Is much of the old crowd here?

[Drummerviper]

I just joined. The reason it took so long was that I had Viper fatigue, and did (and do) have some concerns about folks here who were drinking the Kool Aid for a damn long time. Anyway, hope springs eternal and maybe they will fall into line.

I see Jon B, Janni and, obviously Maurice --are there other old timers (like me) who were on VCA from day 1? Remember when it was just one scroll of threads?? How about Tator--is he here?

[Fatboy 18]

VCA from Day 1, wow that's some history! Must have been fun times then?

Chuck is here and has been working getting the Vendor section up and running

If you don't mind me asking, what is this term ' Drinking the kool Aid' I'm not sure what it means?


Welcome to the VOA
Mark

[plumcrazy]

tator is kicking around

[City]

It's a reference to James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) the leader of the Peoples Temple, best known for the cult murder/suicide in 1978 of 909 of its members in Jonestown, Guyana, and the murder of five individuals at a nearby airstrip. Over 300 children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of them by cyanide poisoning placed in a vat of Kool Aid.

Lot's of the "old crowd" here.

[City]

tator is kicking around

Barely ... he's got the flu

[Fatboy 18]

It's a reference to James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) the leader of the Peoples Temple, best known for the cult murder/suicide in 1978 of 909 of its members in Jonestown, Guyana, and the murder of five individuals at a nearby airstrip. Over 300 children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of them by cyanide poisoning placed in a vat of Kool Aid.
.

Bloody Hell! I had no idea

Thanks City.

[big-n-italian]

checking in.

since 2004 or 2005. about nine years.

[Drummerviper]

I am not a day 1 guy but I have had every copy of the Viper Quarterly delivered to me as a member. I am even in one of the early issues. I am not sold on everything that has happened and I am not drinking anyone's Kool-Aid, here or "there." I am about the car and the people and don't care one bit what the club logo is. With that said, I paid my dues and I hope the last three months are not an indication of what to expect in 2014. There is way too much vitriol directed at the VCA and the people who are still Viper owners and enthusiasts. I don't get it and never will.

You would "get it" had you had to deal with it for years , or try to help folks who livlihoods and reputations were nearly destroyed. I will leave it there. Thanks

[J TNT]

Not an original , but 2004 till last week ......lol ! Onward and upward !

[City]

I am not a day 1 guy but I have had every copy of the Viper Quarterly delivered to me as a member. I am even in one of the early issues. I am not sold on everything that has happened and I am not drinking anyone's Kool-Aid, here or "there." I am about the car and the people and don't care one bit what the club logo is. With that said, I paid my dues and I hope the last three months are not an indication of what to expect in 2014. There is way too much vitriol directed at the VCA and the people who are still Viper owners and enthusiasts. I don't get it and never will.

You would "get it" had you had to deal with it for years , or try to help folks who livlihoods and reputations were nearly destroyed. I will leave it there. Thanks

This is such a difficult situation to manage. Unfortunately, there was a GREAT deal of "mismanagement" (about the best I can do not to disparage) for numerous years over at the VCA. Some members didn't give a hoot. Some were terribly affected and hurt. The later still feel considerable outrage as to what occurred. Much of that outrage has led to the formation of the VOA.

All of us over here are desperately seeking to maintain the "high road" with regard to the VCA and forum discussions of same, despite the fact that they continue to distribute misinformation about themselves and the VOA. However, it's difficult to demand that our members simply ignore and put aside their outrage. Some here are quite pissed off. Frankly, under the circumstances, I think even our most outraged members have been reasonably civil, but folks are pissed!

You may not want to hear about it, but moving on isn't easy for some if not many. Hard to find fault with either side of this free expression.

[Shooter]

This is such a difficult situation to manage. Unfortunately, there was a GREAT deal of "mismanagement" (about the best I can do not to disparage) for numerous years over at the VCA. Some members didn't give a hoot. Some were terribly affected and hurt. The later still feel considerable outrage as to what occurred. Much of that outrage has led to the formation of the VOA.

All of us over here are desperately seeking to maintain the "high road" with regard to the VCA and forum discussions of same, despite the fact that they continue to distribute misinformation about themselves and the VOA. However, it's difficult to demand that our members simply ignore and put aside their outrage. Some here are quite pissed off. Frankly, under the circumstances, I think even our most outraged members have been reasonably civil, but folks are pissed!

You may not want to hear about it, but moving on isn't easy for some if not many. Hard to find fault with either side of this free expression.

That was very well put. Thank you sir.

[Drummerviper]

That was very well put. Thank you sir.

Extremely. Thanks

[Martin]

I think I was around since almost Day 1 - but I was so young, I can't remember it other than vague images of HTML 1.0 pages and something called a BBS that wasn't a wheel...

It would actually be interesting to have people like Jon, Maurice, Jay, Dean, Fred, and all the other old fogeys give a history of how things evolved over the years. I think back to the mid 90's, and the board was one scrolling page of links (much like Yahoo! v0.1). When they split it up into sections, I got aggravated because I liked to just follow the random stream of consciousness posts that popped up constantly.

Then there are all the stories of the dramas that unfolded over the years (Hennessey, Wilkes, and a few others). Interesting times then, and interesting times now.

[99ACR]

What's a "Tator"?

Dennis B

[City]

Chuck Tator AKA The Viper Wizard. Tator's Garage (formerly Tator's Dodge) in South Salem, NY. One of the more renown and respected Viper techs who's word is as good as a contract. Great friend of mine and the Viper community (among others on this site).

[ViperSmith]

Where in VA/MD are you?

[Janni]

I am not OLD dammit!

[Late Apex]

I just joined. The reason it took so long was that I had Viper fatigue, and did (and do) have some concerns about folks here who were drinking the Kool Aid for a damn long time. Anyway, hope springs eternal and maybe they will fall into line.

I
see Jon B, Janni and, obviously Maurice --are there other old timers (like me) who were on VCA from day
hen it was just one scroll of threads?? How about Tator--is he here?

Just trying to keep with ole Dave 6666 and I am one of the old ones here too. Yes my man Tator is still with us.

[steve911]

Is 11 years long enough to be called old? If so, I am here and NOT there anymore.

[ViperGTS]

1998/1999 - cant remember.

[Drummerviper]

I am not OLD dammit!

Apologies. Janni joined while in middle school.

[pastohio]

Just looked in the mirror, guess I am also one of the day 1 people that did a lot of reading and limited posting....a lot of meetings and discussions to get the club going, my ONE hope is that eventually both clubs would merge and get going in the right direction, seems that really both now want the same thing...how about a committee later this year from both clubs to see why there is a need for 2 clubs ??!! The only thing I can think that keeps from blending is EGOS and POWER,,.....could this be ??!! My $.02

[Janni]

Apologies. Janni joined while in middle school.

Thank you for that clarification. I was a bit of a Viper prodigy.

[Drummerviper]

don't mean to be a smart alec, but i sometimes wonder where folks have been the last 3 years.

There is a better chance of Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger getting back together as long as the current folks are in place at VCA. Have you noticed their attempts at wooing members--same old, same old. The BS about being back with SRT, magazines on their way in December, and on and on.

I will say it because he won't but Mr Liang wanted nothing more in the world to maintain one club and he tried his damndest. But like Ralph and others he was vilified. And, if you believe certain folks are gone from over there, I have some time shares I would love to show you.

Ok, enough. Just trying to explain.

[big-n-italian]

well, i can tell you where i have been - away. far away. after leslie and i became moderators, we saw alot of things behind the scenes that we werent comfortable with. we werent sure what was going on, but we knew something was going on.

i remember when Chris was moved ("elected") from one position to another. (cant remember the exact details now). from president to something else i believe? anyway, written notices would come out from "other people", but i could tell it was Chris writing them, even though it had some elses name on them, i knew better.

because the marshalls hated johnb, we were asked (told) by chris to specifically target him. not from leslie and i, but Jonb always had a target on his back and never had a chance no matter what he did. chris' problem was i have always liked Jonb and consider him a friend, but i wasnt about to target anyone on the boards.

if we werent on the boards 24/7, we would get nasty pm's about it. i guess it was our fault that we had a job, or a life, or something besides the VCA. lee apologized once for his little nasty gram, but it went in one ear and out the other because we knew he meant it. and if you havent figured it out by now, lee has a very bad habit of doing that - saying or doing something stupid, then being forced to apologize for it later.

mary was relentless with pm's about do this, do that. i think she had an even bigger hand in the clubs activities than we all think. IMO, the comment "my presidents" was a good indicator of her mindset within the club.

i also never did like the whole VPA/Parts Rack conflict, especially knowing about most of the whole marshall/jonb history. but we were always told to heavily promote the VPA by Chris. i assumed part of it was Chris' hate for Jonb and chris probably wanting the hurt Jonb financially, but now we know Chris also benefited financially from the VPA.

i could go on and on. leslie and i are good friends. she is a wonderful person. we talked alot back then and still do occasionally today. but after a ton of emails, we both decided we had enough and quit the club about same time to save our good names. IMO, about the time the VPA was formed, is about the time the VCA was no longer fun for us and everyone else and started its downhill slide.

i came back, out of curiosity, to see what was going on after i got an email that basically said the HMS VCA-Titanic had hit an iceberg and was starting to sink. the "letter of doom" and everything that has happened after that, proved to me my gut suspicions were right all along.

why did i stay? because of alex. i have casually known alex for a long time, and i think i have a very good idea what he is all about by now. even though the VCA accuses him of being a member of "the last regime", he was not a DISHONEST part of that regime. big difference. a corrupt and dishonest few does not mean everyone else is corrupt and dishonest too. alex's (and other peoples) frustration can be heard in that phone recording that was made when lee was making a fool of himself again. janni, city, and a few others were just the icing on the cake for me. i know alot of us (especially the old timers) still have our guards up right now, but getting a club back under the control by the right people is a great start, and i think given a little time, we will be able to let our guards back down and have fun again real soon.