The forums are 8 years old!

[orudge]

I managed to forget about the birthday of the forums yesterday, whoops. They're now 8 years (and one day) old! Hurrah! Not long until we're in double digits now, eh?

[planetmaker]

Ha! Congratulations to the forum and thanks to you and all the other maintainers of this site for this a beautiful ressource for so long and so amiably May it live long and prosper.

[Nite Owl]

How long is that in internet years?

Congratulations on a wonderful venue. As I have typed in the past this is a special place inhabited by great people.

[Lord Aro]

Congrats again, but it's going to be a long time before this forum goes completely quiet

But, your (orudge) join date says Jan '01, which makes the forums over 9 years...

[Pingaware]

But, your (orudge) join date says Jan '01, which makes the forums over 9 years...

I know this one, I know this one!

This specific forum (TT-Forums) is now 8 years old. However, Owen previously had a different forum which also dealt with TTD. That one was combined with another to form TT-Forums eight years and one day ago.

[Illegal_Alien]

So we have doomed the internet for 8 years now?

[orudge]

How long is that in internet years?

Well, just think, in 2002, GeoCities was still king, broadband was mostly just a dream (in the UK at any rate), and "social networking" was rather unheard of. Web sites still had "Best viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer" logos, and most people were still on Windows 98, yet to upgrade to XP. And alt.games.microprose.transport-tyc still saw non-spam traffic... how times change!

And yes, Pingaware is right - my own Transport Tycoon Station had a forum, which was started in January 2001. Matt Gillard ran TransportTycoon.co.uk (which now points at my site, but was once a completely separate site), and he launched some forums in 2002, I think. We decided in October 2002 to create a new forum based upon our own two forums, and here we are. (If you've ever noticed the "Archived Forums" section of these forums, you can still read the old owenrudge.co.uk forum posts; the TT.co.uk posts are basically any posts dating before the 26th of October 2002 in other sections.)

[SHADOW-XIII]

Only 8 years? Sometimes it feels it's ages already
Congratulations orudge.

[jvassie]

Indeed, Congratulations Owen, you've done an amazing job over the years

[habell]

Indeed, Congratulations Owen, you've done an amazing job over the years

Second that

[Dave]

I kind of see Owen Rudge as my god on earth, put on this earth to guide and protect us.

[Marco]

Matt Gillard ran TransportTycoon.co.uk (which now points at my site, but was once a completely separate site), and he launched some forums in 2002, I think.

Omnislash (who doesn't write anymore on this forum) founded a first forum some 10 years ago. Then around in 2002 his forum "disappeared" (I don't know why, I haven't seen it). As I was searching a forum about TT without success I founded one hosting it on my website but proposing Omnislash to advertise it as the TT.co.uk forum. This forum grow up a lot, and then was renamed TT-Forums after merging with Owen's forum (which at that time was much smaller). If I hadn't founded it in around 2002, maybe TT-Forums would not exist (that's why I had the user ID 1 until the upgrade to phpBB3)

The old forum can be seen here (link found by Omnislash in an older thread): http://web.archive.org/web/200208050551 ... h/main.php

[orudge]

The old forum can be seen here (link found by Omnislash in an older thread): http://web.archive.org/web/200208050551 ... h/main.php

Ah, that old logo, I remember that; I knocked it up in Paint Shop Pro some 10 years ago for Omni, heh.

He did pop back a couple of years ago, but he seems to have disappeared again now.

[Darkvater]

Congrats orudge!
It has been a really, really long time. Maybe it's time to upgrade to new forum software?

[SHADOW-XIII]

Marco, long time no see.
Lot's of people not visiting this place any more and soo bad, it was fun place,
I remember: Omnislash, lynsey, spaceman-spiff, sultana, Mad Dog McKill, Rob, Dinges!
even Patchman and Csaba not visiting here often.

Guys, would love to hear from you, even just 1 post

[orudge]

Congrats orudge!
It has been a really, really long time. Maybe it's time to upgrade to new forum software?

I upgraded the other week to the latest version of phpBB, what more can you want?

Lot's of people not visiting this place any more and soo bad, it was fun place,
I remember: Omnislash, lynsey, spaceman-spiff, sultana, Mad Dog McKill, Rob, Dinges!
even Patchman and Csaba not visiting here often.

See the "old gits" thread in Off-Topic. Sadly, none of those guys you've mentioned have posted there (yet!), although Rob is still around, I know for sure. Patchman can usually be found on IRC given a prod or two, but isn't particularly active. The others I haven't seen for months if not years.

[DeletedUser21]

There is a substantial change in atmosphere aswell between 2003/2004 and today. Not implying that it's bad, just different. Time flies and things change.

[Lord Aro]

No doubt due to the OpenTTD n00bs asking silly questions all the time
Like me, to be honest

[orudge]

Well, also, all of us were 8 years younger, which in many cases put us in our early to mid teens, compared to our early twenties. So I think that accounts for a lot.

[JamieLei]

And there have been some pretty global movements. Orudge for a good while (still?) lived in the States. Ameeeeeecher moved to New Zealand for half a year. I moved to Japan, Dave moved to Lancashire, and bwong seems to be jetting from country to country!