Very few people have been around since 2003...even less people have been there since the first version of tsn - tsnI.
The-Spot.Net was "officially" started the day I put up the [ first attempt ] at the web pages on lycos' web server - because they had free php and mysql hosting. I had been doing forums since the end of 2001 for etbustudents.cc, and rolled them into etbuers.com. Fortunately that domain hadn't expired yet when UPS, IBJay and I launched "the-spot.net" (it did expire that following October though).
"The-Spot.Net" was simple in design - only hosted a few things, and was done entirely in html. It was an attempt to find the design I wanted, with some of the content I wanted to carry over from etbustudents.cc while making it accessible to the rest of the world. The FreeformFrog also started here, but didn't quite make it off the ground until later. I was also naive about the whole internet privacy thing, and put my business out there for people to see, unsuspectingly. And, after I released it in April, I found a girl in May, and didn't touch the site until the end of June - when I realized it hadn't had any visitors (because even I hadn't visited it). That was the end of the First Generation.
So I redesigned it...based on a modified version of Hotmail's tabbed pages..and Spiffy and I came up with a new moniker, and [ I released "tsnII" ]. I invited everyone back to the site, and started the first PR push to get more people on the site. That's when KD joined. And tsnII was good, but it was done in html and javascript. But I had a desire in me to get live information on the front page of the site directly from the forums, without having to type it in a java script each time. So I set out to learn PHP. tsnII lasted from July 2003 until November 2003...when I created the first MySpot page in PHP, and tied the entire site's content to what happened in the forums.
From there, I released tsnIII (which was made to the Meteora CD by Linkin Park)...it only took me 2 weeks to learn PHP with the help of Comter and ChuckSplatt. Comter taught me the basic syntax, and ChuckSplatt taught me how to set things up. But from there I was on my own, because I wanted to do things neither of them were familiar with. I don't have a website for tsnIII yet, because it was all done in php, and it requires a database. Right now, I can't seem to find a complete copy of the database to upload - I have a partial one, but that won't do any good.
tsnIII lasted from November 2003 until about June 2004. That was when Beth and I started to date, and I wanted to create a new site to mark that event. But as I tried to come up with something pleasing, things started falling apart with her, just as they were with that attempt at the site. So tsnIV didn't quite make it to production. I was too distracted with the concepts and design, and didn't have a real focus.
The result was a redesign, with new concepts, and new focus. As most of you know, that went through a sub-version as well, when the webhosts decided they would take matters into their own hands and kill part of the database until I upgraded the forums. tsnV lasted from July 2004 until November 2005, and was down until January 2006...when tsnV.i came out.
tsnV.i had a bit of the tsnV feel to it, but also incorporated some new design to give the header a "glass" feel, like Vista's Aero theme. That site lasted until June 2006 when I got tsnX released, to the tune of Cryosleep Music - which explains the softness...and with the "Web 2.0" movement in mind, which explains the use of light colors, curved edges, and (for the first time) a mostly white background (on the default theme).
Here we are at the last version of tsn...and yet, there is still something else on the Horizon...something that works a little better, that is harder to code, and that will require at least 6 months of database/site code/policy conversion...and a whole new design to consider....
But you'll have to wait for more info on that.
heh... I mean, there are a couple who already are, just when everyone becomes that age, I'm going to laugh. ^__^
