OK

What brought us all to the forum??

Dig deep

Where are you all now?

Happy?

Beyond your dreams?

Lost something along the way?

Trying to find a balance?

I'm sounding like some a religious evangelical ad

Wanted something simple like keeping a sweet old beetle on the road and loving it, to worrying if it stands the scrutiny of a show.

Just wanting to sit inside the carpark to compare along side of others.

Where are you all sitting now?

Hope this isn't too heavy an issue

I'm at a threashold me thinks

Mind you, I love to cruise:thumb:sandrine

And I love the friends I've made here

All answeres are ligitimate and should be totally respected

ok this is a little brutal, but the reason that i first came here was that a friend was getting involved in a bitch fight and i was planning to jump in. that is why i used a handle not my name. (btw i didn't actually get involved)
after that i started checking the classifieds regularly... it just grew from there, i started wondering what under all of the other headings..... etc. now i visit here nearly every day (well normally several times a day).
when i first started visiting here i visited a us based forum every day (and had been on and off for over 3 years), now i only check what is happening there occasionally.
this place seems to have more of a community feel to it, plus there is something more to it that i can't explain.

hmmm this is really a bit of a soppy story isn't it. doesn't it make you feel all warm inside. hehe.

the only problem with places like this are that they can suck all of time so you (well certainly me) don't actually get much done the my car.

henry.

ps is this the stuff you wanted to know, or should i delete it before too many learn my horrid secrets.

[Edited on 13-5-2003 by whatnow]

Well I'm still only a youngun' at this but I came to aussieveedubbers because i wanted to put the old vw's to good use. i figured that i could learn about other ones and maybe get some club days or racing happening. I've found it very helpful and informative, and i plan to stay here as long as the site continues to run. Keep up the good work guys. We all appreciate it.

Zac
P.S :beer:beerhave a few on me:beer:beer

Love it

Continue

Makes mine pale insignificance

Love my Bel and now my Dr L, my whole reason:sandrine

Plus all my friends I've made:kiss

Night all. Lots of reassessing

OK who has a Vic VW Club sticker on a 'dark blue 60's beetle and parks at East Ringwood Station

2 kombi's, a beetle, the red golf annd Dr L today all parked at the statio0n

Always spotting:bounce

[Edited on 13-5-2003 by jenz58]

I got referred to the site.
Then found I knew a couple of people on it!

I am getting in trouble for being on the Internet too much.

Fleur is angry and she has just come home from Kickboxing. Heeeeeeeeeeeeelp Meeeeeeeeee

here to pick brains and to learn from other's mistakes!, most of all to get awesome ideas and motivate myself. Now, back to me bugs and brew

Hey Jenz Did you get a type 3 a few months ago?
empi

Mabey it's because it's the best.

I enjoy reading the general chat, members rides and occasionally the tech and Buy, Swap and Sell. I post Pics I find now and then and generally loke to read what everyone else is up to.

I especially like to be able to put faces to the names. I have made some good friends through this forum and that is before I even met them. I don't know many other forums but somehow I think having Volkswagen in common somehow that makes us already fairly accepting of others.

Not many Vdubs out ont he fringes of the wild west so this somehow makes up for not being in a regular club and friday night drinks with the boys. I look forward to camping trips and go to the shows to meet the people and admire the cars.

The forum has been through its fair share of growing pains. It went through a sort of teenager growth spurt a while ago and I didn't like so many changes at once but now I think it has become stronger for it and those who didn't have anything positive to contribute have moved on.

Keep posting Veedubbers - share with each other, meet with each other and more importantly - laugh with each other. Preferably with beer (or port).

:bounce Post on :bounce

I got my New Beetle after a few years of non-VW ownership, and I wanted to go for drives. I had joined the BeetleBuzz (also located at ezboard at the time). Once out of curiosity, looked around on ezboard and found the old AussieVeeDubbers. Did my first cruise to Marysville in 2001.

Been here ever since.

Andrew

i actually came here to go back to the source,when i was back home in europe,i madly wanted to buy a beetle,but then when i got here in australia (5 years ago)i got corrupted and i bought a few modified imported jap cars,until last year when i got rid of my last jap car,i think that i am getting older as a fact and i do appreciate the culture and origines of the traditional driving and mechanic.....does this makes sense, it does to me anyway,i think that my spirit is more pure now and mature enough to understand the fundamental understanding of being a car enthousiastic and not a hoon....i haven't been on this forum for long but trust me i do intend to be here for quite a while,i haven't bought a vw yet ,as i am still looking but as soon as i will buy one i will post some pics in the members ride section so i will feel a bit more part of the familly......

