Archive through May 01, 2002
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TV ClubHouse: Archive: History of the TVCH...: Archive through May 01, 2002

Logan

Monday, April 01, 2002 - 10:54 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Neil, i remember when that happened. I kept going back to realplayer, hoping they would give some morsel to curb our addiction.
What I would like to say is how commendable the idea for this website was to go on the net, and imho be the first ones to carry the transcripts for the live feeds off realplayer. I remember, being in AOL chats and so many people feeling terrible they could not get realplayer to work, or their computers had no capability.
I think that was the best part of this site, providing a service to those who liked BB1 and cudn't watch the live feeds.

Ryn

Monday, April 01, 2002 - 05:35 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
<---begins digging in his drawer of links and rememberencs for the history of BBFC according to me...

including the info Whit asked about (have missed you whit, glad to see you about!!)....

how is this for starters whit? If you can download ASF files (might be tough on a Mac - here are 4 vid files of one of our banners with George saying "Fanclub you're alright" ....
http://www.geocities.com/ryn1970/

Ryn

Monday, April 01, 2002 - 08:38 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
The original board was located here:

http://boards.eesite.com/board.cgi?boardset=enbcom (the link will just take you to an error though eesite still exists).

That board was fine when it was small, Neil had about 5 topics it seems and they were each a "thread" - one thread was something like "News" where Neil asked folks to post whats happening NOW - when I happened across the site there might be one or two posts a day in that area, then others started posting more and more updates (myself included).

Problem was after like 20 posts, the thread would die and another would have to be started. Neil (and Lisa I assume) were the only ones with any moderating ability. I basically hung out in what had slowly become the "Live Feeds" area and would try to keep the things runing smoothly. One day Neil asked me to drop him an e-mail and suddenly I found myself the 1st "Moderator" - soon after a couple others Joined the ranks including Gail (who works a MILLION times harder than me on the board). I stuck with the live feeds for the most part and let the other mods keep the rest of the board in order.

Then we hit a wall, the original site had some limit - maybe 1000 posts, then it would start dumping the old ones (which is why we lost the 1st few weeks of the original BB from the archives).

Neil went off and coughed up some $$ for a hosted site, and got the new software as well (the softwared used for the BBoard). I think we lasted a week on the "new" hosted site and they basically told Neil they were shutting him down, just WAY too much traffic.

Along came Bomis, a member of BBFC who volunteered to host BBFC. And its where we have been ever since.

Now, the Live feeds....... What more to say about those? They were not the only ones during BB I - but of course I think they were the best. Jokers site was probably the 1st, or at least the most detailed early on, of course the format was completely different from BBFC.

I was one of the main live feed posters at the beginning, much to the detriment of my "real life" lol. Those of you only here for the end of BB I or just BB II might think I didn't post much on the live feeds but trust me I did. There were times in the beginning when I was the only poster and would go for 3 or 4 hours straight, and thats when we had the "Quad Cam" - not just 2 basic feeds.

Being as I was sorta "in charge" of that area I guess I kinda shaped the way it developed, we adopted "BB Time" as the standard time (it just kinda happeend I think), and Neil eventually got the whole board to reflect BB time (it used to show his local time). The majority of the posters at the time really wanted to be accurate, and keep personal opinions out of the live feeds as much as possible and for the most part we succeded. Some folks did leave the site because they didn't like the way the live feeds was run, sux to lose good posters, really does. But those things happen and you will never please everyone all of the time.

BB II was pretty much like BB I, except people were ready and the posting was hot and heavy from the get go! I posted very very little in the live feeds this past BB, but mainly because we had so many great posters, and my duties of moderating and keeping things organized were much more involved.

Soooooo - how was that Whit? Did I answer the basics?

BTW, the other moderators work a ton harder than me, and I am proud to have worked with every one of them past & present. This board is what it is because of everyone involved and I can't believe we are getting ready for BB III !!!

I wonder what its gonna cost us this year to see it live........

Logan

Monday, April 01, 2002 - 08:58 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Ryn, don't be so humble...this board did have the best style of live feed transcripts. Give yourself credit for that. They were the best.
I recall going to Joker's site, once or twice, and theirs weren't anywhere as good and easy to read as the ones at BBFC.
I don't even know of Jokers site is still alive.
Regardless, anyone who chatted up BB1 at AOL I kept posting link to BBFC every other minute, lol.
But I have to so, what gave me that initial great pride was that BBFC was a Canadian originated site. No offense to Americans, LOL.

Admin

Monday, April 01, 2002 - 09:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Vive le Canada! :-)

Nice review Ryn...brings me right back to those days..wow. Yes, the 200 message per topic limit. I remember that. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong...I guess that's what you get for free! hehe...

I make a habit of checking out other sites, just to see what they are up to, but then I rarely go back. I don't believe we should compare ourselves to others, just know where we fit in the world and grow as wish and see fit to do! Sound like a plan?

