The Big News: Say Goodbye to CR:U

[ZacFields]

Dear Website Members,

As we had originally planned to announce at the Picnic, but decided to announce today: CR:U soon will no longer exist. Instead, we are opening up some new doors with a name change. Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that this is a name change, but your accounts and all posts made will still exist as long as the transition goes as smoothly as we are hoping.

The name we have chosen for the website will be short and simple, and I will present it to you in the form of a graphic:

http://www.crunderground.com/files/iaf.com_2_219.jpg

Iowa Auto Forums. It's more professional, short, sweet, and when everyone is rockin' an IAF t-shirt you won't have to explain to anyone what it represents.

Why did we change the name? Well CR:U was originally created by Sean Herder as Cedar Rapids' street racing site. It was very prominant right off the bat with several hundred people joining the site in the first couple months. When Sean moved to Colorado, I purchased this website from him and fairly quickly took it in a different direction. So to make a long story short, we're opening up some new doors and also closing some old ones for good.

What does this mean for you? Not much really. These forums are still being run by the same people and our goals have not necessarily changed. We have chosen a new name to match the same attitude we have had for the last couple years. We want to do more with this website. We want to get involved in community events, represent at car shows, maybe even sponsor a few promising cars next year. So, you can say, this means you are now a part of something bigger than before.

There will be four domain names you can type in to get to our new site (once it is up):
http://www.IowaAutoForums.com
http://www.IowaAutoForums.net
http://www.IowaAutoForums.org
http://www.CRunderground.com

Yes, Crunderground.com will still point to the new site, so keep wearing those old CR:U tee's until you get a new one.

Here are a few last-second tidbits of things to expect with the new name:
-The transition may take place in as little as a week or as long as a month
-It will be accompanied by new forum software. That is why it may take a few weeks.
-We will no longer be using a dark background
-There will be a little bit different forum layout
-The CRunderground.com domain name is not for sale
-Moderators will stay the same, but we may potentially add one or two more.


We will be starting another thread in a few days to say our proper goodbye's to CR:U, but let's take care of that after we have a blast at the Picnic!

Zac

[Domestic Disturbance]

sounds cool. needs a better banner imo

[on a budget]

sounds cool zach. keep up all the great work.

[Inferno333]

I find this to be a great idea. The attitude of the site has definitely changed over the past couple years.

Great move!

[DustinsDuster]

the only thing that kindof sucks is that IAF doesnt roll off your tounge quite as easy as Crunderground, but i can deal with that in exchange for being taken a lot more seriously.

im psyched Zac, lets do the work!

[Malibu]

Look forward to the change and the hope of an expanding community! If you need any assistance I would be more then happy to help with any coding, debugging, testing (it is what I do).


Aaron

[Drifte]

"cru is not for sale"

my favorite part

[melhoneybee]

I;m glad that everyone is as happy about the move as all of us mods and admins are! Thanks for the support guys.. and see you saturday!!!

[NickTsGTP]

I like the fact that you opened it up to all of Iowa, and not just Cedar Rapids.

[NewSpeedSteed]

All I can say is that this isn't really bad news or anything- I think everyone was worried that it was something terrible. Yeah the site name is changing- as well as the site but its still going to be the place for Iowa automotive enthusiasts. In retrospect this could be a good thing, things will change and yeah that could be good and bad. But more than likely the good things will overcome the bad.

The only thing that I wish I had done was get a CR:U Shirt. Oh well I'll just be to get a shirt this time around.

[ZacFields]

You're in luck nathan because I still have a stack of CR:U shirts still available if you ever decide you want one! The availability is in our merchandise forum.

Thanks for all the support guys. I honestly never imagined that everyone would take it so well. I was never fond of the name of the site after we removed ourselves from the street racing scene and I've been wanting to change it for a long time. This is most definitely a good thing, and we will be doing SO much with this new name in the future. You guys are going to be blown away when I get our new software up and running. And on a personal note, we wanted everyone to think the worst because this idea came up while I was discussing with the moderators whether or not I should continue paying to keep this site running, so we figured you guys should have a little suspense just like the mods did :)

As for the new IAF shirts, well I just picked them up today for the moderators who have ordered them, and one unfortunate problem is that there were a couple mistakes. I can only see one real mistake with the names on the back and that was on Mel's shirt it says "MELONHEYBEE" instead of "MELHONEYBEE" so I will be taking that one back to be fixed. Ashley's shirt ended up being black instead of red like she wanted, but that might not be a big deal. Now I just need to check to make sure at least everyone's shirts are there, because I also have one black shirt that has the site name on the front but nothing on the back and we didn't order that.

