Is it just me, or are we coming upon a 10'th anniversary?

Apparently a traditional 10'th anniversary gift is "Tin" according to Wikipedia. I say we shower Ryan, Ted and others with tin!

But seriously, can we really let such a milestone pass quietly?

WHAT SHOULD WE DO?!

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but since Ted's profile says:

"Member Since: November 11, 2004"

I would guess that it has been 10 years.

I found this board in about 2008

Well, this design of the site may be approaching 10 years. As Alan mentioned, it started with the TCOM site back in the mid-90's. That site was ahead of its time. I remember being able to listen to streaming audio around about the time RealAudio was just coming into existence.

But the powers-that-be I guess decided it probably wasn't best to host a fan message board (maybe NCAA no-no?). So then it moved to EZBoard (pay-for-message board site) that relied on donations to keep it alive. I remember Pete Chouteau funding many months.

For Christmas 2000, I was given web-publishing software called FrontPage. I built a front-end to the message board that allowed us to post game stories and recruiting news. In April of 2001, I registered the BobcatAttack domain and bought web hosting through FatCow. Mike Coleman was instrumental in helping lead me through how to actual get the files posted to the web. In fact, I think he may have a screen shot of the original front page. In addition to Mike and others, Rollie Merriman was extremely helpful in posting game videos and doing video interviews.

In May of 2003, I got an e-mail out of nowhere from a guy named Ryan Carey. Said he was working on a new version of the site. I didn't think much of it until he contacted me again in late 2003. I was blown away by the work he had done. He had built a complete content management system which cut down on the daily maintenance I had to do (like the daily newslinks) by a lot.

We started beta testing the message board in November of 2004 and I think rolled the site out to everyone in early 2005. And that site is what you see today. The content management system makes the daily work I do on this so much less time-consuming than before. I don't know what I would do without it.

I'm so thankful for the help I have received from folks like Mike, Rollie and Ryan and for those that have provided content like Lonnie McMillan. And those behind the scenes that have offered advice/support like Pete C., McKinney, Mike Johnson, Ben Shoemaker and others. Plus the awesome contributors that give this place the soul that it has. My Bobcat fandom and my life has been made much fuller by the people I have met through this site.

 

I'm pretty sure the meltdown occurred in Summer 2010. I remember Paul Myerberg's countdown blog mentioning it in our football preview.

I would love to see the Rollie Merriman-style videos and interviews make a comeback. Perhaps an opportunistic young journalism student wouldn't mind making it a personal project.

Here's the story on the 10th anniversary (April 12, 2011): http://www.bobcatattack.com/basketball/story.asp?PID=616 

And a screenshot of the original site:

 

Great story Ted! I guess I didn't realize (remember?) the site existed back in 2001. I certainly remember posting things during my college years (2000-2004)...must have been there.

To Ted, Mike Coleman, Jeff McKinney, Ryan Carey I extend my sincerest gratitude. BA provides my daily dose of Ohio sports information, insights and entertainment.

For the longest time, the old ezboard site was still available to read. Looks like it finally bit the dust in the past couple of years. The last time I remember looking at it was after Groce left.

http://pub6.ezboard.com/bgobobcats

Thank you.

Ditto.

Congrats, all leaders, contributors and sustainers, and thank you.

To think that I still have a job after 10 - 15+ years of surreptitious, workplace posting on this and the TComm site is truly amazing.

I congratulate you guys on sticking to your guns and not following the sheep to the slaughter, a.k.a. converting this site to a Rivals or Scout page, although I'm not sure that offer has ever presented itself or if that's how it works. The fact that this site is an independent source of information for Ohio University Athletics is a huge plus for me. Thanks for the years of service!