At 04:10 AM 2/3/2007, Trooper wrote:
Now that Mitch has drawn all you guys and gals out of the woodwork
(I myself am a long time member that usually lurks in the
background) lets hear some chatter
If that's allowed, okay.
First, my Chevelles. Well, just the El Camino for now, here's a few
photos on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonov/367544491/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonov/367544608/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonov/368997353/
That's how it looked before I tore it down. I'll have some more up
to date pics of it on Flickr before too long.
Now I thought I'd tell a little story of how the List got started,
for the noobies here who weren't around in the beginning.
Well, after I bought my El Camino in spring of 1996, I immediately
started working on it. The first thing I did was upgrade the
suspension. Problem was that back in those days there were no "how
to" instructions anywhere for these kinds of jobs. I had the Motors
Manual and the 1966 Factory Manual, but nothing that really took you
from start to finish (later I noticed the aftermarket kits started
coming with instructions, and of course there's a lot more
information on the Internet now, but back then you were on your
own). I was a computer networking guy, not a motorhead.
Well, I tackled some jobs myself and later published write-ups online
to help the next people to come along (they are gone at the moment,
but I'll be putting them up again in the next few months). But I
needed a place to go where I could ask questions and trade
information. One of my first Internet experiences was joining a
mailing list about pet rats, which you will understand is a pretty
esoteric subject. So I decided to start a malling list for Chevelles.
The first thing I did was buy a new e-mail account at Best.com, one
of the top ISPs in those days. They offered a Majordomo list
service. Then I did something that would be highly frowned upon
today, but those were more innocent times. Even then I had a few
complaints. What I did was I found a few classic car sites where
people were selling Chevelles (there were no forums in those days,
just want ads). I copied all the e-mail addresses I found in the
Chevelle ads, and added them to the new Chevelle List. Then I sent
the first non-test message to the list, inviting everyone to join.
That's right, Spam!
I immediately deleted everyone from the List, letting anyone who
wanted to join to do so on their own accord. People started
subscribing almost instantly.
As I said, I got a few complaints about the Spam (I was young!), but
the biggest complaint was from a guy who was planning to start his
own list, and was very upset that I had beat him to it. I told him I
didn't care who had the list, I just wanted a place where I could ask
questions about Chevelles. But he didn't like how I had structured
the List, that there were no moderators. He wanted to be some kind
of List Nazi, telling everyone what they could talk about. I wasn't
interested in that at all, so I invited him to start his own list for
Chevelle-owning Fascists, but that my freewheeling Chevelle List would live on.
I learned a lot from the List, and I was soon in a position to offer
advice of my own. We had a few hitches along the way. At one point
Best.com either deleted my account or the List or something, I forget
what, and it had to be migrated to a new account. Soon after the
List appeared Chevelles.com was set up, and as my travel schedule was
getting crazy I handed the List over to them to manage. Then in 1999
I moved out of the country again, and unsubscribed from the List altogether.
The Internet is an amazing thing. No one made any money from the
List, and it didn't cost much to set up and maintain. If the guys at
Chevelles.com are making money now, they didn't plan to when they
first set it up. These are just services provide by Chevelle lovers
to help other Chevelle lovers love their Chevelles.
I've been on a number of lists over the years. The Chevelle List was
the most polite of them, the one with the fewest conflicts. I recall
there was only one fight where I stepped in and made some vague
warning (I don't recall what I threatened to do), and everything
settled down. We lost one guy, a real friendly and enthusiastic guy
in New Jersey, who I think was upset because of some remarks someone
else made about him. I said I'd hated to see him go, but it was his
own decision. I didn't want to be anyone's mom. But overall it was
always a very friendly place.
I also made some real friends from the List. For example, my wife
and I often camp out together at the SCTA trials with Frank's
family. I met Frank through the List. And I recall how sad we all
were when a valuable and beloved List contributor succumbed to cancer
in the late nineties.
Anyway, I look forward to getting my cars running. My new company is
Mesa Tactical, http://www.mesatactical.com/ .
As for the weather: I am typing this in my office, which is two miles
from my house. I walked here this morning through warm morning
sunshine. In a few minutes I will walk three miles to the gun show
at the fairgrounds. Ah, California!
Mitch
