With all the talk of anniversary dates the question came up "How old is Expandas Downunder"?
The moderators have also been asking for something like this so here goes a mini history to "Expandas Downunder"!
_________________
Who Is Expandas Downunder & Where Did I Come From?
Expandas downunder was formed in 2009 by an avid caravaner MYSELF
gee this is weird!
After progressing through the normal stages of tent > caravan ownership I moved to a Jayco Expanda 16.49.2. On our first trip out I was delighted to meet a pair of caravaners who had just finished a lap of OZ in there Expanda and where heading back down the coast to home base in Melbourne. As it was our maiden voyage and there end of a huge a trip they exchanged ideas and possible areas to watch out for like screws in all the hinges etc but most of all they where just happy to have a yarn about the Expanda and bypassed about 20 other vans in the park to get to ours and have a chat!
From this experience I though it would be a fantastic idea to start a group dedicated to the Jayco Expanda where others could share and exchange ideas about these vans just like we did on that day and hopefully meet some travellers along the way that share a common interest in Expandas and Caravaning on a whole.
So with a little bit of tech knowledge in December of 2009 I registered the domain "www.expandasdownunder.com" and started to set up the site you see today. The intention always has been to have a fun and friendly place to visit where no question is a silly question and we can all share the knowledge with others.
From the early days of 2010 it was very much a ghost town where we had a few visitors who continued to return to the site but it was very slow going in the early days but even just the few comments kept the drive up to keep the site going and of the people who posted there was always so much gratitude from people who had never met but just shared a common interest in Expandas and Caravaning that they kept returning and sharing their experiences.
Through out this time there was a lot of people who came and went on the forums some of which are still here today and some who moved on and the site moved in peaks and troughs of membership but it kept growing and growing little bit by little bit like a jig saw puzzle.
Throughout this time there was four individuals who kept coming back and that is your moderators Chartrock, Cruza Driver, Bushman and Moto Moto throughout there returns they really helped form the foundation of the site by continuing to visit, interacting with other members and offering up there precious time to help out with the moderation of the site and continue its development by tabling new ideas and concepts to keep everyone involved with the site and this continues now and into the future.
Slowly over time from the help of people posting on the site and spreading the word around the community the site grew immensely and in late 2010 early 2011 we really ballooned in membership jumping from around 400 members to 500 in mid 2011 to where we are now with around 750 members of which 250 are actively on the forum and interacting with others. In fact we had so many people join the site that the server we where housed on from the beginning in 2009 - 2011 / 12 began to buckle just due to the shear amount of visitors on at one point and in 2012 we moved the site to a much larger capacity sever that has the ability to take the load of the amount of visitors we get each month now and into the future.
Since its inception the site now has received 25,000 individual posts and 2,084 unique threads this means every unique thread on this site gets a massive response from the community of members and shows how helpfull everyone on this site is so a huge pat on the back for everyone for this its a massive undertaking!!!!
Some stats for you just for interests sake for the month of November 2012 -
Unique Visitors - 7151
Page Views - 356,388
Returning Visitors = 70% / 20,566 Visits
New People = 30% / 6069 Visits
So Where To In 2013?
This year has been a big year for the site not just with membership growing but the new server has consumed alot of time getting it tuned and running right and we are now at point where the next steps can take place.
This has already started with the development of the stickers, a huge thank you to Andrea for offering her time and skills to get the design of the ground and providing me with graphical support throughout the process. Another huge thank you to all the moderators who made contact with manufactures to get some one to actually print them and lastly but certainly not least the response from the group has just been huge over 80 stickers are in circulation and 10 large vinyl ones are floating around and I didn't expect this much interest personally so kudos to all of you!!!!!
The first things in 2013 we are looking at -
1) Coolers - February the order for coolers will be going in and a few other merchandise bits and pieces
2) Software redevelopment - VBulletin has released a new version of VBulletin and we will be moving to this new version in the first / second quater of 2013 this is a big move to this new software and more details will come later on
3) Competetions - Once we get a bit more mechandise I would like to run a monthyl / quartely compention and provide some free merchandise to the winner.
4) I personally would like to get around more and meet up with other members on the site so would like to organise some more meetups in different states / locations so everyone can get a chance
So that's it from me I hope this gives a bit of insight as to where we came from and where are going.
