20 Years of ProBoards

[elli]

Jan 7, 2020 8:03:23 GMT -8 Robyn said:

Now I identify in the LGBT community (which I used to publicly denounce on GT), am no longer religious or believing, and am actually finding happiness with my family and my career and education. It's still rough, but im so glad to have made GT part of this experience.

That's crazy, man. I remember how, uh, aggressively Mormon you were back then. And you don't even live here at the Mothership (Utah)... I'm happy to hear you've found happiness through other aspects of your life!

[Kim]

Wow. 20 years? That's insane. I joined back in 2005, I was 15 years old. Looking back at old posts, spelling was terrible and the threads were cringey but I remember them fondly.

1. Share your fondest memories of ProBoards with us. .

My fondest memories were the glory days of graphic design and coding forums. I remember seeing such awesome banners in signatures and wanting to be able to create one myself instead of having to request them. This then inspired me to get into Photoshop even more and create design forums of my own (even though they failed miserably and were below par) but that was the fun, the chase of having a successful design forum that was respectable. Secondly was being an active member of well established design forums, primarly G101 Design. I still have the G101 custom signature, before I became a moderator.

2. How did ProBoards affect your life?

It massively helped my spelling, when I first joined it was shockingly bad. I wasn't involved in any other online community other than myspace. My confidence improved and met some good friends, however I have lost contact with all of them. The proboards community made my teenage years less lonely.

[wildmaven]

Jan 9, 2020 17:57:25 GMT -8 Kim said:

My fondest memories were the glory days of graphic design and coding forums.  

I loved seeing member creativity. Those were golden days!

[~Zoey~]

So many memories of this place, I was in a pretty bad place back in the day and GT became a bit of an escape! I learnt a lot about diversity, how to have a debate or disagreement respectfully and a lot about the ups and downs of the internet. These days I have 3 small people, attending uni full time and volunteering... life is crazy busy but I’m still drawn back to check in on this place.

[HoudiniDerek]

Jan 10, 2020 21:20:05 GMT -8 ~Zoey~ said:

So many memories of this place, I was in a pretty bad place back in the day and GT became a bit of an escape! I learnt a lot about diversity, how to have a debate or disagreement respectfully and a lot about the ups and downs of the internet. These days I have 3 small people, attending uni full time and volunteering... life is crazy busy but I’m still drawn back to check in on this place.

Three small ones!?  I didn't know you had three now.  Congrats! 

[Kim]

Jan 10, 2020 10:07:16 GMT -8 wildmaven said:

Jan 9, 2020 17:57:25 GMT -8 Kim said:

My fondest memories were the glory days of graphic design and coding forums.  

I loved seeing member creativity. Those were golden days!

Absolutely, I miss those days.

[Ayen]

I've been using ProBoards on and off since 2005, but I didn't become real active in the community until 2008 as ToriJ. I've made several different role-playing and general discussion forums since then. And I caused my fair share of drama when I was a dumb kid who didn't know any better. Now I'm 30 years old and I feel old being on this service for fifteen years. Dang.

[CrazyBoy]

I was here for less than a year I am happy that I found good persons, This site made me learn a lot
Special thank's to Scott for his patient for me
I was asking a lot !

[Willow]

I came to PB/FDN nearly six years ago now when a Bioware shut down their official forums and left many of us with no safe place to go and talk about Bioware video games.

Luckily, I was able to get a site up at PB before they went down and was able to communicate with my friends there to come on over! Six years later we have grown so much from the tiny site I set up at first.

And then I got sucked into RP sites here at PB and created my own. As well as the original site that is now a fan and RP site, I have a Gotham based RP site and opening a Star Wars based one very soon as well.

On a more serious note, I became involved with Bioware games after I was in an accident and nearly died and was in a coma for months. PB and then FDN by extension became such an important part of my recovery. I am not sure if I’d still be here without them. It gave me a reason to keep going when I was the lowest I’ve ever been. It really was part of a the light that gave me hope.

I’m sure the support people at PB/FDN roll there eyes when they get a support ticket from me but I have grown quite fond of them as they are the real heart of PB/FDN. I have rarely, if ever, come across a support team that is more sincere in helping out.

So, this is to your first 20 years PB, I hope the next 20 are as wonderful.

[Belle]

  Congratulations Proboards for 20 years! I've been with you most of those years. 

      

[:~:Sarapha:~:]

I joined my first Proboards forum in October of 2005, a Harry Potter RPG that was quickly dying. I created my own HP RPG December 25, 2006, which I still operate to this day. Through Proboards, I've connected to so many different people, some of whom have passed on, and many of whom became very close friends that I've even met off site. I've learned about so many different cultures, and ways of life that I wouldn't have been exposed to, if not for the friendships I've made.

