I will never forget the "I'm pissed, I'm stunned" post or deeth's "Simms still talking to Texas coaches" post. Lots of good stuff back in 360's heyday. Fortunately, Katy and Robert have established a great place over here.
And the Replacements too? HenryJames, you are a Big Star. As Jimmy Stewart said in Philadelphia Story: "C.K. Dexter Haven, you have unexpected depth!"
I never posted on Austin360, but somehow I found this site very early on. I guess I found it through a search engine. My memory isn't so good regarding this, but I have been here for about 4 years. I'm just now 18. So you can guess how tenative I was at 14 years old to post on a site like this with so many knowledgeable fans. I've been here since well before Longhorn Bob left. I didn't really keep up with the grudge match though. I missed the very beginning of it, and never caught up. I remember starting a topic a few years back during the off-season. I tried to make up something funny, and I think it was entitled something like "Top Ten Reasons To Go To Texas Tech". I got blasted from some guy, saying we should stick to football related topics, blah, blah, blah. Some of y'all came and told him to calm down. Thanks, whoever you are. After that, it took me a while to post again. This site is great. I've told a lot of people about it. I've loved watching it grow into such a successful site. Thanks to LonghornGirlie and Orangeblood for all the hard work. I've enjoyed myself over the years, and plan to do so in the years to come.
Doperbo-- Great thoughts. I just want to add that I eventually took another job in Houston that led me back to my old stomping grounds near the nude sunbathers on the rooftops. This time, unfortunately, I'm on the second floor. Luckily, this job doesn't have me wanting to hang myself with a tie. DIMYH?-- I honestly don't think I've calmed down one bit. I also still completely flip out on this board all of the time. It's inane. Regardless, I don't think it's age or anything more than working about 70-80 hours a week and not having time to respond to every single poster like I did back in the day. I'd hate to be misleading. Perhaps when my company sells (hopefully later this summer), I'll have more time to respond to every person with a dissenting opinion. Maybe not as violently, of course. It's what made some of the threads enjoyable to me. Good thoughts from all of you.
12StudStan? That dude was friggin' hilarious. For someone who started posting practice reports on Prodigy in 1989, this site is nothing short of Heaven.
DIMYH, that hawaiian "Who is Cedric Benson?" thread that was written in the style of Gabriel Garcia Marquez was funny as ****. that was about a year ago that happened. i wish those guys would come back...
A brief history of time... at least as far as HornFans goes I didn't start keeping up with the Longhorns on the internet until the summer of 1998 like so many others by following the Austin 360 board. So, I’m a newbie by comparison to the Methuselahs on this board and others. Honorable mention should go to some of the pages that were around then, although not BBSes. Pressley’s page and MightyHorns.com by Matt Foster come to mind as great pages that are now extinct. Billy Bob’s was around even then. Its worth noting that while many poster, including myself, do not agree with the stance he’s taken this year against our head coach and one of our players, Bill is doing what he has always done – express his opinion on Longhorn Athletics by headlining and linking news articles in a way that he feels highlights important issues. He’s never had advertising on his site. I have a great deal of respect for him and his personal integrity, although I disagree with his current take on things. The format of Austin 360 has always bothered me. Its too hard to read everything on a given thread, and to figure out if new posts have been added to interesting ones and if so, where. The lack of a search feature and the ability to read topics as one long list of posts drives me batty. Of the boards that I perused then, sadly TexAgs had the most appealing format with software that addressed both of these issues. At that time, Austin 360 had a vibrant community. Most have been mentioned in this thread. Some great people still fight the good fight over there to keep it from becoming a complete cesspool. I applaud their efforts and think that it is essential that good folks continue posting over there. That is a very visible website and often the one that new folks come across first. The concept of HornFans was officially born on January 1, 1999. Hungover after New Year’s and beating $herrill in the Cotton Bowl, our then friend Bob Wheeler and Robert and I decided that it would be fun to start our own board. I had no idea at the time how popular it would become, the incredible community that it would generate, nor what we would have to go through in order to preserve it. I bought the software, customized it, found an ISP, wrote some basic pages, and we launched on January 12, 1999. Its funny when people talk about being here for 5 years or since 1997, etc, when we’ve only been around since January, 1999. Time does fly… I put one post on Austin 360 that said basically “Hey, come check us out!”