David Zatz, allpar webmaster

David Zatz was trained as an organizational development and survey consultant; he started Allpar (under a different domain name) in 1994 to avoid working on his dissertation, and has been working on the site ever since.

Allpar was started in 1994 at www.mordor.com/valiant, later moving to cyberwar.com/~valiant/, first seeing life as "Valiant's car pages." (There are still many traces of the mordor.com site across the Internet, including an article on “What’s New With NSCA Mosaic: September 1995” and a January 1995 e-mail message recorded for posterity for no apparent reason.)

The Sundance was soon added, since David owned a Sundance. Other models joined in, other people started to write, and, as David continued to evade writing on my dissertation, he founded the rec.autos.makers.chrysler newsgroup, including the Chrysler FAQ which continues to be served by MIT.

David grew up in Highland Park, New Jersey. Starting as soon as it was legal, David began working at a variety of jobs, starting out hauling bags at the golf course, moving on to hauling trays at the steakhouse, then selling shoes at A.S. Beck. He moved on to a clerical job at Supermarkets General Corporation (Pathmark), moved up somewhat, and was fired because his job was re-evaluated and an associates’ degree was seen as being needed by H.R. (At the time, he was three credits short of a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers.) From there, he temped at Margaretten Mortgage, Baxter Pharmaceutical, Revlon, Mobil Chemical, and other companies.

While pursuing an advanced degree in organizational psychology, David worked at temporary jobs in Ogilvy & Mather, Donaldson Lufken Jenrette, and the gentlemen of investment banking, Lazard Fréres. He also did dissertation editing and research consultations on an informal basis.

Finally escaping from school, David worked with WLH Consulting. While the future Allpar took a back seat to work and family, it continued to slowly grow. While David was Director of Market Research for Pace University, he moved the mordor.com site (peak: 5,000 visitors/month), to another local ISP (cyberwar.com/~valiant/), of which no traces seem to remain, then to z.simplenet.com.

After spinning off the Valiant pages (valiant.org), largely as an experiment in using our own domain name and a new service provider, he started a search for good web site names. The primary criterion was starting with the letter "A" for good directory listings. Hence, allpar (he cleared it verbally with a member of their legal department first).

In 1997, David became a consultant for Metrus Group. In 1999, Allpar grew out of the $8 per month hosting environment; it later caught the last bits of the Internet bubble, bringing in enough advertising for David to take two days a week off from Metrus, then to leave Metrus Group entirely in 2001, when he started full-time at his own consulting firm, Toolpack Consulting, and on Allpar.

Then the advertising market fell to pieces, the $7.50 per thousand impressions delivered for a few months by the Luna Network dropped down to around ten cents per thousand - and they had to be popups, not banner ads! Toolpack had to support Allpar. Then, suddenly, Google rode in to the rescue, offering an attractive revenue split, and Allpar was saved. Years of joyous expansion followed, with more and more people becoming involved in building and running the site. Allpar has evolved from a single personal site to a large cooperative venture, too big and wide-ranging for any one person to manage.

Professionally, David has written for magazines (such as Quality Digest, HRMagazine, and Administrator), trade publications (such as Health Foods Business and Print & Graphics), and books (including the Encyclopedia of Management and the Business Strategy Book of Readings), and has appeared at conferences sponsored by the Performance Institute, Quality New Jersey, The Conference Board, and the Association for Quality and Participation.

David has two kids. His past cars include a 1976 Valiant (318), 1977 Plymouth Fury, 1973 Plymouth Satellite, 1973 Dart Swinger, 1976 Chevrolet Camaro Type LT (made in the to-be-NUMMI plant), 1979 Volkswagen Rabbit (made in Pittsburgh), co-owned Toyota Corolla, 1991 and 1993 Plymouth Sundances, a 1989 Dodge Caravan turbo, 1991 Dodge Spirit R/T, 1995 Dodge Neon, 2003 PT Cruiser GT, and, currently, a shared 2000 Chrysler 300M, 1974 Plymouth Valiant, and 2006 Chrysler Town & Country.

When they were small. They are no longer with us due to a genetic disease.

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