i tried to go to gmforums.com and it says the domain has been sold and the site is closed. whats up with that?

i tried to go to gmforums.com and it says the domain has been sold and the site is closed. whats up with that?


I got the same message when I went there. I hope it isn't gone. It is a good source of information.

I got the same message when I went there. I hope it isn't gone. It is a good source of information.

got the same here and i was just on it last night. That is really odd.

Sounds like its done. Thats a ton of lost information

http://www.cheersandgears.com/boards/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8341

Interesting.. I was considering opening up a few more forums to funnel traffic into this site. I also own (no sites on these) buickforums.com, lincolnforums.com and mercuryforums.com... Maybe now would be a good time - especially for buickforums.com, to just throw something up. If I do - and whatever I may do - it would be all free forum software. Nothing like this...

My conspiracy theory is that GM bought out the owner of the site with large amounts of $$. The reasons being might be twofold.

Maybe GM wanted to avoid negative feedback about their products from irate GM owners.

Maybe GM didn't want people to easily be able to teach other people how to repair their cars by themselves and they wanted to get more people into GM repair shops instead of having them fix them themselves.

Think about it...I bet a lot of people were getting free instructions on how to fix their car and GM was losing service revenue.

danananananananana...just a thought.

Sal, don't let them buy you out!!

I sent emails to both the owners and the editors addresses and both came back "undelivreable". It's a shame that all the questions and answers that are posted there are lost. They were a great source of information just as the ones here are. I hope that some of the contributors whose names I only saw at gmforums cadillac site migrate here because that can only enrich the depth of information available.

I dunno if I agree with your theory AirJigga. Maybe GMforums wasnt really about general motors, rather it was Goose & Maverick where people just went to discuss Top Gun.

On a side note, i went out as Tom Curise for Halloween last year. lol :histeric:

I dunno if I agree with your theory AirJigga. Maybe GMforums wasnt really about general motors, rather it was Goose & Maverick where people just went to discuss Top Gun.

On a side note, i went out as Tom Curise for Halloween last year. lol :histeric:

my theory's awesome...don't deny it mang

goodness gracious great balls of fire!

Hey Sal maybe you could open up a D&B-body forum. Give FOSS and their friends a place to call home since GMForums is gone. You know how loyal these guys are with their cars.

Is a shame, there was a TON of info on that site.
Find him on Fordforums.com (LunaticSVT) and drop him a line. I did, probably wont get any response though...

FOSS is going to stay here where it belongs.. Fleetwood owners will have their own section very soon..

Otherwise.. Like I mentioned before - I was planning on opening several 'sister' forums for THIS site. Someplace to funnel more traffic and interest in CadillacForums. They will be very generic and I wont be spending any money on them, though.. And, I basically wont be running them either..

www.lincolnforums.com (http://www.lincolnforums.com) (half-way up some time today)
www.buickforums.com (http://www.buickforums.com)
www.mercuryforums.com (http://www.mercuryforums.com)
www.oldsmobileforums.com (http://www.oldsmobileforums.com)

I think that many, many people who buy any of these types of cars have at least some sore of interest in owning or learning about Cadillacs.

So much lost.... Lunatic could have at least warned us all... :crybaby: :crying:

So much lost.... Lunatic could have at least warned us all... :crybaby: :crying:

Yea really. Glad to see you found a new home Phil. They didn't even warn the mods? It sounds like he blamed you guys for it though.....

He's pinning it on the mods?? Not to be rude, but I thought I was doing a pretty good job in the Cadillac section. Where did you hear that?
(Read somethin else)
I'll admit I wasn't working much else, but I kept the Caddy forums running pretty well, wasn't I?

