Check out the article in this month's (October) Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords. Thanx to everyone who contributed... Moderators, Staff, Members and Guests. You all have made this into the greatest site on the net!
Does the world really need yet another Mustang megasite...
Does this guy need a new job? Hey buddy if you don't like writing reviews about Mustang web sites, maybe you need to go sit in the unemployment line for a while.
Overall the article was decent enough but, his attitude left a lot to be desired. A bit more enthusiasim would have been nice perhaps...that third prozac and vodak put him over the edge.
Does the world really need another Mustang journalist?
__________________
No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced
While I think Jeff's article is an ok representation of AFM. I believe his writing and the energy of it leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe he is burnt out after writing so many articles on Mustang sites and is ready to move on, who knows he is a freelance writer for MM&FF. I've seen him write much better articles in the past as he did on sn95.com in the Feb. 2000 issue.
Anyway, I thought it might be a good idea to show our readers what the conversation was between Jeff and us during the start of this process. Below is a copy of the email exchanged answering his questions but also there were many phone calls between Scott, myself and Jeff over a week or so period in which we answered many more questions for him.
-----------------------E-Mail to Jeff Bauer -------------------------------
Hi Jeff,
Here are the answers to your questions relating to AllFordMustangs.com:
(Q1) Specifically how, why, and when did the merger of americanmustang.com and v8mustangs.com take place? I’ve read your press release but was interested in hearing a little more detail.
In January of 2002, Scott contacted Dale at AmericanMustang and suggested the merging of the two sites. After careful consideration and discussion, Dale and AmericanMustang jumped on the AllFordMustangs bandwagon.
The timing could not have been better. V8Mustangs was already well on its way to becoming AllFordMustangs, while Dale had recently changed his SN95 website to AmercianMustang, with the intention of expanding coverage to include all mustang generations as well.
The merger made perfect sense from both of our perspectives for many reasons besides those listed below:
AmericanMustang was based on the east coast and more geared towards tech, particularly SN95. V8Mustangs on the other hand, was based on the west coast and more focused on classic and fox body, while offering a real sense of community to its members. By combining V8Mustangs community base of classic and fox body following, with AmericanMustang late model following and technical focus, we were a formidable appointment. After seeing Scott’s vision and ideas with our combined technical talents, it was like a marriage made in heaven.
While the merger was agreed to in January 2002, it took several months of preparation, planning and a lot of hard work to execute the merger and complete the initial framework and components, for our first phase of AllFordMustangs. In March of 2002, with phase one’s framework in place, AllFordMustangs went live on the internet. On April 17, 2002 our official press release was published, publicly announcing our merger.
(Q2.1) When did SN95.com become americanmustang.com?
SN95.com name was changed to americanmustang.com around November of 2001 with the intent to begin the expansion away from a 94+ model Mustang site and into a site that covered all generations of mustangs.
(Q2.2) Seem to remember both of your respective sites being quite popular as independent sites; why the merger?
The merger of V8Mustangs and AmericanMustang represented an excellent growth opportunity for both websites.
The merger was a perfect fit with regards to focus, content, vision and skill sets! Combining the two sites provided the needed skill sets and an extensive content base from which to build and launch a much larger, more fully featured All Ford Mustang community website.
To build the ultimate website requires more than just the vision. It requires a wealth of content, resources and the right combination of technical skills to pull it all together. Our merger delivers just that!
Scott is the one that keeps us focused on how to proceed in providing the ultimate experience for our customers.
(Q3) Who is responsible for the site’s design and maintenance?
This is one of the areas that set us apart from many of the other websites.
Scott is responsible for our website’s architecture and design. He is the man with the plan. In April 1999, Scott relocated to California from Newfoundland Canada, with a vision to build the best Mustang Enthusiast site on the web. California was selected because of its large population of Mustangs, Mustang enthusiasts, and Mustang aftermarket manufacturers and suppliers. With the move to California, Scott also shifted his career from systems management to that of Systems Consultant, in order to ensure the necessary time commitment to his project. Later that fall, v8mustangs.com was launched as a prototype for ideas, while research continued on tools and resources needed to build the ultimate AllFordMustangs enthusiast site. With almost twenty years experience designing and building business applications, combined with his life long passion for automobiles, particularly mustangs, provided Scott with the drive, passion and knowledge to architect and design the ultimate Mustang community site for Mustang enthusiasts.
