McCarroll21
09-10-2007, 02:01 AM
Well, it's here. We're a year old. There's a lot that you may and may not know about how Braves-Nation.com got to where it is. Since all the drama has died down, I feel that I can go into this in brief. I'm going to do some intro stuff about the site itself and then kind of say some things about how I feel, or at least that's the plan. This is going to be very long. Please take the time to read it.
The site started, obviously, a year ago today. The plans for the site were in the making for maybe a week or so before that. A large portion of those who have been here from the start came from another website, along with me. We were unhappy with the current situation on that website and after a few months of sticking it out, there were no signs of it getting better so we decided to see if we could start our own greener pastures. The initial idea was mine, but I approached about seven or eight people that were friends of mine from the other site to see what they thought of the idea. I didn't want to make a site and no one come. I got a few replies and then got the ball rolling a few days later.
So, from there, I sat up a domain name and purchased a vBulletin license and we went to work with what we had. I remember the days that I spent trying to get this all set up. I was up for 40 something hours straight dealing with domain and hosting registration, installing vBulletin and screwing it up several times in the process. After it was live, I got in contact with Chief and Jsh and the site was live. I went to sleep right after that, and before I woke up, the site had been hacked. It was some kind of issue with our host and all that had happened was our index page needed to be re-uploaded but I was already thinking, "is this worth it?" The first few days were brutal. There were maybe eight of us here until we were around for a week. Keep in mind that this time last year is when our run of division titles officially came to an end. It was hard to get people to come sign up because a lot of people just wanted to get away.
So, I told the people that were in on it with me from the other site, I went around to other websites like OperationSports.com and some other general baseball sites. I sent PMs to some of the bigger Braves fans from those sites and got a few registrations. I know BGarrett7 and TheMatrix31 are some of the active posters remaining that were brought over from OS.
We had probably been up for about two weeks and become pretty active. Of course it was nowhere close to what it has been lately, but we were pleased with what we had for two weeks. It was around that time that the owner from the site that we left started trying to negotiate with me to get us to go back to his site. After we had split, I had found that he was trying to sell the site and because of that I was reluctant to go back, despite what privileges were given to us. I didn't want to abandon the people who made the switch with me and I had a feeling that he was just trying to use us to drive the value of his site before he sold it.
So, after about a week of going back and forth, we broke off discussions so that we could see what we had with our site.
From there we knew it was all on us so we started trying to find more ways to drive people to the site. We were happy with what we had, but we wanted more than the people that we had been with, we wanted to bring in some new people. It was at that time that we created our MySpace account and just started adding random Braves fans. We would add them from Braves groups or just search for the Braves and find people that way.
After that, we had our core group until the Braves played their first game in Spring Training. We had a lot of people sign up on that day and that was when we actually knew that we had something big based on the size of our gamethread for a Spring Training game in the middle of the day.
Shortly after that, the site took off. It was featured in Sports Illustrated's baseball preview magazine as one of the best Braves websites. That day was the turning point. Lots of new activity. Not so much in terms of registration, but people discovered our site because of it. That was probably the highest point of Braves-Nation.com at that point, and I'm really not sure if it has been rivaled since. I can't think of a moment that can beat it.
That took us up to baseball season, where the activity has obviously heightened and we've gotten to what we are.
That's enough of a website review for those who haven't been with us for the entire year, now to my feelings about all of this.
The people that have been here from the beginning only know where to start with all of this. Only you guys know how slow and dormant the site was in it's early stages. I want to thank all of you for hanging in there with us. I know in the early stages it would have been easy to give up on it because there wasn't much activity, so thank you!
I don't really know how to put all of this into writing really. There's been so much time, effort, energy put into this site that you wouldn't know where to start. It's so much more than what you see here. There's so much that goes on "behind the scenes" to even begin to explain, especially when we encounter any problems with hosting or software problems. Chief and Jsh helped get this thing pieced together in a large way, especially in the beginning. They kept pouring in ideas, and we kept just rolling with whatever we had. We really didn't know what to expect, and probably didn't even know how long we would be online. What we have has far exceeded expectations.
I knew some of you from the other site: Chief, Jsh, Redneck (who a lot of you haven't had the pleasure of meeting), f_man, Nasadega, Vuchato, vnodnarb and BravesfaninNC ... it goes on and on. I don't want to leave anyone out but I know I'm going to. You know who you are.
That goes to show just how many of the active posters here are "new blood" to all of us. After we decided that we were running with this thing, that is exactly what we wanted. Bringing in new people. I mean, how much fun is it to be with the same people that you had already been with for a year or more? You always want to add new people to your group, and that's what we went out to do. I can't even begin to name the people that I've come in contact through the site that are people I consider friends. It's odd how you can actually get to know people through interaction on a website. There are people on here that I truly respect and admire, others that I know I could be best of friends with, and as with anything in life, some that I would butt heads with should I know them in real life. I've just found it amazing how you can build friendships with people that you may never actually come face to face with.
Anyway, I don't know how to say what I want to say. Just leave it at me being very happy about how things have gone in our first year and there will be many more to come. Through the low point of almost turning back and thinking the site may have been a huge mistake and too much to take on to building it into one of the most active Braves forums you can find. Through being blasted for how we police the message board to the praise we have received for taking the same stance. It's just been one up and down year, we're learning as we go. I don't want to be so uptight that people can't come vent, but there is a line that shouldn't be crossed at the same time. I don't like banning people, especially some of those that have been around for a while, but again, there's a line that can't be crossed. One of the hardest days for me was banning lavell. I like him, we've always fought, but then we'd agree. It was kind of like that mutual respect was given, but we truly didn't get along. I hated to see him go, but I realized that it was for the best of the other members here so the line had to be drawn.