Here is the link to where it all went down.
http://www.dykz34.com/other/gmf/


And where I got that info from too.
http://www.cheersandgears.com/boards/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8341&whichpage=1

Lunatic always came off as...well having an appropriate name. The last posts in that thread proved that, along with what he did to superpap a couple of months ago (banned for disagreeing with him). I wandered around those forums, and I saw ShadowLvr posting in the off topic areas occasionally, but there was not enough activity to make it worth looking in those areas more than once every month or so. Even the Caddy section was dying. You tried to keep it afloat, but that section, along with the rest of the site had no community. There was a wealth of knowledge being shared by bbob, but it was getting to the point where it was ask a question have bbob answer it, then move on. Nothing like what we have here in the OT section, like the Lets talk thread, or whats your favorite smell. Everyone gets to know each other a little better and it makes the forum worth participating in more often. I will say this, the Caddy section was the one that still had SOME activity. 3/4 of those sections were absolutely dead, with the last post being 6 months ago or longer. As far as what Lunatic expected from the mods, I have to wonder what HE was doing to save the site myself. Sal is adding new things (gotta post in the picture section soon...) and even has some merchandise available promoting the fourm. It is a shame that that happened, but I did forsee it coming. Without any community, there was no way GMForums would have survived.

I was a member of GMforums too but visited rarely. (G-DUB). The thing is, it wasn't tightly knit enough and way too broad. There's no way the s10 forums should've had so many people as opposed to the GM forums. A lot of what it comes down to is the participating people/moderators/management. It seems that Mr. LunaticSS was all business and he didn't want to mess around with a dying forum and decided to sell it off for a profit. I'm disapointed he didn't save the content though...that sucks.

On a brighter note, I think that cadillacforums.com has forged a tight unit of cadillac loving people with good knowledge and the only place this place is going is up. So welcome to all of the GMFORUMS.COM people, we're happy to have you aboard.

Unfortunately, there is always a very real problem with forum growth. It brings with it, a lack of intimacy. As the group gets larger, there's just no way possible to keep a "close-knit" group. There's just too damn many people to make that possible. I can see that happening here. I can't be the only one noticing that quite often it's just plain impossible to keep up with ALL the new posts. Maybe it's just me, 'cause I'm usually looking at posts that require some digging to aquire info for the person posting but, as this site gets bigger, it's members WILL be less in touch with each other. And unfortunately, as it becomes less of a small community, and MORE of a "big-city" it will be less comfortable for those that are used to the small-town feeling. SO HOW do we make the transition from "small-town" to "big-city" and NOT lose the sense of community?

Lunatic always came off as...well having an appropriate name. The last posts in that thread proved that, along with what he did to superpap a couple of months ago (banned for disagreeing with him). I wandered around those forums, and I saw ShadowLvr posting in the off topic areas occasionally, but there was not enough activity to make it worth looking in those areas more than once every month or so. Even the Caddy section was dying. You tried to keep it afloat, but that section, along with the rest of the site had no community. There was a wealth of knowledge being shared by bbob, but it was getting to the point where it was ask a question have bbob answer it, then move on. Nothing like what we have here in the OT section, like the Lets talk thread, or whats your favorite smell. Everyone gets to know each other a little better and it makes the forum worth participating in more often. I will say this, the Caddy section was the one that still had SOME activity. 3/4 of those sections were absolutely dead, with the last post being 6 months ago or longer. As far as what Lunatic expected from the mods, I have to wonder what HE was doing to save the site myself. Sal is adding new things (gotta post in the picture section soon...) and even has some merchandise available promoting the fourm. It is a shame that that happened, but I did forsee it coming. Without any community, there was no way GMForums would have survived.

Where do I start with this one.......

What have I done? What was I doing? Spent several thousand dollars in gear, events, promotions, giveaways and hosting. What was returned out of it. People that whinned, complained and moaned that they did not have a "section" for themselves or people that felt that they were too good to even answer or participate in another section of the site. I promoted that site like crazy. I sunk in hours of redesign that was actually fixing to be launched when the domain was sold.

You doubt or question what was done...well since you dont know what was done there is not any need to assume that nothing was done. I ran that site as I do my others. I put 2 people in charge to run day to day activities and oversee moderators and the site in general. I gave moderators an open source to be able to do what they needed. Yet, those that were in power sat on it and did not do anything. I obtained Media credentials for GMF so we could get access to new and upcoming information from GM Media and from Weick <however you spell their name>. I used exclusive ties with just-auto and their writers to have articles written by them exclusively for GMF. I had test drives and write ups ready to launch upon removal of the black out date. I spent time with GM themselves from Dealers, dealer principles to Brand managers getting and sourcing interviews to be launched on the news portal. I spent the time building up the Technical database that i just did not launch and am importing the data for FORD into now. I set up subdomains, upgraded software, updated code, got other members to help in participating in adding info on subdomains etc. I guess I did not do a damn thing then ehh?

