Digital life and dying
If something represents the digital age, then it is short-lived. Digital things are fleeting, especially when it comes to the no longer existing Saab car brand. We lost a lot of digital lighthouses this year. At the same time, however, something new is always emerging.
Digital dying
When you talk about a digital Saab lighthouse, I keep thinking of Saabsunited. The international Saab flagship broadcast its last sign of life in January. Then nothing happened, the project seems dead - stopped like some other Saab presences. That too Swedcarforum from Austria didn't make it, unfortunately there was no one who wanted to take over. Dirk Krinelke's Saab Blog in Berlin went out of service in July, and the Youngtimer Blog, a veteran of the scene that always had Saab content, closed its doors in August.
Why is it that private initiatives go offline? One main reason is probably in the spongy formulated DSGVO. As a blogger you always stand with one leg in the pit of the Abmahnanwälte, not everyone does it. Another point is the rising costs that make the hobby of blogging expensive. Many things were free before 6 or 7 years. Except server and domain costs there was not much. This has intensified over the years. Today you pay for security, backup, design and for every little bit of comfort. The licenses cost. Monthly, annually or once. Even with low claims, unfriendly 4-digit amounts are on the bill at the end of the year. That does not produce any hobby budget.
Above all, because counter-financing is becoming increasingly difficult. I observe well-done blog projects, beyond the Saab world, which, despite high-quality content and many visitors, cannot even cover half of their costs. There are marginal issues that are discussed there. Sometimes it's about culture, sometimes about old cars. This is not vital for anyone. But the trend is scary, it is destroying digital diversity. And it seems to be valid worldwide. A few days ago, the market leader WordPress wrote in a newsletter that you should think twice before you take your site offline. Unfamiliar words from a provider who had booked success with the years of growth in their software products.
Digital life
Fortunately, there is a lot of digital life in the Saab scene. When something disappears, something new often arises. Or projects are continued, maintained. A great project is 9-5sc-2012.com from Michèl. It is dedicated to the last vehicles from Trollhättan and a few days ago the production report for the 9-4x and 9-5 NG published.
Behind these unique statistics stands Henrik Zaar and his team, as well as Orio employees, who have been collecting data for months.
With another Saab, Frank and Michael of the 1. German Saab Club, You have created a digital buying guide for the Saab 9000 on Youtube. The parts 1, 2, Und 3, are already online, sequels follow. Very nice: CC and CS discuss the two generations of the first big Saabs.
Saab has a digital life in the niche, the strength of which results from the diversity of the scene. And everyone is invited, can participate. Whether with ours Instagram action, with videos, blogs or even in Facebook groups. The more commitment we show, the more present the brand stays on the web and in everyday life.
What is disappearing is gone, is nonsense!
My children have been raised and cared for in the Saab.
The oldest man drives a Saab 9-5, the first series, as shown in the Saab Museum.
The second, still no driver's license, helps already diligently with the screws.
His Saab is already fixed and he is looking forward to it.
Well, it will.
Nice to hear that (also) your offspring will carry on the SAAB baton ...
But your comment is about analogue life and driving. The article was about digital, the contemporary but crumbling kit of a shrinking and aging community of interest. The statement was not nonsense, I'm afraid.
I would like to read an article by your eldest (reader contribution) here. I was probably about the same age when my dad and I tested the then-brand-new 9-5. I thought it was great, but my father, who after 3 years was looking for an adequate replacement for a 9000 company car, could not beat the rant.
The tirade I find unfair today and believe, even my father has regretted his decision (brand change) in retrospect, would rather have had a 9-5 SC. He also later bought a SAAB as a private vehicle.
But he was disappointed (and angry) at the time that SAAB had softened some of the things he liked so much about the 9000 and clearly set the brand apart from others. He was simply defiant ...
Me too. I am driving a pair of chrome goggles today and looking for what my father had withheld from me. And I think my dad even likes it. He likes my SC and the fact that I drive SAAB.
How does your son experience the 9-5? What are the reasons to prefer this car to countless alternatives?
I honestly hope that's the case. I would be more than happy if the assessment is correct.
In fact, blogs are initially a personal hobby and only work if people are passionate about them. The end of Saabsunited was foreseeable at the latest when “Swade” switched to the only remaining Swedish car manufacturer. I will miss youngtimers (or also Fuelbrothers) - but just like the SaabBlog something should be managed in its own domain and not in a Facebook container landscape where every step and click is recorded. In principle, I find it annoying when I visit a website with an affinity for automobiles on FB and then get littered with unwanted car advertising by the algorithm.
But what makes me really angry is that thanks to the hasty care of our well-respected lawmakers, this once so wonderfully carefree, colorful blog landscape is drying up. Just like that, because you can do it and, as so often, the whole thing primarily only helps the lawyers and corporations that can afford a legal department. Breaking it is easy - but building something, something that lasts and has a quality, that is the art. And that's why I think it's class and worthy of all respect, what you have built up with your colleagues and continue despite all adversities. Sure - what you do is also in the interests of the rights holders of Saab - and Orio. Otherwise they could easily make life very difficult for you - but that's exactly what is missing in the digital Saab world: a well-made blog that takes care of the last generations of Saabs and the current spare parts situation. I hope that you do not lose interest in it for a long time and continue.
