History of PriusChat

Sorry I didn't make my way into this thread until just now, but I figured if anyone was interested I'll share with all of you the history of PriusChat.

The story actually begins back in late 1999, early 2000. Not because it was the beginning of the introduction of the Prius, but because it was the introduction of the MR2 Spyder. I saw this car and just had to find out more info, so I probably skipped a few college classes sometime during this time frame and stumbled around the internet looking for more pictures, more information, etc. Not that I could buy one, but, man, they were cool. Eventually I found my way to www.Spyderchat.com, a site devoted to MR2 Spyder Enthusiasts. I read and drooled, and eventually got caught up in other things and kept driving my trustworthy '92 Toyota Paseo.

Well, eventually college ended and in 2002 as I was driving out of my neighborhood, my roommate (yes, my friend and roommate) rear-ended my car on our street due to slick roads and they totaled out my baby, my Paseo. She had just over 180,000 trouble-free, fabulous miles. So, it was time to look for a new car. I had a job and figured it was time that I treated myself to a new car. The Toyota Matrix had just come out, and I wanted it. It had utility, some nice styling, GPS Navigation, etc. Done deal. But wait. Being the anal deal shopper that I am I took the price that I was getting on my Matrix and did a search for other cars in that price range. The MR2 came up on the list. My stomach dropped. I thought, I can finally get my dream car? I can get a barely used one after it's taken the depreciation hit for cheaper than I can get my new Matrix? Well, as soon as I shared this information with my friends, they quickly moved into attack position, launching joke after joke about the Matrix - knowing that my other option would be the MR2. So, I started looking harder at the MR2.... and I found Spyderchat again. Then I found my car. A guy in Cincinatti was selling a 2001 black MR2 with the TRD body kit on it and other mods that I was going to do anyway, for a price below the cost of the Matrix. I went for it. Did everything over the Internet - asked the guy questions, negotiated price, received pictures, everything.

So my newfound love, MJ the MR2, and I were finally united. Only about 3 years after I first found out about her species. And so I also became more involved in Spyderchat, posting on a daily basis and enjoying the format and the attitude that the moderators & administrator took to dealing with the members. Through my time spent on that board I somewhat got to know Don, the Administrator of the site. I learned that site Administrators don’t have to be faceless bots locked in a room somewhere. They’re people, too, with normal problems, normal faults, and a normal life.

That brings us to the middle of 2003, when I had been having a rough few months during which time I had parted ways with a girlfriend of over 2 years, had lost my job with State Government due to budget cuts and luckily got into contract IT work installing computers in financial institutions for Dell, and moved out from my 4BR house that I shared with 3 college buddies to now be on my own. I was visiting home in Greenville to see my parents one weekend when I saw that they had left the Automotive section of the Sunday paper out for me, plus a special insert section they had included that week. My parents would normally leave this out for me anyway, but this weekend was something special. The special insert was a special on the redesigned Toyota Prius. Now, I had read and heard about the 1st Prius to hit the US, and it didn’t strike me much since I didn’t care too much for its styling and the hybrid technology was so young that they weren’t expecting it to make a big splash, at least in the Southern US. But the 2004 Prius ROCKED. Being a tech-toy lover, I saw HID, Bluetooth, MFD, GPS Navigation, and LED taillights all in one package and something in my head went <ding!>. I surprised myself by how much I liked the new body style, and as soon as I got back home to Columbia I started doing more research. I read up on Edmunds and eventually somehow made my way into the Yahoo Group. It took me about an hour to see the inherent flaws that the YGs have as the application driving an Automotive Enthusiast type of environment. I got to know a few of the names on the YG, and quickly recognized Dianne from Carson Toyota, who had been an active dealer in the early days of Spyderchat sharing information on when those sought-after cars were being brought in on the boats. I did a quick search and couldn’t find any active Prius forums for the 2004+ (2G) model, so I decided that I’d throw a few bucks and a little of my free time into trying to put together a real Portal for Prius & Hybrid automotive enthusiasts to come to and download documents, post pictures, share experiences, etc. This was the most advanced mass-produced car that I had ever seen, so didn’t their owners and people looking for discussion about them deserve a site just as advanced and feature-filled? I quickly turned to Don from Spyderchat for help, and he gave me the basics of what he did to start Spyderchat, how he ran it, how to get hosting, etc. So, as a nod to my “mentorâ€, I decided to by www.priuschat.com and try to start a community. There had been a good deal of in-fighting on the Yahoo Group by this time over the lack of an administrator and control over the Group, the Off-Topic posts that were being posted (I mean come on people, when people are like minded about a car they probably want to discuss more than just the car with people they respect and have something in common with), Dealer Posts, etc. By the time I posted that PriusChat had been created and was open for everyone/anyone to come on over and join, I received quite a positive response. I think we had over 125 people join the first day I opened the site – November 12th, 2003 (my birthday).

It took me about 2 days to decide that the site software I was using was not what I wanted and I decided to do a total re-do of the site. At that time I had no idea how to convert any of the posts or member information over to the new site, so we lost everything (not that there was much). The new version of PriusChat opened on November 26, 2003 with Evan (efusco) being our first new member. Soon after him, tag, jkash, Wolfman, Mybrid and others joined up on the site. Since that late night in November of 03, PriusChat has been through its ups and downs. We’ve had downtime due to server complications, server moves, software changes, but, at least in my estimation, a whole lot more ups than downs. I’ve met many people through PriusChat that I hope will be life-long friends. I’ve learned a lot through this community, whether it be something like organizational leadership, a little bit of sales, or just opening up my mind to other points of view in good ole FHOP.

I’ve only had the pleasure of meeting a few PriusChat members in person, but I’m very optimistic that we can get a National Prius Meet organized for sometime in 2006. I’m afraid that I won’t have the chance to do much else at the meet other than spend time sitting down personally with the countless numbers of people who have helped me along in the journey that this site has been and thank them personally.

As far as the future of PriusChat goes, we’re going to be looking at changing the software that the site is based on in order to make the site faster and more dependable. I'll continue adding features to the site as I have the resources to do so. Hopefully when the next generation Prius is almost available, Toyota will allow me to do an exclusive test/review for the site. I’m not looking to go anywhere, so plan on this site being around for a long time.

Let’s go for 10,000 members by the end of 2005!