Try looking at the larger picture. with such a broad array of vehicles to cover, members that are too uppity to participate with any other group and "need" to have their own special sections because they dont want to associate with "the other" classes of vehicles, it is a bit difficult to get them to participate with one another. So you have 24 offtopic areas due to those facts, 24 general areas, 24 technical areas etc...etc...etc. We moved all offtopic into one area with links pointing towards the one, yet no one would then participate in it. Why because it was not in their vehicle specific area. Gets better, try to organize a centralized forsale are so there are not 24 posts across the site selling one item. But, hey you know vehicle specific site not manufacturer specific sites are easier to maintain. Only one crowd to deal with, unlike GMF that had countless; even though the majority shared platform and parts across the boards from w body to caddy to trucks.

Regarding Superpap.....you want the entire PM and post history of this idiot? I can supply that. Where do I start. Besides the fact that he openly attacked myself in forum over points made about all things the Iraq war. I guess he has the right to voice his opinion and I did not stiffle that. I only used the same examples that he used against me and turned the tide on to him, yet when I did that he tells me to F off, get F'ed, i am a f'ing a**hole and starts spamming the board with the same attack against myself in every section. I guess I should have allowed him to continue to attack and berate me. I took the steps of removing him from the site because that is all he was doing. Once he was unable to do it on the forum he proceeds to attack in email. After 2 months I removed the ban figuring that he has either cooled down or is not going to bother coming back. Boy was I wrong. He comes back just to attack me in another thread that had nothing to do with him or anything regarding what he got banned for. Just came on jumped in a thread and started the same crap that he did when he was banned. So he was RIGHTLY banned for his actions. What did I do? Nothing but what any admin of a site would have done. I removed his posts from view, added him to the ban list and then added him to the Firewall. So do you need the posts? I have them all saved in a back up.

The domain was sold. The db is still in my posession and doubtful if I will relaunch it or sell it. Comments on the mods and how I treated them? Yes, I may have treated them like dirt, but they were the ones in charge basically on the site. They were the ones that did not do anything until I started forcing emails down their way to make them even touch the admin/mod forum. Go look on s10f and have a gander in OT over there. I posted a reply to the idiocy that others are spewing about on other forums and the way I ran it. Do I regret shutting it down? Not one bit. It was a money pit that was going no where and everyone that wanted to be a part of it only dragged it down further, with a few exceptions of course. People complain that they should have gotten a warning. My response is this. I only saw my American Express card paying for BW, paying for software, paying for a new server, paying the colocation fees. Money talks, plain and simple. I had an offer that I could not refuse and was close to my Ebay asking price for the domain name, db and all other domain names associated with the site. Best part is that I only had to give up one domain name.

Dont get me wrong. I dont hate GM. Hell I own a Z06. I just dont want to waste my time and money on a site that is not going to go anywhere even with countless hours and $'s being sunk into it. It stayed afloat only due to FordForums paying its way. Atleast on FF I have corporate sponsorship from Ford OZ, FPV(Ford Australia's performance division), DJR and FPR (two of the Ford v8 Supercar race teams) and other smaller names. GM, well I wont go there.

John
LunaticSS
Owner: FordForums.com

HEY ALL !......Bummer GM forums is gone. The Caddy section
was great ! Some great folks with LOTS of info !
They will be missed. Hope most of the folks will find this
site and Caddy info too !.....................geo

HEY ALL !......Bummer GM forums is gone. The Caddy section
was great ! Some great folks with LOTS of info !
They will be missed. Hope most of the folks will find this
site and Caddy info too !.....................geo


OH YEA ! Gotta update my sig..........

Got a new 03 base Deville 6 weeks ago. Crimson Red
this time.........
Bose, chromies, XM, roof, etc..................

