In just over a week, the forum we all know and love will be turning 14 years old (Feeling old yet?). In honor of this exciting occasion, I will be document the history and the present of the best bits of the zoological forum in a multi part thread, so let us begin. Shall we?
Part 1: How It all Began
On October 18, 2003, An idea of a worldwide zoo discussion forum came to life. An Australian zoo fanatic, who had experience in running forums just like these, wanted to create a site were people of all ages could share news, experiences and information from your favorite zoo(s). Hence, zoochat was... not born, yet. The site was originally known as zoobeat for the first few years of its life. Within the first year, zoobeat gained 17 members, 23 threads and 37 posts. Just like starting a business, you have to begin somewhere.
And so he did, A few days after starting the forum, he got his hands on PhotoPost, which is what he used for the gallery. Now members could post their favorite pictures from their zoo visits. Over the next few years, more and more members joined. By the end 2007, there were a grand total 174 members. Some notable newbies from that year, include the Canadian father of 4 @snowleopard who became well known for his massive road trips across the US, and @Chlidonias who became the first of the now moderators to join the site. Also new that year, @robmv who currently holds a record 1654 zoos visited. There are plenty of other members from that year that I could go on and on about, but it was it was the following year, 2008, where the forums went under a major change...
Thank you all for reading the first part into the history of zoochat, if there is any major events I missed, please comment them, or have a moderator add them to this post.
Part 2: Out With The Old
Part 3: Another Step Forward
Part 1: How It all Began
On October 18, 2003, An idea of a worldwide zoo discussion forum came to life. An Australian zoo fanatic, who had experience in running forums just like these, wanted to create a site were people of all ages could share news, experiences and information from your favorite zoo(s). Hence, zoochat was... not born, yet. The site was originally known as zoobeat for the first few years of its life. Within the first year, zoobeat gained 17 members, 23 threads and 37 posts. Just like starting a business, you have to begin somewhere.
And so he did, A few days after starting the forum, he got his hands on PhotoPost, which is what he used for the gallery. Now members could post their favorite pictures from their zoo visits. Over the next few years, more and more members joined. By the end 2007, there were a grand total 174 members. Some notable newbies from that year, include the Canadian father of 4 @snowleopard who became well known for his massive road trips across the US, and @Chlidonias who became the first of the now moderators to join the site. Also new that year, @robmv who currently holds a record 1654 zoos visited. There are plenty of other members from that year that I could go on and on about, but it was it was the following year, 2008, where the forums went under a major change...
Thank you all for reading the first part into the history of zoochat, if there is any major events I missed, please comment them, or have a moderator add them to this post.
Part 2: Out With The Old
Part 3: Another Step Forward
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he has visited a zoo 1654 times since 1998, which is not quite the same thing!
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