State of the forum

[SpectraBlueCam]

Please forgive me for being so bold as to address the state of this, the Camry forum. But as one of the first members of TTCC and TN, and as one of the consistent participants of the discussions in this forum, I believe I have some standing to say these words. Please keep in mind that I say the following with the intention of making the Camry community stronger and better.


While this forum is meant for Toyota, and specifically, Camry, enthusiasts to help each other out, we are not the only source of information. Although we try to be as helpful as possible, we don't want to encourage dependence and reliance.

We offer this forum as a helping hand, not as a crutch.

Let's start reading folks! Oprah would be proud! I would recommend the Haynes manual for anyone who is interested in modifying their car. Simply put, without knowing how the car works in its original state, knowing where and how to improve and modify will be difficult. The Haynes manual is available at your local auto parts store, or from ebay for a few bucks. If you want to invest a few more bucks, get the factory repair manuals.

In addition to the Guttenberg printer, there are plenty of sources of information on the internet about Camrys, Toyotas, and cars in general. The internet is not only for downloading pics of chicks.

A true enthusiast ought to have a working knowledge of his/her car, and cars in general. When encountering a problem where there seems to be no readily available answer, use the knowledge you obtained and common sense to see if you can find a solution. I have a purely academic background with no formal trainning in auto mechanics or any related field. Yet, I have done more work on my car than most, and I'm willing to take a chance on most problems I encounter, and for the most part have been able to resolve them.

If it is necessary to resort to this forum, please use the SEARCH function to check whether the question has already been answered.

In short, let's try to be a more intelligent and knowledgeable community, for intelligence and knowledge is what sets the men apart from the boys, the tuners from the ricers.

I hope these words will be received in the spirit in which it was given.

_________________
Jeff

1995 Camry 5S-FE
All show!
No go!
Mofo!


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SpectraBlueCam on 2001-12-27 01:13 ]</font>

[Ratko]

Well said Jeff.

I think the SEARCH function is probably the first place to go when you have a question, and if you cannot find anything in the forums history, feel free to ask, as long as its an intelligent question.

As far as everything else goes, I wanna personally thank all the forum members right now for keeping it a very mature (for the most part :smile board for everyone to enjoy.

Keep it up, and enjoy.

latez.

[Flipside909 [SC³]]

I totally agree to that. Many people have become dependent on our forums as well. Most of them refuse to participate in CMPL. Sadly, some do not have the common sense to do research or press the &quot;search&quot; button on forums. I always had to consolidate posts on our forum because many of the same questions were asked over and over and over and over and over again. All it does is hog space. VBulletin is a bandwidth hog to begin with and 450 people have registered since it went offline. The 6gb transfers did not help either. Our temporary ezboard forums has jumped to 100 registrants in only a a few weeks. It sucks...but it will do til we get our VBulletin back up. It won't be long before we get it online again.
___________________

TeamSC³-Founding Member - SoCal/NorCal
Powered By: 1MZ-FE V6 - Denso Iridium Power
www.teamsc3.com

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Flipside909 [SC³] on 2001-12-27 05:51 ]</font>

[Ratko]

I really hope you guys are back up soon, I personally enjoyed your forums since they were very tame (thanks to your moderators) and were very informative. I know how you guys must feel, our sites (TN and TTCC) are doing almost 4GB of traffic a month now combined and if it werent for friends in certain places, we'd be in the same dillema as you guys.

Good luck in resolving your hosting issues.

latez.

[bondobondo]

I would recommend the Haynes manual for anyone who is interested in modifying their car. Simply put, without knowing how the car works in its original state, knowing where and how to improve and modify will be difficult. The Haynes manual is available at your local auto parts store, or from ebay for a few bucks. If you want to invest a few more bucks, get the factory repair manuals.

In addition to the Guttenberg printer, there are plenty of sources of information on the internet about Camrys, Toyotas, and cars in general. The internet is not only for downloading pics of chicks.