Welcome aboard! And thank you for signing up.. Yes, GMForums is gone.. We've picked up a few members of that site since so I don't think we'll lose-touch with everybody...

Regarding Superpap.....you want the entire PM and post history of this idiot? I can supply that. Where do I start. Besides the fact that he openly attacked myself in forum over points made about all things the Iraq war. I guess he has the right to voice his opinion and I did not stiffle that. I only used the same examples that he used against me and turned the tide on to him, yet when I did that he tells me to F off, get F'ed, i am a f'ing a**hole and starts spamming the board with the same attack against myself in every section.

If this is the case, you were WELL within your bounds of banning him. I think the problem was due to moderation, the "colorful" posts were deleted, leaving only the very beginning and the very end of this situation, which DOES make you out to be the bad guy. I apologize if this was the case.

If this is the case, you were WELL within your bounds of banning him. I think the problem was due to moderation, the "colorful" posts were deleted, leaving only the very beginning and the very end of this situation, which DOES make you out to be the bad guy. I apologize if this was the case.

I am used to being called the bad guy. Nothing new there it come with the position. Someone will always hate you no matter if you are the nicest person on your own site.

I am used to being called the bad guy. Nothing new there it come with the position. Someone will always hate you no matter if you are the nicest person on your own site.

What's done is done. You had valid reasons. You owned the site, so, really, from a business perspective, you had to do what you had to do. As a business owner, I fully understand.

Now, what I would like to know is this: You have a wealth of reference material that was built up over the time you had the site running. Do you have any plans to archive it into some kind of database that we may be able to view/purchase?

That's an interesting thought.. Those Cadillac discussions can actually be brought into this site.. Unfortunately, I don't have any available funds to pay for anything like that - but maybe some of the members here wouldn't mind chipping in.. Or, maybe something else could be worked-out.. But, there IS a wealth of information that people do seem to be missing..

IMO, it would be a mistake to purchase the posts from GMForums. I would *much* rather see any donations go toward the purchase of a dedicated server we can colocate and give this site the horsepower it needs to keep up with the rapid growth we're experiencing. As time goes by, we can equal, then surpass the information accumulated on GMForums.

It's also possible we would pick up some of the baggage that led to the decline of that site - we don't need that.

Finally, I would have a problem with rewarding the owner of that database. Selling the domain - sure, that was his to sell, and business is business. But the posts "belonged" to the members that made them, not in the legal sense but in a Community sense. I don't buy the excuses of the Administrator of that site - he was the Webmaster, the Creator, the one with the power. If he did not want to invest time or money in the site he shouldn't have given it life. If things were not being done correctly he should have made whatever changes were necessary - not blamed the people he assigned to help manage his creation. And if the Community was not salvageable, he should have come up with a better solution to dispose of the content of the sections that were viable so that the members that contributed those posts could try and make their own Communities and preserve the knowledge and experience they represent. The responsibility was his.

Take a look at our rate of growth, and the quality of our members. I'd much rather we make our own database than to pay someone who did what he did to his members, whatever his "reasons".

That's an interesting thought.. Those Cadillac discussions can actually be brought into this site.. Unfortunately, I don't have any available funds to pay for anything like that - but maybe some of the members here wouldn't mind chipping in.. Or, maybe something else could be worked-out.. But, there IS a wealth of information that people do seem to be missing..

What kind of money are we looking at. Is it something that we can all pitch in a few bucks and get it or is it going to take awhile to raise the money. Fund Raising is something that i am used to doing. I raise 10G for my church every year through a BBQ auction.

Finally, I would have a problem with rewarding the owner of that database. Selling the domain - sure, that was his to sell, and business is business. But the posts "belonged" to the members that made them, not in the legal sense but in a Community sense. I don't buy the excuses of the Administrator of that site - he was the Webmaster, the Creator, the one with the power. If he did not want to invest time or money in the site he shouldn't have given it life. If things were not being done correctly he should have made whatever changes were necessary - not blamed the people he assigned to help manage his creation. And if the Community was not salvageable, he should have come up with a better solution to dispose of the content of the sections that were viable so that the members that contributed those posts could try and make their own Communities and preserve the knowledge and experience they represent. The responsibility was his.

