Thank you darin! - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

ShadeTreeMech · 09-23-2010, 09:29 PM

Darin Cosgrove founded this magnificent site, and I thought those in the know (RH77, bennelson, etc.) would be gracious enough to help us know the story of the beginning of this VERY helpful site, and maybe we can get this put into the wiki in a more condensed version.

For those of us not involved in the making, maybe just a bit of hero worship would suffice

I know being involved on the forum here has changed my driving style so much I scare people less, to now when my wife called me a slowpoke earlier today.

Here's to weaning America from its dependance on oil!

NachtRitter · 09-23-2010, 10:12 PM

Seconded... Huge thanks!!

Weather Spotter · 09-23-2010, 10:21 PM

Make me #3---Thanks!

MetroMPG · 09-29-2010, 04:08 PM

SHeesh. Stop it. :P It was a group effort!

The back story is pretty simple.... Long time ago, galaxy far, far away... Or sometime about 3 years ago, on Earth (take your pick)...

1) Ben (SVOboy) and Matt hung around talking about Honda fuel economy on hondatech. After being ridiculed and misunderstood by the fast & furious crowd, Ben talked Matt into starting up the gassavers.org forum so they could talk about efficiency without offending anyone.

2) I didn't know about gassavers, but around the same time, I bought Firefly #1 and started posting about fuel economy geekery at MetroMPG.com.

3) Someone on gassavers linked to one of my posts, so I went over and signed up. About 5,000 posts and some time later, it became evident that Matt wasn't interested in the forum any more. The moderators were pretty much running the shop. So Ben & I offered to buy the site from Matt so we could officially and legally take it over - the content, the database, the software licenses. He agreed! Then he reneged! (And later sold it to someone else who immediately posted water-4-gas type ads in the header

)!

4) So we packed our bags, and headed off on our own. EcoModder resulted. Some members, plus several moderators whom you know, came along.

The forum's official birthday is December 3, 2007:

The very first public post made after the forum went "live" to the whole interwires was post #3 in this thread:

An Index of Cycling Links

(The thread itself was started by Ben before the site was actually open. The actual very first post -- #1 in the database -- was made in the moderators special secret area on November 15, 2007 -- EM's "unofficial birthday".)

The first thread started by someone other than an admin/moderator after launch was, appropriately: Living with Expensive Gasoline

PaleMelanesian · 09-29-2010, 06:45 PM

It only took me a week to come over from GS to here. Thanks for all the work on all three sites. I still link to some pages at metrompg to educate people.

MetroMPG · 09-29-2010, 11:15 PM

It was our pleasure! But we only facilitated - the strength of the site is the membership. I'm glad all you guys are here keeping up the caliber of conversation.

ShadeTreeMech · 10-02-2010, 08:10 AM

I think I had stumbled onto the backstory on a random thread posting but no thread or sticky (which I think there ought to be) that blatantly states this is how we started and this is our purpose. I as well felt a bit out of place trying to get fuel economy, and while there were a few in the forums I visited, the consensus seemed to be that I was out of luck trying to get economy out of a gas burner, that a diesel is the only way it is possible.

Thankfully I stumbled onto this site after numerous searches trying to find good fuel efficiency mods that weren't of the water 4 gas variety (a friggin HUGE scam) and now I fit in.

On a side note, I wonder how many of us would have been considered nerds in school?

Weather Spotter · 10-02-2010, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShadeTreeMech

On a side note, I wonder how many of us would have been considered nerds in school?

I would have (still am).

COcyclist · 10-04-2010, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShadeTreeMech

Darin Cosgrove founded this magnificent site, and I thought those in the know (RH77, bennelson, etc.) would be gracious enough to help us know the story of the beginning of this VERY helpful site. I know being involved on the forum here has changed my driving style so much I scare people less, to now when my wife called me a slowpoke earlier today. Here's to weaning America from its dependance on oil!

I have been interested in better mileage, and an amateur ecommodder for many years but my knowledge and my results have increased tremendously since the launch of this site. You provide a valuable resource to separate the hype from the facts. We Ecomodders are perhaps part of a "lunatic fringe" but it is a noble cause and we can help grow this movement through our experiments and education of others. I appreciate the way this site is moderated to keep it honest, useful and informative. Thanks again.

I donated today and am looking forward to getting the blue star.

Darin, I would still love to see a full boat-tail on the BlackFly.

MetroMPG · 10-13-2010, 06:10 PM

Thanks for the contribution, CO!

EDIT: I reminded Ben to set your blue star status. That's his thing.

I would love to see the full boat tail too.

One day, it will be reconstructed in a more durable form than cardboard & duct tape.