Hard to believe...5 years!

[Super Amputee Cat]

It was five years ago today, March 16, 1999, that I posted my very first response in Cyburbia. It was concerning Highway 710 in Los Angeles:

http://web.archive.org/web/20000929...rc/wwwboard_messages_planning_peeves/206.html. (My response begins with "Typical L. A...")

Of course, the forum was a lot different back then. Before August of 2000, the threads and responses, under "Planning Peeves" were all laid out in a "tree" type format and threads didn't get bumped to the top like they do now. Ancient by todays standards, but quite innovative back then. I was fairly new to the internet then, so forums were a whole new world.

I was always curious about Highway 710, even since I read about its threat to several communities in the Pasadena area in the early 1990s. Looking for updates, I did a Google type search (Infoseek I believe) and eventually found a thread entitled "NIMBY I-710 Freeway" in Planning Peeves.

Once I responded to the thread, I looked at some of the other great threads in the forum and needless to say I was hooked! I posted under the name Drew Sager and Idealistic Planners Against Yuppies, trashing Wal-mart, yupps, and developers whenever I could.

There are very few Usernames from that era that I recognize today. Dan was there of course, and every once in a while I see a name that I recognize from that bygone era. But most either left of changed names. One of the funniest planners I remember was Planzilla, but he disappeared soon after the switchover to discuss format in 2000 and has not been heard from since.

Anyone else remember him?

Anyway, here's to five more years at Cyburbia!

 

[Dan]

[ot]By the way ... welcome to Teh Clube!

[/ot]

 

[mendelman]

this must be kind of cosmic convergence ;-), or not.

today is my wife's 25th b-day, and you first joined on her 20th b-day.

I love your rants against the Man, SAC, and I also love your avatar.

BTW, really appreciate the cool postcards of Alpena you found for your site.

 

[giff57]

There is one of mine from 7/16/98!

 

[Budgie]

I think I first posted in 1997, under a different username. I've had a handful of usernames over the years. I learned rather quickly not to have a username that was my real name.

 

[michaelskis]

:-/ wow... I am a slacker... I have over 1000 in less than a year.

So, when is the anniversary party?

 

[Dan]

So, when is the anniversary party?

Unofficially, Cyburbia's 10th birthday will be October 24, 2004. On or close to that date in 1994, a Web server was hacked into a temporary directory on romulus.arch.buffalo.edu:8000, and a primitive Web site for the UB School of Architecture and Planning was created. The site included a page of links to the few other planning and architecture-related Web sites out there; it was the predecessor to PAIRC (Planning and Architecture Internet Resource Center), which was renamed Cyburbia in 1997.

Old users: There was no registration on the pre-vBulletin Cyburbia Cafe, so I don't have a record of usernames corresponding with e-mail addresses, alternate aliases or real names so we can contact them. After vBulletin, the policy is "delete users with zero posts if they haven't visited in the past two months," so some of the users who registered in the early days of the post-7 August 2001 Cyburbia Forums have probably been deleted.

The following users registered in August 2001, and posted at least once. Here's the list in order of registration, with the number of posts to date:

Dan: 5,730
ianplanner: 22
NHPlanner: 3,740
kms: 408
giff57: 1,485
poncho: 46
Linden Smith: 25
Mary: 101
Cardinal: 4,047
Jason Cleghorn: 20
trishm1: 14
laxman33: 6
StGeorge: 4
Vlaude: 47
Tranplanner: 3,562
Andy Dobson: 129
ROBERT: 13
troy: 43
Joe Iliff: 100
mike gurnee: 511
larryshure: 5
archibot.com: 5
Paul: 3
Planderella: 2,607
Red: 3
Brent: 20
Bella: 4
Chet: 5,870
Downtown: 2,569
vman68: 6
Ralph Bouwmeester: 9
GeogPlanner: 427
Perry Norton: 36
IPlan?: 29
John Yoegel: 4
Jen: 672
nerudite: 3,486
schocken: 3
cheesewhiz: 1
boonakid: 3
Super Amputee Cat: 1,005
Earl Finkler: 70
Becki: 5
metroplanner: 18
cracker: 24
ddmccool: 3
Wanigas?: 1,276
HilaryP: 7

I remember Planzilla, but have no contact information. They posted from an IP (165.83.96.118) that's now nowhere to be found.

 

[PlannerGirl]

Way to go Dan!

 

[BKM]

Congratulations to the Cat-and to Dan. I didn't realize h0ow much of a newbie I was.

Viva El Clubbe!

 

[NHPlanner]

Brings back memories....my first post in the peeves was back on 3/24/99....posted under my real name and NHPlanner back then.....

I see a few regulars there.....Cardinal, Planderella, giff, dan....

 

[Wannaplan?]

Huh, it's great to see the whole "...ate my balls" phenomenon made it's way through the Cyburbia Cafe.

Joe Jagoff: They ate 'em.... I swear to God...they ate 'em!!!

Dan Tasman: Next year, they'll eat mine! Every year, I keep on meaning to sign up for the AICP exam, and then procrastination kicks in. I end up forgetting about it until a day after the deadline, when I then think "oh s**t!" I wonder if there is an "American Institute of Certified Planners Ate My Balls" Web site? A punk rock song entitled "The APA Took My Baby Away"?

a girl, AICP: For those of us of the female persuasion: What does it mean to have one's balls eaten? Does it mean you flunked?

Har har!

http://web.archive.org/web/20000929...rc/wwwboard_messages_planning_peeves/579.html

 

[Budgie]

Hey, Dan !!! Is there anyway to move posts under my old usernames to my current username? I'd definitely be in the Clube then.