. By the days end, we had tens of thousands of hits. Hundreds of thousands the next day. Within a few days, the ISP was calling me to tell me that they couldn’t handle the amount of traffic that we were doing and we’d have to upgrade. We did, and they still called back and said that their top-of-the-line service was still not capable of handling us. I switched ISPs just a few days before Chris switched commitments. We struggled through that day. I’m still amazed at how we managed given the technical setup we had at the time. Today, we do that kind of traffic on any given day. But we are on a fancy new dedicated server with software that is much more efficient at handling the traffic. I’m not at liberty to go into the mess that was our relationship with Bob Wheeler. What is important to note is how this community continued to grow and thrive, even while Bob and I were not on speaking terms. It was and is so obvious to me that what is great about HornFans is not me or Robert. It’s the community that calls this place home. We are honored to be your hosts. Bob and Robert and I settled our differences in January of 2000, with our buying out his interest in HornFans and providing a link to his new venture. Thus, a new age of HornFans was born. We asked several of our best regulars to help us moderate the board and keep the conversation lively and on track. Some folks are not aware that the moderators are all entirely volunteer positions. While it might sound like a fun thing to do, its actually a thankless, sucky job. The ability to lock/edit/delete posts and ban people is not worth the hate mail and the ridiculous amount of criticism that they endure. Their most important quality is their ability to maintain a sense of humor. I don’t know what we’d do without them. The community continued to grow exponentially in 2000. The summer of 2000 saw us upgrade to a dedicated server to handle the load. It was during that year that I came to appreciate how much of a direct impact that HornFans and message boards in general have on our players and coaches. I would hear Mack Brown mention the internet and the importance of staying positive in almost every speech. I always took those words to heart. It really hit home for me though when at our tailgate for the Spring Game, Beau Baker tapped me on the shoulder (we’d met a couple of times) and told me that there was someone who would like to meet me. And he introduced me to Major Applewhite. I hope Major doesn’t mind me telling this story. He’s a private person who does not relish the spotlight and all of the attention that he gets. I tell it only to illustrate that players do read this and other internet sites. The rule of thumb that we have always used here is that we expect folks to post as if the player and his parents are standing right next to you. This site affords you the opportunity to directly impact on our players. What will you choose to do with that opportunity? 2001 presented more of a technical challenge than anything else. Our ISP went out of business very abruptly. There was about a 24 hour period where I didn’t know what the status was. Thankfully, Grant Kirkwood, the CTO of the ISP and a very good friend, took the server to his house and ran it from his apartment for a few days while we made arrangements at a local ISP. He flew down here with the server and helped me get everything online. Continued growth caused HornFans to slow to a near crawl over the summer of 2001. The server and the software simply could not handle any more. I spent the summer tearing my hair out trying to fix it. With the help of bat and Dances With Possums and several others, we upgraded both the hardware and the software to the system we have in place today. I’m confident that we are currently running well below our maximum capacity, and I know what the upgrade path is should we approach maximum load in the future. So, with the technical issues largely resolved, there are still a lot of extra features that I would like to add. As time permits, maybe I’ll have a chance to get to them. Currently, I think the greater challenge is to figure out how to integrate new users as they arrive so that they don’t feel so intimidated by the current community while still enjoying the comfortable history with the folks who have been around forever. I never expected (and have never really understood) the obsession with post count. I’m amazed that people are aware and treat it like a landmark when they reach some new posting level. I’d also like to see about enticing some of those great posters whose interest has waned for whatever reason back to the fold. We’re also facing a challenge of fiscal viability. The internet advertising industry has tanked along with so many other dot-com businesses. Currently, we have an “upside-down” business model. The more popular we become, the more money we lose. The cost of running the site exceeds the amount of money that we can make. No amount of clicking (Thank you to those of you who do) will change that. Please do continue to support our advertisers. It does help, but we are going to have to figure out in the next several months how to keep HornFans viable. >What is very clear to me is that virtual communities act very much like real communities. The one constant is change. Austin 360 is not the place it was years ago. HornFans is not what it was when it began. Some great sites have come and gone. Some continue to grow, some have withered into virtual non-existence. A lot of online communites have endured severe upheavals and rifts between factions. It is important to me to keep HornFans from dividing itself into cliques. We saw the awful results of Major fans vs. Chris fans this year. Its time we focus on being Longhorn fans. One thing that I love about college athletics is the variety of people that it attracts. The President of the United States really cares about how the Longhorns do on any given weekend. One of the most knowledgeable and loyal fans that I know works intermittently and lives paycheck to paycheck. It attracts folks of all races, genders, orientations, etc… and equalizes them. While the anonymity of internet posting certainly has its downsides, the thing that I find inspiring about it is the opportunity to be known not for your sex, your race, your age, your looks, but for one thing and one thing only.. what you have to say. What some people do with that opportunity sometimes disgusts me, but more often inspires me, and always amazes me. Thanks each and every one of you, lurkers and posters alike, 1000+ Posts and < 25 Posts, even our resident Ags/Sooners/whatever, but mostly Longhorns. Its you that makes HornFans what it is.