Ryn

Monday, April 01, 2002 - 10:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thaqnks logan, I didn't mean Jokers was better, they just did it differently, and yes, their site went under near the end of BB II.

Jokers was totally different in that it was pretty much random comments, one liners (a thing I find a PAIN to try to read). But it was nice to be able to check them out when things were confusing on our site.

We had a nice working relationship with Jokers and the admins I had contact with there were always responsive and friendly. They will be missed come BB III if they are not around.

Admin

Wednesday, April 24, 2002 - 06:24 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Suddenly we are transported to the year 2022....

"Hey honey, I was cleaning out all your stuff and I found this cd, what's on it?"

"Oh, I think that's a copy of all my bookmarks. Put it in the computer and see what's on there."

"It's a link to a place called the TV ClubHouse? What's that?"

"Oh my gosh, I remember that...let's see....www.tvclubhouse.com WOW..look a that! It's still there! It's huge! I wonder if anyone is still around? Hey..look...it's Ryn and Gail and Tess and Buttercup and Noslonna and Juju and everybody!! Hey guys...remember me!!???"

"What are you doing!!?? your dinner is getting cold....get off that computer!!!"

"I'll be there in a minute hon......."

"Kids, your father is a nut."

time passes....

"Goodnight!!! Are you there???"

more time passes.....

"hello???" ..oh I hate that man!

Twiggyish

Wednesday, April 24, 2002 - 06:52 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Thread topics in the year 2022:

101 ways to spend your social security check.

Fun activities with your rocking chair.

Juju2bigdog

Wednesday, April 24, 2002 - 09:55 am EditMoveDeleteIP
"Look, dear, Tess's Sarah has just invented another time traveling gismo. Tess will be able to visit the grandchildren so easily with this little sucker."

Ocean_Islands

Wednesday, April 24, 2002 - 11:16 am EditMoveDeleteIP
It's funny because after all this time, the period of the year where Big Brother falls in board time seems like 'a trying season' -- with all the new members, new flamers appearing, and all hell breaks loose for three months. Then everything calms down again and we get back to normal.

Twiggyish

Wednesday, April 24, 2002 - 12:00 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Amazing how things are still the same...LOL

Admin

Wednesday, April 24, 2002 - 08:17 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
"Darn...the stupid holographic image thing is acting up again. Guess I'll just have to chat with the keyboard, like the old days..."

Grooch

Thursday, April 25, 2002 - 05:58 am EditMoveDeleteIP
"Dad, what's a keyboard?"

Hippyt

Friday, April 26, 2002 - 07:36 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
LOL,You guys! I meant to read this thread months ago. Here's my paltry little story about my intro to TVCH. I had been to the BB fansite a few times,but never heard of the legal problems.
One night I was in that stinky CBS BB chatroom complaining about how much it stunk,when some friendly person handed me the URL to the lovely TVCH!!! He/she said,"This is where you want to go,if you want to talk with friendly people,and they do incredible live transcripts."
Been addicted ever since,I always wonder who it was I talked to that night!
Yaay for nice people!!! And all you mods do a great job. Thanks to you Neil!

Whit4you

Friday, April 26, 2002 - 11:20 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Glad to see my little thread took off

(little bit of an ego boost to see a thread you start become a hit -dunno why that is lol)


I also think - at the start of BBIII - it'll be an interesting thread for newbies to read to learn how we ended up where we are today here.

Now that the true charter members of TVCH have spoken... my turn to tell my little bit of TVCH history :)

I found this lil place just as they were moving to this new format (Bomis) but just lurked and read all the wars going on here - the fights over brit and george and gawd knows who else. It was all very interesting. And I was perfectly content to just lurk here - but then Neil flew a banner - the first one - and it was so nice and sweet and a heartwarming thing that I had to take the time to register to tell him that it was awesome. That was the end of my life as I had known it for a very long time - once I was registered and started posting - um - well then I had to read their responses to my post and resond to them and lol it's this insane cycle that you can never escape from - :)

BB I ended and I thought my connection here would too - but I was such a BB addict and wanting to know what happened with Eddie - that I stuck around - and somehow .. someway ended up in this 'never to be talked about again' - Game I that they started here. To many invvled in the infamous "Game I" it was a bad thing - to me it was an incredible thing - more interesting - intense and exciting then BB itself had been and honestly something that could be studied and anaylzed forever in the physcology circles lol.

For those who don't like the mention of "Game I" I'm sorry - but it is what kept us together - all the other 'frist year' BB sites are gone - even Joker's - this one stayed together till we were all simply family to return year after eyar BECAUSE of that game that kept us here that year - so if a few people got their feelings hurt - tsk tsk tsk. It was to me one of the most succesful experiements done online ever.

Since most of us had remained together when BB II came around it was like a big family as we got involved in their lives - pretty tough for me cause their was so much negativity and nastiness that it was really hard to deal with at times.

The newbies who will be joining us - will at first feel like they are walking into a 'clique" - it's impossible not to - even for US because there are so many 'inside jokes' and we as a group have our own special lingo. Hopefully this thread as it progresses will help those just joining us for BB III to understand where we come from and how we've gotten to we are now.

