Here’s a summary listing of suggested topics to be included in the ultimate Timeline, in the order they appear in this thread.
Add some more!
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An SDMB Timeline
Does such a thing already exist? If so, where? If not, I think it might be fun to build one with such details as:
Sequence of starting dates for the various fora
Vital statistics of Mods and Admins (etc.)
— Join Date
— Date of becoming whatever
— Number of posts
Major dates of significant events
— Pay to Play
— Changes in Board Software
— Major crashes
— Busiest day
— Least busy day
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Don’t forget the Winter of Our Missed Content. (Don’t know the exact dates)
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Notable bannings might be one.
Say, handy, Satan, or more recently, Diogenes the Cynic.
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The mass exodus brought on by Pay2Post was a huge game changer for me. Trek threads were never the same after that.
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WILL ANDREWT85 NEVER GET HIS ATMB BANNING THREAD?
What is WRONG with you MODS AND ADMINS?!
O THE INJUSTICE!!!1!!!
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If you’re going for a complete timeline of forums, don’t forget that Comments on Cecil’s Columns and Comments on Staff Reports were separate at one point.
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JeffB
Charter Member
I did a search on “forum” in thread titles. A quick look through the title for anything like “new forum” found:
“2010 U.S. Election” 6/1/2010 changed to “Elections” 6/2/2010
The Barn House 9/4/2008
Happy Thoughts 4/1/2011
Marketplace 12/7/2010
The Game Room 2/21/2008
There’s not an option on our end to search for all Announcements, which might find others.
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Rick
Charter Member
If we are compiling a history don’t forget the lost weekend.
SDMB was (as I recall) going to move over to a new server. Jerry backed up on Friday and started to work. Everything posted after the backup and until the new equipment went online was going to be lost, so TPTB declared a free weekend and we all got our ya-ya out as it were.
Fun times.
Also try to include some of the April 1st mod hi jinks.
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I’ve been toying with some other gee-whiz things we might try to find:
– The first BANNED user
– The first Closed thread (who started it, how big was it, who closed it, when)
– Which Mod has closed the most threads
– The longest time span between closed threads
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First reported death: WallyM7 in early 2000 (then we found out there was nothing to corroborate it)
Second reported death: Dr. Watson also in early 2000 (same problem with WallyM7)
First confirmed death: poopah chalupah
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In addition to deaths, do we have documentation of convicted felons?
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First Doper marriage (both being Dopers before meeting, maybe even limited to meeting on SDMB)
First Doper in space.
First known Doper Jeopardy winner.
Wackiest Doper meltdown (resulting in banning and also not)
Longest time between posts by currently active Doper.
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Earl Snake-Hips Tucker
Here’s an old thread that mentions some of the notable events when this board was only three years old.
It mentions the first reported meeting of Dopers from this board incarnation, although some had actually met previously from the AOL board.
First possible all-Doper marriage looks to be in 2001. I think they’ve since split, so that would also probably be the first all-Doper divorce!
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First Poll?
First charity effort to a Doper?
Halloween themes?
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locating the SDMB poll with the most voters
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Have you covered “User who started the most threads?”
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The entire thread:
Watershed moments in SDMB history; or, the SDMB Anthology Project
06-04-2002, 10:49 PM
SpartanDC
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Also this thread:
Ten years of the Dope: a history
10-26-2009, 10:51 AM
Rhythmdvl
Which includes:
Here is what I have so far, in no real order. I did make some loose categorizations for the time being, but these can be combined when things start to come together - adding specific dates when remembered or adjustments made in relative order. I have a few other ideas as to how to organize/nominate/structure things, but I’d rather see if anyone’s interested in the idea first.
Board Events
Handy breaking 10,000 posts
Cecil’s last sighting
Board goes pay-to-post
Winter of Our Lost Content
StormFront invasion
Lost weekend
Passing of members (from the memorial thread)
Left Behind outbreak
Pit rules change
Board returns from pay-to-post
Weird URLs/threadspotting begins
First Doper-to-Doper marriage
First Doper-to-Doper kid
First column inspired by the boards
SDSAB created
Board is sold
Café Society opens
Game Room opens
Great Threads (this is a category that can get out of hand … perhaps the most likely category that needs nomination and at least a couple seconds?)
