Happy Birthday to...The Phorum!

Seven years ago today, in 2003, Josh decided that our weaksauce Proboards forum wasn't cutting it any more and got Chuck Brown on the horn. He registered thephorum.net, and the Phorum as we know and love it today was born.

I don't think we've grown a whole lot since then...we've gained a few regulars (and an intelligent and good-looking bunch they are, at that) but we've also lost a few regulars, so I think at best we're neutral.

I have moved to two different states since 2003; made new friends and lost touch with old friends; graduated from college (twice!); gotten a job; got baptized; bought a house; gained a sister-in-law and a nephew; and stopped being a teenager. Yes, when thephorum.net first came about, I was 19.

I've known some of you pholks longer than I've known most of my good real-life friends. I can say without question you're my favorite group of people I've never met. You've put up with seven years of April Fools' jokes, with me monopolizing the off-topic board with discussions about video games and funny things my co-workers say, with more than 2700 random observations (many of which I can't take credit for, and many of which were somewhat less than random), and with a color scheme Josh and I cooked up over the course of an afternoon.

I thought I was visiting the Phorum too much when Firefox suggested it as the first option after I typed "the". Now it suggests it after I just type "t". My member profile tells me that I average 3.8 posts per day. It doesn't tell me my average post length, but if each post is about a page of text that's about 32 300-page novels.

And after seven years most of you know me well enough to be checking that math, because it's probably wrong.

Will the phorum be around in another seven years? I hope so. I certainly don't imagine I'll have run out of things to say by then!

Thanks for helping make it a great seven years!