All the 'oldbies' can help the newbies feel welcome by joining in and welcoming the newbies in the "newbie thread' that develops at the time - so keep that in mind.

Anyhow - for my little part in the history of TVCH I was at one time the most prolific poster lol - (thanks to Moon taking a month off lol)
now folks who are new here -t rust me being most prolific poster durning the BB season is NOT a small feat - there are thousands of posts a week here at that time LOL. I doubt I'll get that 'honor' this year since I will be workin part time but at least I held it briefly so I will always have my spot in the TVCH history books :)

I'd so love to see a 'stats' person - someone to keep stats on 'most posts in a day' 'most posts in a hour' 'largest thread' 'most prolific poster' - all those sorts of tidbits - they fascinate me :) We had a few around here retentive enough to do something like that... :)

Anyhow - I'm loving this thread - anyone else have any interesting 'TVCH" history lesson's for the newbies who'll be joining us?

Whit

Whoami

Saturday, April 27, 2002 - 07:51 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Newbies and Oldbies. Hmmm, well, I was a newbie in BBII. So, when BBIII starts, does that mark the beginning of my official Oldbieness? Or, since I wasn't fortunate enough to find this place during BBI (and get in on the original Oldbie Club) would I me a Mediumbie?

Ocean_Islands

Saturday, April 27, 2002 - 08:25 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Anybody who shows up after the first BBIII show is a newbie.

Juju2bigdog

Saturday, April 27, 2002 - 09:48 am EditMoveDeleteIP
There you go, Ocean. And everybody else is either older than the hills or older than tarnation.

Soeur

Saturday, April 27, 2002 - 09:49 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Or it just feels that way.

Webkitty

Saturday, April 27, 2002 - 10:03 am EditMoveDeleteIP
And by the time BB111 ends, even the newbies will have "root butt".......

Grooch

Saturday, April 27, 2002 - 02:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Root butt? I'm feeling like a newbie all of a sudden. ;)

Admin

Saturday, April 27, 2002 - 04:12 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
What if BB III does not bring a whole lot of new faces? I think about that sometimes.

I liked your post Whit4you. I would like to add, the Game did have a place and purpose, but was not something that can be repeated. :)

Also, more on the History: I have to give credit where credit is due. In the early '90's I was involved with a BBS named LiveWire. LiveWire was exactly like this place (well not exactly, but similar), but it was only local to my city. There I became addicted to online chatting (some a little hotter than others! ) and learned about online communities. It filled some strange need in me, and eventually when LiveWire disappeared (largely due to the onslaught of the internet) I missed it. Then the TVCH was born and now I find myself remembering LW a lot! In fact, the other day I tracked down the admin/creator and emailed him, thanking him for his efforts. He replied:

"I can only say thank you for taking the time to do that, that's very nice of you. I've heard from a handful of folks since the end of LiveWire but not all that many considering what it became at one point. Yes, it is a lot of work and it does evolve as you say. You can do certain things to help bring the folks on by keeping it fresh and fun but it does tend to grow on it's own once it's churning properly. .... There were a lot of good times, good feelings, lot's of fun, great GT's, good friends.. lot's of experiences and knowledge gained. It's too bad it had to end."

He said more, including his desire to restore the place from an old backup and advertise it so people can go there and remember it, maybe get together again. That's how I feel around here. I don't ever want it to end! If it did (like I die or something) I'd want to put a backup online so we can all go there and read it and remember. Thanks everybody! I hope you all feel that way too! :)

Buttercup

Saturday, April 27, 2002 - 07:14 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
<What if BB III does not bring a whole lot of new faces? I think about that sometimes.>

AS IF!!!! I seriously doubt that this place won't be getting a bunch of new faces....also, remember to be careful of what you ask for

However, should the unimaginable happen, then I guess you just have to learn to love us wonderful oldies more

Speaking of oldies, Juju, this one is for you:
old cow


Buttercup

Juju2bigdog

Saturday, April 27, 2002 - 10:11 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Udderly cool, Buddercub. You really mooooove me.

Tksoard

Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 04:33 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I watched BB1 from the beginning and kept going to the AOL website. Being on WebTV, all I could read were the headings. I was really getting frustrated because I didn't know what came after the headings. Being a new WebTV owner, and thinking it was only for writing e-mails, I decided to search for other BB1 websites. Did a search and ended up here. That was about a week into BB and I've been here ever since. After BB1, I was here for the games, but I didn't know the people here well enough to understand who was who, so I just lurked around for a while longer. In the spring, I think I had something to say, so I came out of lurk-mode and posted something. I was SO welcomed here back then, and just love this place, TOO much sometimes, and haven't shut up since. Then there was BB2 and Survivors and Amazing Races and every other little thing on TV and in real life that has me hooked Big Time. If TVCH was ever to end, so would my life!!! LOL!!! So that is my story.