Gutted!

[Paul]

Please excuse my ramblings below, but I felt I just had to get some things of my chest ... as it were.

I don't know about anyone else, but I really like this site, the layout and graphics on it (the original ones) were absolutely spot on ... the new ones are good, but the initial ones were slightly better ... imho ... although I wouldn’t want to try and put any together as they’d look like they’d been designed by a child in playschool

I really liked the fact that having got myself lined up to buy an R8, I have found a cracking forum based site that I can talk about the R8 on.

I like the fact that I joined the site in ... what I would call ... the infancy of the site, I'm not sure how many members were already here when I found the site, but it was somewhat less than steadily growing number that there is now.

I also like the nice atmosphere on the site, everyone seems to post in a sensible way, there are no derogatory remarks made towards other users ... well not that I have seen ... from time to time there are fun posts between users which all seem to be good natured and is part and parcel of using a forum based site.

Also ... the site is really getting a nice community feeling to it, which is often difficult to establish and is something the administrators ... and members ... should be proud of. I've used plenty of forum based sites ... as I'm sure have many members here. It can become very difficult to have sensible discussions on some sites when users deliberately submit argumentative posts ... just for the sake of creating an argument, not because there viewpoint is the one they are submitting posts from, but they will take an argumentative viewpoint just for the sake of it. Needless to say, I've lost interest in such sites and I no longer use them. I hope this site doesn’t end up with similar problems ... at present it doesn't appear that that will be the case.

Most of us are presumably here because we have an interest in the R8, be it out of curiosity, intrigue, or future ownership, be it potential, or imminent - once our order is in. I get the feeling that the site will continue to grow and become a place where fellow R8 owners can discuss their thoughts and experiences, plus prospective owners can eventually come here to find out a wealth of information and real world experience of existing and, in time, past R8 owners. I certainly hope it takes a path that at least incorporates some of that anyway.

What I do find disappointing is that someone from VAG has decided that the site name, and or url, are not appropriate ... they infringe trademark rights, or something like that. It’s not as though the site is going to compete against Audi in any fashion. As long as the site is run in a professional manner and the site doesn’t deride Audi any way ... I can't see what the problem is.

Imagine how I felt when ... out of courtesy to the guys that run the site ... I sent a PM to an administrator here to point out what was being said on another forum based site about the name of this site. Then, not 24hours later I get a PM back saying the site name has had to change and that the guys who run the site have had to change some of hte graphics, but another domain and make plans to migrate the site to the new domain.

I'll tell you how I felt ... gutted ...

[krassy]

I believe it was due to legal issues which could provoke Audi to get involved as to why the name Audi is being used.

It was a preemptive action if you will.

[Paul]

I believe it was due to legal issues which could provoke Audi to get involved as to why the name Audi is being used.

It was a preemptive action if you will.

I suppose they have to protect their name ... but anyone can register a domain name ... Audi must have known the name of the R8 before any of us ... early talk was that it would be called the R9 due to the gap in the numbering from the road cars using various forms of prefixes and numbers i.e A2, A3, S3, A4, S4, RS4, A6, S6, Q7, A8, S8, and the new racer the R10 ... badging of the Le Mans Concept was thought to be going down the route of using the missing number as it were.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is for a minimal sum ... in the scheme of things for Audi ... they could have easily registered domains such as:
r8audi.???
audir8.???
etc
etc

For a few meesly quid ... or a few more dollars ;-) ... they could have registered the domain names ages ago and no one would really have been any the wiser.

Anyway, not a lot we can do about it now ... just felt awful and gutted when I heard about the possible legal problems

[ekool]

The biggest problem I have is that there are hundreds of domains out there that have audi in the name and they have been up and running for a long time without issue.

I dont know why we are being singled out.

[krassy]

Because this site is the best looking AUDI site I've ever seen.

If I were you I'd switch it back to the old theme, as long as you have the graphics you can always switch.

Let it be get well known as R8 Audi talk and if they pressure you to change it do it then. Just my 2 cents.

[Paul]

Because this site is the best looking AUDI site I've ever seen.

If I were you I'd switch it back to the old theme, as long as you have the graphics you can always switch.

Let it be get well known as R8 Audi talk and if they pressure you to change it do it then. Just my 2 cents.

I quite agree!

[ekool]

Well thanks guys, but its not worth it to me to be sued. I'm going to try to switch the domain over during the weekend.

[Paul]

Well thanks guys, but its not worth it to me to be sued. I'm going to try to switch the domain over during the weekend.

If you feel you have to ... then you have to do what you think is right.

Will you be restoring the previous graphics theme ... or would that still put you at serious risk

I think many users here really liked the previous graphics ... judging by a previous post from Krassy ... I think you can put Krassy and myself in to that group.

[ekool]

According to the letter I received, I cannot use the graphics from the company either. As soon as the switchover is completed I will post the contents of the letter for everyone to read.