History of C3 Vette Registry by Adam Wartell, Founder of C3 Vette Registry The Official C3 Vette Registry was established November 1st, 2001. The idea for a C3 Registry came to me as a friend of mine and I were heading back from a driving school in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania in October 2001.  He owns a C5 and I (of course) a C3.  As we were driving we were talking on our FRSes and I started asking him about the C5 Registry.  He told me all about it and that he was a member.  I asked if he knew of a C3 Registry and he did not.  So I said to him that when I got home I'd check to see if one existed.  If not, I'd start one.  I got home, and checked for the existence of a C3 Registry.  I did find that www.C3Registry.com was in use, but it appeared that it hadn't been updated in over a year.  So, I figured there was room for me to start a C3 Registry.  Problem was, www.C3Registry.com was taken, so I had to come up with something similar.  And thus www.C3VetteRegistry.com was born! I am a computer programmer by trade, but I have never really done any serious web development, so I figured putting together this site would not only be fun but also a learning experience for me.  And believe me, it has been (a hell of a learning experience).  But it has also been a lot of fun! The abbreviation "C3VR", which is used quite often, was not my idea.  As the site got busier, I noticed that members had started to refer to it as such.  It occurred to me that it was much easier to type, and so www.C3VR.com was purchased. The first working feature of C3VR was the Automatic VIN Decoder.  I had noticed many people wondered what their VIN meant, and I knew it could be determined by looking at the "Black Book" or other means.  But there didn't seem to be a way to do it quickly and easily.  So, since I'm a programmer, I knew this would be an easy task for me.  I think I put it together in a day. The next feature that was important to get working was the C3VR Forums!  I had started the site with really horrible forum software that comes with Microsoft Front Page.  It was ugly and hard to use!  So my options were to find some shareware forum software that would either not be what I wanted, or would be ugly, or many other things that I didn't want.  My second option was to buy a forum software package.  While that would have been nice, the good one that you see on other sites is quite pricey!  When I first started this site, I really didn't have any funds to spend on that software.  So, I put my programming skills to work once again and came up with the C3VR Forums software completely on my own.  That forum software was in place for over 2 years.  Eventually it was replaced with the current forum software which was built by another programmer. Which brings me to the rest of the features that can be found throughout C3VR.  Many of them were ideas submitted by C3VR members!  Which is one of the things I pride myself on with this site, and that is making it useful by providing feature that the members want.  If I just came up with all the features on my own, members wouldn't necessarily want or use them.  I always accept new ideas and if it makes sense and I'm capable of doing it, I'll do it! Membership continues to grow daily. Here is a list of how many new people created an account on C3VR each month since it was established: Month/Year New Members 10/2001 1 11/2001 67 12/2001 138 1/2002 165 2/2002 171 3/2002 152 4/2002 105 5/2002 55 6/2002 89 7/2002 112 8/2002 209 9/2002 201 10/2002 164 11/2002 149 12/2002 157 1/2003 161 2/2003 155 3/2003 168 4/2003 111 5/2003 161 6/2003 161 7/2003 163 8/2003 184 9/2003 199 10/2003 160 11/2003 518 12/2003 239 1/2004 207 2/2004 175 3/2004 172 4/2004 177 5/2004 126 6/2004 75 7/2004 76 8/2004 99 9/2004 86 10/2004 101 11/2004 79 12/2004 50 1/2005 89 2/2005 77 3/2005 77 4/2005 86 5/2005 73 6/2005 83 7/2005 73 8/2005 95 9/2005 105 10/2005 67 11/2005 61 12/2005 118 1/2006 127 2/2006 94 3/2006 125 4/2006 81 5/2006 96 6/2006 91 7/2006 114 8/2006 92 9/2006 121 10/2006 105 11/2006 57 12/2006 58 1/2007 122 2/2007 111 3/2007 108 4/2007 98 5/2007 114 6/2007 99 7/2007 119 8/2007 106 9/2007 126 10/2007 154 11/2007 76 12/2007 91 1/2008 98 2/2008 62 3/2008 93 4/2008 75 5/2008 89 6/2008 86 7/2008 67 8/2008 90 With the membership building and especially thanks to the over 300 Gold & Lifetime Members I have the funds to make this site even better! So please enjoy the Official C3 Vette Registry as I continue to make it "The Best Resource on the Net for C3 Vettes!" Thank you very much for your support!