Site History

[Gashouse6]

When was this site made and who started it. Also, who were some of the first Mods?

[webmaster]

The site evolved more than being made. It was initially a discussion board literally built inside of Baseball Almanac. The software I was using back then was literally consuming more bandwidth by itself in a week then some sites use in a year. Two reasons why; one was because it was a very popular feature and the second was because the software was not really designed for large forums.

I bought a new domain (this one), bought an owned license for a new high volume mysql / php drive forum, and built this site. Then I shut down both forums and did my best to move the threads & members from the old site to this site.

I lost about 2,000 threads in that conversion and roughly 500 member accounts were deleted. Quite a few members were not pleased with the new style and design either and left for other forums. It was no turning back so I just kept working as hard as I could on Baseball Fever and this Opening Day will be our sixth birthday. The posts are no longer an issue, the membership here is unparalled, and the bandwidth is not an issue in the slightest. So it was a good long term decisision on our part to break away and create a self-contained system.

As for the original moderators, wow, that is one I've never really thought about. Some of come, gone, come back. Others are new. There are still members here who remember that move in 2000 from Almanac to Fever. The Commissioner is probably the longest active moderator on the forum and maybe they will help me remember this one (without cheating and looking it up in the admin panel).

Sean

[Kroxquo]

I remember the switch over (in fact I remember when the site was largely made up of about 20 members and a 100 post thread was a BIG deal). I'm proud to have been with this site this long and I value the friendships I've made here.

[VTSoxFan]

I remember the switchover, too. Coulda sworn it was in '01... Anyway, this is the only place, as far as I'm concerned, to have civil, witty, rational, intelligent baseball conversation. When I came aboard in late '01, FenwayJeff was the only Red Sox moderator. Some of those we now consider mainstays like Mattingly, RuthMayBond, Bill Burgess -- these folks had not joined yet. I think I'm User #788... so I'm an old-timer here.

[Bill Burgess]

When I arrived here in October, 2003, all the heavy lifting had been done, and I've been enjoying the benefits of the pioneers ever since.

Some of the join dates of some senior & latter day immigrants.



Lou Gehrig------------Jan., 2000
Auto Mick-------------Jan., 2000
Captain Cold Nose-----Jan., 2000
Macker---------------Jan., 2000
2Chance--------------Jan., 2000

VTSoxFan----------Sept. 7, 2001
Appling---------------Aug., 2002
BoSox Rules----------Aug., 2002
Baseball Guru---------Aug., 2002
Chancellor------------Sep., 2002

Dodger Deb--------Jan. 4, 2003
Mattingly------------Feb., 2003
Eddie Collins---------Jul., 2003
Westsidegrounds---Sept., 2003
Bill Burgess-------Oct., 2003
ElHalo--------------Oct., 2003
Imapotato----------Oct., 2003
csh19792001-------Oct., 2003

RuthMayBonds------Jan., 2004
Catcher24----------Feb., 2004
Splendid Splinter----Apr., 2004
leecemark----------Apr., 2004
Four Tool----------Apr., 2004
Julusnc------------Apr., 2004
abacab------------June, 2004
West Coast Orange & Black- Aug., 2004
Mac195------------Nov., 2004
Honus Wagner Rules- Nov., 2004

Jalbright----------March, 2005
538280------------May, 2005
SABR Matt---------May, 2005
Sultan, 1895_1948-Sep., 2005

Bill Burgess

[2Chance]

Back In the old days...

I remember the transition, and thought it went pretty seamlessly.

Everything that was not the same as the old forum is better.

But I only say that to say this:
Kudos, Sean!

...we just don't get to say that often enough, and this thread is the best excuse I've seen for it in a while.

[Ubiquitous]

The posts are no longer an issue, the membership here is unparalled, and the bandwidth is not an issue in the slightest. So it was a good long term decisision on our part to break away and create a self-contained system.

I'm not going to lose any sleep over it but I do miss the missing posts. I chalk it up to a better BBS. For those who were not around the old one was hard on the eyes and in format. Much much better system this one is, sound like Yoda.

As for the original moderators, wow, that is one I've never really thought about. Some of come, gone, come back. Others are new. There are still members here who remember that move in 2000 from Almanac to Fever. The Commissioner is probably the longest active moderator on the forum and maybe they will help me remember this one (without cheating and looking it up in the admin panel).