Thankfully we have saabblog though… Don't we Otto !!
Very good point. Thumps up! Thankfully we do have saabblog ...
I guess this part of Otto's comment was meant to be conjunctive (If we did not have ...).
FB was once big in the wake of a hysteria that I have not understood until today.
Companies ran full-page ads that they were now on FB instead of promoting their own website. And you got private e-mails that euphorically invited you to join so that you could write to yourself. The mail itself was the best proof that you could do it for a long time ...
I do not understand all this until today.
FB is the most ingenious thing in the world. Users provide free data without limit, but they are showered with advertising. A fantastic business model, and almost everyone participates. But only FB earned.
I already understand the business model. But I don't understand why the world went along with it ...
It suddenly felt like the internet had just been invented. As if its inventor and sole owner were a certain MZ who surely laughed his way to sleep every night. Never before (or since then) has anyone been more successful “pissing on strangers”.
Suddenly everyone believed that she would no longer be present online if not on FB. Suddenly nobody was able to use their digital address book or write an e-mail. All the tools had long been available and they had been practiced. Even today there are still people who create (e-mail) addresses in groups and, with a single click, can send newsletters or invitations for private or business purposes to individual or a large number of intended recipients ...
It works! It still works. And yet statisticians and politics now much prefer to measure the “digital competence” of a population by how high the quota of FB members is than to find out who is still able to do what with hardware and software autonomously ...
The success of FB / MZ remains a mystery to me. I find the only valid explanation humanly disappointing, because it all grew only on the compost of a completely irrational fear of neglect. From private individuals to the head of a PR department, everyone was suddenly united in panic. Either you are with FB, or you are offline and no longer of this world ...
As I said, MZ is guaranteed to laugh its way to sleep every night for many years. And I'm afraid he's absolutely right. To take the Internet (to a large extent) out of the hand of the world community, to pull e-mail traffic away from the world community and to successfully establish oneself as the only relevant highwayman and robber baron worldwide, that is truly ridiculous ...
No highwayman or robber baron has ever succeeded in such a coup. The dimensions are epic ...
If it hadn't happened long ago, but only a vision (for example from an author), nobody would believe that something like this was possible. A book that would be fictitiously about it would be thoroughly torn and panned by every reviewer as illegible or not worth reading ...
Here is the reality of fiction (again) very, very far and in the most wonderful way ahead.
... and "they" were also so "clever" and have, for example, "incorporated" WhatsApp ....
(This way you also get “real contacts” for your own data)… ..
Nice that you and Mark keep the Saab flag still high. What would we be without your information and activities. Much interesting, even older vintage or current information from Trollhättan, where would we get them otherwise. Keep up the good work. Thank you for your commitment.
I don't have a solid opinion about it, but all the more questions ...
A consolidation of the scene and its digital presence (s) would not be sooooo bad at all ...
The SAAB driver scene is small enough, how much competition do you need online? I would prefer to have a single blog (per language area). On the other hand, in this blog (and forum) all forces and information would have to pool ...
Otherwise there is a risk of loss. A loss of competence, specialist knowledge, information, news and thoughts ...
But what if the whole scene ends up in the start-up trap or the warning-Hansel? What if royalties are first introduced for free offers and finally attract? What if blogs become more and more difficult or even impossible with licensing and service fees? What if the Hansel take one after the other Blogger and ultimately all the desire?
That would then have absolutely nothing to do with consolidation. It would be devastating. And it would be terribly sad ...
... for the world and the internet as a whole. SAAB would be just one of the countless topics that would be sacrificed as a result!
So hopefully it will not come like that?
I think the fundamental question could be who would start a project called “Saab” today. The target group is as small as a small German town, so hardly measurable. In addition, around a third of Saab drivers are no longer that young. Under these circumstances, hardly anyone would set up a large, long-term project. And there lies the problem: what disappears now is gone. Nothing will follow, and that makes the development worrying.
Good question of principle. A restart from scratch? Almost unthinkable ...
So much the better that there's a sophisticated SAAB blog that appeals to even the biggest enthusiasts in the scene and encourages them to comment. So here was just to read that one keeps a preserved new car in reserve. Incredible! That is unbelievably good.
Quite a few readers own more than one SAAB and / or have many years of experience with various models of the brand. Some comments come very close to an article. Many are at least halfway there and suggest a lot of background knowledge and plenty of experience. What they all have in common is that there are no pictures. Logical, because they are “only” comments.
Lots of potential for readers and a lot of topics. Are we lazy readers?
Dear Tom. It is always a pleasure to read your reports. For me personally, Saab's digital presence is essential to keep the spirit of the brand and the Saab community alive. I have no idea what the legal situation is. But would be willing to pay a membership fee so that your blog accompanies me as long as my Saabs ......
Greeting.
Report from the “west” ibz the Netherlands, my (Saab) generation learned German at school. I use this when reading your (our!) Blog. Even when I bought it, I bring my few € 's to the blog.
Stay Saab drive, stay bare.
Pieter Aandewiel
Almere
A colleague also wrote a small, regional blog. After he was warned he had no desire. I can understand it.