As for support; I remember the huge freak out over what "Generally Discussion" meant, I remember logging on after every big event to see if anyone else had posted about it.

I remember the time before plug-ins when you had to craft your whole forum through codes in the header and footer. I remember the time before you could add members to multiple groups and having to hand count every single character on site to know how many were in each category. I remember when using a username of a deleted character made their posts look like your posts.

wildmaven; I remember you from the very beginning!

[Retread]

Feb 9, 2020 15:28:31 GMT -8 @voxxx said:

Dec 6, 2019 8:14:06 GMT -8 leif said:

On January 1, 2020 ProBoards turns 20

?
According to whois, proboards.com were created on October 14, 1999 (14 October 1999) at 13:23:27.
Seems your countdown is 92 days (13 weeks and one day, or three months') late

It doesn't seem that way to me.

Proboards said:

ProBoards Free Forum Hosting officially launched January 1, 2000

Personally I think it makes more sense to celebrate the official launch than the purchase of the domain name. YMMV.

[Retread]

Feb 11, 2020 20:00:05 GMT -8 @voxxx said:

^ You only specify the start for this forum with user1's registration date.
In which case, this should be clearly specified as the anniversery for Proboards Support Forum.

Are you certain?

I think what's being celebrated is the date when users on the internet were first permitted to create their own forums on the ProBoards service.

[Retread]

Feb 18, 2020 21:54:24 GMT -8 @voxxx said:

To your question, Retread oh yes most certainly, but ask yourself: is your counter-productive ambiguous quoted challenge answered convincedly enough to other proboard support users, rather than question mine?

Proboards Founder said:

This 30 year-old founder and CEO of SoCal-based ProBoards, a company he launched as a high school junior. His passion for computer programming, the Internet, and providing quality free services to the online community began in 1995. A true visionary, he quickly learned the value of web traffic and how to generate it after creating his first message board in 1998. He knew that by developing an interactive communications service others valued, he could harness the power of "FREE," while building a wildly successful online business. He remains the technical visionary behind ProBoards and is focused on the continual improvement of ProBoards' free forum hosting service and its contributions to social media.

Proboard users can check this out for themselves, without any helping hand here.

I applaud your vigorous, contrarian efforts of misdirection and disinformation in your unsuccessful attempt to rain on this parade.

However, I must inform you that your focus on the years 1995 and 1998 proves to be a pair of red herrings.

Evidence indicates Patrick Clinger's first message board was not on the ProBoards.com service:

[Source] VS Admin said:

My name is Patrick Clinger, I am the President and CEO of ProBoards, Inc. I had the idea for ProBoards in the late 1990s. At the time, I ran the web site HostedScripts.com. The site offered a variety of free hosted services (guestbooks, counters, and even a basic forum). I saw that forums were one of the most popular features the site offered, so I decided to make a new site where forums would be the main focus. That site, as it turns out, is ProBoards

While Mr Clinger's service to the online community dating back to 1995 is commendable and worth celebrating on its own, that does not appear to be the intent of this thread.

Likewise, Mr Clinger's first forum in 1998 (apparently on the HostedScripts.com website) might be worthy of its own celebration. But that's not what this thread was meant to celebrate.

The purchase of the domain name for proboards.com on October 14, 1999 (which you previously insisted was when ProBoards started) might merit a footnote somewhere and I doubt anyone would object if you chose to start your own thread to celebrate that date. But again, that's clearly not what this thread was meant to celebrate.

I believe our ThreadStarter, leif , intended to celebrate this:

ProBoards said:

ProBoards Free Forum Hosting officially launched January 1, 2000.

link

And regarding "Official Launch, which ProBoards' own documentation cites as January 1, 2000, I stand by my previously stated belief:
"I think what's being celebrated is the date when users on the internet were first permitted to create their own forums on the ProBoards service."

You might continue with your attempts to spoil the party. But as far as I'm concerned, I don't see that as a genuine problem. Bring on your rain. I have plenty of umbrellas and I'm willing to share!

[Retread]

Feb 19, 2020 11:53:18 GMT -8 @voxxx said:

So, what year are we celebrating: 1995, 1998, 1999 or 2000?

January 1, 2000, of course!

Proboards said:

ProBoards Free Forum Hosting officially launched January 1, 2000

Dec 6, 2019 8:14:06 GMT -8 leif said:

On January 1, 2020 ProBoards turns 20!!!

Feb 19, 2020 11:53:18 GMT -8 @voxxx said:

I only asked to make sure the caterers put the right number of candles on the birthday cake.

That's already been handled. The caterer went with TWO since twenty presents more of a fire hazard.



Stop yappin' and eat some cake!