NASIOC

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NASIOC is an abbreviation for North American Subaru Impreza Owner's Club, a car enthusiast community. It is chiefly operated through its website community consisting of forums, technical and historical articles, and some promotional products sold online through its store. With registered members numbering over 100,000, it is considered the most populated message board in North America dedicated to all Subaru vehicles and their owners specifically, not just Imprezas as the name implies.

[edit] History

The founding contributors are listed as Alex Shikhmuradov and Robert Eldridge-Waks, whom both had run separate Subaru themed websites before beginning work on Nasioc in April of 1999.

As the popularity and bandwidth of the community grew, Nick Catalfamo who in addition to being a Subaru enthusiast was a programmer with resources to host the online components of Nasioc and expand the website's user features, took on the hosting of the online components. Shortly after, the bandwidth exceeded capacity once again, and Nasioc began donation based support from its members.

The Impreza WRX edition was released in North America for model year 2002 for the first time ever, and the popularity of the sports car correlated with a spike in membership as well. Nasioc began to use vendor paid advertisements to further offset costs.

As of November 2002, founder Alex Shikhmuradov left the original site and formed another group. Nick is listed with the title Chief Enthusiast.

[edit] Influences

The website archives much of the older content and continues to make it available for searching. Other Subaru clubs and communities members' often cite Nasioc as a key place to search for free technical data. Other Subaru clubs' members also often criticise the rather harsh treatment of those perceived to be noobs and general mob mentality behavior found among the majority of Nasioc membership body that is most active. The community is sometimes referred to both affectionately and pejoratively as 'Nabisco'.

The site's about page also claims that Nasioc has had a direct effect on Subaru of America "as it sought feedback from those that owned Subaru cars," though the club claims no direct affiliation with Subaru of America.

The forum serves as an anchor for local communities planning get together for shows, racing events, or parties within the community, and also has a section dedicated to the periodical publication called Subiesport.