All in all, thank you to everyone who has been here and thank you for doing your part in making the site what it is. It may have started with Chief, Jsh and myself, but it wouldn't succeed without everyone else's input.
The site started, obviously, a year ago today. The plans for the site were in the making for maybe a week or so before that. A large portion of those who have been here from the start came from another website, along with me. We were unhappy with the current situation on that website and after a few months of sticking it out, there were no signs of it getting better so we decided to see if we could start our own greener pastures. The initial idea was mine, but I approached about seven or eight people that were friends of mine from the other site to see what they thought of the idea. I didn't want to make a site and no one come. I got a few replies and then got the ball rolling a few days later.
So, from there, I sat up a domain name and purchased a vBulletin license and we went to work with what we had. I remember the days that I spent trying to get this all set up. I was up for 40 something hours straight dealing with domain and hosting registration, installing vBulletin and screwing it up several times in the process. After it was live, I got in contact with Chief and Jsh and the site was live. I went to sleep right after that, and before I woke up, the site had been hacked. It was some kind of issue with our host and all that had happened was our index page needed to be re-uploaded but I was already thinking, "is this worth it?" The first few days were brutal. There were maybe eight of us here until we were around for a week. Keep in mind that this time last year is when our run of division titles officially came to an end. It was hard to get people to come sign up because a lot of people just wanted to get away.
So, I told the people that were in on it with me from the other site, I went around to other websites like OperationSports.com and some other general baseball sites. I sent PMs to some of the bigger Braves fans from those sites and got a few registrations. I know BGarrett7 and TheMatrix31 are some of the active posters remaining that were brought over from OS.
We had probably been up for about two weeks and become pretty active. Of course it was nowhere close to what it has been lately, but we were pleased with what we had for two weeks. It was around that time that the owner from the site that we left started trying to negotiate with me to get us to go back to his site. After we had split, I had found that he was trying to sell the site and because of that I was reluctant to go back, despite what privileges were given to us. I didn't want to abandon the people who made the switch with me and I had a feeling that he was just trying to use us to drive the value of his site before he sold it.
So, after about a week of going back and forth, we broke off discussions so that we could see what we had with our site.
From there we knew it was all on us so we started trying to find more ways to drive people to the site. We were happy with what we had, but we wanted more than the people that we had been with, we wanted to bring in some new people. It was at that time that we created our MySpace account and just started adding random Braves fans. We would add them from Braves groups or just search for the Braves and find people that way.
After that, we had our core group until the Braves played their first game in Spring Training. We had a lot of people sign up on that day and that was when we actually knew that we had something big based on the size of our gamethread for a Spring Training game in the middle of the day.
Shortly after that, the site took off. It was featured in Sports Illustrated's baseball preview magazine as one of the best Braves websites. That day was the turning point. Lots of new activity. Not so much in terms of registration, but people discovered our site because of it. That was probably the highest point of Braves-Nation.com at that point, and I'm really not sure if it has been rivaled since. I can't think of a moment that can beat it.
That took us up to baseball season, where the activity has obviously heightened and we've gotten to what we are.
That's enough of a website review for those who haven't been with us for the entire year, now to my feelings about all of this.
The people that have been here from the beginning only know where to start with all of this. Only you guys know how slow and dormant the site was in it's early stages. I want to thank all of you for hanging in there with us. I know in the early stages it would have been easy to give up on it because there wasn't much activity, so thank you!
I don't really know how to put all of this into writing really. There's been so much time, effort, energy put into this site that you wouldn't know where to start. It's so much more than what you see here. There's so much that goes on "behind the scenes" to even begin to explain, especially when we encounter any problems with hosting or software problems. Chief and Jsh helped get this thing pieced together in a large way, especially in the beginning. They kept pouring in ideas, and we kept just rolling with whatever we had. We really didn't know what to expect, and probably didn't even know how long we would be online. What we have has far exceeded expectations.
I knew some of you from the other site: Chief, Jsh, Redneck (who a lot of you haven't had the pleasure of meeting), f_man, Nasadega, Vuchato, vnodnarb and BravesfaninNC ... it goes on and on. I don't want to leave anyone out but I know I'm going to. You know who you are.
That goes to show just how many of the active posters here are "new blood" to all of us. After we decided that we were running with this thing, that is exactly what we wanted. Bringing in new people. I mean, how much fun is it to be with the same people that you had already been with for a year or more? You always want to add new people to your group, and that's what we went out to do. I can't even begin to name the people that I've come in contact through the site that are people I consider friends. It's odd how you can actually get to know people through interaction on a website. There are people on here that I truly respect and admire, others that I know I could be best of friends with, and as with anything in life, some that I would butt heads with should I know them in real life. I've just found it amazing how you can build friendships with people that you may never actually come face to face with.
Anyway, I don't know how to say what I want to say. Just leave it at me being very happy about how things have gone in our first year and there will be many more to come. Through the low point of almost turning back and thinking the site may have been a huge mistake and too much to take on to building it into one of the most active Braves forums you can find. Through being blasted for how we police the message board to the praise we have received for taking the same stance. It's just been one up and down year, we're learning as we go. I don't want to be so uptight that people can't come vent, but there is a line that shouldn't be crossed at the same time. I don't like banning people, especially some of those that have been around for a while, but again, there's a line that can't be crossed. One of the hardest days for me was banning lavell. I like him, we've always fought, but then we'd agree. It was kind of like that mutual respect was given, but we truly didn't get along. I hated to see him go, but I realized that it was for the best of the other members here so the line had to be drawn.
All in all, thank you to everyone who has been here and thank you for doing your part in making the site what it is. It may have started with Chief, Jsh and myself, but it wouldn't succeed without everyone else's input.