A little more than a week from now, my website will be up for 10 years! I never thought I would see this day and I still proudly own my Protege which I enjoy as my "sunday car". (drive)
It has taken me a lot of energy to keep it alive and to continue to be the best one stop resource for Protege information. It all started almost 10 years ago when I was very saddened over the loss of many lives at the WTC. There's no doubt in my mind no one hasn't been affected by 9/11! Back in the days there was only the Protege Tech Yahoo mailing list and I got sick of all of the same tools asking the same questions over and over again. Because that mailing list was fairly small, I quickly learned what I could from there and I in turn figured new things out because I wanted to do things to my car no one else had yet. The MP3 was still new and all I could do was try to do basic mods that followed the MP3. Anyway, to take things off my mind about 9/11, I began work on the FAQ about a week after s*** hit the fan in our country. It first started off as a bad text document that was only 2 pages worth long.
Needless to say, it became a success because nobody had a central information resource for our cars, unlike our Honda "rivals" at the time (everyone was trying to dethrone Honda as the sport compact to own) or Nissans for that matter. During the dark ages, the only two things that could help us become a true community was with centralized information and with an easy to use discussion board such as Mazdas 247.
There was in fact one older board than this one, but it died out once Protege Club got started (then that eventually got sold out to the guys running RX-7 boards).
Without all of you to support and be proud owners of your Proteges, we would've never had a strong community that lasted to this day. Without all of you, all of us never would've learned out our cars and do things that we only thought as impossible 10 years ago. As much as Antoine and I had many disagreements over the years, he has been as much of a pioneer and visionary as I am in shaping this community. Without my own tenacity and desire to do JDM mods to my car, I would've never learned about so many unique options and features for our cars. In fact my desire to learn more about Proteges was so strong, I spent hundreds of dollars on service manuals, including most of the JDM ones! Without them, I would've been so lost! Without my friends at my local Mazda dealership who allowed me back into their shop to browse through their service manuals, it would've taken me much longer to learn what I needed to learn! Without my friends at Mazda USA providing me with parts catalogs and other information, I would've been so lost! What started off as something to redirect my sadness and anger became a "journal" for me to record all of the model information and possible mods for our cars. There's just no way for me to remember it all without it being written down! Even I refer to my site from time to time!
I like to thank everyone for enjoying my site over these 10 years and I hope to continue keeping it alive as long as possible. I know I haven't done too much in the past couple of years, and I apologize. Frankly, as I said, it takes a lot of energy to update it and gather new information for it. Since knowledge about Proteges have well matured, it is now very difficult to find out anything new for it. My primary focus in recent years has been to expand it to have Mazda3 information, but such information is still relatively limited because I don't really care to mod my 3 short of basic bolt ons.
For its 10th anniversary, I am working on a modestly big update for it. In the works are 2012 Mazda3 info, including detailed info about the SkyActiv engines and trannys. Various other mods and tech info have been added. The major hurdle to go through now is adding over 200 TSBs for both gens of Mazda3s from the past couple of years. It will take a lot of time.
Money has been tight and it's been hard to keep the site alive, so anyone who has found my site useful and would like to continue to enjoy it, donations will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you and it's been a wonderful 10 years!
Happy 10th anniversary to Protege FAQ and Mazdas 247!
And lest us not forget the fallen at Ground Zero!
It has taken me a lot of energy to keep it alive and to continue to be the best one stop resource for Protege information. It all started almost 10 years ago when I was very saddened over the loss of many lives at the WTC. There's no doubt in my mind no one hasn't been affected by 9/11! Back in the days there was only the Protege Tech Yahoo mailing list and I got sick of all of the same tools asking the same questions over and over again. Because that mailing list was fairly small, I quickly learned what I could from there and I in turn figured new things out because I wanted to do things to my car no one else had yet. The MP3 was still new and all I could do was try to do basic mods that followed the MP3. Anyway, to take things off my mind about 9/11, I began work on the FAQ about a week after s*** hit the fan in our country. It first started off as a bad text document that was only 2 pages worth long.
Needless to say, it became a success because nobody had a central information resource for our cars, unlike our Honda "rivals" at the time (everyone was trying to dethrone Honda as the sport compact to own) or Nissans for that matter. During the dark ages, the only two things that could help us become a true community was with centralized information and with an easy to use discussion board such as Mazdas 247.
There was in fact one older board than this one, but it died out once Protege Club got started (then that eventually got sold out to the guys running RX-7 boards).Without all of you to support and be proud owners of your Proteges, we would've never had a strong community that lasted to this day. Without all of you, all of us never would've learned out our cars and do things that we only thought as impossible 10 years ago. As much as Antoine and I had many disagreements over the years, he has been as much of a pioneer and visionary as I am in shaping this community. Without my own tenacity and desire to do JDM mods to my car, I would've never learned about so many unique options and features for our cars. In fact my desire to learn more about Proteges was so strong, I spent hundreds of dollars on service manuals, including most of the JDM ones! Without them, I would've been so lost! Without my friends at my local Mazda dealership who allowed me back into their shop to browse through their service manuals, it would've taken me much longer to learn what I needed to learn! Without my friends at Mazda USA providing me with parts catalogs and other information, I would've been so lost! What started off as something to redirect my sadness and anger became a "journal" for me to record all of the model information and possible mods for our cars. There's just no way for me to remember it all without it being written down! Even I refer to my site from time to time!
I like to thank everyone for enjoying my site over these 10 years and I hope to continue keeping it alive as long as possible. I know I haven't done too much in the past couple of years, and I apologize. Frankly, as I said, it takes a lot of energy to update it and gather new information for it. Since knowledge about Proteges have well matured, it is now very difficult to find out anything new for it. My primary focus in recent years has been to expand it to have Mazda3 information, but such information is still relatively limited because I don't really care to mod my 3 short of basic bolt ons.
For its 10th anniversary, I am working on a modestly big update for it. In the works are 2012 Mazda3 info, including detailed info about the SkyActiv engines and trannys. Various other mods and tech info have been added. The major hurdle to go through now is adding over 200 TSBs for both gens of Mazda3s from the past couple of years. It will take a lot of time.
Money has been tight and it's been hard to keep the site alive, so anyone who has found my site useful and would like to continue to enjoy it, donations will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you and it's been a wonderful 10 years!
Happy 10th anniversary to Protege FAQ and Mazdas 247!
And lest us not forget the fallen at Ground Zero!
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