History of the board

[Dooley67]

Can someone please give me some history of the board. Several weeks ago I tried looking in archives but found that anything prior to 2011 was not saved. I'm very interested in understanding the historical perspective of anything I'm involved in. I know several of you were around in the old days of the board and probably can give me some information.

D67

[Byron]

"anything I am involved in" is the difficult part there as the old board members
(what few exist) will have to know what you are involved in if they are to make a relevant recollection of a past post or posts . There were no separate forums within the board's content in those days but Mike came in the end to change the layout (and name) in order to conform to what you see on just about every other forum on the Internet.
You may well get opinions on how well it was/was not enjoyed (in its former rather chaotic state) and you will see some reactions to the reformatting in the very early posts in the archives available today (some members were not happy to lose a simple arrangement they preferred and did not wish to continue their participation).
Louis tells me the Speedo Fantasy Board existed perhaps 10-12 years prior to that - though all the history you want might be better ascertained by a request to Mike, the founder.

[Dooley67]

Originally Posted by Byron

"anything I am involved in" is the difficult part there as the old board members
(what few exist) will have to know what you are involved in if they are to make a relevant recollection of a past post or posts (there were no separate forums within the board's content in those days but Mike came in the end to change the layout (and name) in order to conform to what you see on just about every other forum on the Internet.
You may well get opinions on how well it was/was not enjoyed (in its former rather chaotic state) and you will see some reactions to the reformatting in the very early posts in the archives available today (some members were not happy to lose a simple arrangement they preferred and did not wish to continue their participation).
Louis tells me the Speedo Fantasy Board existed perhaps 10-12 years prior to that - though all the history you want might be better ascertained by a request to Mike, the founder.

Byron,
What I really meant was any group or on this case, board of which I am a member. Hope this clarifies it.


D67

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Hi D67,

I was active on the old board for many years before it converted to the new board. Back in those days it was known first as the "Gay Speedo Fantasy Board" then later the "Gay" was dropped (good move) at the request of some posters who were not gay. I think I started in the late 1990's, so the board goes back at least that far. I actually started posting my earliest stories there, so the loss of those archives took with it my first efforts at story writing on the board.

The biggest two differences were that there was no organization to the board, so stories, selling posts, and puzzles were all mixed in with conversational posts. Second was that you did not have to be a member and there was no sign in. Some of the posters from the old board used the same name when they came to the new one, others may have changed names. I was STS in both, but my earliest days I posted under a different name. I don't recall why I changed, but I think it was that another poster was using a name close to mine so I changed to avoid confusion.

Like this board, some posts at time got snippy. However, if you can imagine, it was a bigger deal back then because the old board had total anonymity (no sign in) so people would post nasty comments regularly. I don't think there was a private message feature (at least I don't remember there being one), so you had no way to communicate except on the open forum.

Topics did not float to the top when new posts were added, so strings just faded away and the topic would restart on a new string. However most of the conversation was the same as today, talk about swimsuits. There was also a "live chat" feature that was active at times, a chat room where you could banter live. That was a fun feature.

There are varied opinions on the old versus new. The old board was simple, the new one is more structured. I like the new board far better. First, the new one has a better mix of gay and straight (and bi) members, so there is more variety in topics. Second, the PM feature is a nice way to correspond with closer friendships you develop. Third, the topic areas make things easier to find and the floating posts, keeping current stuff up top makes sense.

Hope this helps, I am sure other long time members can add more.

STS

[Torchwatch]

Don't forget Mrs Grundy on the old board!

[shaulis]

I remember Mrs. Grundy "she" always got the board talking. Mrs. Grundy was a lightning rod for more people to post their thoughts on what she said.