RVillage is (was) … our village!
Note: The information on this page was current and accurate, to the best of our knowledge, as of 10 May 2014. RVillage was eventually sold and then discontinued. We were big, early supporters of the project and were sorry to see it go, but go it did. We have left some of the information here as a reminder to what once was.
RVillage is … Our Village
On Wednesday, March 12, 2014 a new website was publicly unveiled named RVillage (http://www.rvillage.com). RVillage was a social networking site conceived and designed to help create real community among RVers, especially those who are using their rigs on a full-time, extended-time, or seasonal basis and are very mobile. Membership was free.
At its heart, RVillage did several things that we have never seen anywhere else, or at least not in a way that is so specific to the needs of RVers:
- PARK “CHECK-IN” which let other RVillagers know where you were.
- MESSAGING. The messaging feature allowed you to send messages to other members, such as people who might be checked-in to the same RV park as you.
- GROUPs/FORUMs. Ahhh, groups. RVillage allowed members to create and join groups based on shared interests. Groups could have forums, and most groups had this feature enabled.
- MAPPING. This was the Big Kahuna! When you were traveling from here to there, you might wonder if there were any other members of one or more of your RVillage groups convenient to your planned route? Selecting one of your groups in the EXPLORE tab allowed you to see the location of every member displayed on a map.
- GET-TOGETHERS. Were you staying in a campground, RV park, state or national park or forest, on BLM land, or any other location where there are other RVillage members? Want to schedule a pot luck dinner, happy hour at your rig, or outing to a local restaurant? How about a group hike or bike ride? Create a “get-together,” invite your fellow RVillagers (old and new), and let the RSVPs roll in.
- LOCATION-CENTRIC SERVICES. You may be wondering how RVillage could do all this and have membership be free? To cover the costs, RVillage signed up businesses that provide services of interest to RVers to advertise on the website. Nothing novel about that, except that the advertising was available to members by location and category. “By location” means you could view businesses in the area where you were checked in.