A true enthusiast ought to have a working knowledge of his/her car, and cars in general. When encountering a problem where there seems to be no readily available answer, use the knowledge you obtained and common sense to see if you can find a solution. I have a purely academic background with no formal trainning in auto mechanics or any related field. Yet, I have done more work on my car than most, and I'm willing to take a chance on most problems I encounter, and for the most part have been able to resolve them.

If it is necessary to resort to this forum, please use the SEARCH function to check whether the question has already been answered.

In short, let's try to be a more intelligent and knowledgeable community, for intelligence and knowledge is what sets the men apart from the boys, the tuners from the ricers.

AMEN!!
Jeff you know how many rookie ae86 kids out there you just knocked on the head?? Well I agree totally, there are a few new members in the corolla forum that know jack-diddly about cars, yet they own the newest HONDUH, probably modified it too, without knowing what the modifications did to the car to begin with, nevermind knowing the stock limits or increasing performance to suit THE DRIVERS needs. Now these kids have watched initial D, and the AE86 somehow gives off this illusion that if you drive one, you are &quot;drift-king&quot; and that can leave the likes of evo6's and R32's in your dust. RIIIIIGGGHHTT..
They have absolutely no knowledge of what is in the car, what the engine is, how the suspension works, NOTHING.. They don't know what parts are really useful, nor do they know how the car performs stock. They just want to modify this and that and THINK that they actually drive well...

Remember kids, no matter how many hrs you spend in GT3-Aspec or $$$ you spend playing Battle Gear, driving YOUR car is not a game. So if you think you are hot-shit, take it to the track. Learn about YOUR car, customize it to SUIT YOU.

Thanks,
andrew

[Silver Streak]

Thanks Jeff!

I get a lot of fan mail (believe it or not) for my cheesy website as well, but mainly for questions that were already addressed on this forum...right now I'm even getting 0.5 megs! Hey, hey, don't get me wrong, I enjoy the attention but you'll probably get a better and more educated response from a bunch of people, instead of just me. i.e. I'm not the only one with a strut bar and rims on this forum.... :smile:

It may be a pain to search through the posts but if you're really interested in learning, a little time and research ain't gonna hurt...and yes, a Haynes manual is so handy...only $15.99 at Canadian Tire!

[BLUEMEANIE]

damn, I keep crashing in the middle of this post...

well said guys.
...Lary D at NC.org set up a newbie forum a while back to weed the repeated questions out of the regular forum. Then every once in a while he dumps it and wipes clean a bunch of space. In addition he has also setup a &quot;tech info / installs&quot; or something or other page with all the basic beginner to seasoned modder Q&amp;A's - i.e. -
- What, Where and How to Remove the Butterfly
- Available suspension setups and their individual atributes
- CAI install &amp; info
- Supercharger install &amp; info
- and my personal fave which I know I've posted a mollion times...
V6 and i4 fit the same.
92-94 use non sealed.
95-96 use sealed and different mounts than the 92-94.
the excption being most 94 models (Jap. and Amer.) built after october 94 use the same mounts and sealed struts as the 95-96 models.
This applies for all gen3 Camrys. Both V6 and i4's of a given year use the same parts.

lol. I know it by heart now.

TN &amp; SC3 could even have a 3S-GTE setup, req. parts and prep, and estimated cost page so people would stop &quot;diving in be fore they know what their in for&quot;

I would be totally willing to compile all the info and helpfull hints (I know to be factual) that I have gathered since I first began tunning my Camry if it will help relieve congestion.
Hell I seem to be the first person really rescearching B+G springs at the moment I'll make sure to write/store all my compairs. between my current H&amp;R's and the B+G's when I get them. There are other people (Jeff) who have gone from soprt spring to coil over. we could all put together a pertty extensive info sheet on several topics.
I'm rambling.
okay peace out.
~ eric

[Silver Streak]

I agree with you Eric....

We should have a DIY section, or a page with opinions on it. There's not that much aftermarket stuff for our cars, we only have like handful of choices for struts/springs, strut bars, etc...a page with everyone's opinions would be great! Kinda like http://www.epinions.com....

