Ooh, really old news update found...

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/site/updates.htm

This was laying around for some reason.  The current news script just "forgets" after about 20 posts or so.  This file predates the news script though... so that explains how it's retained.  It doesn't explain why it's there.  Anyway, now we know exactly when to have an anniversary... (Neil's post, May 28th!)

Speaking of old stuff, does anyone remember when the page looked like this?  Save for me, Neil, my brother, and my sister... I'll bet not.  I think most of them filtered off.
Errr... and take my old articles that still work on the old page with a grain of salt; they were quite the EH newbieisms.      (Why some stuff never gets deleted... nobody knows...)

[Tim needs time to work it out]

Huzzah!  

The site's birthday is on a Wedensday!

...Is that good?

Still, I can't believe how many hits it generated over the first year of being online.  Things certainly have changed on this webpage...

[larewen_evenstar]

It's only a year old?  

looking at the link, this place definately has changed alot. And I have to admit, I like it alot better now. If I'd seen the original one, I probably wouldn't have registered into the forum, no offence.

Well, Happy Birthday when it comes!

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

I probably wouldn't have registered into the forum, no offence.

No offence taken, as there wasn't any forum or general site registration to speak of yet!

[larewen_evenstar]

There wasn't? How olds the forum anyway?

[Tim needs time to work it out]

Lar - "How olds the forum anyway?"

The forums were around for at least mid-October (about the 15th-20th).

That means they are about... four months younger than the website itself.

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

It was created apparently about October 13th 2002, as noted by the timestamp of my initial posting that still exists on page 3.  Via the link above, you know exactly what I was talking about:

There was proper hesitation on setting one up here because its easy to make a forum but hard to make a draw to it.  In the beginning, I'm sure it would've look outright silly.  We had a few links to sections, most of which didn't exist at all, on a very plain site that consisted mostly of black and a faded yellow color.

Before that, registrants were asked if a forum should be put into place. Note Question 4 of the Registration Forum, which used to be the one that asked about it.  I think the choices are actually unchanged from back then.  Since most of the registrants said at least "maybe" (a good deal were solid yes), I figured I'd give it a go.  

Since the default answer on the reg sheet was NO, it was easy to make sure that anyone who seriously wanted one would answer thusly.  And it seems that 14 out of 18 registrations (and this number does NOT count me and Neil mind you),  said they'd at least like to see one created, perhaps for their own usage (a few were "demanding" it, as per the reg sheet )

I know Neil's never been fond of it and still isn't AFAIK... but I on the other hand actually like the idea of being able to communicate with other El-Hazard fans on a personal level besides email.  And making it publically viewable like this (except for conditions that warrant privacy, naturally) helps encourage others to talk.  That is the essence of a "community", as opposed to just being a dry informational site.

[kiri_kitty_kitt]

I like it. Much cleaner. But the current one is the better of the two.

I like the forum... Sharing opinions and debating tends to keep intrest in the fandom even after the show is over. So even though it's done, it's not...

[larewen_evenstar]

I belong to several forums now, and this is the only one I go on everyday.
It works out something like this:-
EHOL- Everyday if possible
OBfiles- Once a month
Little washu's cute homepage- I've been there twice since I joined a week after EHOL

See, this ones my fave. Because I know people here better, and I have a closer connection with the members of this board than in either of the other two.
So there you go.  

[panicpaladin]

The current one is perfect, except the Antialiasing in the current title continues to bug me. Reminds me of the old *site that Rob does not want to be reminded of anymore* :x *shot by Rob*

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

Heh.  It's only cause the logo has been on so many different versions of pages.  (Probably quite a few that didn't make public release.)  So it was good for some, not for others, but no matter what will be a bit annoying to clean off.  ;p