It will include garages, an arcade, photohosting, and more. So with membership, you would receive access to these, and premium member would receive greater space, etc.
I’m not trying to blow smoke up anyone’s rear here. It costs money for the software that will be run on the site, and we’re are doing it to provide a great place for people to communicate and transfer knowledge. We have partnered with some of the more well-known people that we are friends with and given them a “home” on the site to help provide reliable information from successful people in the industry. Some of these include RJ DeVera and Ricky Chu from SuperStreet Magazine.
I hope this explains alot, but more information will be coming soon!
edit: we need nyspeed “mugs, hats, hoodies, pens, squishies and coozies”