Sean

ARe you sure the move happened in 2000? I remember the move and I wasn't here in 2000. I thought it happened in the fall of 2001.

[Ubiquitous]

I remember the switch over (in fact I remember when the site was largely made up of about 20 members and a 100 post thread was a BIG deal). I'm proud to have been with this site this long and I value the friendships I've made here.

Yeah and most of those 100 posts threads usually involved Researcher yelling at someone.



Some of the guys who were a big part of the forum before the change-over but are gone now:

Researcher
Baseball Trivia Nut
erictelevision
Themescules
Steffo
Baseballwise


poster #1052 so not too far behind ya VT.

[Ubiquitous]

When I arrived here in October, 2003, all the heavy lifting had been done, and I've been enjoying the benefits of the pioneers ever since.

Some of the join dates of the latter day immigrants.


VTSoxFan-------------Jan., 2000
Lou Gehrig------------Jan., 2000
Auto Mick-------------Jan., 2000
Captain Cold Nose-----Jan., 2000
Macker---------------Jan., 2000
2Chance--------------Jan., 2000

When the change over happened all the join dates got erased so everybody that had an existing account had their join date set to Jan 2000.

By the way a little trivia. Poster #1 is Webmaster, guess who is #2? The famous Banxy who has never posted a thing. Then still active KenFougere is #3. Out of the first ten posters only two are still active while out of the other 8 only one poster has more then a handful of posts.

[VTSoxFan]

I remember the precise date when I signed up: Friday, 9/7/01, in a thread discussing the possibility of Ugueth Urbina coming to Boston. Then I complained about Boston getting only 4 hits in a game v. NY, and Pedro pitching with a shoulder injury. How do I remember? Well, firstly, I'm a dork. But the following Tuesday... well, one naturally dates things backward and forward from that event. Much of the following week was spent posting stunned, philosophical stuff after 9/11, wondering whether baseball should continue or just close up shop for the rest of the season, or what the length of the mourning should be.

Remember Pet Terns, who claimed that the fact that the 9/11 hijackers' planes came from Boston was karmic revenge for the sale of Babe Ruth? Holy cow.

And whatever happened to Bly11? He was one of my faves when I first joined.

I wonder how many of our 10,000+ members have posted fewer than 10 times.

[brewcrew82]

According to my calculations 1,617 posters have posted 10 or more times...and you think you're a dork, Annie.

[Captain Cold Nose]

I think I joined up in late 2000, and remember the old version of the site. I also remember Pat, and how on his farewell to the troops, he started by saying he started the thread that was at the time the longest thread in site history. (It wasn't, but Pat never was one for actual reality.) baseballwise, as sweet a lady as you'd ever want to meet, even lost her composure with him.
We've come a long way to getting to the point where we're at now.
I remember in my early days here, I can't remember the thread topic, me calling another denizen of the Tigers forum, racosun, an alarmist because I thought he was overreacting to something. I think. Either way, we are friends now, and I am glad of that.

[Bill Burgess]

right now I'm sitting at 11th

That's not possible. No way. There are many more than that with more posts to their credit than 10! I listed more than 10 in my brief chart!!

Bill

[digglahhh]

Yeah, that's because Ubiq is the resuurection of a previous poster. This was before my time, but in terms of the BBF lore, the rumor is that he used to be cubbieinexile.

Cubbieinexile posts 3052
+ Ubiquitous posts 1749
___________________________
4801

Good for #11.

Hey maybe I should work for the San Fran Chronicle...

[Bill Burgess]

Yeah, that's because Ubiq is the resuurection of a previous poster. This was before my time, but in terms of the BBF lore, the rumor is that he used to be cubbieinexile.

Cubbieinexile posts 3052
+ Ubiquitous posts 1749
___________________________
4801

Good for #11.

Hey maybe I should work for the San Fran Chronicle...

Naw. Still not buying the snake oil. I have over 7,000 posts & I doubt I crack the top 20. I'd imagine I'm somewhere around 30th.

Look at folks like RuthMayBond, ElHalo, Dodger Deb, leecemark, 538280. They post every single day, no matter what. How can Ubi keep pace with them?

Dr. Sceptical