What happened to FRRAX ? Options

[GNC Rick]

To whom it may concern,

I've been a member of this site off and on for more than 10 years. I've been dealing with some personal problems as of late, like the last 2 years lol. Anyway, I can't believe the lack of interest , member involvement and general lack of activity or traffic on this site. Where did everyone go ? Is there another forum I don't know about. I'm greatly disappointed by this development and if anyone can shed some light on the subject, I would appreciate it. Thanks...

[SuperMacGuy]

I'd like to know too.... I'm a daily visitor; but of course I don't have questions or answers that often.

[JimMueller]

I think it's part of the natural course of things. For the regulars, people's lives and interests change. Many of the regulars from when I first joined have seemed to disappear... Nape, Jon, Sean, Sam, Randy, and Mitch come to mind, and a certain mouse of ill repute. For me, most of my car is now built except for gremlins due to age, so I have less questions to ask but I do try to catch up at least once a week. I wish it would be easier for me to travel to meet the remaining regulars before we thin out even further.

Those just getting into the car scene are more likely to look for support on social media resources such as Facebook than traditional web forums, just like people migrated from dial-up BBS's, Fidonet, and Gopher to the internet to look for information. I personally despise the social media groups as the same crap gets regurgitated over and over... there isn't a history or a search engine.

Off the top of my head I only know one person here who has a Camaro newer than a 2002, and I don't know what specific value this forum would offer to owners of the later platforms. The forum isn't really advertised, and I understand there are extra steps to become a member due to prior challenges. As such, membership still has its privileges. I will still dig through threads from the early 2000's looking for information posted by JonA, for example.

[slowTA]

There are definitely people autocrossing and tracking the 5 and 6th gens. Opening up this forum to them will bring in some more traffic. But will that traffic keep this forum going... or make it too much work for the admins... who knows?

[Rentedmule]

I'm here every day and race my 4th gen regularly. I just have little new knowledge to add so I rarely post unless the search button fails me.

[mikedamageinc]

I try to stay active. I'm not one of the og's but been here for a while. Still a lot to learn so unless a newbie comes in I don't have any info that most others couldn't answer. Don't race either but hpde junkie. I wish there were people around but I think most moved on to other platforms or just out of the business. I've run into one guy driving an early 4th gen at the track that I pointed to the site, not sure if he made it. A couple of guys I've met were CMC or AX and never heard of the site which seems odd that they went pretty far in a 4th gen somewhere else.

Seems like ls1tech is getting busier on the road race section and I've seen few times people saying it is basically impossible to join here.

This post has been edited by mikedamageinc: May 25 2019, 07:47 PM

[trackbird]

I can usually tell when we pop up on the other forums, I'll get a ton of emails asking for accounts (and I'm good with that, it's not a complaint). We had issues with spammers and one guy who managed to hack the site years ago. Thus the issues with registrations and doing it the manual way. I haven't upgraded the board for a while and I should likely move to the latest software and see if I can find a way to approve accounts again so that we can automate things to allow people to join.

I can open up registration and try to go back to manually approving them, but we had a dozen pages per day of "junk" registrations. It was almost impossible to dig through them and sort out the good ones.

This board has been fun over the years and I've really enjoyed every minute of it. I never really found a way to make any money with it (not that it was the main goal, but I wouldn't have argued if it managed to make some money too) and I've mostly gone to just running it out of pocket to keep it online. We have a database of what is likely among the best information for racing third and fourth gen cars anywhere on the web. But the interest in the platforms seems to be dropping. I've noticed that there are so many of these cars being parted out on facebook that there won't be any left in a few years. I hate that they are worth far more in parts than they are as actual cars. Guys are actively buying $4,000 Z28's with 100k+ miles on them and stripping them, selling the engine, trans, rear, all the interior parts they can and then selling the shell for $800 to some racer or just scrapping them.

