Does anybody remember the VacWeb site? I used to post on there all the time before it closed down.

The guy who ran the site was a mean, anal-retentive little man. He finally just decided, out of spite, to pull the plug on the forum with no fanfare and no fare-thee-well.

I do have saved on my hard drive the archives from 12/98 thru 01.99. If anyone thinks it would be appropriate or of interest, I could stick them on my web site or post them here just for the fun of reading. Some of the postings got pretty heated and there were a lot of food fights.

WOW!! Just like my first boss!!

Anyhow, I discovered vacuum forums too late for the VacWeb, but I do remember the next one we had, Ivacuumcleaners. It was eventually closed too, because of all the heated to flaming debates over the stupidest things. I'm sure many people here remember Chris Nash. He caused most of this, thank God he is gone.

I would be interested in reading the archives, just for fun.

I remember someone posting a link to the entire archives of the old Vac Forum. It would be interesting if we could find them still. There was some fascinating conversations on that forum and really got me into this hobby. We could post them on the new site. They would make some fascinating reading.

I never could understand how people could get into such heated flaming discussions over vacuum cleaners!!!!

Fred

At one point, I know someone posted a link to all the archives for this site. Anyone have any idea what that may be?

I remember posting on the Ivacuumcleaners.com forum as well; that was about 4-5 years ago! Lots of drama and flame wars there too, and since it was just a "blank forum", so to speak, with no set user names, there were a lot of impersonators!

Reggie, was this Chris Nash character on VacWeb or Ivacuumcleaners? Doesn't sound very familiar...maybe I was long gone before he came into the picture?

Is a name that certainly causes my lip to curl. He was one of the chief troublemakers on the previous vaccc.com forum [but to be fair, only one of several, but, on the other hand, the worst of them by far]: It was specifically because of him that we had to close the forum to non-members. I only mention his name as a warning to the webmaster of this site that in case his name pops up it would behoove you to move quickly and nip him in the bud. I guarantee you he will be nothing but trouble.

Interestingly, he is also a church organist and wreaked such havoc on on-line sites for organists that he was permanently banned from those groups as well.

"A word to the wise..."

Charles,
I trust that by using the phrase “mean, anal-retentive, little man”, you were describing an anal retentive who happened to be mean and not suggesting that anal retention, without the “mean”, is a negative quality. For example, I have an anal retentive colleague who had, among support staff, a reputation of being a bit difficult to work for but his secretaries inevitably developed into excellent proofreaders. (smile).

P.S. Click my link for a 55 second ,pvoe of what I do instead of playing golf

It is a 55 second movie, m o v i e I don't know what that other thing is.

People flaming and going to 'war' over vacuums is due, mostly, to the method by which vacuums used to be sold. Door to Door sales of vacuums (and ALL machines, at one time, were sold that way) always start with conning (convincing) the 'membership' (kind of like in a church) that there is just ONE brand (type) of cleaner that work BEST, and all others are junk. How could you look someone in the fact and ask for $2000 for a vacuum, if you didn't BELIEVE brothers and sisters that it was the BEST. You have to have FAITH, and BELIEVE. Only (insert name here) is the best cleaner, all others are 'bojacks' and 'junk'.

I was taught that very thing, very hard, by the Rainblow organization. I sold a ton of Rainblows. But, when I went to Filthy Queen, they said the same thing. So did Electrosuxs. So did FairlyFax and SilveryKing. Kirbeasts are sold the same way. Each BELIEVING and teaching their sales 'force' that there is only one God, I mean vacuum, that works properly.

Just like wars over religion, the wars over vacuums are fought daily. So who is right? What IS the best? Well, members of the VCCC KNOW there is NO "best". Sometimes, we like vacuums that we KNOW are not very good (can anyone say "Hoover Portable"), but we Love them anyway. For all the other reason, other than effective cleaning. There's no reason for me to like my 1931 Electrolux model 12 from Sweden so well. It doesn't clean effectively, and blows dust. But I love it. It's quiet and pretty and it's MINE.

