Okay, for starters, this is not another rant of mine, so any of you ready to flip the page already, please hear me out-at least till I 'splain my business! Well, while the Southern California traffic may not do me in once and for all as soon as I'd expect, this whole Internet thing surely will. But if it does, I'm the only one to blame, as it seems prime time for a "print" guy like myself to finally succumb to the complete digital spectrum...and I'm taking you all with me!
No, I'm not hanging up my hat to become some Web site moderator or anything like that (sorry, I know some of you may have gotten a bit excited there for a moment), rather, I'm throwing in the towel as it were and giving in to the evil dark side...the dot-com side of CLASSIC TRUCKS, that is. Yeah, so while I still believe the Internet is and, ultimately will be, quite detrimental to print media and magazines in particular, I've come to realize that it's also a very helpful tool for anyone with a computer and modem. In reality, though my job is dedicated to producing a physical magazine each and every month, I do spend a good portion of my day online, whether it's searching for reference material, data to back up information about to go to print or, more commonly, conversing via e-mail or any random message-board site. I'm guilty of contributing to my own demise...I guess.
Along with providing you instant and, more importantly for some, "free" edit, the CT Web site also has a lot more to offer, including a couple new items that may be of great interest to many users. For those looking for their 15 minutes of fame, we've developed a brand-new "Ride Of The Month" feature where, just as the title suggests, site viewers can not only upload images of their truck, but also vote online for an overall winner each month. The lucky chosen ones will receive a special CLASSIC TRUCKS T-shirt for their time and effort (I can already hear the excitement brewing!). To see how and where it's done, just type in rideofthemonth.classictrucks.com.
On top of the new ROTM, there's also been some expansion in the forums department, and though I've yet to really take part (my apologies, but by the time this hits the stands, I'm sure I'll be in over my head!), I do see that many readers have already joined in. However, it seems that a majority of the content is related to peddling parts-I know it's great to have such an outlet to aid in selling items, and if you're going to continue doing this, I want 10% of every sale! Seriously though, this isn't eBay. While I don't necessarily condone widespread use of the forums for swap meet purposes, I don't condemn it, either; I'd really like to see more "wanted" type posts from readers searching for hard-to-find items. So, it looks as if the burden's on my shoulders now to shift the forum content more in the direction of Q&A and general discussion, be it trucks, magazine topics, what have you.
Finally, though I don't see any "Web-exclusive" content such as stand-alone tech stories or features coming down the pike anytime soon, we (that being myself and Grant) will be contributing expanded content for certain stories here in the near future. Also, I'm open to reader submissions, as well-if you have an event you photographed and would like to see on the site or even recently performed some updates and/or modifications to your truck that might make an interesting piece, please by all means forward them my way. If it's good, it'll go live. Until then, please don't forget us on the newsstands once you've become accustomed to us online!