Take a look at our rate of growth, and the quality of our members. I'd much rather we make our own database than to pay someone who did what he did to his members, whatever his "reasons".

Sorry but as our site terms and conditions stated as well as most of these sites state that the discussions and content are sole property of the owners of the site.

While your contribution to this thread has some merit, it is lacking a lot. Yes it may have been my responsibility, but that responsibility was given to others to take charge of. I wiped my hands clean of day to day activities on that site within the first year. I have and still do this on the others that I run. But alas some people can not grasp the concept that I am only the "financial backer" of the site. I can safely say that blame falls squarly on those that were in charge of running that site and controlling the content. That being the Mods and Junior admins. Did I have some; sure there is a little bit there, but you have to also understand that I was only the financial and technical support for that site once control was handed over to the group. What little responsibility I had was maintaining the site to make sure it was up and running and that the bills were paid. Nothing else. When the place initially went to the crapper and changes were made in how and who controlled what; I put it on the market. The changes whilst were effective the first few weeks were great it just started to slide towards the same direction they were in that caused the initial change in leadership there. Now at that point I could have just said screw it and close the door. But that only hurts the chances of a sale so it stayed up. I had NO intention of trying to salvage the site or maintain it past the general upkeep, especially with 3 potential buyers and possibility of a sale of the thing. Was it my responsibility. Nope sorry. All other sites that I own 13 all together are run under this same schema of leadership and maintenance. I dont play any roll in it. That is for one reason only. So that emotions do not come into play on how the site is run. How people are treated or how bannings are done. Simple, effective and very productive really. Out of all the sites this was the ONLY one that failed.

You state I should have come up with a better solution to dispose of the community. So others can come forth and take content so that they can apply it in their own community. What dont you get. Other sites were started based off of the content in my site and branched off into their own databases and from there took away the members, producing or not to their site. This was already done with the individual sites that were start up because the members felt that they should have their own private forum. Why should I give to those that took away from the site in the days that it was up? That is laughable at best. So lets see I should reward those that took content, Ideas, members and information off of the site to start their own in direct competition. Well why not take the information that is of your companies and just give it away to your competitors. Exactly the same concept.

You further state what I did to my members? Well great googly moogly batman. Please tell me what responsibility I have to anyone but myself and my business? What responsibility do I have to them? Did they support the site and advertisers when we put up banners for them? Not one bit, the site only made money off of the popups generated and that was little to none. Did they support the site at all when donations were asked to help cover costs? Only a total of 3 people and that was in the second year for a grand total of 30 odd dollars. So how is it that I am doing anything wrong when the members of the community do not want to help support the site that they use? How is it that offering a free service to them they inherit rights of any kind regarding that site. If it were a paid service that they dished out $'s to then yes they would have deserved an explanation and refund of monies for this service, but lets look at reality. They did not pay. I never recieved compensation from them for a service that was freely offered to them.

So sir when you have a valid arguement to offer then please step up until then please look into reality, it is a good place to be. Btw you can rant all you like about how i mistreated the members. It is water under the bridge for me now. The site is gone. The headaches are gone and the useless dribble that I had to put up with is now over with. My other sites are running absolutly fine and have no issues. These other sites dont have the useless staff, crying, moaning or general bs that GMF had. It is pretty obvious that the way I run these sites must be right, otherwise they would have failed just as GMF did. Yet, they are not. Infact they have grown 10 fold in less time with less energy and get this cover even a broader array than GMF every could have. The best part nowis that I dont have to take funds from them and sink those $'s into a useless site. I can return the dollars and invest into upgrades for them.

