theDreamer Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 Every club has it's "origin story". What is USA7s? Where did the 7 with a tail logo come from? (I didn't know where to post this. If you think it should go under another group please move it.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 @Kitcat Mike - come on you said this logo origin story today on Bringatwat. You were there at the beginning. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 I suspect Al Navarro, a founding father knows who came up with the symbol. Or Mazda (our first administrator not the car brand). It shows a “7”, representing the many iterations of the Lotus 7 and the curved arrow shape representing the twists at the Tail of the Dragon highway where we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Lotus 7. The event, as well as this Forum, were noteworthy for welcoming everyone who had a Seven inspired vehicle (Lotus, Birkin, Caterham, Westfield, Stalkers, etc). There was no “purity” test(Lotus only). Surprisingly that was considered a big feature of this group although now it’s no big deal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IamScotticus Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 Who's brainchild was this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 5 hours ago, IamScotticus said: Who's brainchild was this? That was an early UK originated 'marque-inclusive' forum - 1997 era. I am astounded the site is still around - it still looks the same! http://www.se7ens.net/ There was a US Yahoo version that came a little later. It worked like a mailing list with a post to a basic list type of internet page. Responses to the email would add to the posted chain. There was a similar Yahoo group for Birkin, the residual pieces from which were incorporated into USA7s maybe 4-5 years ago (?) when Yahoo shut that functionality down. Plus I believe even Stalker had their own site. Those Yahoo mailing list groups were incredibly useful in the early days although we may laugh at what they look like now. Before that the in-person club meets were the only way to share knowledge. The learning curve was brutal pre-internet. @BirkinBernie may be able to add some meat to the history here on the Birkin Yahoo group. Lets see if I can get Mazda or Al to add to the story @mebrahimi @Al N. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al N. Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 (edited) I'll write more when I have time, but here's part of the story from someone who was "in the room where it happened." The genesis for the forum/club was a small get-together held in 2006 of a few Mid-Atlantic folks who connected using that Yahoo listserve that Croc mentioned. I think there were 5-6 cars at that initial meet-up at Skyline Drive. Two Rotus cars (Roti?) and 3-4 Caterhams? Anyway, we had a blast (until the park police caught up with us, at least!) and talked about doing it again in a bigger way. Attendee and British expat Steve T. mentioned that 2007 was the 50th anniversary of the Seven, and so we targeted a 07/07/07 date and went to work, with Mazda and I doing a lot of the recon and organization for the event, and many others joining as charter members to form the club (for liability/insurance/tax purposes), and many more helping make that Tail of the Dragon meet a reality. This was back in the days when ToTD wasn't as famous or popular as it is now. The "7 with tail" logo was made for that event, and the block USA7s logo for the club. Edited February 23 by Al N. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 A few additional background details and timeline: September 2005 - The USA2005 tour began. Forty se7ens from the UK made the journey by boat, one Caterham took a plane from Dubai, and another 10-15 US-based cars joined for varying portions of the 3-week long, 4,000 mile journey through the Western US. That experience led to a number of discussions among US participants for better organization on this side of the pond. At the time, those needs were met by the USA subgroup of the se7ens.net list server (already an outdated format), and to a lesser degree, by the California Caterham Club (CCC) which was a proper forum. June 2005 - Mazda ( @slngsht )started this forum as a brand-agnostic community using pretty rudimentary software. Initially, there were only a few members, so conversation was sparse. October 2005 - topic of a national forum was raised on CCC here Early 2006 - traffic began picking up on USA7s Summer 2006 - conversations about forming a club and updating the forum software began in earnest. A group of nine people contributed money to cover club formation and forum upgrade costs, with two of those people (AL and Mazda) doing the overwhelming majority of the work. Becoming a registered non-profit, dealing with insurance, and migrating a forum was a significant undertaking. The thread here is a good read on this aspect. Fall 2006 - plans were underway to merge CCC and USA7s forums to create a single US destination. Unfortunately, those discussions were halted in November when work issues required the undivided attention of CCC's owner. Although the formal club aspect may have stalled over time, it's a testament to Mazda and Al's vision that this is still a vibrant community nearly 19 years later. -John 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BirkinBernie Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 I found the British www.Se7ens.net around 2000 when I was building my Birkin. A very active mail list, and very entertaining. They have no bias about what brand of Se7en you had - all were welcome there too. One of the lists was specifically for them to talk about touring plans. These folks really did it up. They even had their own van fitted out and painted as their tour support truck. It carried spare parts, and could carry two Se7ens inside if needed. They have had multiple tours all over Europe and the British Isles, about two per year as I recall. Then there was the USA tour in 2005. I was lucky to be able to join them - one could almost write a book about it. The logo for the tour is attached (to my shop refrigerator).... I started the Yahoo group "birkinowners" in December of 2000. Within a couple years it became very active, with members from all over the world. Lots of technical discussion with documentation from several members of repairs and modifications they had carried out in addition to build threads. It kind of petered out after about 2014 or so. Then Yahoo dumped all the groups so that was that. While they did let us download all of the messages in compressed files before they pulled the plug, all of the attachments and photo galleries were deleted. It was fun while it lasted! Happy Motoring! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panamericano Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 So, when did ORG become NET? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 1 hour ago, panamericano said: So, when did ORG become NET? No idea on the timing, but .org and .com both redirect to the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BirkinBernie Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 (edited) 16 hours ago, panamericano said: So, when did ORG become NET? EDIT - Oops, misunderstood - please ignore... Edited February 24 by BirkinBernie mistake! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 @BirkinBernie, I think he's referring to this site. The club sticker panamericano inserted above reads USA7s.org, while the current site default URL is USA7s.net and that's how it's referenced on other sites. This is only speculation on my part, but I believe the site was originally USA7s.net, rather than the more common USA7s.com, in part because of Se7ens.net. When the club portion was founded and 501c3 papers filed, the branding decision was made to call it USA7s.org to reinforce the nonprofit status. Somewhere down the line, it went back to USA7s.net. Al may know the actual details of the .org branding. But again, .org, .net, and .com will all get you here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marek Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Many online car communities have similar origin stories. For a time I was a member of Team.net, an online community of autocrossers which included a large contingent in the Rochester, NY area where I lived at the time. Their logo was clever. But my favorite was the back side of their t-shirt. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theDreamer Posted February 24 Author Share Posted February 24 (edited) One of the best logos I’ve seen is from the on-line forum group for the Ducati Monster. When Texas Pacific Group bought Ducati in 1997 they wanted to change its image. They started with a new logo comprising of the name Ducati in bold capital letters followed by a circle transected on the left side by an angled line. It was a stylized capital “D”! The Monsters are Ducati’s “hooligan” model line and so the Monster.Org crew took that concept and ran with it. They applied a spray painted zig zag to that straight line transforming the “D” to an “M”. I thought that was freakin’ genius. Edited February 24 by theDreamer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1Steve Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 This sticker, given to me by Al 15 years ago?? When we used go to the Kit Car Nationals in Pennsylvania . What an awesome group of Car Nuts.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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