I built a house last year and I've been pretty busy. I don't manage to check in here as often as I should. I was typically around all day as I could drop in pretty regularly. I'm not really able to do that these days and I am also far less active than I have been in the past. I've considered selling the board, but I don't think I want to turn it over to anybody and I don't know that it's worth the risk of losing the information here in case someone wants to turn it into a drag racing board. I've also toyed with buying a 6th gen car and working up some tech on those as I learn to make it work. I tried growing a Corvette section and that never really got legs. Maybe we're too small and too "weird" to ever become an LS1 tech or similar. But I've always liked the "small town" feel of this board. Many of the regulars have moved on, retired from racing or just retired. I haven't run an autocross in years. I have taken a few ride alongs and I've helped some guys with car issues and setup problems through email and private messages. I can still make these cars fast, but the recipe is pretty widely known these days. And I am scheduled to go to the UMI event this summer and dust off the cobwebs. I don't know if I can remember how to drive one of these cars in anger, but it seems like a great place to find out. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I'm open to ideas and suggestions if anybody has any. I certainly like our little corner of the world and I'd be happy to share it with more members if we can find out how to get them here.

[GCrites80s]

I hate the way information is doled out on Facebook. Forums are browseable like libraries whereas Facebook group information comes at you like people throwing candy out to kids from a parade float. I have no idea why people prefer that.

[KeithO]

I still visit daily.

The strength of this site has always been it is heavy on tech and light on BS. Over time, this means that it is more of a database of knowledge than an active thing because the number for 4th gens on the track is shrinking and the knowledge database is already large.

It's funny this post showed up recently -

I will likely be selling my +200,000 mile 4th gen Z28 this week and sometime in the coming weeks will be buying a 6th gen 1LE. To track and run time trials. I will still come here but I have been also reading the posts at Camaro6.com under the Road Race/Autox section (or whatever it is called over there).

[mikedamageinc]

Kevin, you could set up a donate link or something. I'd like to send you some change at least when I clean out the couch cushions 😁 Seriously though with all this site has helped me I would definitely like to contribute.

It is sad all the people that are scraping these cars for the drivetrain. It's like why ls swap whatever car when this one already has an ls! That was actually my reasoning for not ls swapping my Land Cruiser. I got a Yukon with 6.2 and said the heck with all that work, I already have a great platform, though maybe without the bullet proof drive line.

LS1tech is great for general info and repairs but no where close to the I fo on here. And now if anyone over there want handling, the answer is just buy all the suspension stuff being sold. Also Facebook is crap for tech. What oil, which tires, and what's your mpg is the new set of questions every single day. Maybe a 5th and 6th gen section to keep things going? I know the Vette section didn't take off. I just hope this site stays, so much good info and doesn't get lost in a sea of gratuitous questions, vendor hype, etc

[trackbird]

I opened up registrations last night and set it to require my manual approval. The registration email says to email me for access. I had one person do that already today. I’ll see how this goes and hope it helps. Tell the guys in ls1tech that registration is open. 😉

[Mojave]

I don't think there is anything wrong with this site in particular, all forums are dying. Kids these days don't use forums, they use social media. I hate social media for technical knowledge, as it can't be searched and is only what have you done for me lately (as in the last 15 mins).

Big thanks to Kevin for keeping the site going. If someone figures out the secret to getting the young whipper snappers off of Facebook/Instagram and onto forums again, I'd love to hear it.

[CrashTestDummy]

As you can tell, I'm here pretty much every day, and find the signal-to-noise ratio to be about the lowest of any other board I'm on. I have ventured to the 3rd Gen and LS1tech forums for information and to ask questions I've usually already asked here, but again, the on-topic responses have been best here.

The other annoying thing is that the other forums owned by multi-national media conglomerates (and doing all they can do to hide that fact) are so loaded with pop-ups, slide-ins and in-thread ads that pages frequently take minutes to load for us out here in the sticks.

We're still pretty active here, since we still own 3rd Gens. We'll probably have the Firebird until we're too old to drive, or made single due to age/sickness, and we'll probably be leaving the B4C in our estate.

It would be interesting to see what the 5th and 6th Gen pony car guys are doing to their cars for tracking, but I'll bet most of them are on the generation-appropriate forum, if at all. Not sure what the tech there is like.