If anyone has questions please let me know!
The moderators have also been asking for something like this so here goes a mini history to "Expandas Downunder"!
_________________
Who Is Expandas Downunder & Where Did I Come From?
Expandas downunder was formed in 2009 by an avid caravaner MYSELF
gee this is weird!After progressing through the normal stages of tent > caravan ownership I moved to a Jayco Expanda 16.49.2. On our first trip out I was delighted to meet a pair of caravaners who had just finished a lap of OZ in there Expanda and where heading back down the coast to home base in Melbourne. As it was our maiden voyage and there end of a huge a trip they exchanged ideas and possible areas to watch out for like screws in all the hinges etc but most of all they where just happy to have a yarn about the Expanda and bypassed about 20 other vans in the park to get to ours and have a chat!
From this experience I though it would be a fantastic idea to start a group dedicated to the Jayco Expanda where others could share and exchange ideas about these vans just like we did on that day and hopefully meet some travellers along the way that share a common interest in Expandas and Caravaning on a whole.
So with a little bit of tech knowledge in December of 2009 I registered the domain "www.expandasdownunder.com" and started to set up the site you see today. The intention always has been to have a fun and friendly place to visit where no question is a silly question and we can all share the knowledge with others.
From the early days of 2010 it was very much a ghost town where we had a few visitors who continued to return to the site but it was very slow going in the early days but even just the few comments kept the drive up to keep the site going and of the people who posted there was always so much gratitude from people who had never met but just shared a common interest in Expandas and Caravaning that they kept returning and sharing their experiences.
Through out this time there was a lot of people who came and went on the forums some of which are still here today and some who moved on and the site moved in peaks and troughs of membership but it kept growing and growing little bit by little bit like a jig saw puzzle.
Throughout this time there was four individuals who kept coming back and that is your moderators Chartrock, Cruza Driver, Bushman and Moto Moto throughout there returns they really helped form the foundation of the site by continuing to visit, interacting with other members and offering up there precious time to help out with the moderation of the site and continue its development by tabling new ideas and concepts to keep everyone involved with the site and this continues now and into the future.
Slowly over time from the help of people posting on the site and spreading the word around the community the site grew immensely and in late 2010 early 2011 we really ballooned in membership jumping from around 400 members to 500 in mid 2011 to where we are now with around 750 members of which 250 are actively on the forum and interacting with others. In fact we had so many people join the site that the server we where housed on from the beginning in 2009 - 2011 / 12 began to buckle just due to the shear amount of visitors on at one point and in 2012 we moved the site to a much larger capacity sever that has the ability to take the load of the amount of visitors we get each month now and into the future.
Since its inception the site now has received 25,000 individual posts and 2,084 unique threads this means every unique thread on this site gets a massive response from the community of members and shows how helpfull everyone on this site is so a huge pat on the back for everyone for this its a massive undertaking!!!!
Some stats for you just for interests sake for the month of November 2012 -
Unique Visitors - 7151
Page Views - 356,388
Returning Visitors = 70% / 20,566 Visits
New People = 30% / 6069 Visits
So Where To In 2013?
This year has been a big year for the site not just with membership growing but the new server has consumed alot of time getting it tuned and running right and we are now at point where the next steps can take place.
This has already started with the development of the stickers, a huge thank you to Andrea for offering her time and skills to get the design of the ground and providing me with graphical support throughout the process. Another huge thank you to all the moderators who made contact with manufactures to get some one to actually print them and lastly but certainly not least the response from the group has just been huge over 80 stickers are in circulation and 10 large vinyl ones are floating around and I didn't expect this much interest personally so kudos to all of you!!!!!
The first things in 2013 we are looking at -
1) Coolers - February the order for coolers will be going in and a few other merchandise bits and pieces
2) Software redevelopment - VBulletin has released a new version of VBulletin and we will be moving to this new version in the first / second quater of 2013 this is a big move to this new software and more details will come later on
3) Competetions - Once we get a bit more mechandise I would like to run a monthyl / quartely compention and provide some free merchandise to the winner.
4) I personally would like to get around more and meet up with other members on the site so would like to organise some more meetups in different states / locations so everyone can get a chance
So that's it from me I hope this gives a bit of insight as to where we came from and where are going.
If anyone has questions please let me know!
