Thursday, March 06, 2008

Another Reason the Internet Is Cool

From a practical standpoint, this is really of interest only to me, but it serves as a prime example of what makes the Internet such a great place in its best moments. One of the pleasant surprises for me after I bought my car was the discovery of some great online communities made up of owners and enthusiasts of cars like mine. Much more than just a place for like-minded gearheads to ogle pictures of each other's cars and share stories about how neat they are (which certainly goes on), the best of these forums offer incredible resources for maintenance and repair of these cars.

People even take it upon themselves, outside of their normal working lives, to make an extra effort to make life easier for the rest of us. A member of one of my online groups recently released this wiki-style site. It must be among the very finest sites of its type in the world. Because it is a wiki-type site, it continues the well-established tradition of building upon and compiling the collective knowledge of hundreds, if not thousands, of owners and mechanics.

It may seem a frivolous endeavor, but I have made use of much of this information in other forms in the four years I've owned my car. Having it all compiled in one place in such an easy-to-use manner provides a tremendous benefit to anyone interested in doing any kind of maintenance on their cars, from the most minor cosmetic update to a truly frightening engine rebuild.

The Internet can be a scary place (especially for those of us with school-age kids), but it can be a powerful tool as well.

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