Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris in WNC
2010 date on profiles reflects the year Ryan took over from Shelly who started Fordbarn.
I was active several years before that.
also on the map was Ahogah.com, which I believe may still be active but I drifted away from it long ago.
First learned of it by word of mouth from other club members.
these are not the only sites, just the only ones I've used.....
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Actually, Shelley did not start Fordbarn. Fordbarn goes back WAY further than that. This forum was the brainchild of a guy named Gus Stangeland from the Dallas area who started this forum for his local Model-A club. I am going to guess this would have been in the 1994-95 range. (Gus also started a Model-T forum at that same time that eventually was gifted to the MTFCI.)
Mr. 'Jon', to fill you in on the history of Fordbarn, this forum originated as a part of Gus' local club mainly for their own members to interact, however there were a few technical questions being asked by outsiders. I joined it because I knew a lot of those members since I was originally from Texas. I am going to guess somewhere in the '95-96 era, a guy by the name of Dale Clinton from the Houston area founded a site call Ahooga. During that time, many people frequented both forums. Probably within a year, Gus moved this forum onto the Fordbarn platform likely because it had outgrown the original vision and purpose for the club's forum. Several of us that still post here now were members then when the move was made.
Back then on FB, there were some really great interaction by 'hands-on' restorers that really were experienced Model-A people on both of those forums however Ahooga was probably twice to three times as large as Fordbarn was with regard to traffic and postings.
The thing (-as I recall it) that made Fordbarn jump to the top was that several of those very knowledge ones typically just wanted to discuss restoration work and correctness, -and as such chose to relocate to the smaller Fordbarn. To make the comparison, during that era, Ahooga would host topic discussions about politics, hot rods, restoration, and other random topics no different then going to a local club meeting. Because of the infancy, both forums were a great (new) place to hang out with your Model-A friends from all over the country. The issue for some at that time was that Ahooga was also full of (ignorant) opinions and folks would post random non-factual answers much like you find on the Model-A social media sites of today. Additionally, Fordbarn in that era was strictly a Model-A discussion site (-no Model-T forum, no E-V8, etc.) that gravitated to mainly a 'how-to' site where discussions were about restoration work and answering questions on topics that aligned with the national club's mission statements.
The one thing about Fordbarn back in those days was that if someone gave a non-correct, made-up answer, you had a bunch of people that would pounce down and bombard that person with facts & documentation that countered the non-factual post. (Where it differs from today is back then it was not about being politically correct or tactful.
It was about posting correct information and keeping posts about facts.)
So when the Fordbarn forum grew to the point where Gus was no longer interested, it was sold to Peter & Shelly Kaptain from the New England area. Pete was the Model-A guy, and Shelly was a computer girl that kept it going. It expounded to other years of Fords during that time. When Shelly & Pete split, she obtained FB in the divorce settlement. When Ryan purchased it from her, the membership picked-up substantially since he also owned a traditional hot rod forum. Initially, the promise was that it would remain the same where restoration & authenticity topics would be the platform for FB, and modification & hot rods would be discussed on his other site ( HAMB ). That created some tension between the folks that had made Fordbarn great, ...and the newer members who wanted to discuss all things Model-A. This tension ultimately cause many to be permanently banned from participation here, -and so some of those people chose to find a new forum to participate in.
I hope that gives you an overall timeline of FB. It would be interesting to see how many of us from the Gus Stangeland days are still participating here.