Rebuilding OLDSPOWER.COM

[DRIVEN]

Having an Old Fashioned in your honor right now. Carry on.

 

[81cutlass]

If anyone can find me a 425 crank and dx350 block and wants to send it my way I will join tomorrow 😛

I think the reason GBF has survived where a LOT of other forums have died over FB is that GBF is one of the forums that hasn't gone corporate. A lot of the more mainstream forums (mustang stuff, ls1 tech, ect) have gone to big corporate ownership which pump the adds up, dial the support down and suck the life out of it.

Plus GBF is decently friendly in the sense that there is good info but good people that will answer a question, even if its common, to help the person vs. telling the person to search google and being rude about it.

Regardless I think it's cool you are trying to revive stuff.

 

[69hurstolds]

If anyone can find me a 425 crank and dx350 block and wants to send it my way I will join tomorrow 😛

Oh, just go do a google search for that stuff....

j/k! 🙂

 

[81cutlass]

Oh, just go do a google search for that stuff....

j/k! 🙂

I have seen 3 425 cranks WITH DX blocks 3 times in the past 5 years. One sale add even had a dissembled 403 AND nodular crank 455. EVERY FLIPPING TIME I TRY TO BUY THEM THEY GET SOLD BEFORE I CAN GET THERE!!! ARGH!

I just want to build a nice twin turbo 420ish inch turbo olds 🙁

 

[GP403]

Re: Facebook eclipsing forums.... My $.02 is this: In 2013 when they opened up pages and groups to everyone, everyone decided "hey ima start a facebook 'site'" and pretty much all forums suffered and it was a legit concern that this would happen. The problems with FB are many:

• no structure. Everything is just dumped in at the top. Not everyone sees it, NOBODY searches it.. People can't be arsed to read all the comments to see if a question has actually been answered, either. Its just pure reactionary BASH KEYS response. It's getting worse. ... the info gets posted at the top and then buried underneath. FIFO. or maybe GIGO. Google doesn't index it for the most part. Its not sustainable long term. Its built for NOW and nothing else.
• The stupid. Just yesterday there was a FB post wondering what year a steering wheel was from. The guy had it in a 74-75 442. (it was a 80-81 calais wheel)... The answers were ALL OVER. Including such gems as 74! 75! 442! No really, that was an answer. Just "442" and nothing else. Those crack me up. Post a pic of a Cutlass with a real question and some Einstein comments "CUTLESS!!"
• The wannabe admins. Oh lordy. The people who think they're running a full-on proper website and rule their page or group with an iron fist crack me up. READ THE PINNED POST (protip: nobody does). "my site" and all that.
• No control. Zuckerberg's minions could just shut your "site" (cough) down tomorrow and there would be nothing you could do about it, and it would be gone forever.

Lately though the trend is for serious information and discussion to move AWAY from Facebook and back onto niche sites and (gasp) forums like this and Oldspower.... I believe there's a place for it. Sure CO may be there, but there's always room for competition and further niching down, and its owned by Internet Brands. That will never happen** here or with Oldspower.




** unless they throw six figures at me, in which case screw you guys I'm cashing out lol.

 

[69hurstolds]

** unless they throw six figures at me, in which case screw you guys I'm cashing out lol.

I'm laying down 113,380.00 South Korean Won. Final offer. There's your 6 figures.

 

[WanaBa442]

Quoted for truth. Why is it always a Cutlass?! Did they make that many more of them, or something? They seem to outnumber Montes 10:1.

Locally any Monte's have the unfortunate fate of getting cut up to go around in circles, turning left, and usually painted black with a variation of the #3 on them.
Our local dirt track has a "street stock" division, what I like to call the Monte Carlo division. Nothing to see a dozen of them beating and banging on each other for 25 laps, all for $150 to win and a $400 parts bill....

 

[rogue_ryder]

Locally any Monte's have the unfortunate fate of getting cut up to go around in circles, turning left, and usually painted black with a variation of the #3 on them.
Our local dirt track has a "street stock" division, what I like to call the Monte Carlo division. Nothing to see a dozen of them beating and banging on each other for 25 laps, all for $150 to win and a $400 parts bill....

I grew up in W. Mass and that was the case over 20 years ago! I guess some things will never change.

 

[Oldscarnut]

You heard right. I was able to acquire the OLDSPOWER.COM domain name and I want to bring it back from the dead.

I know several of you on this site were also members there, so I'd love to hear your input as far as what should/shouldn't happen with it. What you liked about it before, what you hated, what it was missing, etc. Should it even happen at all?

So far nobody's been able to surface a backup database of the old site. If anyone comes across one in the next few days, I'll put a statue of you up in my town square and create a holiday in your name.

There are several pages up on web.archive.org from 2015, which looks like just before it vanished. I'll use that as sort of a starting point, the rough forum structure, etc. I don't use VBulletin, never have, so I will most likely put it up on XenForo (just like here) ....

If you know anyone who was a member there and would be interested in resurrecting it, re-writing the tech articles, etc. let them know its happening.

It will take a few days for me to actually get access to it (just how the whole expired domain drop thing works) but I will post status updates in this thread as well.

Am I crazy? Yeah probably. I don't expect it to be the same as it was before, or like things are here.... but I know a lot of people were sad that it went away, and I'd love to put it back in service again. If not exactly the same then different and hopefully better.

Fire away.

I guess I missed the bad stuff. I am always looking for knowledge when it comes to building an Olds V-8, mine is just in a G Body El Camino, but Olds power has been my most favorite part of projects!

 

[Ribbedroof]

Re: Facebook eclipsing forums.... My $.02 is this: In 2013 when they opened up pages and groups to everyone, everyone decided "hey ima start a facebook 'site'" and pretty much all forums suffered and it was a legit concern that this would happen. The problems with FB are many:

• no structure. Everything is just dumped in at the top. Not everyone sees it, NOBODY searches it.. People can't be arsed to read all the comments to see if a question has actually been answered, either. Its just pure reactionary BASH KEYS response. It's getting worse. ... the info gets posted at the top and then buried underneath. FIFO. or maybe GIGO. Google doesn't index it for the most part. Its not sustainable long term. Its built for NOW and nothing else.
• The stupid. Just yesterday there was a FB post wondering what year a steering wheel was from. The guy had it in a 74-75 442. (it was a 80-81 calais wheel)... The answers were ALL OVER. Including such gems as 74! 75! 442! No really, that was an answer. Just "442" and nothing else. Those crack me up. Post a pic of a Cutlass with a real question and some Einstein comments "CUTLESS!!"
• The wannabe admins. Oh lordy. The people who think they're running a full-on proper website and rule their page or group with an iron fist crack me up. READ THE PINNED POST (protip: nobody does). "my site" and all that.
• No control. Zuckerberg's minions could just shut your "site" (cough) down tomorrow and there would be nothing you could do about it, and it would be gone forever.

Lately though the trend is for serious information and discussion to move AWAY from Facebook and back onto niche sites and (gasp) forums like this and Oldspower.... I believe there's a place for it. Sure CO may be there, but there's always room for competition and further niching down, and its owned by Internet Brands. That will never happen** here or with Oldspower.




** unless they throw six figures at me, in which case screw you guys I'm cashing out lol.

All valid points, but the red highlighted part is the #1 reason FB sucks, IMO. The repetitive pic posting is a close second (see my prior rants)