[shadowcom]

 22 June 1997, AFAIR. Just after the "death" of "AASB".

[Prophet_Tenebrae]

I've been around a while and I'm thinking it has to have been earlier than 98 because that really strikes me as a pretty fancy look from the first time I saw it.

I suppose the real problem with trying to remember the history of a website is that things tend to blend together. Anyway, I'm sure that a few of the older guys will back me up if I'm right in remembering that the original incarnation was the Breast Expansion Story Archive.

Anyway, I think that it must have been around considerably before 1998 if only because that was the year that the Addventure began and that wasn't on the site from the start. As I said though, my memories of website history is far from perfect. Stop me if I'm wrong.

And of course, kudos to MunchWolf for pointing out that the BEA never was, is not and most likely will not always be the summation of the entire BE community - which a lot of people seem to forget.

[CyberPlainsDrifter]

The earliest incarnation of the BEA was well prior to '97.  It started as a mostly text mode only site & the HTML was v 1.0.  I remember comin' here w/ my first web browser & gettin' Danni Ashe's e-mail & e-mailing her when she was coding on & starting Danni's Hard Drive.  I offered to help her, but she insisted she wanted to do it herself.  Trouble was there was no way to charge or password the content, so Danni's site started out free.  We were discussing via e-mail how to make the contents look the way we envisioned it & just how it all worked.  She wasn't sure it would actually work & that people would pay for content later.  She'd just done a really nice layout for one of the big boob mags & we were discussing how she'd gotten a "rug rash" on the bottom of one of her boobs that showed up in the magazine.

As I recall BEA kinda grew as an extension of Acotto's FTP site, which somewhat supplied the images that were written about or discussed.  Very few images where available when Mosaic first launched.  Most 'Net connections then were too slow to handle images over 20Kb.  Most info could only be gotten via Gopher, which was kind of a text only type browser which mostly linked to other Gopher sites & documents.  I had a 14.4 modem & when the 28.8 came out, they seemed to be screamin' fast!  Most images were zipped to save space & time & the JPEG spec was still in the works or was not well adopted yet.

If I had to put a date on the BEA it'd have to be around late '95 or earlier '96.

[doggo]

 

Quote:
If I had to put a date on the BEA it'd have to be around late '95 or earlier '96.

That's sounding about right.

Looking back at R&D, it was still hosted at Will Bow's AASB and at Wren's site in July-August 1997 and there is a mention of the BEA in a familiar manner. R&D would have been hosted at BEA from around the beginning of February 1998, more or less at the same time as the new server was commissioned.

[3deroticer]

so........it would be kewl of the mod could make note of this and not miss the 10th annisversary, and actually use this for promotion for the community.

side note* I guess I am not sure how this is a site issues? there is nothing about the working of the site.

[doggo]

The Owner must surely know. He'd know how long the site was running before the new server arrived.
 

Quote:
side note* I guess I am not sure how this is a site issues? there is nothing about the working of the site.

I'd agree with that. It had spread beyond the original anniversary question to become a lively and interesting discussion on the history of the BE movement.

Moving it in here relegates it to a backwater and it is simply not the proper place for it. Unless, of course, you take an extremely narrow, blinkered and over-literal view of the name and purpose of this forum.

[Palomine]

In response to 3d and doggo: the General Forum is for the posting of BB and BE matters only. Questions about this site and proposals for it belong in Site Issues. The General Forum is not the only forum on this board... it is one of many. Nor are the other forums 'backwaters' IMO... they all deal with SPECIFIC topics (such as site issues for example).

[Nimrod]

Quote:
 22 June 1997, AFAIR. Just after the "death" of "AASB".

I went back into my archives and my memory and it was sometime in June of 1997 that something similar to the current BEA came together. I hit it from a link at Wren and also via Search.com
I recall an early front page had a static BE logo at one point. I second shadowcom's date...

1) because it jives with my memory and files
2) because a true fixed date would be hard to lock down for an internet site
3) it is the first full day of Summer.
3) it is Kithara's birthday!

So, until I hear (read) otherwise the anniversary date of the BEA shall be -
 June 22nd, 1997 the date of birth for the current BEA  

[Palomine]

Quote:

Quote:
 22 June 1997, AFAIR. Just after the "death" of "AASB".

I went back into my archives and my memory and it was sometime in June of 1997 that something similar to the current BEA came together. I hit it from a link at Wren and also via Search.com
I recall an early front page had a static BE logo at one point. I second shadowcom's date...

1) because it jives with my memory and files
2) because a true fixed date would be hard to lock down for an internet site
3) it is the first full day of Summer.
3) it is Kithara's birthday!

