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Yeah, happy birthday Furtopia! Two years and some days old now! ^^

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Wow when it all started? Well a lot of the when has been answered.  So perhaps I can fill in some of the "why".  Hmm..

WARNING!  Long story ahead.. non-computer geeks and history buffs may need a sip at Mt Dew before continuing... '>

Two things I've always loved growing up is computers and helping others.  When I was little before there was even a desktop computer I used to cut out twinkie boxes like tv sets and using card board pieces pretend how cool it would be if it was a machine animated game.

On my first apple computer (we could not afford one but my father found one from a fire) was a Apple II+ with 32k of ram.  The case was a little blackened and the "X" "S" and a few of the number keys were melted and unuseable.  But it was a working computer!  It wasn't long before I was customizing/upgrading it.  I bought a old mainframe 1200 baud modem from the college but had to figure out a way to "wire" it to my computer as apple cables were to expensive and hard to come by.  I solved this problem by stealing some wires from a dead power line.  I then threaded the wires through sewing needles and taped them in place with small band-aids.  Using a schematic I slowly began plugging the needles into the port on my computer.

Now I did not blow up my computer.  However I did prick and fry myself for most of the day (DarkDancer can attest to watching this event! ).  Plugging in one needle has a 75% chance of pulling out another and a 25% of pulling out more.  So I was busy.  But it did work and in Apple "Basic" wrote some of my first communication programs all designed for helping others.  "Modem Hound" was a repeat dialer for modem calling busy BBS's and was the first of it's kind.

Fascinated with communications with my first 286 I started "Music & More BBS!!!" in the early 90's.  The goal of this project was to create a home for artists where musicians could freely exchange, talk, and enjoy each others compositions (theme sound familiar?? '> ).  The project took off like wildfire.  Aided by my a 60 meg MFM drive and 4 proto-type Sony daisy chain CD-ROM drives (for storage) "Music & More" grew to be the largest music BBS archives in the world for a couple of years.  It eventually ran Wildcat BBS under OS/2 on a 386 with 4 dial in lines and 6 telnet nodes (run from a dedicated slip line).  We also had many online text based games for members to enjoy and play together (Furs in Space on Furtopia came from one of these games).

Things continued to grow until the phone *mafia* stepped in.  In the mid 90's I got a call from a "man" at Ohio Bell "security".  He warned me unless I paid them a $300/month ransom (which I did not have) I would be stopped from using my modems.  I argued the point I should not have to pay it and the guy just taunted me.  Well the next day all my lines had bad noise problems and the modems were having a hard time keeping sync.  Every time Ohio Bell put in a order to repair the repair order was "cancelled".  At one point I was even assigned a manager to over see the repair until she gave up.  In the end after 8 months they told me the lines were "unfixable".  Nobody would listen.  One of the hardest things I ever had to do was shut down the "Music & More!!! BBS" and realize "why" it had to go.  However during this time I had hooked up with other "furries" over the IRC and learned about a small close group of individuals who was just like me.  This connection had got me thinking of hosting furry artists.

A couple years and college went by and with my mate Kylee, I got whiteshepherd.net in 1996.  Kylee thought the idea was cool to host artists too.  However I had little experience so whiteshepherd.net became my first "testing grounds" where I learned a lot from experimenting and my mistakes.  Running Xitami under OS/2 I hosted us and a couple of artist friends.

Later after Kylee moved on and I met Kada-Ru I explained this "furry community project" to her that would grow to help others from being a "part" of the furs who helped it grow.  Kada-Ru thought it sounded great and backed me 100% working side by side with me.  This was in 2001 and I got the domain Furtopia.org .  '>

When I started Furtopia I wanted five key elements. 1st The server HAD to be the "upmost" in stability.  2nd speed must remain good for hosted members, 3rd: as a community service give the best for free (php, perl, ssi, mysql, etc), 4th attentive, quick, and friendly tech support/atnesphere. 5th always try to respect others as equals and let Furtopia be of the community and not just my needs/ideas.  Somewhere in that recipe and the efforts that put into it came a lot of furs who enjoyed the new place very much.

As far as hardware/design:  In 2002 the VERY first Furtopia ran on a Cyrix 133 using OS/2 and Xitami running on a 768SDSL line (at a operation cost of about $300/month).  At this time I had made a simple set of forums but i knew it was inadequate for what Furtopia needed.  I could make a fantastic server but was not experienced enough with forums.  In steps Ben who set up the Ikonboard we use today.  Very classy design that has grown on us all the way to our main page and T-shirts! (Thanks again Ben!'> Next was a upgrade to a K6/2 550 (making the Cyrix the backup server), and as the "fur data flew" to keep speed up as promised this upgraded to a Athalon 2400 running on x2 768 lines).  Eventually we had to co-locate to where we are now in a Texas data center off of 11 giga feeds.

