T o d d

Good morning everyone,

This is to announce to our community that we have moved to a new home.

Effective yesterday, I have transferred ownership of PoodleForum.com to a new owner.

PoodleForum.com is now part of a family of websites also known as Verticalscope. You will soon be introduced to "Yung Lee", who will be logged in as the "administrator". OK,so you might be thinking of a lot of questions and I will be glad to answer anything I don't cover.

So the first may be why?

For me this was the most difficult situation I have encountered in a very long time. I just simply felt I was not enjoying the forum for what it is, a wonderful collection of people from many diverse areas, jobs, personalities, experiences, etc.. and I was so bogged down with all the technical details of the forum, like fixing code, backups, etc.. I had very little time to post and be part of the family.


How does this affect you?

The beautiful part is, that it doesn't affect you at all. If your an admin or mod you will remain an admin or mod, if your a member of the forum just continue to enjoy the site. Nothing in regards to how we conduct ourselves daily will change. I will simply ask the new ownership team to make any major changes updates, etc when required instead of me doing it. I will still be here I am not going anywhere, as a matter of fact I intend to be here more!

So please join me in this new endeavor while we make this place even better!


Sincerely,
Todd

poodleadm

Hello community members,

I would like to introduce myself to you: my name is Yung and I will be the new “Admin” for PoodleForum.com.

A little about me: I am a dog lover. I grew up with a Doberman (with a Chinese name my parents gave to him – Sou Mei : ). He died when I was 10. As little kids (my brothers and I), I remember we use to take him to the park and just spend hours and hours playing fetch while my parents would sit and watch over us. The neighbourhood kids would join in and the three of us brothers became quite popular because of Sou-mei. Good times with him.

After a couple of years of taking a break from having a dog in the home, we got a Dalmation (don't ask why but my parents brought him home one day). We called him Cookies because he reminded us of Cookies and Cream ice cream. He was active as a pup but we trained him well and shortly, he became a very good friend to me as my brothers were growing up and headed off to university. He was a really good guard dog too because a few times, people try to break into my car and he started barking which of course, woke everyone up. He passed away a few years ago. Again, good times.

Fast forward to where I am now. Last year, my wife and I took in a Chocolate Lab. We named her Joy. She's been the joy of our lives for the past year... I know, cheesy. But my wife loves her a lot, even more than me some days. : ) I really do hope to add another dog to our family in the next 15 months. We're tight on living space right now but once that gets sorted out, we'll be adding a new dog for sure.

I hope to contribute to this community in a positive manner and be as helpful with day-to-day stuff as I can.

Let me also share a little about VerticalScope.

Our team specializes in managing online communities in different areas of interests. We bring to the table a staff and an infrastructure that can ensure PoodleForum.com will be around for years to come.

What are our intentions?

Our goal is to provide the resources required to have a broader reach and attract more knowledgeable dog owners to contribute that knowledge to the community. We want to continue making this an enjoyable experience and source for Poodle fans. We have a tech staff that is essentially on call 24/7 should there be any issues with connectivity.

Will the leadership change?

Absolutely not. We believe this community is unique and to that end we will continue to support the existing rules and leaders. The Admins and Mods here are the ones that know you the best. You guys know what rules apply to this community and who all the trouble makers are. Each community is vastly different from the next so it’s important that the rules and culture of this community in which you guys have been familiar with in the past stay in place to keep things the same.

What will my role be?

Well I will primarily be a technical contact. I will check the site daily to make sure that if there are issues that arise, they will be handled promptly and correctly. We will be working closely with community moderators and at time members to ensure this community is well supported. However, since I am a dog lover too, I want to contribute when I can. By no means do I claim to be the be-all-end-all dog guy...far from it. In fact, I'll probably end up learning from you guys for the most part.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns – you can post them here or send me a PM and I will love to answer as much as I can. See you guys around!


Yung

cbrand

Todd.... Thank you for all the work you put into this forum.


Yung....Having looked at the other forums that Verticalscope manages, I imagine that we will soon be seeing adds here. Will our personal information be used/shared in any way? What sort of stats will you keep about the users here?

*heather*

Todd, great job on the forum!! I totally understand needing to get away from the techie stuff! Glad you're sticking around

Hi Yung, welcome ! Looking forward to hearing the answers to cbrand's questions.

poodleadm

Hi everyone,

Thanks for welcoming me. In terms of privacy issues, VS does not resell email addresses or spam your email accounts. As for ads, yes there will be some in the future but our approach to advertising isn't to flood the users with ads. As well, if you're worried about what content the ads will have, we can control that (i.e. ads about puppy mills).

Does that answer your question?

Cdnjennga

Thanks Todd, for all your hard work up to this point. We'll look forward to hearing more from you on the boards!

Yung, welcome and thanks for the answers to Cbrand's questions! It will be interesting to see how the Poodle Forum changes as we move forward.

cbrand

Yung,

I'm glad to hear that you will not be selling or using our email addresses and that you can control what ads we see.

I'm still curious if you will be using our personal or group information in any way. I notice for example that on the Verticalscope home page that you offer your advertisers access to the coveted 18-25 yr old male market via your sports and auto forums.

One can only wonder what we bring to the table.

Can you give us an idea about what type of information is collected from the other forums you manage and how that information is used? Will we be signing new privacy agreements?

poodleadm

Also, ads that go up usually effect non-registered members.

poodleadm

To my knowledge, there will be no new stuff for members to sign on to or "re register". That would just be chaotic.

As for marketing information, I can check that for you and get back to you. I'm not in marketing, I don't pretend to be so I don't want to give you something I really don't know much about. Fair enough?

cuddleparty

Todd - i just found this post.. Wow!

Giving you big hugs and many thanks for all that you have contributed to here. I can fully appreciate your position and commend you for recognizing YOUR needs first and taking that huge step to leave your post at PF. Hopefully the joy of being a member and posting on PF will restore itself for you

Yung - Welcome! You have big shoes to fill But I'm fully confident you and your team will do a great job!