Finally, speak what you wish. I am done on this subject. It was done and it is over. Crying about it is only going to make yourself feel bad and really does not matter to me since I have been able to move on. Dont think someone should buy the DB. That is fine too. I never stated that I was trying to sell the DB at all. That was brought up by others not me. Shall i respond to anymore useless dribble on this. I shall not, it is only a waste of time, since everyone will believe what they want to believe even if the facts are shown. Too bad some people are too closed minded on this and feel that they deserve or others deserve an answer. People need to get over themselves. I could see getting upset or reactionary if I beat your dog, raped your wife of molested your child; but good god people it was a site that is all. If you can not realise that then maybe your touch on reality needs to be reintroduced. Step away from the computer and get a life. There is more to life than a messageboard on the internet. It is sad that some people can not realise this.

What's done is done. You had valid reasons. You owned the site, so, really, from a business perspective, you had to do what you had to do. As a business owner, I fully understand.

Now, what I would like to know is this: You have a wealth of reference material that was built up over the time you had the site running. Do you have any plans to archive it into some kind of database that we may be able to view/purchase?

No intentions of selling the DB. No intentions of putting up a site with the content from it either.

I love freedom and community and all tha USA stuff, but when it comes to business my friends call me "Stalin" and thats not because I have a bushy moustache. Bottom Line, this guys owns it, he can do whatever he wants. You can debate till the end of time the merits.....but it still doesnt matter, his site, his choice. Whatever he does wih the content is his choice

The more I read into everything, the more I’m convinced I’ll have to make a business out of this. It sounds like I need a business plan. There’s no way on the planet that I’ll be able to come up with $40k over the next few years. Maybe the best thing for me to do is setup as a business so I can claim a loss. Even so, if this place is going to start costing big bucks, I’m not prepared for it. So far, in life, I’ve always been able to “think of something”. Can you guys keep your fingers crossed?

The death of the GMForums is of no personal concern to me - I wasn't a member and never even browsed the Board as a guest. There is nothing for me to "get over", "get upset about", "cry" for, etc.. The sole source of my information was the posts about it here, and although the ex-member's posts outnumbered the administrator's posts a bit in number, in total words the admin won hands down. I was responding to the notion of paying for the GMForums database, which I strongly oppose. A careful review of my previous post will reveal my awareness that those posts are owned by the creator of that site in the legal sense, which is obviously all that the admin cares about. Well, he can squirm around the issue all he wants, laying blame on everyone except himself with the words of a true keyboard warrior. It changes the facts not a bit - that the GMForums were his creation, under his sole control and ownership. It was never more than a business venture for him. Just as he owns 100% of the database, he holds 100% of the blame for it's demise. The attitude he shows here in trying to defend his actions leave little doubt in my mind what really happened.

Well, Thank gawd Sir Bruce Nunnally placed a link on his site to yours Sal. I had no idea there was an issue(s) with GMFORUMS. Sorry, but some of us have our own problems with real life drama, let alone Net drama…poor Lunatic SS, that site looked like a lot of work to maintain as this one is I am sure. Thank you Sal for maintaining and creating CadillacForums.com. All we can do is a) all of us eventually pass the word around to the other members of GM forums and make sure we all participate and support the mod’s as best we can and surely click on the sponsors ever so often.

By the way good to see you GEO(Sonjaab)

Hi Damien - welcome aboard. And thank you for signing up! Yes, Bruce Nunnally and I traded links when this place went up. I wish he was here more often.. Otherwise, I think Cadillac enthusiasts will be okay. Just spread the word about this place and everything will come together. FordForums.com is doing very well and I can understand why LunaticSS wants to focus more attention on it.

I'm amazed that fordforums.com is even as good as it is.. I mean - it's amazing to me how a forum with SO many different models to talk about can be so active. That's what I thought was wrong with gmforums - spread too thin. Somehow or another, that's not the case with fordforums.com...

At any cost, www.80sxchange.com (http://www.80sxchange.com) has grown quite a bit and still stays tight-knit.. So I think this place can as well. It'll just take some effort...

First I think GM forums had a good go at it and I appreciate what LunaticSS offered. I found my first H body and N* information on his forums and developed my passion for the N* on his forum. GM made a huge mistake not supporting you Lunatic and I hope the ford people continue to treat you well. I hear the new Boss is coming and a turbo may be in the works... Hmmm maybe you can send back your vett and get a new Boss to make a point. lol

Ty