A not very brief history of time

Could some kind person fill me in on the history of the SDMB please?

I’m vaguely aware of it starting on AOL… Then it went on the net around 1999… There were posters like The Grapist, Master Wang-Ka, and Manhatten. Tried pay for post in around 2003ish, didn’t work and that was given up in 2007ish. Charter membership is a relic of that experiment. At one point was in top fifty sites in the internet.

And Liberal, who is my only friend according to my friends list :wink: used to be called Libertarian.

OK so that’s what I know - but it would be nice, I think, if someone could write a nice long history of the message board.

You may find this thread of interest: Ten Years of the Dope: a history.

Yup that’s the kind of thing I’m looking for, thanks Colibri!

I’m working on converting that to an actual time-line. I figure I have at least ten years. :slight_smile: