I was wondering how V8Buick got started/by whom/when/why/? Just curious to know :TU: slow day at work :laugh:
The hip spot used to be the GSCA board but when the powers that be over there let the power run to their head and decided to make it a FOR PROFIT board Jim W. set this board up for all of us to go too. This is run on a donation basis only and it is now the TOP BUICK SPOT on the NET!!!!:TU:
Are there any other BUICK spots on the net?:bglasses: (With apologies to Buickstreet, Smartins Buick Parts Directory and a couple of others.:TU
This is our chapter web site that got started about 3 months ago. I thank Teri Reidy for her hard work on this! Go to featured cars and look for mine at "Jimmy's 70 GS". This is what I bought after I sold the green car that is still my avatar. http://hometown.aol.com/johreidy/carolinaschapter.html
The gsca didn't let the power go out, they decided that only members of the gsca could use the board. The gsca board was very active and fun to use. Then, as previously stated, someone decided to make a little money, or at least thought they could. The powers that be would not let you post or fully use the board unless you joined their club. Morons. Master Jim filled the vacuum and very well I might add. Bigger, better mousetrap. He is also an honest man, which a scarce commodity these days. The tough thing for the gsca was, that the dissatifaction with the board ignited a firestorm of discontent within its ranks, thereby giving life to the Buick Performance Group. Join it. I first joined the gsca in 1986, but no longer. BPG, join it and you won't look back.
It the same story since they days of the 300 baud dialup: BBS gets members, BBS Goes Pay, BBS Loses Members, Free BBS takes Members. The moral of the story: Never Let a BBS Go Pay/Members Only/Restricted. Instant Death.
:laugh: :laugh: That's funny Ken.. never seen that pic before. I think we are well past the "can of worms" now.. The founding of this site is pretty simple. The other board everyone was on, went up and down like a yo-yo in the last month or so everyone was there, and all the info was lost a couple times. There were rumors of making it for 'members only" and all that kinda stuff. I was sitting there one day, looking at a "site cannot be found" screen, and just casually asked my buddy, and computer guy Mike Bucy.. what would it take to start one of these deals. He thought it was no biggy, so we contacted V-bulletin, and I swallowed hard, and bought the rights to the program, and the equipment to run the very first version of the site. That was Feb 02... it took some time for us to get everything to work right, and we set it up to run right out of Mike's house, on a DSL line. A big thanks goes to Ron Mellum, a local resident and internet expert, who got a couple issues straightened out for us on a Sunday afternoon. We put that whole deal together in about 3 days, with Mike up way late on a Friday night building the sever, and me up way late on a Saturday night setting up all the forums. Got it running on Super bowl Sunday, 02, about 5 pm. We figured that we might have a couple hundred members by the end of the year... and we were a couple thousand short on that guess.. There have been a few twists and turns since then, mostly due to the size of the board, and how many folks really took the ball and ran with it, posting all kinds of info on questions asked. You can put a board up, but it is really the participation from all of you guys that makes it work. And we came along at just the right time. Right now, we are averaging about 100 gig a month, and the board is hosted by an outside provider, with a T-1 line. The board grew so fast, we first built a newer server, but the usage charges for the line from Mike's house were killing us.. I recall paying well over $400 per month for a while there.. And as the board grows, we occasionally continue to have to update and improve upon it, and to keep pace with our provider, to get the right packages in place, to keep the board up all the time, and stable. We have never lost any data due to equipment failure, or software issues. We will be updating the board once again here shortly, adding all kinds of new features, and possibly may have to move to a new host once again. We had some recent issues with the current guys, but they have come around nicely lately, but are still on "probation" with me. I would be remiss not to thank all the users of this board, who have so generously donated the funds to keep it up, and allow us to do "whatever it takes" to make sure it stays stable, and we don't lose any info on here, which is priceless. I never required anyone to give me a dime to do this, and often stated that if I had to take money out of my own pocket to run it, that would happen. The Buick community has been great to work with, and we have had very few administrative problems with members. Being Buick guys, the core group of members that really got the ball rolling here decided a long time ago, that we were going to run a "clean board". Right now, with 3944 registered users, 30,000 threads, and nearly a quarter million posts, the conduct of the folks on this board does the community proud! I think I only have had to kick one or two users off the board, due to them determining that they were going to do nothing but cause trouble. The actual number of members is less than the registered shows, because folks forget passwords and user names, and sign up again. So, when we update the board here shortly, we will search the database, and those registered user names that have not visited the site in over a year, will be deleted, to open those user names up, and make the count more realistic. I just checked the admin console, and for the 24 hour period from 3pm Central time, we had 496 Registerd users log on the board. That means, when you click on "www.v8buick.com" and the screen comes up, and remembers your user name, it counts that once.. no matter how may times you are on it a day. That number has steadily grown since the board was founded. And that does not include the guests, that just view the board, so the actual number of individuals on the board on any one given day, is prolly closer to 8 or 900.. just guessing.. The board has been a great thing for everyone, in getting folks to communicate with each other, finding parts, selling parts, and bringing the community closer together. Like any Family, we certainly do have some folks that don't like others, but the decorum of the board has been followed typically, and we have for the most part, been able to keep away from the situations where one guy is bashing another, which is so common on these boards. Occasionally, we have to moderate topics, but that is not the norm.. which speaks volumes about you guys, and the Buick Community in general. I look forward to loggin on from my retirement home, and since I make a living working on these cars, that won't be anytime soon.. it is a tough buisness, no doubt. Lots more ways for things to go wrong, than for them to go right. But honesty has kept me in business, even when the truth hurts. Thanks again, and keep up the good work! JW
Where do I send a donation? I've been active on the board for some time now. I have learned a ton about Buicks, met many new friends on line and in person (even one across the continent), bought cars, parts and sent parts to members. So it's time I gave something back. To whom and where do I send a donation to support the board? Thanks Harvey
Contribution info should be in this thread: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11952 Paypal to: jim@trishieldperf.com :TU: :TU: :TU:
