Is RVParkreviews TRYING to become CampgroundReviews.com??

[camaraderie]

Given this forum is owned by the same company as campgroundreviews.com... I'm wondering what is going on. (Even as I typed "{rvparkreviews}" into this note it just switched it automatically in the body of my message!)
The site is down...and I'm getting redirected automatically to CampgroundReviews.com which has similar graphics but pops up with an "oops something went wrong" notice.



I've received no notice of any pending changes. Does anyone in admin here know what is going on? Thanks...

[ependydad]

Name changed on Jan 21 according to this:
https://www.campgroundreviews.com/fo...74/#post-59729

[Windjammin]

They changed their name. Same site as before, just a new name.

[ependydad]

I'm curious why the name change?

[camaraderie]

Thanks for the link Ependydad...that busted me through the log jam. Dunno why they did it but glad to be able to get back on... prolly needed to clear cache or something but it is all working now.

[DrLewie]

As of mid January they hadn't come up with an Android version of the new app with the new name. Using the link with the old name brought me to a general RV site with a lot of stuff I wasn't looking for. I contacted RV Park Reviews and was told they would have the Android app in a month or two, but I haven't checked to see if its available yet.


Here's the text of the original 1/14/19 email announcing the name change:

Over the years RV Park Reviews has grown to include campgrounds not typically considered an "RV Park". For many folks who camp an RV Park is often associated with a privately owned campground and not state or federal parks or more rugged settings. We feel the name "Campground Reviews" more clearly communicates to RVers and all campers that we cover both.

This Wednesday, January 16 we will be switching the domain name from Campground Reviews - Trusted Reviews of Campgrounds & RV Parks to Campground Reviews - Trusted Reviews of Campgrounds & RV Parks. All old links will continue to work. So if you use the old domain name they will be forwarded automatically and the links will work.

Together we have built a database of amazing places to camp. Reviews, photos, tips and feedback from your journies help other RVers plan the perfect trip. Please consider posting reviews for any campgrounds you have stayed at in the past 6 months.

We would also like to encourage you to take photos. It's easy to upload them from any browser, directly from your phone. The more photos we have of every park, the better!

Kind Regards,

The RV Park Campbground Reviews Team
(ugh, that's going to be hard to get used to)

[Janet H]

Campground Reviews is just a rename of rvparkreviews and the change was made because of the way people search for park reviews and park locations and sites. There are LOTS of parks listed at CGR that have no rv services. These include state parks and we were missing a broad section of potential users.


Now the back story:


Years ago a little company called Social Knowledge acquired this forum. SK was started by an RVer and over the years SK has collected a bunch of RV and camping related sites including campgroundreviews.com. Most RV related forums and camping boards are started as hobbies and as the original owner either loses interest or ages out of the system those sites lie fallow and the members are left in the lurch. That was how SK came into FRF. The original owner contacted us when he was no longer able to maintain the board and wanted it to continue.

Among the sites collected was a venerable publication called RV Life magazine. The owner of that publication retired and so SK has continued the publication.

In the past year we have been working to do some rebranding. No one has ever heard of Social Knowledge - and rightly so, it's a tiny little company with just a handful of programmers. Most folks have heard of RV Life and so we have begun adding the RV Life tag to the SK RV related sites. There is a good reason for this - several actually.

All these forums are managed by site teams who are brand owners or experts. They are often the most prolific members of the forum and there will no changes in this regard. The forum remains separate from Forest River Inc as well and while we value their participation here, we value the neutral stance we have. All these forum have great discussions in a relatively polite atmosphere - we're proud of that. Trolly boards are a turn off for most RVers.

Many forum members belong to more than one RV Life forum. For example iRV2.com is one of these sites and not a brand specific forum.

The long term vision is that the newly released RVLife app (which is in it's early development) will allow members to easily access all these sites with a single account. Currently the RV Life app is only Campground info and some RV Life content but it will expand to include forum login, trip planning functions and more.

The RV Life app is actively being developed and you should see updates regularly as features are built out. In fairly short order FRF member who also have CampgroundReviews.com accounts will be able to easily login to both sites with the same login info.

Lacing up all these communities under the RV Life umbrella is complex and so we moving in stages. This forum will remain as it is - same site team, same daily function, etc but in fairly short order FRF members who also have CampgroundReviews.com or RV Trip Wizard accounts will be able to easily login to both sites with the same login info.

[ben31]

Hopefully, the transition for this forum goes more smoothly than the transition for the app. That isn't going so well.

[Janet H]

Originally Posted by ben31

Hopefully, the transition for this forum goes more smoothly than the transition for the app. That isn't going so well.

The app is a challenge, I agree. The IOS version is pretty good but the android version is lagging behind in development. There is a recent release however with some improvements. Only newer android devices are supported currently but hopefully as development continues we will see some improvement.

The app is free (as in the past) but a few folks asked for offline use of the maps for times when they have no cell service.

Offline use is now available but there is a charge associated with that addition as we have to pay for each additional download or maps to google. Still for those of us who are often in out of the way places this is going to be a nice feature.

We're getting there...

Here's a link to the android version of the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....rvlife.rvlife

And the IOS version: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rv-l...275803975?mt=8

[camaraderie]

Thanks Janet for the detailed explanation. Makes sense to me! I was more concerned about the ability to connect to the site rather than the name...but apparently the two situations were unrelated.

[KEN9XL]

Janet,

Wow! Thank you very much for the detailed explanation on RV Park reviews vs campground park reviews. I was curious myself.

I appreciate the preview of the new coming attractions &/or modifications.
Keep us posted.

Thanks
Ken