We started a bold new adventure a year ago with the launch of our website mystarcollectorcar.com in April 2009.
The whole concept is basically a steep learning curve for old dogs that have to learn a whole bunch of new tricks.
The easiest part of the game is the writing part because, as the cliché goes, “that’s what we trained for”, in university a lifetime ago.
Everything else is a brand new game for my brother Jerry and me as we wade into the deep end of the pool without a good swimming stroke or life jacket.
You learn as you go in a cyber-world that seems to expand everyday, and not without complications.
It would be safe to say that our new electronic universe will continue to expand and mutate into a brand new entity in a heart beat measurement of time.
The one thing that jumps out at me is the way this world shrinks down into small cyber-towns. Most people have favorite websites and forums that cover the things that make them happy or, even more importantly, argumentative on a common subject.
The common ground is obviously a common subject interest that varies from site to site.
Every website has regular contributors that add their cyber-voice to any debate.
They also add their own flair to the subject matter and sometimes a personality clash becomes a battle of the keyboards.
It can be funny and entertaining — or neither — depending upon the combatants.
Our site is primarily an information site that would be designated as an online car magazine in today’s terms.
The Advocate has also steered in that cyber-direction and provides a very current online version of its print publication.
The online Advocate version has a number of regular posters who do some serious sparring in the forums at times. It makes for a bold new world in which anonymity can be a poster’s best friend.
The new world order of online information is not without pitfalls. I was on an innocuous car site that suddenly attacked my laptop with the same level of unbridled enthusiasm found in hungry wolves on a wayward mule deer. This is where things always get complicated when a guy like me is suddenly in way over my head.
The computer locked up like the front door at Fort Knox, and I had to figure out how to solve the problem. It’s a little like asking a rabbit to design the next generation space shuttle.
So then I have to find a responsible smart person to fix the carnage.
I picked a young guy who already knows more about computers than I will learn in the entire back nine of my life.
After about an hour’s consultation with his online sources, Grant fixed the unfixable, and got me back on the information highway.
The main thing that I’ve learned during the past year is cyber-world is not a dull place.
It is a place without clocks, lunch breaks and holidays, because it never stops. And that is a big part of the fun and adventure.
Jim Sutherland may be reached at mystarcollectorcar.com