Dale is responsible for building and maintaining our network infrastructure, as well as product upgrades. As the Director of Network Operations for CIGNA healthcare managing over 2600 servers nationwide, Dale brings experience in the maintenance and operations required to ensure we provide our customers with a stable and robust service.
Our senior website developer, Robert Hernandez, works for the largest bank in Mexico as their e-commerce coordinator. His extensive background in programming and e-commerce helps us to stay one step ahead of the competition.
That being said, the most important part is recognizing our shortcomings and compensating correctly for them. With this in mind, we have hired a competent team of programmers, web developers, administrators and graphic artists who work on many more pieces of the puzzle. What you currently see is only a small portion of what is to come. This is truly a global effort as there are folks from Europe, Canada, Mexico, Scotland and across the United States involved in various portions of our website development effort.
(Q4) The Webmail feature is sweet; How did that come about? How many people have taken advantage of it so far? Why did you decide to offer it?
Not being bound to a service provider affords us many opportunities others do not have. Our offerings are only bound by time to implement and our imaginations. One easy to implement but often overlooked feature is a comprehensive mail package. Our AFM Webmail feature is completely web accessible, complete with POP3 access and offers the flexibility of many of the larger providers such as Yahoo and MSN, while also going a few steps beyond. About 30% of our current subscribers today take advantage of the system. As we expand the features and domains available, we expect this to be one of our most used services. The decision to offer it was never in question as it is a valuable asset to any reader and in our opinion a must have.
(Q5) What is it you feel sets allfordmustangs.com apart from the other Mustang community sites? What is it that you offer that others don’t?
As mentioned above, we are not going at this to be just another community site with tech articles, a forums section and reader rides.
Over four years of research and planning has been invested preparing our service offerings and picking the right products to make it happen. We have assembled a great team with the right skills and most important, a passion to be the best.
While we would love to tell you all the things that set us apart from other sites not all of the pieces to this puzzle are ready for prime time yet, so we will have to save that one for another day.
What we can tell you is our objective is not to be the every day run of the mill site who sells a few parts or places banner ads and pop ups all over their site to make money.
AllFordMustangs welcomes supports and promotes all generations of mustang enthusiasts and mustang clubs worldwide. We are committed to providing a friendly helpful atmosphere for members and visitors alike.
Our site will facilitate the sharing of ideas, information and to foster a sense of community amongst mustang enthusiasts worldwide.
AllFordMustangs will serve as a central hub of information and resources of interest to all mustang enthusiasts and mustang generation.
AllFordMustangs will be a full featured community site, using best of breed products and services to deliver the best possible online experience for mustang enthusiasts.
AllFordMustangs is now and always will be, a Mustang community site first and foremost, without commercial influence or bias.
We are in it for the enthusiast. The enthusiast who spends a lot of their hard earned money to build his dream car and show it off to others and no one else. Whether it be a Mustang 2+2 or the latest Cobra R, you are always welcome here and will be treated with the respect and dignity you deserve. We have received many compliments from readers who have migrated to our forums, as to our friendly atmosphere and how comfortable they feel posting any question they have, without worry of being belittled.
We recognize that to have a successful forums, for example, is not to have the best designed and easiest to navigate system, which I'm glad to say, I think we do have. It is the moderators because without quality moderators, who are willing and able to answer questions posed by our readers, it might as well be another political quagmire that exists on some other sites. Our moderators are by far the best in the business because we don't just allow anyone to step up to that position. Our moderators are the best because we only allow the ones who truly have a passion for helping others and treat their readers with respect. The selection process to become a moderator at AFM is a very long one. It is not unheard of for an applicant to have every post on other sites read by administrators and other current moderators to ensure that person is the right candidate for the position they are applying for. We screen them extensively by phone interviews and careful review by our administrators and moderators, to ensure they are able to keep up with the pace at which our readers expect. We have also provided our moderators with many tools to ensure they are consistent in their message delivery and follow the industry best practices. Our moderators often work shows as photographers and are representatives of AFM and as which, we only want the best and brightest. We already know, we have the best and brightest right now.