What if the Lord of the Rings had been written by someone else?
Will a plane on a treadmill take off?
14 k of g in a f p d
Found wallet from the 70’s
What happens on May 33rd but only on leap year?
First MMP
First Sequential Threads
First mini-rant
Catch Phrases
Gotcha Ya
Rio
Hi Opal!
Once, in 1960, for twenty minutes…
1920s style “death ray”
News Events that shook the Board(for context)
9/11
Madrid - 3/11
London - 7/7
Bush v. Gore
Bush v. Kerry
Obama v. McCain
Indian Ocean Tsunami
Afghanistan invasion
Iraq invasion
Palin nomination
No listing of important milestones in SDMB history would be complete without some of the more memorable threads
Off the top of my head
9/11/2001
Coldfire’s thread about liberation in WWII
The Horror of blimps
Hal Briston’s sheep thread
Are there actual cites available for some of our catch phrases? For instance, I’ve heard the story of “Hi, Opal” a bunch of times…but how about a cite of the first time someone used it? Or of Opal’s actual comments?
-D/a
The Hi Opal came from a post of Opal’s where she complained that people were using the list function
[list] when they only had two bullet points. She maintained that a list had to have at least three bullet points or it wasn’t a list.
So place #3 has been reserved for Hi Opal since that time.
Where that original post came from I don’t know, but I will bet someone here can dredge it up.
We seem to have a large variety of things we could include in a timeline. Now the issue is how do we go about putting significant posts and threads into a chronology that makes for easier reading and easy lookup of those important moments.
If by “OP” you mean me, I have no major issue with quoting or paraphrasing things that relate to SDMB from other sources. If I said that such material was “out of bounds” I don’t remember saying that, and I surely didn’t intend to stifle any history that pertains to the SDMB’s development.
With such non-SDMB sources, I would hope we might have some level of substantiation or at least a statement that such sources are more than just hearsay. But since we would be relying pretty much on people’s memories for the acccuracy of such things, I believe it would be best if we labeled such things as “As I recall…” or “I think it was the case that…” and that sort of thing.
On those things that can be linked to in non-SDMB websites, as long as that material bears on SDMB history, I can’t see the objection to referring to it. It might just trigger memories of things that are available in the archives or mainstream threads and posts.
This whole venture is going to need a lot more participation than I can provide. I didn’t even get here until 2003, so a lot of what I “know” is already hearsay. Those of you who were here in the beginning (AOL and early incarnations of the SDMB) ought to be more reliable than I can be.
Where’s that guy who wanted to build better forum SW? Maybe he could help.
Seriously though - To get some thoughts flowing..do we want:
Short paragraphs of description, with links interspersed?
Just headings with links?
Pages of information with occasional links?
Quotes from threads?
Would it help if we had a ‘table of contents’ based on ideas here, to understand how to present it?
-D/a
Another topic that I don’t remember being mentioned - things like when we became searchable on Google. Custom titles becoming available. Wasn’t there a poll/contest/something for adding a new smiley at one point?
Is there an archive of the announcement threads? There might be some things of interest.
-D/a
Outstanding contribution! A pattern I would hope we could use for other such noteworthy events.
We have dozens of generalities for things that need to be verified and/or cited. Now the task is to locate the actual threads or posts where they happened.
Slight correction: Poopah Chalup was the first death (2002) that was confirmed in its own thread.
But. . . A year earlier, a poster named hope (ironic, huh?) with a scant 20 or so posts died. Since she was a neighbor of a still-active member, I’d say that’s a confirmation.
Note that in that thread, most board members were still accepting WallyM7’s and Dr. Watson’s deaths at face value.
Another defining moment: The announcement of Emma Kate’s birth. One of our members had had a difficult pregnancy, and the outlook appeared grim–but this plucky little girl fought like hell and beat the odds.
