The Forum (also commonly known as a Bulletin Board) was a featured part of EightWheels.com in past years. It allowed everyone here to share, easily and in an organized fashion. But over the last couple of years, it was overrun by spammers registering to use the board. Even though I was able to prevent them from posting, I couldn’t find a way to easily prevent them from signing up, and in a short period of time I had thousands of registrations to sort through to try and find the legitimate sign-ups. So I ended up closing the forum about a year ago.

With the new site design a couple of months ago, I started once again looking for more spam-proof forum software that would integrate with the new design, and I found it! In fact, as you can see, it’s better integrated with the site than the previous forum ever was. It looks good, and so far it’s also working great. The jury is still out on whether spammers will be kept away, but so far none have successfully registered, while several individual users have signed up without problems.

Right now there are two separate sections: one for drivers, and one for passengers. Each has several sub-sections. More will be added in the future as I see the need.

You must register to use the forum. After clicking on Forum in the navigation bar at the top of any page, just click the Register button on one of the Forum pages, and follow the directions there to sign up. Then feel free to interact with some of the topics already started, in the most appropriate section, or click the new topic button and start a new topic of your own. It’s easy and fun!

Also new this week on EightWheels.com are polls! They may show up at various spots around the site in the future, on individual posts or in one of the sidebars. Right now there is a post in the right sidebar, just for motorcoach drivers, on GPS use. If you’re a driver, take a second to vote.

I’m experimenting with a new feature here … you can now be automatically notified of new posts by email. At the bottom of the left sidebar, you’ll see a spot to enter your email address; just fill it in and hit the subscribe button below it. Fill out the additional options you’ll be presented with, and you’ll be notified by email that you’ve subscribed. You’ll also need to click the link in the confirming email to complete your subscription so we know we have your correct email address. Be assured, your email address is not sold or used for any other purpose. You may unsubscribe at any time.