Constant emails from a guy named Gow.

'Come check out my forum.......'

I think there was 11 of us back then.
Things have changed........

have they changed for the better??? i came here cause it's VW people talkin Vw stuff. Great!!!! No holden or the other one bullshit. Oh! except to try and sell some of it Eh!! enjoy life, cheers, fish. :bounce :bounce :bounce :thumb

I came here to learn, & found far more, & I think there are a number of people who don't realise just how good this forum is, probably because they have nothing else to really compare it with. The general acceptance of all VWs whether modified to any extent or not- & the openmindedness to accept that some people may have something besides a VW & that is OK
People learning thru discussion & then in turn being able to help others
New friends all around Australia
The opportunity to share your disaster with others who will support & empathise with you
A warm feeling that you are not alone
The rejoicing of the fact that some other people have a weird sense of Humour as well

[Edited on 13-5-2003 by kombikim]

Saw the light on thought I'd drop in!
No seriously, I have been around VW's all my life, and was affected by the aura that surounded the people that owned these unconventional vehicals at a very early age, after I was born, I came home from the hospital in a 53 Beettle, and all my kids (3) have had there first journey out side in the real world, in a VW, 2 in a 65 bug and the youngest in the Kombi, hopefully they will continue the family VW history and make it three generations of my family, who have owned Volkswagen's.
What other car, available to the average person, has engendered the genuine love and affection of their owners, like the Beetle and other VW's has, it never fails to amaze me, the bringing together of people who have come from completely different upbrinings and social status, that become equals on fourms like this, and general gatherings (club runs, shows ect) waving to each other on the highway's, and stopping to lend a hand, if you have the missfortune to breakdown!
This forum is proof positive of the comradery, and solidarity of VW people, willing to give their advice free, to help others rebuild, and keep their VW's on the road, THIS, is the reason I am here!
These are just a few of the reasons I will always have a Volkswagen, and will be damn proud of it!
Rob & Family.

[Edited on 13-5-2003 by Robo]

Hey, it was good to see some faces to names at the Nationals

Agreed we do have a good mix of humour and serious stuff.

It is our love of Vee Dubbs that brings us here and the want to keep them on the road, sharing it all with like minded people

Empi, I got Dr L my '70 Type 3 Squareback. Love him:kiss

Bel is having generator probs at the moment looks like getting one good one made up from the 3 we've tried to put into her. The trials and tribulations of a 36hp:sandrine

i stumbled across it by acident when we were still a couple of hundred members, looking for a place for some help, advice, maybe some parts too and came across an awesome open community with a great common goal

Hi i'm Boozer and i'm a VW addict. Yes it's true and that's why i'm here because i'm totally addicted to bugs! I actually found this forum, from a link on the Bad Little Buggers V-Dub club website and it look interesting. I kept coming back to this site for a few weeks and then i joined up. Do you think we should have VWAnonymous meetings for people addicted to VW's?

Jeez.. Where do I begin. This is lengthy but I hope it is well worth a read, as it is the full history on the forum, and how it started.

In May 2001, I was surfing around the web and discovered a number of forums around the web. I ended up joining one of them in the UK, and was instantly addicted, racking up 1000 posts in 5 or 6 weeks.

It struck me one night that they had something that we didn't have. They had clubs, VW's of course, the VW togetherness and commonality, but something they had and we didn't was a way of talking to each other without waiting for shows or festivals. This was a fantastic idea, and whilst there was heaps of forums, the idea was still in it's infancy. There had to be a way to fix this problem. I was in Uni at the time, so $$ was a huge issue, so if it was going to cost something, there was no chance to start anything at all.. it was that bad.

In Mid June 2001, I looked into a forum at Ezyboard, simply by clicking on a link on my existing forum.. 10 minutes later, it was made! It was that easy. Now I had one member.. me. So not much there.. I started emailing people.. But how would I get people's email addresses? I looked on sites that had classifieds, such as the Indian Automotive site, the Club VeeDub Sydney site and so on.. After a few emails, members started coming.. slowly. Brad, Wes, Spook and Dave Birchall were in the first 20 from memory.. You can imagine the hardest part was keeping the conversations going. Essentially at times it felt like you were replying to yourself!

A few months later, and a few hundred emails(no exaggeration) we were into the triple figures, but the fee from the free forum space was starting to take it's toll in the form of pop-up ads. Members were even to the stage of leaving, due to the ads driving them nuts.. understandably.

