Why does TVWBB focus so much on the WSM?


 
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Chris Allingham

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I recently received a very nice e-mail from a forum member who loves his Weber 22.5” One-Touch Silver. Here's a snippet of what he wrote:

I kind of feel this forum is virtually run with ONLY the WSM owner in mind, and caters to only that person. The home page, and all others dealing with cooking instructions (sans the forum), are detailed only for WSMs. Now, I’m OK with that, and think it is a wonderful resource for any WSM owner. But my wonder is this: if the entire remainder of the site is geared only for WSMs, then why is the forum page called “The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board, an online community for Weber grill fans”? And why do the only available products at the Cafepress site depict WSMs, when the community invites every “Weber grill fan”? I would LOVE to own a t-shirt that has the TVWBB logo on it that advertises the forum, but I’m not sure if you’ve thought about selling shirts that simply promote only the forum. (I just don’t see myself wearing a t-shirt that has a WSM on it when I don’t own one, but instead smoke on my OTS.)

I've been running this site and forum for so long (almost 13 years) that I sometimes forget that many of you have discovered this forum as Weber charcoal and gas grill owners, not WSM owners, so some background might be helpful to explain why things are the way they are here.

I started the website The Virtual Weber Bullet in 1998 as a site that only featured articles and information about the WSM. In 2000, I added a forum called The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board for WSM discussion, thinking that "Weber Bullet-in" was kind of a play on the nickname "Weber Bullet".

But over time, I noticed that a fair amount of discussion about grilling and Weber charcoal and gas grills was developing, too. After all, most people that own a WSM also own a Weber kettle or a Weber gas grill or both and sometimes several of each! I began to realize that I was really hosting a discussion forum about Weber grills, not just the WSM. So a little more than a year ago, I changed the logo at the top of the page to include those Weber lids and added the tagline "An online community for Weber grill fans".

The TVWB website directs a lot of traffic to the TVWBB discussion forum, so this explains why so much discussion tends toward the WSM. However, many of you find your way into the forum as Weber kettle and Weber gas grill owners via search engines and never see or interact with the TVWB website.

I hope this clarifies the situation for some of you.

Finally, I realize that I have been remiss in not offering a forum t-shirt design! That idea popped into my head several months ago and then popped right out again! I will start offering a forum logo design at Cafepress soon.

Regards,
Chris
 
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