RaptorFinder website change

[shapiroeric]

The bitching didn't ruin it, if you read photoneffect's posts, it took effort to operate and the trivial donations he received didn't make it worth maintaining. End of story. If anyone ruined it, it was the people who foud a truck through raptorfinder and didn't throw a few dollars of gratitude his way.

Did I miss something?

But if there's this much complaining and moral outrage in the community I see no reason to continue going

 

[jaz13]

Did I miss something?

If you've been a member of this forum for awhile, you'll know Raptorfinder has been living on borrowed time. This isn't the first time it was shut down and this credits thing would have only extended its life a few more weeks. A guy who can afford a $70k truck with his day job doesn't need a few hundred dollars from maintaining a niche website. It wasn't worth his time and why he kept trying to drop it.

 

[Aaron]

Damn, all this anger over $25?

I guess it makes sense though because every single person who was outraged hasn't got a supporting membership here either.

Good job killing off a useful website. Now it auto-redirects to Autotrader, but at least you don't have to pay for that right?

 

[MacRaptor]

Too bad, the site was awesome and more powerful than any tool I've seen from a MFG, dealer or other source. I think photoneffect should sell his IP to MFGs so the can give customers the power, sadly they likely don't want to do that because they want us all to be dependent on dealerships. Anyway I understand the desire to shut it down given all the complaints vs hard work. Personally I'd have liked to see it be subscription based but I realize that's not easy and with forums like this, people share info, IP address locking it would be hard in our mobile world.

It was great while it lasted. I couldn't use it to help me personally but it did help lots of others and that means it made the world a slightly better place.

Thank you photoneffect

 

[hamster]

So sorry to see it go.....

 

[Twisted]

It was a handy website for nationwide searches by equipment options and I used it to find my truck several states away.

I understand his POV wanting people to chip in and show some gratitude. I was more than happy to send him $20 after buying my truck, but I was a little disappointed he didn't even acknowledge my contribution with a thanks. A little hypocritical if he wants people to show their appreciation, but he doesn't do the same when people support him.

People can use the Ford webiste to seach inventories in a 100 mile radius and that shows a lot more trucks since some dealers don't list their entire inventory on Autotrader/Cars.com.

To get the detailed list of options if you find an interesting truck on Ford/Autotrader/Cars, just replace the VIN number in the window sticker lookup url.

Raptorfinder is a handy tool, but it isn't the only way to find a truck with the options you want.

Wow!, You you gave him a whole $20.00 bill How generous of you! How many thousands did he save you? $20.00 is pretty much an insult. Not surprised he didnt respond.

 

[CFIT]

Does the site get enough hits to generate some ad revenue? If so, would that revenue be sufficient to justify continuing?

I think the time based subscription could be a good model too - look up as many VINs as you like for a few days.

In the interest of generating hits, maybe some services could be offered for free? I never used the site, but I saw people posting here about how many raptors were made in a particular color/configuration etc. Would there be a way to allow people to perform general research like this, but hide the VIN numbers, and offer this for free?

I totally understand wanting to monetize it. It just seems like everyone loses by shutting it down altogether.


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[Aaron]

Wow!, You you gave him a whole $20.00 bill How generous of you! How many thousands did he save you? $20.00 is pretty much an insult. Not surprised he didnt respond.

Yeah I don't get the need for acknowledgement. When you tip a waiter/waitress at a restaurant you don't get pissed when they don't stop you at the door to say thank you.

 

[smurfslayer]

Damn, all this anger over $25?

I guess it makes sense though because every single person who was outraged hasn't got a supporting membership here either.

Yeah, FRF members are dragging the internet into the f*cking gutter. The troll count goes up every day. Go check out fat nelly trolling and come back and tell us how the gen2 crowd came here and ****** everything up.

Supporting member. I see more value -and moderation- when I go to the zoo and watch the monkeys fling poo at each other. ok, maybe the same value, I did learn here that it’s bad form to use a gen 2 anywhere but a mall or starbucks.

Good job killing off a useful website. Now it auto-redirects to Autotrader, but at least you don't have to pay for that right?

#truth.

 

[Aaron]

Yeah, FRF members are dragging the internet into the f*cking gutter. The troll count goes up every day. Go check out fat nelly trolling and come back and tell us how the gen2 crowd came here and ****** everything up.

To be fair, I didn't point the blame at any specific 'tribe' as you've so eloquently put it in another thread

Supporting member. I see more value -and moderation- when I go to the zoo and watch the monkeys fling poo at each other. ok, maybe the same value, I did learn here that it’s bad form to use a gen 2 anywhere but a mall or starbucks.

Trust me, I'm not excited about my supporting membership either, I've sent multiple emails asking for my supporting membership to be refunded and donated to Will's kids' fund page. All of them have gone unanswered.


#truth.

I was really just pointing out the correlation between the people who were upset at paying $25 to potentially save them thousands, and the people that come here and don't get a supporting membership, but use the info to save them money, headaches, or research time. That's really it. It's not about the Gen wars or any of that.