My Discussion Forum History - Mike Phillips

My Discussion Forum History - Mike Phillips

Some reading this may not know much about discussion forums but before Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Ticktock, etc., discussion forums were how the majority of like-minded people came together on the Internet. I will say the one thing that separates a forum from these other social media platforms is the way they can hold and display information PLUS the more enhanced interface and display of messages between people.


Here's a brief history of my discussion forum background


MeguiarsOnline.com
I brought up the MOL or MeguiarsOnline.com forum back in the winter of 2003, this was just behind-the-scenes setting up and testing. I ran it until I left Meguiar's and joined Autogeek in 2009. Here's the link to the very first thread on MOL - sad to say, when Meguiar's upgraded their vBulletin forum to the latest software upgrade, they lost a LOT of pictures, including all the pictures in this very first thread.

Mini Coopers at Meguiar's NXT Garage! - January 24th 2004



AutogeekOnline.net
I ran the Autogeek forum (AGO) from 2009 until I politely and professionally resigned from my position on Thursday, July 7th of 2021. I have over 50,000 posts on the AGO forum - here's the first thread I created after joining the Autogeek team. Respect




3Ddetailtalk.com
In August of 2021 I joined the 3D Team and brought up a brand new forum for the 3D brand, 3DDetailTalk.com. In 2022, unbeknownst to me at the time, 3D was sold to Morgenthaler Private Equity Group and due to changes out of my control and changes that were not positive for my career I politely and professionally resigned from my position on Tuesday, February 21st. After I left 3D the new owners took the 3D forum down. Here's the earliest snapshot of the 3D forum on the WayBackMachine dated November 23rd, 2021 - 3dDetailTalk.com


AutoForge
In February of 2023 I joined the Bob McKee, Nick Rutter, and Wayne Carini team and I'm sad to say promises were made and promises were broken, and we separated ways. In hindsight, this was a BLESSING from God almighty, for which I will be eternally grateful for. A man is only as good as his word.



TheMikePhillipsForum.com
I started this forum because I never wanted to lose control over my own content and that's where we're at today. Running a successful forum requires a number of skills plus a strong passion for wanting to help others. It also helps to be a real-world detailer by background. I've been interacting online since posting my first car detailing article in 1994, (how to polish paint by hand), and have been running discussion forums since 2003, when I brought up my first forum, TheArtofPolishingPaint.com followed by ShowCarGarage.com in April of 2003 - so I feel comfortable running this current and hopefully last forum I'll ever have to start up [again].


As I like to call it... just some Car Wax History



-Mike

More...

The Times They Are A-Changin' -Bob Dylan


Here's everywhere I post now days.

1. IDA Facebook Group
2. Mike Phillips YouTube Channel

I think the above is accurate?

-Mike

Alot of great info over the years. Even now posts still on Autopia and Autogeek have tons of past posts that are all great reads. So many people join and contribute and add knowledge and wisdom. I learnt about so many products over on these sites. You carried alot of respect on them all Mike.
Very nice to see another outlet for you here, and it's YOURS this time.

The joke over there is 'if they shut it down, meet you over on Mike's site" lol. Hopefully they migrate over anyway. But it would still be nice to see all that archived information stay. I know each site is somewhat product(s) specific, but it's still nice to discuss the detail world - vast.

I joined MOL in 2007 knowing nothing about detailing or paint correction. I just liked to wash and wax my car. With your help and the help of other forum members I learned enough to do basic paint correction. I must have learned enough because neighbors and friends want me to do their vehicles. I attended a one day seminar in southern Indiana hosted by a MOL member and Jason Rose which showed me a lot. I have been a dedicated Meguiar's user but am slowly converting to McKee's. Thank you Mike for all you have shared online.

David Smith

Dnsmith1948 said:

I joined MOL in 2007 knowing nothing about detailing or paint correction. I just liked to wash and wax my car. With your help and the help of other forum members I learned enough to do basic paint correction.

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Thanks for sharing!

Dnsmith1948 said:

I must have learned enough because neighbors and friends want me to do their vehicles.

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That's a typical story. You start out just wanting to detail your own cars and by the time you've accomplished this you have people willing to pay you to do the same for their cars. LOL

Dnsmith1948 said:

I attended a one day seminar in southern Indiana hosted by a MOL member and Jason Rose which showed me a lot. I have been a dedicated Meguiar's user but am slowly converting to McKee's. Thank you Mike for all you have shared online.

David Smith

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Jason Rose is a great teacher. Anytime he's talking - I"m listening.