So for the curious that is the VERY beginning from a infancy concept in a kid pup to the home we have today. '>

  WhiteShepherd

yes happy birthday to furtopia, and kada-Ru, and WS theres nothing with dreams you make it out what you want to happen, and you both did a fantastic job, keep up the good work

I'm going to pin this as so many members have wondered how Furtopia began. I found it by the search button but I think it is worthwhile to have pinned.

Furtopia's original look

Sure wish I woulda been around when Furtopia first got started three years ago. It would've been great to meet some of the very first members who made this community what it is.  '>  But sadly, I'm only member #396.  '>

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Quote (Rune @ Nov. 24 2004, 3:43 pm)

Way back mechine! It's really cool! You can see what the website looked like when it was first made. You can even click the links and see what the forums, and other things looked like.

ahhh, neon blue writeing! it burns! hehe

Got asleep at half of WS's story......... not!
Actually I did enjoy it. It's good to know when/where/how did this place started. =n-n= I just wanted to add it's a great thing you did. (all hail WS '> )

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Quote (Kobuk @ Jan. 17 2006, 10:53 pm)

It would've been great to meet some of the very first members who made this community what it is.  '>  But sadly, I'm only member #396.  '>

I'm #677 if that's of any consolation...  '>

Whoops. I bumped the topic after five months of inactivity... X*6~

There. I've been using this information to help update the history and such on the Furtopia entry on WikiFur. '>
 
http://furry.wikia.com/wiki/Furtopia
 
Benjamin

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Quote (AladTheAnthroMeerkat @ May 20 2006, 10:18 pm)

Quote (Kobuk @ Jan. 17 2006, 10:53 pm) It would've been great to meet some of the very first members who made this community what it is.  '>  But sadly, I'm only member #396.  '> I'm #677 if that's of any consolation...  '> Whoops. I bumped the topic after five months of inactivity... X*6~

I'm only #600. :\

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There. I've been using this information to help update the history and such on the Furtopia entry on WikiFur. '> http://furry.wikia.com/wiki/Furtopia

Good job, Ben. '>  But you forgot one thing: You forgot to list Kaisilverfire as a moderator in the Staff section.  

*shrugs*

Wow, it has been amazing to learn about the history of this site... and it all started out (basically) on a burnt-out apple!  And it took just two years to get to what is is now! Amazing...

Edit: four and a bit years... sorry but two years to get like this

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Quote (Kada-Ru @ Nov. 22 2004, 12:39 pm)

DJ Vix-N (4-11-02) and Kattywampus (4-12-04) were our first website applicants. (smiles)

Psst...'02

*cracks her back and shakes a cane*
Back in my day, we used to...  uh..  zzzzzzzz...

Wow, I didn't realize I was the 2nd webspace applicant!
I didn't want to join the forum at first, 'cause I don't like them generally, but Kada-Ru convinced me, and I finally did.  And then they gave me that artists' forum thingie within the forum, and I'm too shy to use it.  Hehehe.  I'm forum member #10, incidentally.

I was desperate to find webspace that was ad-free and springtime fresh.  One of my older sites, "The Ryo-Oh-Ki Shrine" got so many hits that it took me over the bandwidth limit to update it, so I had to abandon it.  That's about when WhiteShepherd posted to a.l.f. about his service.  Booyah!  (Read about your furry history on WikiFur, kiddos!'>

Furtopia in the Wayback Machine Archives

Enjoy! :3

(Psst...Rune already did that)  ^^;;

Wow, this place is that old? Correct me if I'm wrong, bu I heard this was the biggest furry forum on the net as well.

Aside, I think I like the old theme better. Just my opinion.

You might be right. I'v been a member since 2003, and I have seen this place explode in the number of furs that have joined. I also have yet to find a furry forum that even comes close to being as good.

Varg is right
Gosh it's been so long since I've been back, but nowhere else is as good...
And of course old members still visit!
It's nice to know that Furtopia is still here to welcome me back...
Although I'd forgotten my password and apparently the email address I had registered here was one I stopped using shortly after joining, so I *did* have to re-activate an old email account to re-set my password. But it was worth it