Forums hit a Decade.

[ubeaut]

Forums hit a Decade.

NOT YET folks not yet!

MAY 26th 1999

Woodwork Forums went on line for testing Monday May 24th 1999 - We went live 26th May. First registrations were also May 26th and so were the first posts. Some of them were lost when we switched from UBB Forum to vBulletin some time in 2001. In 2002 a lot of dates were change to January 1970 because of a bug and a lot of posts from the first few months were lost.

The first post was done by Jim Carroll on 26th and was one of those lost. The whole shootin' match fell over for most of the first Thurs, Fri & Sun nights and for a good part of the Monday. From then on we were basically go, go, go.

Cheers - Neil

[Groggy]

Fair go Neil, this is just the warm up thread. We're practicing for the real thing in a fortnight

Trust Jim to lose the first post (or was it 's fault when trying to reply - bigredbutton-itis)

[Groggy]

So what is the story Neil - give it up. Were you lot on the turps and thought "hey, I know, let's start a WW forum! That will give us something to do during all the spare hours we have."

How did it come about? Enquiring minds want to know

[ubeaut]

Was playing on another AU Forum that was kinda going nowhere and old style. Thought I'd have a play around with the new style of forum and see if they wanted to update to it. Showed it to Doorstop who in turn showed it to the owner of the other forum, who in turn spat the dummy, reckoned I was the biggest bastard God ever put breath intoand took all my stuff off their site. Silly person.

That made me decide to keep it as my own forum and to hell with people who treat me like sheeit for trying to help. I set it all up, even though I really had no experience with anything like this before. Showed it to and asked if he wanted to come on board as and Moderator as he had done a fair bit of forum surfing and knew much more about forum protocols, decorum, etc than I did.

From memory I had an IBM 486slx or something, running Windows 98 and only had my new 56k modem for a few weeks, prior to that I had a borrowed 13k modem. I had a pretty big network of woodworkers because of my School of Woodcrafts and years of working as a carver, woodturner, restorer, etc. Let it be known what I was doing and invited everyone to come have a look and participate if they wanted to.

And the rest is Woodwork Forums.

Oh yeah for the first few years and I ran the whole shootin match almost entirely by ourselves. spending as much as 7-10 hours a day online keeping an eye on things, sorting out problems, etc. We used to read or scan every single post and often started many threads to actually get things happening and encourage a bit of interest.

Until January 2005 I fully funded the forums it was about then that the Google adds started to bring in a couple of dollars and for the next few years those adds paid for a fair percentage of the forums.over a year ago somethoing happened and that income dropped dramatically to the point where i was again funding the major part of the whole shootin match again. Last year I implimented the Sponsors Bannersand with their help The forums are now almost completely self funded.

We've tried a few things to improve the forums over the year. To date pretty well everything has worked, all bar a few glitches with programs or hacks that didn't work the way they were supposed to. Possibly one of the worst things I've done is to separate the Reno Forums from these forums. Should have listened to my own feelings instead of anyone else. Don't think it'll ever pay its way in its own right, but did make a huge contribution to these forums when it was on.

The forums were originally set up with the main emphysis being on Woodturning, and Finishing and to a lesser extent Carving and General Woodwork. It's sort of grown a little bit since then.

Why did I do it? Partly because I was forced. Mostly to give back some of what woodwork has given to me over the 40 odd years I've been mucking around with it.

What's next.

New Library:
We are currently working on a new Library that will put info at your fingertips and list many of the brilliant projects from the froums with only the relevant information and none of the drivel that crops up in most of them.

New Buy Sell n Swap
This will shortly be revamped with with new sub forums to make searching or particular items much easier and keep them to the fore for longer.

New Free Stuff Prize Draws format
This has alread been implimented with the first draw to be done in June

Is that enough...... I've gotta go to bed. Big day tomorrow.

Cheers - Neil

[wheelinround]

Amazing story Neil and I for one thank the mongrel who forced you

So the party prep's have begun and every TWWS there should be a sign up announcing that it is 10 years old

[Rossluck]

Without wishing to attract accusations of sycophancy, I think that the success of the forums are a testimony to Neil's inherent decency. Neil, you drew a line in the sand, and you've maintained a vigilant watch over that line, and any member who stepped over it was dealt with. This has meant that these forums are a pleasant place to be, and I for one appreciate them. Thanks.

[beer is good]

As a new kid on the block (I joined up in 2007) I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to those who started the forum. I am amazed at the amount of knowledge and wisdom out there, and the willingness of so many to help out a fellow woody. I really don't know how we would manage without this Internet thing.

[John Saxton]

A great big thanks to Neil,,Jim,Doorstop for their enduring patience in keeping a well run forum on an even keel over the last 10 yrs.

A personal thanks for an enlightening,entertaining and exciting forum that continues to nurture and encourage all things that we all value in life.

Notwithstanding all the Moderators deserve a hufe vote of thanks for their tireless efforts on keeping all in a fair and even perspective.

Roll on the next decade going from strength to strength ......ONYA

Cheers

[AUSSIE]

A great big thanks to Neil,,Jim,Doorstop for their enduring patience in keeping a well run forum on an even keel over the last 10 yrs.

A personal thanks for an enlightening,entertaining and exciting forum that continues to nurture and encourage all things that we all value in life.

Notwithstanding all the Moderators deserve a huge vote of thanks for their tireless efforts on keeping all in a fair and even perspective.

Roll on the next decade going from strength to strength ......ONYA

Cheers

You must really mean this John.Putting the same thing on twice in 2 minutes
I have done this myself,thinking I havent sent it yet.
The bit about the MODS, well dont give them a bigger head

[John Saxton]

You must really mean this John.Putting the same thing on twice in 2 minutes
I have done this myself,thinking I havent sent it yet.
The bit about the MODS, well dont give them a bigger head

Hey gotta give them some kudos especially when they can delete a post entered twice

Cheers

[RETIRED]

You gotta be quick.

[Grumpy John]

...............
Oh yeah for the first few years and I ran the whole shootin match almost entirely by ourselves. spending as much as 7-10 hours a day online keeping an eye on things, sorting out problems, etc.
...............

Called in on unexpectedly on Thursday arvo and caught him "hard at work" on the computer. It didn't look like moderating to me though .

Oh yeah, congratulations on the ten years Neil and the gang. Best bloody site on the web .

[munruben]

I think the forum has proved itself over and over again to be a great success. Ten years on and still going strong. Not a bad achievement.

[Ozkaban]

I'm a relative newby around here (class of 08), but my wood working has benefited enormously from the wealth of knowledge contained within.

Many thanks to the Neil and the team for the effort that has gone into setting it all up and keeping it a nice and clean place to be

Cheers,
Dave