This post is for Guest members. The ACMOC website and Bulletin Board (BB) is in the process of having a total system overhaul at considerable expense and depending upon impact of Covid-19 will be operational early July. The new system will be much easier to use, have more storage and also a lot more stable.

The cost of this is being borne by ACMOC Financial Members, yet Guest Members get to use the BB free of charge, many Financial Members believe this is unfair, so currently the Board of Directors are discussing what restrictions might best be placed upon the free use of the BB, ie; limit the number of posts before being locked out, not able to see attachments etc.

I would like to hear from the Guest Members as to what they think/consider is fair and equitable, considering that others are paying for the operations of the BB. Do you think it is fair that others pay for the site and you get a lot of information for free and not make any financial contribution?

I do not wish this post to become a mud slinging match, I would like to think that it may solicit some thoughtful and respective responses.

Wombat (Neil Clydsdale, President of ACMOC)

Hi, Folks.
I will put Wombat's 'kwestyun' inna slightly different way.

This BB facility has been a LOTTTTA help to a LOTTTTTA people over the time that I have known it, some 20 years now. It has had its ups and downs, along with a couple of serious cases of hiccups along the road. BUT, it has survived. And continued to help people all around the world.

There have been various factors which helped that survival, among them the fact that the club had a fairly reliable source of income from the sale of a string of models. That source does not seem to be as good or as reliable as it once was.

On top of this, some poor past management decisions and practices - seen with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight - have left the club's finances in rather dire straits. There have been a LOTTTTA person hours put in by a very dedicated group of people to try to salvage the mess. Various measures have had to be taken to achieve this, including cutting of staff and relinquishing of office space, as well as changes to the club magazine.

As I understand it, the current membership fees about cover the magazine and the office costs, leaving the cost of running the BB somewhere out in FAR left-right-out field.

I would ask all current and future guests to weigh for themselves just how much this BB and the advice and help to be found here is worth to them. You might also like to weigh up what it might cost you to find that help somewhere else or what it might cost you in mistakes if you had to fly blind in your repairs and restorations.

Then think about maybe supporting the resource the that has been so much help to so many people in times gone by and ask yourself if it is worth contributing a bit to try to make sure that it continues to be available in the future for you and whoever might need it.

Just a few random 0.02s.

Any clue as to how this "new" BB will be configured or as that to be a "surprise".
I still would like to see a "BB" membership only option without the club rag.

Hello

I am new the forum or forums in general but in the hopes of getting my parents cat 12 working properly. I see threads that talk about the adjustment but no links to the referred to fix document.

Please let me know how to change this

Thanks


Eric
Indianvalley

there is a sublink under the membership link to make contributions to the bulletine board

As a "guest" I can leave a response.

I am the kind of guy that is capable of figuring things out myself, and while information that people supply on these forums can speed up that process of understanding things about my tractor, I am the type of person that could ultimately figure out a solution to a problem myself. When I first got my tractor, It had the problem where the clutch didn't snap into place. I opened my operators instruction manual and serviceman's repair manual that I got with the tractor and found out how to fix the clutch so it would snap in place. I did that before I knew this website existed.

There is a lot of knowledge that exists here. A lot of more specialized knowledge too. Some information may be very difficult to find elsewhere. Search engines can be amazing, but I think access to information on old tractors is far less abundant than, say, old cars.

I am someone who is looking to have a tractor that can work for me, not just to have to show off. I like bouncing ideas around about how to keep tractors running, such as what is going on with the current thread about pony motors and starting the diesel. Thermostarts and Glow plugs and Heat Exchange tubes oh my!

Personally, I think it would be a benefit for there to be an easily accessible parts store that people could order parts for their old tractors. I think the ACMOC store has an exhaust extension for the D2. If that is what I think it is, I do wonder why they don't have them for the bigger cats. I think I could use one for my D6. Selling parts could be a good way of acquiring funds.

Or, heck, having parts manuals or repair manuals available online to access would be a plus.

Now, I don't know what the cost of running this website is. I don't know how much traffic goes across this board either. (Though it seems the same few people are using it.) I will say that from what the website looks like to me, that it could be served from a service that may only cost a few hundred bucks a year. However, the expense comes from the amount of traffic. I suspect there may be a lot of "bots" hanging around too.

Now, if you are going to close off the website and have only members only, there needs to be something specific to give access to that only the club has. Such as consolidated and concise information on these old tractors. Like, Someone should be able to click a link or something for a D6 4R/5R and see information about age, engine, capacities, features, and whatnot. Then have more in depth information when you follow the rabbit hole of any particular tractor model. Right now, if you are looking for information, it comes from whoever responds to a post. ACMOC doesn't "own" any information, they just hope and expect a member somewhere to have it. These bulletin boards are a dime a dozen, and any person with information could go to any place on the internet and offer that same information. So, the incentive to join isn't too great.

The mission statement that I see for ACMOC:

Now based in Peoria, IL, ACMOC’s mission is to assist and educate its members, and the general public, to appreciate the historic role of Caterpillar machinery in shaping the world. ACMOC promotes the collection, preservation, restoration, display, and study of products and memorabilia of Caterpillar and its related predecessors.

So, General public information needs to exist. Maybe not be so indepth as how to repair a tractor, just maybe the specs of a tractor and any history. If you are going to close off the boards in some way, the ACMOC needs to take ownership of tractor restoration and repair information. I am not saying ownership as in certain knowledge is forbidden for the unwashed, but a person could join because they can easily get information on how to remove a pony motor or what tools a person should acquire for maintenance of their tractor. I'd like to see a "D6 5R toolkit" personally. Right now, people have to use the search function and hope someone asked the same question or make a post and wait for someone to have the necessary information. It seems like there could be a lot of How-To videos or information input and sorted for each tractor.

Anyways, if you are going to close off the boards, you will have to offer something for membership because as it is currently, you would be cutting off a common system of communication as opposed to a club member privilege. I believe I see members and non-members alike offering up knowledge, but most of the knowledge isn't really collected in a significant way other than for the specific person that was seeking at the time.

I hope people understand what I am trying to say here.

For me it is interesting/disappointing this thread has had a very small response.

There is now a membership for anyone anywhere in the world of $40us annually with no hard copy magazine but access to electronic copy in members area.

I find it interesting if people want to restore and keep old Cats and cant afford $40.

The BoD is currently seeking advice from TML etc if it is OK to have available in the members area, the electronic version of the Legacy Manuals that go back to the start of Caterpillar and even earlier.

We are working on other things to enhance membership value, such as reproduction parts for the more common smaller tractors that the bulk of members or potential members have or are collecting.

What ultimately the BoD will decide about the BB I am not sure, however I do believe there will be some form of restrictions placed on non ACMOC financial members use of the site.

Wombat

I personally think that the guest members should contribute at a minimum of $20 per year, which is 50% of the cheapest member rate

maybe the new software would be able to allow a guest a limited number of entries into the site with limited access to the other parts of the board. maybe deny guests the search function and not allow posting? just read only? that way someone can look us over before they decide to join? maybe even a junior membership for a lessor amount of money that allows full function but only lasts a few hours or days.

Hi From down under I have only used the BB a few times to find out a few things that I wanted and the replies were great Now more retired than working but in the process of re assembling a D2
I feel that we should maybe allow non members a couple or three visits and after that they either become members or pay as somebody said $20 a year to get full use of the board
Us down unders annual sub is way above the US dollar amount and I dont mind paying it cos if I need Info somebody will chime in to help me out
I dont feel we should subsidise non members if they can afford to buy a machine what is US $40 on the total cost