I have to say, I was the same way, Meguiar's dedicated nut. I still am, don't get me wrong. But I bought bought every Megs product I could. When I went to the US (Canadian here) I would get stuff we didn't, or way sooner than we did. When they shut the boarders during.... that period.... and Megs released new products, but not up our way, I got bummed. Never used to bother me because I could always grab some when over the boarder. So that led me to more products. And then MORE! I had joined Autopia and Autogeek before, but started getting deeper. The amount of companies and products out there is astounding!!! But it's also good, great to have such choice. I know alot of folks get kind of brand faithful, guilty of it myself. But when people venture oit of their 'house' they are amazed at the size of the detailing world now. And with it comes so much knowledge from folks in the same, so lots to gain. Like from folks on forums like here.

Silly Rabbit said:

I have to say, I was the same way, Meguiar's dedicated nut.

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I started using Meguiar's consumer products back in the 1970s. Discovered the tan bottles with the numbers # probably late 1970s or early 1980s - became a Trainer for the company in the late 1980's.




Meguiar's used to be the leader in surface care technology. Actually, when I was the Corporate Writer for Meguiar's, circa 2002 to 2003, (before bringing up and running their forum and teaching all their Irvine-based detailing classes plus roadshow classes),




I changed the slogan on their letterhead, not sure if it's still in use today?

It originally read,

The leader in surface care technology

I added the word world's to the slogan.

The worlds' leader in surface care technology

And back then, the early 2000s, they had reached that point with the introduction of SMAT abrasive technology and probably a few other innovations. I'm sad to say from what I see (from the outside looking in), they are no longer the leader but the follower. Probably started after Barry sold the company to 3M and "yes" I was still at Meguiar's during this purchase and transition. Like a lot of my long-time Meguiar's colleagues - I too left the company, not because they were sold to 3M but because I had a great job offer from Autogeek including the offer for a TV show.




Sure they still make great products but it just doesn't seem to be the same company with the same drive for leading the industry like they used to do.

Just one car detailing guy's opinion.

Just got my account approved here, im glad that i received mail from Mike (he asked am i spambot or not, this shows how mike is carrying about his forum and his users. Im happy that there are still forums like that, even without big advertising and link building Mike built this cozy community about cars! This maybe is a strange rely, but i just wanted to say some kind words

batr1der said:

Just got my account approved here, im glad that i received mail from Mike (he asked am i spambot or not, this shows how mike is carrying about his forum and his users.

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I'm super careful when it comes to approving new accounts. I JUST had my Xenforo Mechanic install a custom mod that prevents Spambots from registering. This took place just last week. Now instead of having a dozen or more pending Spam accounts waiting for me in the morning, I have pretty much zero so far. This means for the most part, any new pending account is a real person.

But if there's any doubt in my mind, I simply snag the person's email address and like I did with you, I send them a brief email asking if they are a real person. In fact, here's what I sent to you.


Are you a real person or a spammer?
If you don’t reply I’ll delete your pending account and report your email and IP number to StopForumSpam.com

Thanks

And here's the deal. A real person, (like you), will normally reply and then I'll approve their account. A spammer never replies, thus I report their IP and Email address to StopForumSpam.com and then ban and delete their account. Not a big deal, but I'm really loving the new Mod that was installed to simply stop Spambots in their tracks. LOL

batr1der said:

Im happy that there are still forums like that, even without big advertising and link building Mike built this cozy community about cars! This maybe is a strange rely, but i just wanted to say some kind words

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Thank you for taking the time to chime in, I alway appreciate genuine car enthusiasts like you.


And just to note for everyone that will read this into the future, this is not a busy forum, I mostly just post my own stuff here, like the way I photo-document my classes and this is to show future attendees, just how hands-on my classes are plus all the cool tools and cars you get to work on.

Like this,

400+ Pictures - 2-Day Car Detailing Class in Stuart Florida with Mike Phillips and Dr. Beasley's - February 2025


Seems like every time I turn around, anyone promoting a class stresses they are hands-on classes, but I never see any follow-up pictures that prove it. It's usually a few pictures of people working on demo hoods on fender stands, or a couple of new cars or rental cars. Nothing wrong with this, I used to do that to, but I stopped about 10 years ago. I stopped all PowerPoints and instead, we start early and the first tool I put in a person's hand is the rotary polisher.

Like this,




So I use this to photo-document past classes as well as share the training cars you'll be training on in future classes. (no one else does this either)


So join and post or visit and read or skip on back to Instagram to look at pictures it's all good.



Mike