To all visitors of Voltalk: 

You might ask yourself why you should visit or join VolTalk, and the answer is simple: our goal here at VolTalk is to give the users the best experience that they can have online. The truth is we want you to be at home here. Here at VolTalk the members come first and nothing else matters because without the fuel that the user provides, the fire dies. We hope to have an everlasting fire here and to make our members feel that they are a part of something, and not just a stat on a site meter. As we grow this site will grow and more content will be available. So, with your help (because thats the only way it will ever get accomplished) let's set a goal of making VolTalk a site everyone, especially you the member, can be proud of.

Ask yourself:

What do you want from your Vol site? Is it a chance to view content and not worry about what's loading on your computer when you do? Visit another Vols site sometime, and count the cookies that site tries to place on your computer - you will probably be amazed. These cookies have but one major function - to track your behavior on the internet and provide marketing information to the site owners and sponsors, so that they may sell you things. It's everyone's right to enjoy their privacy online, and we acknowledge that fact here. Your time online should be a fun event, something that you look forward to when you come home from work, school, or whatever moves you forward during your day. We feel your time online can be both enjoyable and productive, but it's becoming a sell-out to those who want to thrive off of the weak, the misinformed, or the unaware. It's been like this for some time now, and it's probably going to get worse before it gets better.

It's a well-known fact that money dictates all. Those who have it thrive, those that don't suffer. We think that's a poor way to run a fan site. This brings us to the question: why should you have to pay for solid content? In the current environment, there are Vol sites that either offer pay-for-view content (which should be against all fan site rules) or you have sites that are member boards with content that's strictly up to the owner to decide what's there, who views it, and who doesn't. The last category of site is the kind that doesn't ask for money up front, or ply you with hooks to buy merchandise, but instead sells marketing information in order to pay their costs. To us, this is the most insidious type of pay-for-content, since most folks don't realize they are surrendering information on their browsing habits in exchange for viewing content that presents itself as "free."

As for us at VolTalk, we are fans plain and simple. It doesn't really matter who we are, but some of us are alumni, corporate sponsors, VIP's, and just plain common folk. We are all here together, to have fun, talk about our favorite team, and enjoy the fellowship that fandom can bring. At VolTalk, we feel that as fans we have a right to view solid team content, for free and with no strings attached. You can be sure that the admins here will do our best to keep the site simple, to the point, and free. While at other fan sites you are either bogged down by ads and banners, or deluged with cookies, or both, that's because when you visit there it's a business-type atmosphere that thrives on the goodwill of fans in order to make money.

Don't get us wrong: bandwidth does cost money. The more popular a site becomes, the more bandwidth it consumes, and the price of maintaining it goes up. While most sites have responded to this phenomenon by going to pay-for-content, at VolTalk we pledge to resist this model so that you, the fan, can enjoy your experience here without encumbrance. It's our gift to you, because you add so much to the Vol experience by being fans and supporting the team. It's our gift to the Mighty Vols, for enriching our lives with the pageantry of sport. It's our gift to ourselves, so that we can continue to enjoy the priceless fellowship we've found in Vol fans everywhere.

It's the Spirit of a Volunteer. Please enjoy your time visiting our site.

Thanks,

Rob