Well, I just renewed my membership and was a bit surprised to find this thread. I'll try and word this correctly because I do not want to create a conflict of intrest here as I have been a TDR member for about two years, I think. Somewhere around there. I did let my membership expire for a while, but I also find the TDR a great resource for information so I renewed. I love the magazine. As a matter of fact, I have links to this site and refer people here all the time.
This is the only thread you will ever see here about my site because I will never start one due to a conflict of intrest. I do want to address some issues I see here so I will post a response to this thread only. If admin feels it inappropriate, then I apologize in advance, and ask that you remove my post.
1. I never said that I didn't like Robin or Robert. I don't even know them. I do know Rob Spading but from what I understand he is long gone. Lest ye forget that I have been around since the dieselram.com days.
2. There are a lot of people out there who like to have a free site to go to. I provided a space for that. Do I expect to keep members forever? Probably not. Do expect to get rich or even make money? No. For those that question that statement, you're just going to have to take my word for it. I have a wife and three kids, and a job in which I spend much time. There is no way I can make it big on this. That was never my intention anyway.
I also know that I don't have the resources that the TDR does. I mean come on, they've got Dodge dealers all over the world promoting their site. It would take one hell of an effort to get that big and I have neither the time, or the motivation to take it that far.
Fees do not keep the abusives away. I hate to tell ya, but it's the truth. I have been around FD.com, TDR and dieselram long enough to know that. I was a member of fd.com back in the abol days which was 1997 or 98. That was 4 years ago. A century when you're talking about the Internet. No matter if you're pay or not, it doesn't keep out all of the bottom feeders so to speak.
As for not liking the style of the site, that's fine. You don't have to go there. I'm not trying to be a jerk here as I think you guys are a good group and for the most part, nice people, but you can never please everyone all the time. I say to those who criticize something such as this, give it a try sometime. Most of you will probably give up after a day or so because of frustration. It's not easy. A lot of code hacking, writing, modifying, design, time, time and time. Not only that but you get tired, you're up late at night and you're up early in the morning. I'm just now getting to the point where I don't have to babysit everything and can take some time to relax.
I spent more time on my family website then many people do with their own kids. The whole family worked on it together. Why? Because it's something I love to do. If you don't believe me go to
http://www.jackandsarah.org and take a look. (there is no link to the dd.org site on that page). I'm also blessed that I get to spend a lot of time with the kids and wife. Now that I have started this project, I don't get as much time. There are sacrifices that have been made so again I say, before you knock it, try it yourself.
The format for the TDR was a copy of Ford-diesel.com. You can thank Ford-diesel.com for the familiar look. Jason set that standard.
In closing, I'm not trying to piss anyone off or even promote my site. I can do that in other ways and I don't need to bottom feed. I'll do it the right way because I am interested in keeping a good relationship with the TDR as it's one of the best automotive resources available. I have made many friends from the TDR in the past and see a few of them quite regularly.
I will continue to refer my members here as I have done since I started it. I say good things about the TDR even though I'm not particularly happy about the loss of so much info or the fact that you can't search without paying. From what I understand it's coming on CD. I will be one of the first ones to order it.
I said my peace. My only beef is all this criticizing without realizing what's involved. Thanks for the ear. Now back to the other threads!
Jack
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
How do you get "All people who use free web sites are trouble makers" out of what I just said? I have no problem with free sites or what you're doing. To return to my comparison to how the lakes around here are, most of the people who go to the free lake aren't trouble makers either, I'm just saying the fee helps weed out the 5% who are.
