[Chevelle-list] Ancient History

[Mitch Barrie]

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