There were only 12 VCCC members when I joined many years ago. If it wasn't for my good friends in the VCCC, teaching me the joys of ALL vacuums, not just the ones I knew about, I would have missed out on many, many great machines. People like Charles Richard, and Clay Floyd took the time to teach me the things I didn't know and, to be honest, didn't care about (like cloth bag uprights), so that now I have a great, DIVERSE collection.

There should be NO arguement over vacuums. We should all be able to admit to the fact that some clean better than others, some are quieter than others, but they ALL have a place in history, and so should be admired and respected and preserved.

Tom,

Very well said... I could not agree more. After the mini-meet and having the chance to play with Jeff's Regina Brush and Beat...probably not a Great Vacuum of the time but I would love to have one in my collection.

Morgan

I was with Tom those many years ago and yes he did not like the dusty bag machines. He even used to laugh at us who liked them and he seemed not to understand why we would want collect such a machine . He has changed dramaticaly and I admire him even more now for his wealth of knowledge that he has gathered and shared with us all. Yes I still have my Fairfax you gave for Christmas those many years ago, I cherrish it greatly.

Sadly enough there aren't many of us collectors in my area besides Reggie and myself. Or at least I havent met them yet. My choir presidant has admired vacuums and has collected them as a child but not as an adult. I just recently told him about the web site and hope he will look at it. So if you see a man by the last name of Adams asking to join please let him. He has seen almost all of my old club newsletters and had enjoyed looking and reading all the articles. Who knows he just might go back to collecting.

Thanks Tom,

David W

Enjoyed your post, Tom, including some of the nicknames I hadn't heard before. And I remember the fierce competition of direct sales, trickes of the trade, etc. I sold Electro-Hygiene for about 7 months in 1974, then again for a while in 1977.
I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging here, but we didn't attack the other makes quite as aggressively as some of the other brands' sales organizations did. Instead, we would agree that the other was a good machine, then direct the customer's attention to a feature the other machine didn't have, or, especially with Kirby, point out that ours was just as good, but at a lower price.
I think that it's great that in the VCCC we can learn to appreciate the different qualities and heritages of a multitude of machines.
Jeff

Each vacuum/shampooer has its strengths/weaknesses.
There is no perfect vacuum/shampooer.

Tom and all the other posters,

One of the best things that happened to me was finding the VCCC. I had seen, (and was the target), of kooks posting on the vacweb. I could never understand all the chestbeating, browbeating, hair pulling, screams, etc., on that site. For heavens sake, we were talking about machines that pick up dirt!

If it had been gold bullion, vintage art pieces, real estate, etc., I would understand the shrieking better but again, I reiterate, it is about machines that pick up dirt.

I learned through the club what Tom Gasko said, there is no best vacuum. If you sell vacuums, or own a vacuum business, then yes, you may have favorites, (profit producing), for a myriad of reasons. But for the collector, we like them for all kinds of reasons, ie: what you grow up with, what you always wanted, what looked like art, etc. I adore my old early Eureka that doesn't even have a model number--does it clean? Well, yes, but not that well by today's standards.

Of the new stuff, Air-Way will always be near and dear to my heart while others will describe it as bulky, tired in design, too loud, too heavy, archaic, etc. Does it clean.......well yes and rather well. Would I want to compare it to a Miele, Bosch or Rainbow? Not really as you can't ever compare apples to oranges and why you anyway?

I found this club because of Tom Gasko and for that I say many times over, THANK YOU TOM! I got so involved that I became the President for two years and we never had any mud slinging at any convention or on our first website. Just goes to show that when collectors come together, the passion can be shared and magic seems to take place. Our group has grown to wonderfully large numbers and we have become a great extended family. If you collect vacuums, who could ask for more?

And just when you think it can't get better, comes along our new website.........."Heaven, I'm in heaven, and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak.......And I seem to find the happiness I seek, when we're out together vacuuming cheek to cheek."

I used to visit www.whatsthebestvacuum.com until one of their posters printed the link to vacuumland.org. That was a happy day for me. The other site is full of some very strong personalities, the least of which is the moderator. He's in the habit of responding to posters in the form of belittling their messages and telling them they're "wrong" simply because another opinion is different from his. Life's too short and I don't need that. It's nice to see a site where people are respectful and can coexist in a community while engaging in a friendly discussion or even a debate.