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I'm glad to hear you are a responsible citizen.

As to your last post here, I pretty much agree with what you have to say.

I think many persons that comes to this forum doesn't realize that when Packardinfo first got started how hard about four or five persons worked and what they contributed to get things going.

Brian and I were part of this effort to get things going with what we and others contributed from our private collections of information about Packard's from our personal libraries.

The difference between Brian and myself he still contributes greatly to Packardinfo while I have chosen to step back
and just post on occasion, which is why I am no longer a forum ambassador as I was in the past.

Part of the reason that Packardinfo was started because some of us were tired of clubs like PAC wanting people to contribute information to them about Packard's then not willing to share that information freely with other Packard lovers that weren't members of PAC.

In closing Brian probably knows more about 55 & 56 Packard's than most any other person that I know and he shares his knowlegde freely.

John S

PAC membership has never been required to access any information on their website. As to publications, what other clubs give you their publications free without a membership? Isn't it time to get off your anti-PAC bandwagon for just once?

Quote:

John, I don't understand where you came to that conclusion. PAC website and especially the forum members helped me immensely as a resource for information when I was restoring my '47. Never was I solicited to make a donation, contribute information or to join as a member so your statement is patently incorrect. I prefer this site because the forums are more informal but the PAC forum is a great resource for information and technical assistance and I highly recommend it.

This thread is getting waaay off-topic, but let me try to nip this in the bud.

For quite some time, there has been a growing segment of Packard enthusiasts who weren't getting what they needed from the formal clubs, but were looking to share their thoughts, freely, with others.

While the internet provided a natural venue for such exchange, the PAC forum, under the previous webmaster, was overly restrictive. Several of us preferred the Packard LIVE Chat hosted by the original ClassicCar.com site - until the dot-com bubble burst. We then migrated to the AACA forums and attracted other like-minded folk along the way, but when moderation became heavy-handed there, we looked to other horizons. BigKev had launched PackardInfo prior to that point, but opened these forums when things reached "critical mass" at the Packard DF, Kev relaunched his forum, and plenty of people jumped on board - much to AACA's chagrin. The rest is history, and PackardInfo is now the premiere resource for Packard enthusiasts around the world.

Meanwhile, I give due credit to PAC for getting quality reprints of so many shop manuals and parts books made, though that was accomplished decades ago. I purchased the V8 shop manual reprint from a vendor years before I ever joined that club, but perhaps PAC was able to keep costs down by sharing production with vendors. PAC also had Service Counselor newsletters, from 1951-1956, reprinted, but they only ever got back as far as 1948, and only in more recent years, IIRC. Beyond those publications, PAC offered little else of what I was looking for. As I had grown tired of their magazine and newsletter, I let my membership in that club lapse, with no intention of going back.

Now, I do believe that a club is fully entitled to provide parts and information on a members-only basis, if it so chooses. In fact, I compiled a substantial amount of content for another club, with the expectation that it would only be available to members. That club remains true to its word to this day (and I'm still a member). Yet, there is so much more information out there that PAC hasn't made available to even their own member body. Moreover, some of their longstanding members have squirrelled away that information, but only quote from it on occasion and have often do so without revealing their true source. It's as if they were trying to make themselves look omniscient.

If PackardInfo had been around decades ago, I doubt that I would have ever joined PAC.

With that behind us, I'd like to hear more of what other think about the demise of Cars & Parts magazine

This Car Club fighting needs to take place maybe.....on a club site?

Obviously, Car and Parts is a victim of Ebay. It was a good product produced by people who obviously enjoyed what they were doing.

My principle conclusion about the Internet is it has little value to anybody who reads fast.

Now the other day I was talking to someone who told me they were fed up with all the antique car chislers from State X. This after they told me they were ripped off by someone in their own town. They finished off the conversation by insulting me. As they drove away I thought that is not a good way to talk to someone who is in much better health.