So, until I hear (read) otherwise the anniversary date of the BEA shall be -
 June 22nd, 1997 the date of birth for the current BEA  

Yes, I meant to say so earlier... I agree that Shadowcom's date is as close as we're likely to get... mid-'97 feels correct. I miss the old forum.

[doggo]

 

Quote:
Nor are the other forums 'backwaters' IMO...

At the moment of writing, two users were viewing the Off Topic forum, one was viewing this one, 31 were viewing the General Forum.

Say what you like and slice it whichever way you will, this forum is a de facto backwater.

[Palomine]

Without some semblence of organization doggo, the forums would quickly become unusable with ALL kinds of content stuffed into the GF... OF COURSE fewer visitors come to any forum OTHER than the GF... and that proves what exactly? Is that one extra click to get to the section of the site that contains RELEVANT information too much effort? I don't think so myself. Some organization is necessary and beneficial IMO.

[good natured sarcasm]
You've got an intersting idea of what 'backwater' means. Would you like me to draw you a map so that you can get back to the General Forum safely?
[/good natured sarcasm]

[TheHerald]

I'll resist more comment about some Forums being "backwater" just because less people are visiting them except to say I LIKE having some division between topics. I don't want to wade through the GF to find the occasional off-topic  thread I'm interested in.

Back on the main topic in THIS thread..

I have a 95% sure memory of my first visit to the BEA being in the summer of 1997 (probably July). I first saw it when clicking on a link from Bust Artist's site (which I found before the BEA). The earliest memory of the Forum I have was a flame war going on between Captain Canuck and other Forum users. The discussion hinted that this was the second (or more) time that the "discussion" had turned so vicious and people were getting tired of CC's childish/etc. posts. I vaguely recall posts by users St. Stephan and/or Palomine trying to calm the situation down.  

On the brighter side, I remember that Goober and JS used to UL many fine images to the User Gallery about this time (Goober: photos and JS: manga, especially "Blue Eyes"). I was strickly a lurker for about 2-3 years before finally speaking up on the subject of where our online names came from. Shortly after delurking, I started ULing many Xpod images to the UG (5/day was strongly suggested back then as a courtesy, but I don't think it was enforced). I remember the request for hardware (faster modems!, bigger hard drives, etc.) for the server (as well as money).

Er, I'm rambling beyond the initial start date.

My point is.. I was under the impression that the BEA had been running earlier then June 22, 1997; but since I first saw it in July of that year, I can't be certain HOW much earlier. The snapshot of the 1998 website is what I remember how it looked in 1997.

[doggo]

 

Quote:
Without some semblence of organization doggo, the forums would quickly become unusable with ALL kinds of content stuffed into the GF... OF COURSE fewer visitors come to any forum OTHER than the GF... and that proves what exactly? Is that one extra click to get to the section of the site that contains RELEVANT information too much effort? I don't think so myself. Some organization is necessary and beneficial IMO.

Fine, except that this thread, by opening up discussion on the origins of the BEA, has become more a history of the BE movement than a plain old answer to the question in the thread title. After all, the Owner could have replied to the first post: "June 1997, Eight years." End of story. But he didn't, and in discussing it now we have strayed far beyond the topic of the site itself.
 

Quote:
[good natured sarcasm]
You've got an intersting idea of what 'backwater' means. Would you like me to draw you a map so that you can get back to the General Forum safely?
[/good natured sarcasm]

[gentle irony]
Please do try, Palomine, to keep this discussion above the level of Prime Minister's Questions.
[/gentle irony]

To avoid having this thread moved into the Off Topic Forum, the estimate of June '97 sounds good, although AASB wasn't dead by then as R&D was still hosted (Issue 29) at AASB in June '97. R&D moved to Wren-Spot, Diana's and Cygor's shortly after this, and BEA was probably added to the hosts with Issue 33, in November 1997.

[Nimrod]

Hey Herald -
I recall some of that too! So far we have 3 votes for June 22nd, 1997 and your confirmation from the following month. Yes, the site may have been "coming together" prior to that date but I recall some sort of announcement with a June 22nd date in the "site issues".
It still feels like the middle of June, 1997 is just about the time that this place got it together - and June 22nd just works too well for enough people not to consider it an acceptable "line in the sand".
We are all correct, I just like that it is also Kithara's birthday!
 

 Not just that, I am also agreeing with Shadowcom and Palomine  

[Palomine]

I understand your points doggo, and agree (and wish) that some input from the Owner would have been nice. Regardless, as this topic IS of cultural interest to the community as a whole, I'm going to pin it at the top of this forum and any user is free to link to it from the pinned Q&A thread at the top of the General Forum if they'd like to do so.