TMS Members,

Nathan and I wanted to let all of you know that we have decided to sell TheMustangSource.com. Certainly this was not an easy decision for us, as we have enjoyed the last year and a half of making enhancements to this site and watching this community grow and flourish. This place is full of great people who have made this site a wealth of knowledge and camaraderie for its members.

However, when my family experienced a sudden death this past summer my job situation immediately changed and I was unable to devote any time and energy to the site. In addition, Nathan has a full-time job and was unable to spend any additional time focusing on the site. We began to feel that we would be doing an injustice to the community by not providing the time and attention it deserved. We have seen sites fade over time when there is not enough attention paid to them. So, when discussions with Internet Brands (the purchaser) became serious, we were able to strike a deal.

What can you expect to happen?

In discussing the potential changes that Internet Brands may make, it became apparent that not much is going to change. They realize the intrinsic value of the site, the way it is, and have no desire to change it. The moderator group that is in place will remain and their roles will not change. The site will still be sending out free stickers and doing the same things we did as owners of the site. Internet Brands has a ton of experience managing forum sites and understand what is needed to keep a community growing and strong. I think you will find them capable owners who want the same exact thing you do… a healthy, growing community for people to come and talk about their Mustangs.

Nathan and I will still be around, especially as we try to transfer things over smoothly. If you have any questions, please feel free to post in this thread or PM me.

Nathan and I would like to thank you all for being a part of this site. Without you, TMS would not be what it is today.

Thanks and talk soon!
jon

 

So terribly sorry to hear of the loss in your family. Best of luck on your new adventures! Thanks for leaving us in good hands!

 

Thanks for your well wishes!

 

The best to you. Sorry for your loss.

 

I completely understand what youa re going thru. I just lost my Grandmother on the 3rd and her furneral was yesterday 11-11-11. My condolences to you and your family. i am sure it was an extremely hard decision to make but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Thanks for everything that you have done here on TMS.

 

Sorry to hear about the losses in both of your families. Thanks for everything you have done on here Jon.

 

As long as we all stick together, and nothin' changes that makes the site unusable, then I'm stayin'. You'll not be rid 'o me that easily!

 

Good morning all. I havent chimed in on this and frankly was waiting till I had a sit down with the new owners. I had a lengthy conversation with the new site owner this morning and frankly, I am totally happy. When Jon and Nathan bought the site from Brad, I thought oh lord, whats gonna happen. The changes then were minute. Well this time with Internet Brands behind the wheel, its even less minute Nothing is changing really. Maybe a few ad placement here and there, but its mainly going to be seen via guest or anyone not logged in, for members logged in I doubt you see anything.

The biggest thing is they are here to support us and help us grow. Theres alot of ideas I threw at them and they liked, and vice versa. We are looking to do alot more involvement with Ford and other key players in the industry in the upcoming year. It should be a good time.

So lastly I need to introduce to you all our newest admin on the site, Robb M. He is the face of internet brands and runs many sites. His role here is more of a transparency, not really in the admin function, but here to support us (the staff and members) and make the site it best it can be. I've asked him to say a bit in regards to this so look for it soon

 

Hey everyone!

First, I want to say thanks to Jon & Nathan for all of the work which they’ve done to help in this transition. Congratulations for choosing IB to adopt your 'child'

I've had a good fortune of being able to sit down and chat with Scott for nearly an hour this morning. He did a great job of sharing some of the communities history, and traditions with me. He also shared some ideas he has for ways we can improve the experience for everyone here at The Mustang Source. I am confident that we're going to work well together here for a long time to come.

The rest of you guys probably want to know a bit more about me, so here goes.

I’m robb, aka ‘astro’ from AcuraZine. I helped start that site with a friend (soopa) way back in late 1999. We started a site (acura-cl.com) about a car that wasn’t even on the market yet. The 2001 Acura CL Type-S. Together we built that original site up, into what it is today, the largest Acura Resource on the internet. We sold the site to Internet Brands in late 2006/early 2007. Soopa transitioned away from the site, he had started a family, moved across the country, and was entering a new career.

I stuck around, and have been slowly increasing my role with Internet Brands since then. Going from 1, to 2, to 10, to the 100 something sites I am responsible for today.

I will be The Mustang Source's direct link into all things Internet Brands. What that really means, is that I'll be working silently in the background to support the efforts of Scott and your entire moderator team as they continue to steer the community as it's always been done.

I can assure you that none of us, have any intent of changing the make-up of the site. This means no staff changes on our behalf, and no vendor changes if possible. Our accounts team has reached out to each of the vendors right already, introducing themselves, and explaining what we have to offer each of them. In reality, most of the vendors here, already have relationships with us, on other communities.

We are definitely going to look to start publishing content onto the homepage again, I know this is something that Scott would like to see happen as well. Once we migrate the site onto IB's network, we can begin to share some of the products we use on other sites, to see if they'd be a good fit here. Things like an enhanced search box, that allows searching for images on the site. We've got a 'live' product that allows you to watch all posts being made in a stream, without requiring a reload. One of my favs, is an improved photo gallery and viewer, that has ratings, and social sharing options. All things we can look at down the road.

I am feeling long winded, but I definitely invite you to participate in this discussion, let us know your thoughts, ask us any questions you have.

I really look forward to learning a lot more about your incredible & resilient! community in the years ahead.

cheers,
robb

 

Welcome Robb!! Sounds like this is going to be a good experience for this site.

 

I am very excited about this. Seems like alot of good things are going o be in the works to make our site better

 

Thanx to everyone's efforts - past, present, and future! Welcome Robb & IB!