I had to raise funds to pay off the ads. I had to seek sponsorship, and out of the 30 or so businesses I sent an email to, I had ONE response.. Even if it was just a query on price. And that was Mick Motors, so they have been a crucial part of this forum, and the way we can repay them is by responding with at least giving them a go for your business.

So with a few hundred dollars in my pocket(cheap) I paid for the ads to go. I also had enough to get the ball rolling with stickers, and although the price was more than reasonable and the profit margin small, the money started to be recuperated. Membership was gaining momentum, income coming in, conversations getting longer and posts growing. The forum had nearly reached its primary objective; being a constructive communication tool. People in Sydney could talk to people in Perth; People in Melbourne could talk to people in Brisbane, and all on a daily basis.

The fact that Ezyboard's fee ran on a 'hit ratio', that is, the more visitors per day/week/month, then the more we pay next time to keep it afloat. When renewal came around, it was going to cost $300US odd to keep it going!! Brad, (who had brought in so many members, and organised most of the sposorship deal, and was therefore made a fellow administrator) decided he could use the current system at a fraction of the cost, so the 'new' system was introduced. The old board/forum had near on 1000 members when it was shifted, but about 30% of those members weren't active, simply because they had used the forum as an advertising tool to accompany their advertising on alternative VW sites aforemantioned. That was fine by us, and the price we had to pay to at least get people onto the forum, after that it was up to them whether they stay or go.

When the change was made, Andrew was also made administrator because of his involvement with the changeover and simply because of his techincal and computer nouse.. it's incredible. Many people have also been made moderators and so on because the three of us can't patrol everything and this thing needs more than just our six eyes watching over it. These people have been delegates these duties for a reason. They are usually very good at that particular interest or section they are caring for, so show some respect to these people as they worked hard to get where they are as far as this forum goes.

That pretty much sums up where we are today, which takes care of the Secondary Objective of the forum as well, and that is that the forum, to a certain degree, should be able to run itself and be a low maintenance operation.

Thanks you for your time and your contributions on this forum, and keep it up because if everyone reads, and no one writes, then there soon runs out of things to read.. And as I have said from the day dot... POST ON!!

It' just a great place to talk vw stuff.

Like Spook I got emails from the founder "Jim Gow" saying "come check out my forum"....

Those were the days, hardly any members so you knew everyone and so few posts you could actually read them all

I got an invite from a good friend Judy.
She told me about this place that "aussie vee dubbers" hang out.
So i checked it out.
I did the change over from the old forum to the new.
And now i am soo addicted, teh only way the wife gets to talk to me is through the U2U service!
Its an credit to all involved.
Without the members and admin... what would i do at night?
:thumb:thumb:thumb

ok so i havent been involved from the start, but i had been watching form afar for some time.

my first (and current) car is a blue 69 bug (see member rides), and ever since buying it i have wanted to restore one. so i d come here looking for parts.

tastes have changed from chop top to hot rod and now to my own version of custom cal look. anyway, i wanted a way to swap ideas and read about other peoples experience so that i could make this into a hobby for myself.

now i ve spent $5000 on my ragtop and i still need wheels/body and paint/interior/disc brakes and more.
engine is coming (i hope)


in the early days i was abit reluctant to sign up cos ididnt think that i d have that much to add.


now i dont care. i just respond to the posts that i like reading.

when i met jim on my first cruise to negambie i bought a forum sticker cos it was helping to get rid of the pop ups.

now theres 1000s of members and i have met some really good people here.

and most of the time ijust have lots of fun reading posts

as jim says: "post on"

i was a very early joiner, way back with the original forum, i knew little and just read realy. I stumbled across it from searching for aussie vw stuff.

When Jim had only 50 odd accessories on his beetle and he told me what they all did.

Cheers Jim and all involved !

Ivan ... :bounce

Those were the days...

Ahh yes, & these were the days when arguements went for three pages.

Whether a Beetle is streamline (course it is)
Whether a front engined, water cooled, American designed car should be called a Beetle (definitely not)
Whether a Baja, which is meant to go off road, needs to be shiny (Hello Wes)

& the air vs water "discussions" have been rippers.....

Fish asked if the forum has changed for the better.

For the most part, Yes.
But not all change is good.

Somewhere along the line it became politically correct & a lot of what I think was the spirit of the place disappeared...

It all started when I discovered an innocent little piece of paper with web address, stuck under the wiper on the 57. Put there by a guy named Gow. Took me about 4 months to get around to signing up, (slacker) but now it's an addition. Gotta check out the site a least once a day.