8mm Forum: The History of the Forum?

This is topic The History of the Forum? in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 20, 2007, 10:12 PM:

I mentioned in another post a question that I'd love to hear the history of, and that is ... how was this 8mm forum started?

When was it started?

What initiated the start?

Besides the top three ... who was the first to sign up as a regular?

Things like that. just me own persoinal cuwiosity!

Posted by Dan Lail (Member # 18) on October 20, 2007, 10:56 PM:

Osi!

Brad Miller started it out of the back of an old VW bus on a shoestring budget using a lap top he found in a thrift shop. Using a generator driven by gerbils on a treadmill and a wing and prayer it spread throughout the world to become the "8mmforum".

Now the little furry beast have retired and reside in his home screening room where they perform during intermission. [Eek!]

Posted by David Kilderry (Member # 549) on October 21, 2007, 02:26 AM:

Good question Osi. I registered on the big brother site, Brad's Film-Tech Forum back in Sept 1999. I am not sure when I first heard of the 8mm Forum or even how. I would breeze through every now and then, but did not register for some time.

David

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on October 21, 2007, 06:59 PM:

Another film collector site out there was scamming their members by tricking them into "donating" to the owner of the site, as he claimed it cost him bazillions to keep the site online, even though after a quick bit of research proved it was in fact costing him $7/month. Seeing the collectors get suckered angered me quite a bit, so I opened up this offshoot of www.film-tech.com purely for collectors and let it run. Initially it proved to be too much to handle with my regular workload, but after Kevin and Douglas volunteered to take care of the moderating, it now quite literally just sits here and runs smoothly and they take care of the issues that turn up.

So since Film-Tech isn't going anywhere, this subdomain sits here running indefinitely and free to the members like it should be.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on October 21, 2007, 08:00 PM:

... and bless yo wittle hart, Brad!

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on October 21, 2007, 08:56 PM:

I came across Brad's Forum in August of 2002, a few months after I got back into Super 8mm (after an almost 20 year leave of absence). I wish I could remember how I found it....was it a link, a search result....damn memory! There was such a wealth of information, particularly about projectors, which was important to me since I was looking to upgrade to something with larger reel capacity. I read about Elmos & Bauers & which models did what, and I was so glad that this site existed. I refer to that period as Forum I, since at the end of May 2003 something dreadful happened. The site disappeared! For days, concerned Forum members e-mailed each other, wondering if Brad had closed up shop.

On June 11, 2003 the 8mm Forum returned. Brad explained there was a major hardware failure on the server running the forum that killed everything, including the backup copy . All that knowledge (and all my brilliant posts) lost! There was a bright spot, though. Brad re-designed the site with a stylish new look and added the "8mm films for sale/trade/wanted", and "8mm equipment for sale/trade" sections. Also new was a link to Film-Tech's large collection of manuals and we even had a new place to hang out....The Chat Room.

Responding to Brad's request for help, Kevin Faulkner volunteered and was named moderator on January 27, 2005. I joined Mr. Elmo 4 days later. Kevin and I were flown to a super secret location and went through intensive moderator training for what seemed like months. Unfortunately, all that training was for naught. Our fellow members are such a great bunch of folks that mostly Kevin and I just use our super moderator powers to delete duplicate posts and move a thread from one section to another. What a terrific place!

Other notable dates in Forum history:

November 6, 2004- 16mm Forum added

November 7, 2004- General Yak section added

February 2, 2007- 9.5 Forum added

I'm still waiting to add a notable date.....when Mr. Milman sends in his member picture.

Doug

Posted by Dan Lail (Member # 18) on October 21, 2007, 11:03 PM:

Brad!

Thanks for the info and the time involved in creating this free forum. It has been a real pleasure here and the members are super.

One thing I think keeps this place smooth is the rule against political and religious views. There is enough of that in the everyday world. This is an escape to a pleasant place with a common interest.

Doug, thanks for the rundown on the history. I too was a member on forum one and experienced the melt down on that forum.

P.S. I found out that the gerbils were split up and sent to Doug and Kev. [Big Grin]

[ October 22, 2007, 01:02 AM: Message edited by: Dan Lail ]

Posted by Kevin Faulkner (Member # 6) on October 22, 2007, 06:51 AM:

Doug, It sounds like we did the same thing because I too also dropped out of super 8 for about 20yrs. When I started to think about getting into 8 again I think I googled "Super 8" one day and found this forum run by Brad.

Yes I remember that outage well and thought like many members that Brad hadnt paid his Internet access bill but no it came back and much more improved.

Dougs right though the members on here are a great bunch and its really just a case of watching over the posts and keeping things tidy.
Its like being part of one big family [Smile]

Lets hope it goes on for another 5 yrs or more.

Kev.

Posted by Rob Koeling (Member # 35) on October 22, 2007, 09:34 AM:

Some pages from before the crash can be recovered with the WayBackMachine at web.archive.org:

A search for http://8mmforum.film-tech.com/ in this archive gave the following results:

WayBack

- Rob

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on October 22, 2007, 09:51 AM:

Rob,

Thanks so much for finding that! It's great to read Derek Simmonds' posts again.

Doug

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 22, 2007, 06:40 PM:

Reading dear Derek’s mails has this evening has fetched a tear to my eye. What a great experience this forum is….
Thanks Brad.

Posted by Graham Sinden (Member # 431) on October 23, 2007, 07:29 AM:

Yes I agree with you Doug and Lee.

I always thought 'Wayback' was an amazing web service. Can we make this a permanent link at the top of te forum.

Dear old Derek, we still miss you but at least we can read your comments.

Graham S

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