Houston wrote:It's unfortunate
I guess I understand why, but I do miss some of the old days and folks. When I joined, there was this air of discovery, as it was still a new model and there were a lot of things to be figured out. Sometimes it seemed like people would compete to be the first to discover something, or to reply to a question. ragingfish was a great one for that, that guy was fearless. Someone would ask a question, and he'd go disassemble his car to figure it out and post back with pictures and a detailed procedure. It was contagious. I know some of the things I figured out about these cars was driven by the explorer atmosphere here.
There used to be a lot more threads about mods, performance enhancements. I don't know if its because those things have already been run to ground, or if its that the people that still have Vibes are more interested in keeping them running than in getting them to run faster.
I used to have some really heated discussions with Stang2Vibe in the political asylum, I think we were both cautioned by moderators multiple times. The Iraq war was severely polarizing. The asylum is really quiet these days, even with the constant flood of news controversies.
Used to have some hyper active posters here, Hope/trdvibe/AKLGT seemed like she was on here 24/7 silverawd24, while he was here, was always here. When NovaResource posted anything technical, I trusted it completely, for some reason.
This site was responsible for two marriages that I know of. We used to have periodic other drama also, every know and then someone would melt down
I used to spend a lot (way too much) time here. A lot of the folks that I felt really close to don't show up anymore, and after over a decade, some of the thrill is gone. I still really like the car, but had a number of expensive equipment failures, and it takes the edge off the excitement. Still, after so many years, I don't know what it would be like to not have a Vibe. It's comfortable to know a lot about your car. I stopped keeping track of mpgs, it is whatever it is. I've probably changed oil in a Vibe/Matrix over a hundred times
A while back I bought a 68 Firebird convertible. Probably a mid life crisis that I guess I got over. It needed more work than I was willing to put into it, lots of rust(floor pans, fenders, trunk, hood, pretty much all the body needed work), and there was an issue with the title. Sold it for a loss just to get it out of the yard. I remember the glorious sound of that motor. But I realized that I either had to lay way back in the seat of the top of the windshield was below eye level, and I miss things like electronic ignition, fuel injection, shoulder belts, air bags, FM, etc. Still, the sound of that motor was nice. All I have left from it is a bird emblem.
I still wave at other Vibers. There's a Salsa Vibe I often see while commuting, she's going where I'm coming from, She even started to wave back, which was satisfying. If I see another Vibe in a parking lot I still feel like leaving them a genvibe invite, but I never do.
I still think this is a good and friendly car forum. Bad behavior isn't really tolerated, and folks seem to be nice to new members or members who ask questions that are very basic, of have been asked and answered a thousand times before.
For ten years, there's been a genvibe chat room, and at first it was really active, then it was active sometimes, then there was a period where some tried in vain to drum up interest for it, and now it's likely forgotten. There's a genvibe facebook group, but I am a facebook holdout and don't know what its like, but I expect some of the dialog among genvibers happens there instead of int he forums. Its a competitor to a forum, a different paradigm for users with shared interests to communicate, likley more convenient for those that use facebook for other social things. The forum is still the information archive though, the historical encyclopedia of Vibe lore.
Anyway, I still have a VIbe, and I'll still be coming here at last as long as I have it, with no plans to go vibeless anytime.
(how was that for a counter ramble?)