Hey all ScionLifers,

I'm pleased to announce that ScionLife has been acquired by Internet Brands, Inc., which operates leading automotive web sites such as CarsDirect.com, GreenHybrid.com, NewCarTestDrive and Wikicars.com.

The plan is to maintain ScionLife as a stand-alone site, while leveraging Internet Brands’ technology and content resources where they can enhance the site. There are no changes planned for us at this point – other than moving to bigger, faster servers – and I will continue to play an active role in the community and in the growth of the site.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email them to me. There is some info about the acquisition below. Also, beyond any questions you might have, I'd enjoy hearing any ideas you might have to improve ScionLife going forward.

Thank you.

- Darren Seeman, ScionLife Founder


Q: Why did Internet Brands buy ScionLife?
A: Internet Brands’ mission is to empower consumers to make better decisions about buying and maintaining their most important purchases, such as cars and homes. ScionLife’s users offer outstanding advice and support for Scion owners and shoppers, newbies and veterans alike, which should be a very good fit with the rest of the Internet Brands Automotive sites.

Q: Will ScionLife become part of another Internet Brand site?
A: Internet Brands plans to keep ScionLife a separate, thriving site and to continue expanding its content, community and traffic.

Q: Are Darren and Troy going to continue at ScionLife?
A: Yes. They will continue their current level of involvement on the site and in the community.

Q: What changes can we expect to see on ScionLife?
A: It's hard to predict far into the future, but for the time being, ScionLife will remain essentially unchanged. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The main near-term addition you’ll probably notice is that Internet Brands will figure out with Darren and Troy the most logical places to put links to relevant content on other IB Automotive sites. Beyond that, Internet Brands plans to brainstorm with the admins and moderators of ScionLife about improvements that would make the site more useful.

Q: How will the acquisition help ScionLife?
A: The main benefit will be having more infrastructure and technology resources behind the site. Better servers and hardware will mean better performance for the site and admin tools. And more technology resources will mean faster bug-fixes, quicker turnaround on site changes and more frequent updates in site software, like vBulletin or photo-posting applications.

Q: Will my ScionLife log-in or password change?
A: No you will still access ScionLife as you always have.

 

Well, I hope all stays well here at SL. I truly enjoy SL and I don't want to see it change. I could be thinking all wrong simply because I know very little about Internet Brands... but this seems to be going more towards "main stream" and away from passion.

I am going to keep my fingers crossed and hope that the Scion commuinty does not change and that SL remains the same. I like it here...

 

Amoxaphobic, from what little interaction I've had with the IB folks, it seems they very strongly want to keep ScionLife going in the direction it has been - no big drastic changes, just additional higher-level help in making sure it runs well.

Tom

 

You say they bought Scionlife, ,,,,,hope you got a good chunk of change ,cause this is a great site.

 

I just hope not to see too much advertisements. As well as pop-ups and spywares/adwares from this site. Please keep SL a clean and secure site.

 

there won't be any spyware/adware! Internet Brands knows that this type of behavior would leave them with a worthless site.

as far as I can understand, the intent is really to keep the community the way that it is, and improve the hardware that we're running on.

 

Ahh gotcha... I'm just paranoid. /sry

 

This is the same with any good product. Someone bought a thriving setup. With that they can use their experience to make it better or keep it at a high standard. Good job. As long as the site doesnt get loaded with big ads and popups things will be fine. As soon as there are popups im out and so are a ton of other people. One main distaste is when a company wants to pay bills on popup ads. Thats a 10yr old method that respected sites do not do.

 

yea.. faster servers is a big plus side.... i'm tired of logging in mid-day and the current servers are just bogged and overloaded with traffic..

yea.... blehh.. but from what the others have said, SL will pretty much remain unchanged, with subtle differences during the transition to the new servers (you'll notice the speed increase i'm sure) but the basic layout will stay the same for the most part.

any changes i expect to be minimal and most of it will look like it'll be behind the curtain.

i also questioned the acquisition as far as.. "oh no! it's no longer an enthusiast owned site and now some corp.?!" thing.. but speaking to IB, their plans seemed to be very clear as leaving most of how the site is run unchanged.

i'm certainly happy too and looking forward to it.

 

Ah, now you're loaded, and hopefully the site moves faster. its win win!

 

Alright, since no one else is willing to say it:

Corporate sell-outs FTL

 

people with good ideas who put in a lot of hard work, sell for a ton of cash, and collect a salary for doing their old job FTW!!

that corporate sellout line only works in music and art, not business

 

Dude, don't be retarded. Yeah... Toyota, who makes your car is just a mom and pop operation, that throws hippie concerts and promotes drug use. Yeah... Your computer and the microchips inside were made in a garage. Yeah... Your cellphone was designed and manufactured by ethiopian refugees...

Sure... The fiber optic lines that connect your ISP to the web is made out of hemp and happy thoughts...

Sure, somebody smoked some drugs and came up with modern day medicine and vaccines.

Sure... Multi national corporations and funding partners didn't help to build our cities road, water, power, and transportational infrastructure.

Let's all be like kazakstan... They don't have corporations there! We can be number one exporter of potassium. Great success!

 

Relax. Someone did have to say it, and it is a legit thought/worry, but in this case, Darren and Troy have put a lot of work into ScionLife, starting from nothing and building it to what we have today, and it is about time they both get some reward for it, AND get to relax a bit.

Any time there is change, people get uncomfortable, and this is one of those times.

Thing is, this change has already happened, and no one even noticed.

Relax. This isn't a bad thing. :D

Tom

 

I was thinking along the same line as paul - though I do agree with dudehitt. You can't really sell out in business, just move on a make better. Music, yes... theater, yes...

I just don't want to see the Scion community turn into something like the Honda community where everyone is doing the same thing cause "it's cool" and everyone turns into haters. That's what I meant by "main stream".

But like I said, I am keeping my fingers crossed that it all turns out well 'cause I ain't leavin'!

 

I am relaxed... Corporate funding and R&D lead to GOOD things.

 

Darren - I wondered when it'd be that time. ;)
We (Toyota Nation) have definitely benefited behind the scenes from the buyout altho the rocky start almost killed us.

 

EXACTLY.. lol... granted still in process, but really.. i doubt anyone will really notice at all.

 

I wish we had a direct channel to communicate with Toyota corporate... I'd love to see TMC have a better relationship with this site/forum and recognize SL for the powerhouse that it is. If it weren't for this site, I would have never bought my xA or tC.

Toyota really needs to overhaul its dealer network and service quality. For instance, the RS 2.0 exhaust debacle and its poor handling by dealers is EXACTLY what stains my experience with this brand. We need a way to have our dealer complaints taken seriously! Although we are all enthusiasts here, it is very disturbing that we often know more about our cars than the service techs and salesmen.

A community like this is EXACTLY the tool Toyota needs to find out what concerns need to be addressed.

 

well.. not that i have proof, but Scion corp does pop its head in this site every so often to see what's going on.

they don't post much, that's for sure, but they do keep an eye out.