 

[Zoning Goddess]

OK, I just had to go back and search. My first post under another name was 9/99 but I only posted a few and then came back about a year and a half ago.

 

[Dan]

Hey, Dan !!! Is there anyway to move posts under my old usernames to my current username? I'd definitely be in the Clube then.

Sorry, but no. There was no registration back then, and some users had several aliases; it's hard to keep track of who posted what.

When the vBulletin site was first established, I offered users the chance to move threads from the old board over; they got credit for whatever posts were moved. If we did that now with messages from the ancient WWWBoard-based system, recent messages would be scrolled off.

Almost all the Discus-based messages are here, but I think the vast majority of old WWWBoard messages are lost to the ether of cyberspace. I could check with UB, though, and see if Bruce Majkowski still keeps ancient backups.

Dan

 

[Dan]

On a somewhat related topic ... I found this in my archives. This is a single HTML page, so the links don't work. There is, though, evidence of the first posting ever in what would eventually become the Cyburbia Forums.

[tt]test message - Dan Tasman 16:36:11 3/24/96[/tt]

 

[Seabishop]

I remember from lurking years ago that there was a rabid socialist guy who everyone would get mad at for dragging every thread into revolution and class warfare.

 

[Tranplanner]

I can't remember when I first found cyburbia/PAIRC. It must have been when I was doing my thesis back in 1995. I didn't post very often, and I usually always used a different username, tailored to the question being asked/topic being discussed (don't ask me why). I used the resources extensively for both school and work, and soon after the "new" Cyburbia went live I took the plunge and started posting regularily. It is my only real addiction.

 

[NHPlanner]

I remember from lurking years ago that there was a rabid socialist guy who everyone would get mad at for dragging every thread into revolution and class warfare.

Oh yes...Mike M****. Now a banned member.

 

[Dan]

I remember from lurking years ago that there was a rabid socialist guy who everyone would get mad at for dragging every thread into revolution and class warfare.

Yeah, but Prudence has changed since then.

Seriously, the person of which you speak has been "pre-banned" since vBulletin was first installed and running. There aren't many who are pre-banned; the rabid socialist of which you speak, and some a.p.u trolls.

 

[Budgie]

I remember from lurking years ago that there was a rabid socialist guy who everyone would get mad at for dragging every thread into revolution and class warfare.

I remember a guy who would turn every thread into a Rush Limbaugh sounding board.....I believe his man was EG. Remember that guy. Where's he been? Remember Ruby Ridge and Waco. Join your local militia !!!

 

[Planderella]

I think I first encountered the PAIRC around '96 or '97 and like SAC, I was new to the internet. I don't remember what my first post was but I do know I was a regular on the Planning Peeves board. I used to post under my real name, then switched to Planderella when I became more critical of my grad school and other things.

 

[Dan]

Here's what the Forums looked like just after vBulletin was installed.

For Cyburbia newbies, messages in long-gone subforums were moved to other, more active subforums.

http://web.archive.org/web/20011003203556/www.cyburbia.org/forums/

This is what the old Discus-based forums looked like. Most of the better threads on the Discus boards were manually moved -- literally copied and pasted -- to the vBulletin boards, but one-liners and posts without responses were deleted.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010210095321/cyburbia.ap.buffalo.edu/cafe/messages/board-topics.html

I'm still working on getting old backups from UB.

 

[michaelskis]

Here's what the Forums looked like just after vBulletin was installed.

Wow... that is old school!

 

[Bear Up North]

Congratulations to Super Amputee Cat, Dan....and all of the others who posted early and often and made your board what it is today.

As you know, I'm not a planner.....but.....I love the planning issues that you deal with, your love of geography and social planning issues, transportation, etc.

Your non-planning posts are a riot. I read these things and say to myself, "Sheesh, why couldn't I think of saying something cool or unique or fun, like such-and-such just did?"

Thanx for letting non-planners join in. Great job, Cyburbiafolk.

Bear

 

[Doitnow]

You guys-The Veterans- are great! Hats Off to you all.! I would say its hard to believe but so nice to know!!

 

[Dan]

Found out that UB SA&P doesn't have archives of the old PAIRC site. If they did have them, they'd be on tapes that couldn't be read today.

Still, though, there's this, this, this, this and this. These pages go back to what is the primordial ooze of the Cyburbia Forums.

Here's a full-blown look at the Cyburbia Cafe during the height of the WWWBoard years. We have come a very, very long way.

I'll be reposting a few vintage messages every day. I wish there was a way to show the name of the message creator as the original poster, but it's impossible without mucking around in the current MySQL database.

 

[Dan]

Hey, Dan !!! Is there anyway to move posts under my old usernames to my current username? I'd definitely be in the Clube then.

See this post.

Here's the earliest pre-vBulletin post we could find that could be positively attributed to you.. If you can find anything that's older, or posted under another alias, let me know so I can Budgiefy it.

 

[teshadoh]

As I mentioned before - PAIRC was one of the first websites I came across. That was when I was mislead to believe the internet was for scholarly work

I pretty regularly scanned the GIS links & municipalities in order to figure out what GIS was used for. That must have been in 1996, which I would continue to review PAIRC for several years afterward. I do remember around 2000 when a board was introduced, which interested me - but not being a planner I didn't feel obliged to post.

Anyways - thanks Dan for the old resource site, it contributed a great deal to where I've gotten to. Actually - do you still keep up with all those links that you used to have, or is there a dormant page to view them?

 

[steel]

You guys-The Veterans- are great! Hats Off to you all.! I would say its hard to believe but so nice to know!!

I am a baby on here. I did go to school with Bruce Majkowski though. He was a major computer nerd way back when cadd was still like drawing with rocks. Good to hear he is still with it.