We'll get it all sorted out tomorrow, but I will be placing another T-shirt order soon when I take Mel's shirt in to be fixed, so we will be taking orders tomorrow at the picnic for anyone who would like one of the new t-shirts. It will be $10.00 for just a plain t-shirt in any color and it will be $15.00 if you want your name on the back of it.

You don't need to pay upfront if you'de like to order a shirt but it would be nice :)

Zac

[DustinsDuster]

theres a "huge melon breast" joke in there somewhere, i am just trying to figure it out right now...

[tylers88]

I like it and I think we could get more recognition because CR Underground is a catchy name but the Underground part of it my deter some from the site. Good move guys, well played.

[Talon92Fox]

I might have passed this up but when will the change take affect? I think its a good idea and a good step forward for the site. Like Zac said, CR underground didnt really sit right since the racing scene completely died out, and everyone started getting on topics other than cars. So yea whens this gonna happen??

[ZacFields]

Its all a matter of how soon I can get the new forum software ready.

Basically what I'm having to do is find a way to convert everything we have here with an IntegraMod forum into an Icy Phoenix forum without any sort of specific instructions. On top of that, I have to port over our garage mod so it works with the icy phoenix forums.

At first I really thought that I was on a roll and was soon to have this completed, but then I got called in to work on sunday night and I've been working the day shift this week as a supervisor so when I get home I"m all drowsy and just want to get some rest. So looks like this weekend I should be able to get some more work done on it and we'll go from there. It all depends on how fast I can accomplish this without losing any of our data.

Zac

[slobalt]

Kinda catchy name, give it time it'll grow on ya.

[Drifte]

compy is back. i can have t-shirt form designs done if you want zac.

[DustinsDuster]

(snaps fingers) get on it Colton....

[z28z34man]

when it gets done it gets done don't pull any hare out over this

i agree the new name will fit this forum a lot better.

[tylers88]

Zac do you have anymore CR:U shirts left?

[Stutz]

Hey Zac when can i get my mod. shirt since i forgot about the bbq? i also want to order one for my gf.

[lil krumm]

i think this 'new' site should still have a CR:U sub-forum or some shit like that. just some BS area for us originals.

[ZacFields]

Kent: There will be a VIP area where EVERYONE who is pre-IAF will have access to. It'll be our (admin and moderators) way of saying "Thank You" for sticking around with us for so long.

It won't be anything super-special. Just a place where we can reminisce (sp?) about all the stuff we've done so far as a group... you know, the stuff that most of the newer people won't care about and wont' understand since they weren't around before.

Zac

[NewSpeedSteed]

Kent: There will be a VIP area where EVERYONE who is pre-IAF will have access to. It'll be our (admin and moderators) way of saying "Thank You" for sticking around with us for so long.

It won't be anything super-special. Just a place where we can reminisce (sp?) about all the stuff we've done so far as a group... you know, the stuff that most of the newer people won't care about and wont' understand since they weren't around before.

Zac


I was going to post below Kent that I'd also like to see some random forum or something like that so yeah Zac you read my mind or something there. Are you like Madame Cleo that crazy psychic lady who does infomercials late at night?

[DustinsDuster]

i vote there be no more posts about useless people like Miss Cleo

[ZacFields]

oh and to answer any T-shirt questions: I will be making a new order of t-shirts soon. I had a little weirdness with my work schedule (working 8am-4pm instead of 4pm-midnight) that really threw me off this last week and I haven't been able to accomplish anything. And then before I get anything done me and Ashley have to power-clean this house because I'm obsessive compulsive like that and I can't do anything unless the house is clean (explains why I never get anything done).

But what we'll do with the t-shirts is start up a topic and anyone who wants to order one will be free to do so. Shirts will ultimately be delivered via mail mostly except for the people who want to physically pick them up from me at my house or at advanced auto on thursday nights.

And I know have some unanswered PM's in my inbox and I will get to those ASAP promise.

Zac