[BLUEMEANIE]

Sweet, I already have a ton of stuff gathered in simpletext and ready to post.
Between all of the real &quot;Senior Members&quot; (trusted names here and at SC3) we've prolly tested every product and jerrymod available for our cars.
We could do a 'read only' page with factual product info and member testimonials and carefully sensor all email submitions to it so we weed out all the BS and arguements.
I don't mind moderating it. I've got pleanty of time on my hands... hand. If sombody will put it together on TN or TT-CC or we can even create a seperate page with a link from the TN and SC3 (if they want)
forums and back.

[Phi]

Very well said Jeff! This community in not only a great source for info on Toyotas but also a fun place to hangout. I hope this forum continues to provide myself as well as other with accurate and accessible information in a friendly and trusted manner. For the newbs or anybody for that fact reading this, please try and use the search button or go through the history if at all possible. The search engine on this forum works rather well.

As for the FAQ/DIY/Project section. I think that’s a great idea. As Silver mentioned, there aren’t that many mods avail for the Cam and I’m sure a FAQ sect would most defiantly help not only noobs but everyone. The Camry community has been toying with this idea for several years now, but never really took the task seriously. Now that we (Camry owners) have established ourselves I’m sure ppl will have alot to contribute. With the help of everybody form various grps (CMPL, SC3, TTCC, Solamry, etc) I’m sure we can make this work. Since Eric has graciously volunteered to accept this task, I think we should get this project started. I think I caught Eric’s Rambling. I’ll stop now :grin:

Happy New Years fellas! And keep posting!

[Chronic Camry [SC³]]

Any idea when SC3 will be up and running again?

On 2001-12-27 05:40, Flipside909 [SC³] wrote:
I totally agree to that. Many people have become dependent on our forums as well. Most of them refuse to participate in CMPL. Sadly, some do not have the common sense to do research or press the &quot;search&quot; button on forums. I always had to consolidate posts on our forum because many of the same questions were asked over and over and over and over and over again. All it does is hog space. VBulletin is a bandwidth hog to begin with and 450 people have registered since it went offline. The 6gb transfers did not help either. Our temporary ezboard forums has jumped to 100 registrants in only a a few weeks. It sucks...but it will do til we get our VBulletin back up. It won't be long before we get it online again.
___________________

TeamSC³-Founding Member - SoCal/NorCal
Powered By: 1MZ-FE V6 - Denso Iridium Power
www.teamsc3.com

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Flipside909 [SC³] on 2001-12-27 05:51 ]</font>

[Flipside909 [SC³]]

George,

The main site is fine..it's the forums that will be up shortly along with a new host for our site as a whole. BTW, are you going to Showoff Classic this Saturday at Fairplex?

[rayray]

sup everyone once again...

i'd just like to take this chance to thank everyone in this forum for all the advice and opinions that you have offered to a newbie car tuner. i have learned vast amounts about my car reading on Camry forums, especially this one. one of the first things i did when i acquired my Camry last summer was to go out and buy a Haynes manual - boy, does that help (although some of the directions are quite vague at times :smile: ).

as for the state of this forum... it does seem to be a good idea to have an area with answers to common questions. it does seem redundant to keep typing the same stuff over and over again.

i'd like to give props out to all the moderators and those that maintain the site. good to know that there is a place to go for info that is reliable, opinionated and not to forget - free!

also biggups to all the Canadians out there. we can't let those Yanks get alll the credit right?! :razz:

happy new year everyone.
peace---&gt; *one
-rayray

[EKam]

Can someone please kick my butt? :grin:

Hey Bluemeanie I'll get you the stickers real soon, I was going to get them made this week but due to holiday there were tons of people at the store and the girl who works there was too busy to make them for me.

We'll definitely work something out in terms of creating a DIY/FAQ section for all the clubs out there. Hopefully all the camry clubs can use this fully complied FAQ so we'll take away the hassle of creating different versions of it in separate sites.

[BLUEMEANIE]

On 2001-12-28 17:59, elegantcam wrote:
Hey Bluemeanie I'll get you the stickers real soon, I was going to get them made this week but due to holiday there were tons of people at the store and the girl who works there was too busy to make them for me.

Schweet! :smile: