[2fast]

Does anyone else see the irony in the parallels between what happened with the Cobra and what happend with the Cobraforum?

1 Carrol Shelby builds the Cobra by leveraging off the talents of others(i.e. AC and Ford) abandons it to pursue other business, and then sues replica makes to try o get the Cobra business back.

2. Mike Senior builds the Cobraforum by leveraging off the talents of others(i.e. the advertisers and contributors who posted),
shuts down Cobraforum, dumps the format and archive data that made it so valuable, brings up a new, painfully different interface that makes the Cobraforum look like just some subset of other car related forums, and then doesn't want anyone else to use archive data that got scattered around the net but that he no longer has.


Is this Deja vu al over again or what?

 

[Bill]

Now that's funny, I don't care who ya are!

 

[CobraEarl]

NO, NO, NO this is not a replica. THis is more like the original. The new cobra forum was a poor version of a replica of its former self. This ffcars is more like a CSX4000 or a Kirkman. The new version of the cobraforum is more like a B&B or a lonestar.

What is the original, and what is an original and what is a replica and a replica of what. And which is better, the new, the original or a better improved version that looks like the original but is billed as new and improved, but just like the original.........

Just playing.

earl

 

[Jack ffr1846]

No way that this is an original!

Originals are all made of aluminum and I can tell by banging on my display that this is not aluminum!

Humor....ar, ar (Robin Williams from "Mork and Mindy")

ps, can we use apostrophies here? '''' yes?
how about tabs? guess not.

 

[Craig]

Actually this forum is very much like the original. The original ‘cobra forum’ was created in late 1997 or early 1998 by two long-standing members (namely, Gordon Levy and Craig Anderson) that formed a company called Southwest Specialty Cars at a now defunct website www.ss-cars.com. It was initially targeted as a dedicated FFR Cobra discussion board to assist the Do-It-Yourself builders. It was originally staffed by the two of us and within 8 months grew out of control -- well beyond our ability to maintain or support it. Then (as is common in free enterprise) someone (namely, Mike and Val Senior) came along with an improved platform. They have done a great job with that venture for many years. Because of their successes and growth it appears as though it has now grown beyond their abilities. So now a new opportunity exists for others to help.

The CobraForum guys are working hard to meet the demands of growth and have now brought in outside help and a new software solution. While Bill, having many years of forum experience and a passion for FFR cobras has jumped in to resurrect and improve the old software and FFR only audience.

I, for one, support both of these fine efforts.

Best regards to all Cobra craftsmen,
Craig

 

[Rick L]

It's obviously a replica, the rivet spacing is all wrong.

 

[Uraeus]

A forum is not graphics or format. A forum is is made of ideas. It is a place where questions are answered, bad ideas shot down and good ideas passed around. I must admit this format is more like home, but people can adjust, over time, to anything. I will go wherever the ideas are, and looking around here, I see a lot of familiar names whose ideas I respect.

 

[Ophitoxaemia]

pooh. running a forum is thankless work.

-james

 

[oldguy668]

a forum is people...not software or formatting. a forum will thrive if the people contributing their ideas continue to do so. Forums fail when the insiders start treating the members like mushrooms. I've seen it all happen before...

 

[MCathcart]

For a real bad day, full moon, a large bottle of OFC and a warm Glock .45... I almost got a laugh from this topic.

Mike

 

[2fast]

And now I see that Shelby has a pack of lawyers to do his dirty work, but the old forum has Meat. And please don't take this as an insult to lawyers.

 

[Mort]

It was nice to see Craig Anderson above detail how all these forums evolved. I have been following these forums since Craigs and have seen it all. I think the best time was cobraforum.com's infancy when we were all building our cars for the first time and ALOT of great cobra build info was shared. However over time cobraforum slowly turned from building cars to baking cookies, battlebot discussions and many other off topic things that frustrated me as a person who was looking for build info. I applaud ffcars.com's stance to be more strict on keeping off topic things in their respective categories and keeping things on track here. I will likely monitor both forums but i already feel more comfortable here again. I dont know if Mike and Val talked to Gordon and Craig before they fired up cobraforum and essentially took it over, if not, then they essentially did what Bill did here right..

Matt...2 time FFR builder

 

[Craig]

Yes, I totally agree that the best days where when the community was smaller and we were all building our first FFRs and discovering NEW things each day.

I'll be glad if we can get away from all the nastiness and stick to constructive Cobra ideas.

For the record: Mike Senior volunteered to set up a better BBS and received our blessings. (However, I can’t say what would have happened if we had said No.)

 

[JAM1775]

All I know is this is much like the original Cobraforum I had been introduced to back in '98. I like it. I like it alot .
Thanks guys.