In a current thread it is spoken of that some members are aware of the dates that they and others originally came on board at PCQANDA. I would like to pin down the date I first posted here. It was a long time ago, is all I know. Is there an archive listing members join dates, or something like that?

Onward & Upward !
Sid

The membership dates of "Charter Members" are lost to posterity, as far as I know.

On May-12-04, Shelly posted this: "The term charter member means someone who was in the original group of members at the founding of an organization. That is not however true for this site. Back several forum script upgrades ago, before we became PCQ&A, a script update labeled anyone who was a member at that date a Charter Member, even though the forum was already a few years old. The true charter members are the small group of us that were present when Alex started the PC911 site, dividing our participation between both it and the WinMag forum. This was at the time that the WinMag forum was still in operation. After the WinMag forum was closed, most of the people still there migrated to PC911 and found a new home, but were not technically charter members, since the forum had already been in operation for a good part of a year.

Being a charter member really has no significance other than longevity of membership. A charter member is not necessarily more or less knowledgeable, or computer literate, than any other member."

Your earliest remaining post (Dec-13-01) : http://www.pcqanda.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=2&topic_id=82&mesg_id=82&listing_type=search

Jim.

PC911 started in January of 1999 (actually a little before that as a web presence for Alex's business). It ran concurrently with the Winmag forum for a while. The Winmag forum shut down in March of 2001. In September of 2002 PC911 morphed into PCQandA. The earliest surviving post for anyone is December 31, 2001. I think it was due to a script change at the time that anything before that was lost.

edit: And yes, there's no longer really any way to prove that you're a true "Charter Member". Other than the honor system

MSU

I had been a member of PC911 for quite some time before it morphed into PCQANDA. I recall the last days of PC911, when I really feared that we were losing this great forum forever.

Onward & Upward !
Sid

Right, we were all pretty nervous then. Heck I lamented the loss of Winmag too. Even though I frequented both and knew that most from Winmag would continue on at PC911. But yeah, the PC911 to PCQandA was a little more disconcerting since we didn't know what the heck was going to happen. At least when Winmag died many had already been going to PC911 for a good while also.

MSU

No doubt Jason or Shelly will correct me if I've got this wrong, but the following are my recollections.

Jason worked for Winmag, and part of his duties there was running the forum. Winmag pulled the plug on the forum, and Jason, Shelly, Grogan and Alex (Crazygerman) worked together to set up PC911 in its place, as a new "home" for Winmag forum members.

I'm a bit hazy on details, but perhaps Alex already had the PC911 website and added the forum.

It wasn't so much that Winmag pulled the plug on the forum as the plug was pulled on Winmag (which resulted in no more forum).

I believe Alex set up the PC911 forum as a "safe house" during some system troubles we were going through in Winmag. (The forum script at the time had a nasty habit of burning through system resources until it needed to be reset.) So when the Winmag forum was down, PC911 was a place for everyone to congregate. Of course, it quickly grew from a "backup forum" into a forum of its own.

When Winmag.com was shut down (and don't get me started on that or on the Windows Magazine shutdown), everyone migrated to PC911. Then, when Alex decided he needed to step back from PC911, we migrated it to PCQandA and I took over. (Of course, without the help of our moderators, I couldn't keep this site running and it would have closed long ago.)

Actually, it was October 3rd, 2002. (Just checked back in the OT forum.) It's hard to believe we'll be celebrating our 10 year anniversary in a few months.

Eh, September...October...close enough

edit: And yes it is very hard to believe it's been that long.

MSU

I joined the Winmag forum sometime in the Autumn of 1995, though I had been reading the forum for a few months before I got up the courage to post there.

Alex started PC911 while Winmag was still active. I joined PC911 the day Alex let us know it was active, but still did most of my posting on Winmag.

Winmag was a W95 forum started because W95 was such a great departure from the earlier Windows operating systems we had been used to. By the time I joined there were a number of regulars already posting, a few are still here.

As Noted, we had gone through s few updates of the DC Forums script when it began noting charter members, which really meant those who were present when we switched over to that version of the script.

All of the postings listed for me were counted from the time we started with DC Forums scripts, none of my earlier posts on Winmag are included in that present count.

Winmag actually went through several different scripts and each time it changed there was much grumbling and gnashing of teeth, from the posters. Even a minor change in the color scheme brought loud protests. This proved to us that forum posters did not especially welcome any kind of change and is why we have stuck with the present script for so long. Who likes throwing away a comfortable old pair of shoes?

Shelly

Onward & Upward !
Sid

I joined Winmag Forum in 1996, when I built my first computer.

...and have followed this group since. I don't get to visit often, but always learn something when I do.

Priscilla L.

Edit - had to edit the image

Take a look at this one: http://tinyurl.com/cwa7kma

Onward & Upward !
Sid

Attachment #1, (png file)

Here's a blast from the past that documents Jason's rise to power: http://tinyurl.com/cbwfbyv

Onward & Upward !
Sid

Hey, Paul, check out your post, fourth from the bottom: http://tinyurl.com/cuel62s

Onward & Upward !
Sid

And just below it I see a post from Alan (amb141), absolutely one of nature's gentlemen, who passed away a few years ago.

I reckon I probably signed on to the Winmag forum somewhere around 1996 or 97. It was the first forum I had ever associated myself with and I learned a lot there. I remember there was a section devoted to testing signatures and it was a pretty busy place. Taught me a little bit about HTML and the little pony has been dragging my name across the page for a lot of years now. Sure would be interesting to see a bunch of those who have been absent for a long time suddenly show up again.

Les

I am a refugee from WinMag, PC911 et al. Speaking of AL whatever happened to AL who contributed many good how to articles on PC911. I met AL on one of my TDY's SEA in Bangkok . I knew he posted on pc911 and I sent him and email and we made an effort to meet while I was in BKK. AL ran a business in Bangkok with another American partner that did networking and installing networking for commercial businesses. Al's wife wasa gracious Thai lady. Al had been a Major in the Army and was infact involved in Grenada and I believe in Vietnam. I believe Al was one of the many Vietnam Vets who later returned to Thailand. He had been wounded. His partner in the Bangkok business was a friend of his from his military service. Al was a great guy and somehow we lost contact over the years. I last remember he migrated to another forum years ago. I have nothing but the best wishes for Al and his family if he still drops in here from time to time.
You can still visit PC911 and read some of AL's how to articles.
http://www.pcnineoneone
For some reason the above link keeps taking me to a road runner suggested search site. You can do a google on pcnineoneone and get there.
Click on Tips and Tricks and then How To



ed

OS - Windows XP Personal PS3
DELL DIM 4500 - Intel P4 2.25 GHZ
Memory - 2X512 PC 3200 133-200Mhz
Graphics G

MSU