We're not on faceplant or the twitiotsphere, or any of the other apparent 'social' things. Just not a format that is of any interest, and the apparent free-flow of our interest to 3rd parties from those things is not something we're willing to participate in.

Thank you, Kevin, for keeping this thing going. We'll be happy to donate to the cause. I think we have before, but don't remember. We do periodically send donations to other not-for-profit forums, we can add this one to our list.

This post has been edited by CrashTestDummy: May 27 2019, 12:50 PM

[trackbird]

I plan to keep the doors open and the lights on for a very long time. With all of the HUGE forums out there, I always wondered why I failed at growing this one. Though my goal was never to grow it for the sake of growth. It was about keeping good information and a high signal to noise ratio and we have succeeded at that. I've been manually building accounts for the last 8-10 years (or longer) and that might be what slowed things down more than I ever realized. But it's also been part of the path to our current state of things. I'd love to see the board more active, but not at the expense of tech or dealing with drama and BS. We had some fights in the early days where I wound up on the phone with guys trying to get things calmed down....I don't miss those days at all.

And I did the "build and price" on a 6th gen 1LE car last night. I've considered one from time to time and wondered if I might want to buy one as my next vehicle. Though I don't want to get rid of the current convertible and I'm about out of space (we didn't manage to get a 3 car garage in the new house, though I don't know that we'll be here too long).

[CrashTestDummy]

<SNIP>
And I did the "build and price" on a 6th gen 1LE car last night. I've considered one from time to time and wondered if I might want to buy one as my next vehicle. Though I don't want to get rid of the current convertible and I'm about out of space (we didn't manage to get a 3 car garage in the new house, though I don't know that we'll be here too long).

Then why did you move?? (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

We got our current place because of the dogs. Oh, and there was space in the back of the property for a shop. We BOTH recognized that when we first viewed the house. Most of the house is still stuck in the mid-70's, but it's fine for us. Some day, harvest gold linoleum countertops will be 'in' again!! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rotf.gif)

[slowTA]

To take this way off topic... I moved 2 years ago to a place with a smaller garage but room to build this!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1qKoX8xTF5b9thVNA

[jensend]

I check the site daily, but rarely post as my car is currently inoperable awaiitng electrical repairs. Obviously, that means no track time as well. I try to stay informed while getting the car usable again. Appreciate all the efforts of the folks on this site.

[SuperMacGuy]

This site is my #1 go to for real answers from knowledgeable people. Even if sometimes the question has been asked years ago.

@trackbird I'd donate again to help keep it running. Let me know a link.

If for some reason it would ever be shut down, I'd really want to be able to d/l the database to keep on my own HD, if that kind of thing was possible.

[trackbird]

<SNIP>
And I did the "build and price" on a 6th gen 1LE car last night. I've considered one from time to time and wondered if I might want to buy one as my next vehicle. Though I don't want to get rid of the current convertible and I'm about out of space (we didn't manage to get a 3 car garage in the new house, though I don't know that we'll be here too long).

Then why did you move?? (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

We looked at houses for two years and we kept getting outbid. We finally gave up and built a new place. We saw one of these houses in this neighborhood sell for $36k more than they paid two years before (and they did nothing to it)...so, we built one. We aren't sure how long we will stay, though after moving...we may not want to do that again soon. lol. We almost went to see a house last week, but it was a fixer upper on 15 acres...and it looked like a LOT of work. We will finish this one up and see what we decide to do next.

This site is my #1 go to for real answers from knowledgeable people. Even if sometimes the question has been asked years ago.

@trackbird I'd donate again to help keep it running. Let me know a link.

If for some reason it would ever be shut down, I'd really want to be able to d/l the database to keep on my own HD, if that kind of thing was possible.

I never set up a link. I mostly sold decals for a little extra income to support the site.

[GCrites80s]

There's another 3rd Gen a few houses down the street from me but they don't seem to be AX/RR inclined and the cops keep showing to their house so I haven't told them about the site.