When Did It All Begin?

[Scorpion]

Wondered about this for a while now.

When did the forum actually start, were Koi and Lucky the founders, and are there still any original members around?

[Scorpion]

Hmmmm, as usual, as an after thought (is that one word?) I went to the last page listed and it's dated August 2003. I therefore assume that was when it all kicked off. If so, Jim L was one of the first to post and he still has his membership star, although I haven't seen him on line for ages.

[Koi]

Not originally we were not.
Heres how it all happened.

I bought a Surf not knowing anything about them, bought it picked it up and came home searched the net for anything to do with Surfs.

Found a little forum (and it was little) set up by a guy called wayne, so registered on it.

Couldn't think of a user name and as I was digging a pond at the time thought yeah 'koi' will do, naff, but thought won't be on here much anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I remeber it had about 150 members or so, only held something like 3000 posts then any new ones just knocked the oldest post in to touch, lost forever.

After a few months Wayne put a post up saying he had sold his Surf no longer wanted the forum so put it up for sale.

So I thought hell I'll buy it, can't be much to running, hosting a forom, can there. Oh how wrong I was.

Got all the domain names swapped over, Tony (TonyN) offered to help me, so we sat down for a few hours writing HTML stuff. I thought sod this what have I let myself in for.

In stepped Andy (lucky), a few days later we had the basics of a small forum and a start of a bit of a main website.

After 100,000's of man hours and a few thousand pounds, several swapping of servers and forum software, here we are now.

Along the way I have been offered several times a few thousand pounds to sell the domain name, forum the lot. Tempted at times but all offers came from dealers and couldn't bear the thought of it becoming a dealers site full of adds, so kept it going.

All in all thanks go to Andy for helping me with all the tech stuff, he is my right hand man when it comes to that stuff. Tony and Jon (jotto) for being mods, as it grew it became to much for just a couple to keep an eye on things.

Yes there is still a few on here from the very early days of that little forum.

So there you go the history of this place

[Apache]

What date was that Nige? Is there a way of 'sorting' the membership list into 'length of membership'?

[captain_chaos]

Well I learnt something new today there, thanks for the history lesson. You'll be reciving funds to keep the site going at the end of the month.

[Scorpion]

Cheers Nigel, very interesting read.

Nice to know how the forum has grown to what it is today from such humble beginings.

[da SLUG man]

What date was that Nige? Is there a way of 'sorting' the membership list into 'length of membership'?

all member numbers are sequential...

I'm 37!


bought mine about a month before it changed over to this forum....

we used to have tea parties and everything!!

[BUSHWHACKER]

I'm 944.

Anyone who wants to know theirs or anyone elses number, just hover your mouse cursor over your/their user name in any thread, the number will be shown at the bottom of the page just above the start bar.

[Woodzie]

I'm 944.

Anyone who wants to know theirs or anyone elses number, just hover your mouse cursor over your user name in any thread, the number will be shown at the bottom of the page just above the start bar.

DON'T work for me

[BUSHWHACKER]

DON'T work for me

You're 2709.

[Woodzie]

Thanks chap........Now need 3 good ones for my next 3 posts

[blackpoolsparks]

No way !! Im 14 thousand 5 hundred and 44th. How many menmbers are there.

[Maverick]

My join date changed during one of the server changes, from when I first joined, to a month after I first paid.
I've always wished I'd found the site before I got the truck, but thanks to Tony we worked through here faults (she lived in his yard for nearly a year).

[lord lucan]

what a lovely bit of history,well done koi

[That Ruddy Squirrel]

Come in number 1391, your time is up