the-spot.net

Yes, it's true...We've been minding your business since 2003, and that makes 4 years. So, to celebrate, I've done a little something special.

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.

On a side note, some of the Journals work on the old sites, so check those out - it brought back memories for me.

heh... funny enough I remember tsnI but not tsnII. O_o
It was so long ago, but 4 years? I mean, that doesn't seem like it was that long ago at all. man... I'm going to laugh at the day everyone on here is 30. heh... I mean, there are a couple who already are, just when everyone becomes that age, I'm going to laugh. ^__^

Wow, I've been here since sometime around I'm thinking Sept or Oct 2003. That's crazy. I didn't realize I had been on here so long, until I remembered that I was still at BYU having late late nights when I first got on the-spot.

Yeah, this is def. a second home! lol.

I remember when I found out about the spot and I remember when I first joined and I didn't really like it that much but i wanted to come back. then it crashed or something, and I joined again.

I had very different thoughts of this site back then. UPS told KD and they both showed me when I was over there one day. And I remember always going to it in my tech systems class my sr. year of high school.

Then all those freakin ppl joined and it was all crazy. Then it died down and its like it is now. I wish some ppl would come back...maybe they will one day...when theyre 30

Anyway, very cool...4 years! Very exciting for you neo! and everyone else lol

i remember the only reason i joined the spot was because UPS was like "go sign up on this site"!! he was like "it is a forum" and I didn't even know how to work a forum.....but yeah it was great after that i am so glad that it is still up i have made alot of friends here.

I don't know how you ended up meeting UPS... was that through me? or was it through KD or through a friend?

HA HAH A...I remember etboo.cc...or whatever...and how ETBU blocked it...then we got the new site....then UPS told me about the-spot...no or was is Neo...i think it was Neo...yeah cause UPS told me about etboo and etbustudents

MAN UPS remember sitting in english class...that was sooooo boring...oh well we had fun.

I coulda sworn the-spot had been around longer...I guess I was thinking of etboo and etbustudents...funny how it evolved from an ETBU thing to something much better and SUPER COOLER...yeah...I hate using proper english too

i think i just met him when i went to the yalls house for that lan party yall had for the super bowl.

well, I've known QM a lot longer, because her Dad was my head football coach, but I technically didn't actually know her until we started chatting it up during one of our first LAN parties, I believe through KD ^__^

Yeah, I'm one of the very very few people who have been through TSN through the VERY VERY beginning. Neo, SOW, and I are basically the dinosaurs of TSN KD and LL are cro-magnum

I didn't join until post-crash 3rd edition

but I've come back around more often than most members since then, and have even been a moderator.

RAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!
*does velociraptor impersonation
*people at work then call security
*SOW and security have a niiiiice long talk about how one day they'll look back on this and laugh
*security disagrees

you know, I think im the only person to have moderator privileges revoked and stick around.

well revoked isn't the right word. more like, tsn new version came out and I status didn't cross over with it.

Actually it was more like you lost internet for a long period of time, and I cleaned house...only LL has mod priv and KD/Wiz/UPS/me have admin...4 admins is a bit much...until UPS gets his internet he's a moderator because of security issues.

The reason you haven't gotten it back is not your fault, it's that everything pretty much runs smoothly right now, and there's not really a need. But because I'm a nice guy, and it doesn't hurt anything, I gave it back.

lol

i few seconds after I posted that I was kinda zoning out when I heard my computer go *sssplink!* and i look up with yahoo telling me I got new mail from info-noreply@the-spot.net. I knew what it said, which is why it was funny.

my internet got repoed, and that sucked, but I'm still trying to figure out whether I was happier with or without the internet. I mean I love the-spot, and all, and I can sit and read about any amout of information I want to on wikis and forums and stufff, but it takes away from time I'm actually living my life (lol). before I lost the internet I didn't know I could have a life.

I need to find a way for the internet to make my living and get chix to fall in love with me and that way I can do both.