(Q6) Are all of the features that you had planned currently active? What do you have planned for your site for the future?
As mentions earlier, not even a quarter of our offerings are available as of yet and that is just for AllFordMustangs.com, which is just one of the 80+ domain names we have already registered in our grand scheme.
What I can tell you is in our phase two is slated for early fall. We will be providing a professional e-commerce enabled classifieds section capable of providing an affiliate program to other sites as a service.
A comprehensive database of tech article provided by each manufacture, for every product, in one location.
The most extensive, easy to use Mustang club listing available anywhere.
The most extensive, easy to use Mustang events calendar structured to provide easy access to event listings, by your location.
A redesigned members “Dashboard” that will tie all our sections together in one page, customizable to show only what data you want and will be very easy to navigate.
These are just a few of the features and site improvements slated for our next release.
Feel free to include any other info you think might be helpful--most of your site's features are self-explanatory, but I may have overlooked something you feel is important. As I’m on a tight deadline, I’d appreciate a reply by email (jeffbauer@hotmail.com) at your earliest convenience.
very exellent! This is going to be the best site ever! and dale, i have lots of freee time now to do all those banners! I will talk to you later tongiht about it!
Personally I thought was okay-good range, but not excellent. I do think it will bring us a lot of Fox-body and Late model trafficbecause the magazine is geared towards them. I subscribed last month and I have been impressed with what they offer, it just doesn't help out those of us with 64-78 Mustangs much. I dunno, It just seemed to be missing something...
__________________
1976 Ford Mustang II Ghia: 302 with a 600cfm Edelbrock carb, Edelbrock Performer 289 intake, Dynomax Blackjack headers, 2.5" exhaust with Flowmaster Super 44s. RJS 11-gallon fuel cell, C4 tranny, chrome 16" pony wheels, fuzzy dice, brown vinyl half-top, and painted in the tackiest color ever (harvest gold, that's why I call it "The Goldenrod").
Also have a 2003 Dodge Ram (lightly modded daily driver/tow rig/office/dining room/home away from home/workshop... I call it "The Big Blue Dawg".)
74Stang, what is lacking is more members in those years. Most of the computer geeks that I know hve 87-02's, and are not into Stangs that were made in 1986 or before. This site is still new, and is groing quickly. As it grows, there will be more classics people on this sute. I would love to have a classic stang that I could look out of.
It is nice to see this site finally getting some recognition. I agree, the tone of the article could have been better, but it is nice to see that we are becoming one of the top contenders!!
Yes, I'm a subscriber to MM&FF and was thrilled to see the write-up on AFM! The article was decent but I disagree with his opener, this world DEFINITELY needs another Mustang Megasite and you guys have done it, only right this time!
I can't put into words how this site has helped propel me from asking a mechanic to sandblast my wallet clean to making it run better than "money could buy" with some of the right knowledge and a little elbow grease. For the price of some cheap handtools, I am armed and getting less dangerous every day
Thanks AFM!!!
Adam
__________________
`90 Mustang LX 5.0 hatch - 331 w/ Australian ported heads - Cobra Intake - 65mm TB - MAC Headers and High flow Cats, Dynomax muffelers - ATI Procharger P1SC @ 11#'s intercooled - Aeromotive fuel system - 130amp alternator - Centerforce clutch - Full Griggs GR40 suspension - MSD 6BTM - 60# injectors - AEM EMS w/ wideband O2's converted to MAP - Torsen diff w/3.73 - Baer Brakes (13") w/ 5lug conversion, 17X9 Bullitt wheels with 275-40-17's on all 4 (Nitto 555RII)
It was a good article to me. It was how I found this site. I just joined tonight. Looks good to me. I expect you'll see quite a bit of me in the future.
Jeff
__________________
Jeff
1984 LX 5.0 Convertible
Last edited by pocket3799; 08-31-2002 at 03:38 PM.
Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords Reviews AFM! 
Very cool I can't wait to get the new issue 
