I saw an interesting book today, it was about so big by so big, and was called friends of BMW. It seems to be put together by BMW CCA( bmw club) and is nothing more than a list of states, then broken into cities, within each there are names of 'friends'. Each name has a phone #, then up to about five codes( c&c=coffee and conversation, ws= work space, sr= spare room, and so on...) which are explained at the bottom of each page, and relate to various services offered by the individual listed. Kind of a little guide to let you know that when you're travelling you've got friends out there, be they just up for conversation or have access to parts and mechanical know how, if they can offer area to perform repairs or even a spare bed if needed. I thought it was a good idea and wondered about an Xterra type version( with certain changes ie; b&b as bullshit and beer rather than coffee and conversation...) it need not be a printed and bound book, but just perhaps a page on the site. Anyway let me know what you think.
MV

Cool idea...but...I don't know how many people would feel good about listing their address and phone number in a book or on this site!!! I don't have a problem with it (at least my Taurus 357 mag doesn't!) and I know you don't have a prob. Cool idea though....

Considering the anonymous nature of the Internet, it's very hard to get information such as where people live and where they keep their beer.

BMW Car Club of America has 50,000 members paying $35 a year ($1.75M). I think I chose the wrong vehicle to make an owners club for.

This book was just phone #, but I guess these days thats just about the same thing. Yeah I'd be on the list, just hope the .357 doesn't frighten the good folk off( plus if my wife finds me shooting people with her gun I'll be in trouble... I'm still looking/deciding on a carry gun for me...) I was thinking of a volunteer basis, you only provide whatever info( name, address, phone number) you wanted too, possibly even just going by screen name... Sorry that the BMW club has more money, but I clicked on the support XOC link, you said you did't want any...
MV

For some, the priorities would be switched around...surprised it wasn't for you!!! I know us Wisconsin folk take our beer pretty seriously also...any of the Mad City guys will agree with that!!!


Do you have any interest in doing a directory like this Ian? I think it is kinda a cool idea. I suppose people could contact each other by e-mail or private message and ask for phone numbers. Maybe a state by state directory would be useful though??? I don't know.....

we have this on rockclimbing.com... they call it the "hostile" but its very cool, just goes by e-mail or PM I used it recently when moving out to AZ I found a climbing partner who was up for drinks... but they also have free room's listed and other goodies.

might be a cool feature of the new site Ian. As I know the RC.com site is built in php, although I think they use phpbb for their board, maybe its a hack only available for that bb

Bad idea for this club.

Just imagine Snarl having everyone's phone number.

thats why you do it through the board with just e-mails and PMs...

it is a great feature. I can not recomend implementing it strongly enough.

Sounds like a good idea! It could be a web based thing and only give your City, state and Email address. That way if someone is traveling they can email the folks in the area they will be visiting. And if they are traveling and have a problem they can just jump on the net somewhere and find someone nearby to give them a hand.

This site already does that. Look in your profile.

Go to Google http://www.google.com and type your area code and phone number. The name and adresss of the account is displayed. A map link is also available. May not work in all cases, but check it out.

dave and xtoy - I think you can request a block

For some reason, I can't get it to work. What format are you using?

now, make it searchable

yeah, I know, "Vbulletin has this feature"

Strom -
No format for the numbers - just the ten numbers.
It's not active for the entire country AFAIK. Works for my area code but not for a friend's number in the bordering area code.
In addition, there are reverse phone books, some are on the web.

dave and xtoy - if they want to know, they will

I don't think the BMW people would be able to handle you.

Yes it does

The vBulletin guys said they will have the converter fixed by the end of this week, yea !

lol, very cool.
Maybe a tweak to the search feature to simplify it for this purpose.

I know its there, I've just never tried to use it, so dont know about the user friendly aspect of searching by location.

true but there is not a list showing members by locations, you way would have people randomly searching the forums looking at everyones profiles to find a contact.