1bdvet

I just saw aviators box showing member since 1970, and has 15 year tag.

I didn't think we had personal computers back then. My first was Commodore 64, with Hays modem to log onto to bulletin boards, way back when.

J T

In brief, a 1969/1970 date means an incorrect or missing date on the account. There is just a few over 100 accounts in the database with that issue. Most likely from an issue with importing and upgrading the forum software several years ago.

1bdvet

Thank you, now I know why.

s'noJob

So how old IS corvetteforum?? I'll bet it has an interesting history.

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c4cruiser

I think the CF started around April, 1999

Vette_DD

I've seen some forum members with a sign up date of February, 1999.

At one time, about 3 or 4 years ago, several new forum members seem to have found a way to hack the system and create a sign up date of 1969 or 1970.

savewave

Troy Roberts and Ryan Adams launched Corvetteforum.com in early 1999. I believe they previously had worked at Compuware in Detroit.

The database shows Ryan as the first registrant on Feb. 10, 1999, so that's the date I use as the beginning date, although some users claim to have registered on the site before then.

Troy shows to have registered on Feb. 13, 1999, but is member #11229. That's the result of a system crash a few years after the site launched. Everybody who was signed on at the time of the crash disappeared from the database and had to re-register.

Bigtoe, one of the early administrators, manually reset the registration dates of those who requested it at the time, based on their best guess. Those who didn't request a reset may be the ones who now show they registered in 1969. That 1969 registration date, of course, was impossible.

At some point, Ryan moved on from Corvetteforum to other projects, although I don't know whether he maintained an ownership stake. From my perspective, Troy continued as the sole operator of the site.

In 1999, the options for talking online about Corvettes were more limited. Some of us participated on usenet -- alt.autos.corvettes (I think it was). At some point, I believe there was an Internet presence with the Yankee Lady site, although I wasn't on that site and have no first-hand knowledge of it.

I tried Corvetteforum when it launched, but stuck with usenet for a time because I thought the site was too slow to be competitive. The speed improved and I came around by mid-year '99. I don't know my actual registration date because I was one of those who was online when the site crashed. I guessed that my start date was at least by August.

The debate at the time Corvetteforum was launched was over how to sustain an Internet site for Corvette enthusiasts. One school of thought was to do it through subscriptions or user fees. The business model elected by Corvetteforum was to use advertising to pay for the bandwidth and other operating expenses of the site.

The site grew through the years to become the largest and most active site for Corvette enthusiasts on the Internet.

By 2006, it was pretty clear that Troy could not continue as the one-man tech department, sales department and accounting department -- even when the help he was getting from the volunteer admins. The choice was to make a significant investment to take Corvetteforum forward or to sell the site to someone who had the resources to help the site continue to grow.

Troy decided to sell and, after considerable research, decided Internet Brands was the company that he was most comfortable with passing "his baby" along to. The transaction occurred about the first of the year in 2007 but was not announced until mid-year at the request of IB because of some competitive considerations at the time.

Troy now is in the rum distilling business in Florida and seems to be growing that business with the same skill and insight he used with Corvetteforum.

Internet Brands did an IPO about the time the economy tanked and the company since has gone private again. The biggest advantage to Corvetteforum of IB's ownership, in my view, has been the technical resources they brought to the table.

Some of you who have been on the site from early on surely remember how the site would struggle to stay online each time we'd do a software or server upgrade. We'd crash and stay down for a few hours, sometimes a day or more, anytime an upgrade was required.

Now, we hardly notice when there are server or software upgrades.

On the site operations side of the equation, we still have most of the administrators who were in place before Troy sold the site and many of the moderators are still in place. The rules are essentially the same that existed from early on, although there are fewer rules now than we once had.

2CRUZIN

Very nice write-up of Corvette Forum history. I remember way back in the day posting on Vette Chat out of Kentucky. Vette Chat no longer exist and Corvette Forum is thriving. Well done!

N227GB

Can I get a sign up date of 1988? I kind of like that year for some reason.

J T

An old post, but since it was recently quoted, the 1969 is actually a database date issue. That happens if the date is blank. Likely a migration issue instead.