Hmm...well I guess I haven't been here 4+ years. I told you my memory was bad. Re: money matters Is it possible to get sponsors like high schools and colleges do? I mean go around to restaurants and local businesses, show them how much traffic you get and how much is from local residents. Maybe they'd be willing to support this site if given a good sales pitch.
I remember lurking on the only internet connection to which I had access, (my wife's work) around '96. Was a full-time lurker 'till recently. Was absolutely fascinating watching the Barnett / Mack thing. People reporting from airports and such. Also, how many more posters back in the day had much more legitimate inside information. This was obviously before people fully realized the impact of the net.
Sorry I waxed rhapsodic there. Definitely one of my favorite things about HornFans is the dry wit. Responding to flames with restaurant reviews is also a well loved HornFans phenomena.
I have been mostly lurking since this board came up. It quickly seemed obvious that this board was more intune with my way of thinking than 360 and I have been here ever since. I truly love this board and read it every day, sometimes multiple times. My late uncle got me into the recruiting part. Next thing I know I am buying a digital camera and heading over to B.J. Johnson's press conference and announcement. I take my pictures and then drop and break my brand new camera when I start clapping celebrating his announcment. I put it back together go home and ask for help in posting the pictures. Some nice folks helped me and I felt like I had really contributed to the masses that hungered for information like I did. I understand the junkies on this board whether it be football, basketball, recruiting or whatever. I understand because I am one of them and I love it. When I am around people at work and we start talking sports and I know more than they do, I owe it all to this board. You have made me what I am, an addict!
Been lurking since the outset and posting for about a year. Maybe there are some sites that are better, but then I would have to leave this one to check them out. I am not willing to do so. I notice that although I am obsessed with all things Longhorn, I dont even bother reading the papers because the depth and timeliness of info pales in comparison to what I get here. Many of the posters are more interesting than any typical sportswriter. But I agree with LHG, for me the wit is what does it. I laugh out loud on a daily basis from reading this site. Over the years I have turned people on to this site who arent even football fans, and they love it. Anyway, like the song says, these are the good old days. Right here.
LHG, thanks for the brief history of time. For many of us 1300+ miles from Austin, this is how we get our informative news. All the Exes in Northern VA are HF lurkers! I was in North Korea and China for over a month in the summer of 2000 and I missed my dogs but I really missed this site! One comment: One way of keeping the IT system within capacity, I would think is to ban serial flamers and postboasters and I think enforcement this year has been fairly decent. Not having Houston Sooner here is not missing Houston Sooner.
For my first post, I thought it only fitting that it be under this thread. Back in the day (1995-1998), I ran The End Zone- one of the first Texas Football websites (with Pressly, Billy Bob, Orange Tower, etc). I graduated from UT, where I was a Texas Angel for all 4 years (hence the nickname), which got me completely addicted to UT Football. The website was my way of getting it out of my system. I finally had to give up the website - I headed off to law school (in lovely South Bend), and couldn't devote the time to it anymore. But I definitely remember the good ol' days of Horns online- back before the 360 message board even really got started. I posted there some, but law school ended that whole era for me. It is so funny to scan through and read some of those old school posters' names- I had totally forgotten! In any event, I guess I'm back now- I'm a new lawyer now, and apparently need some sort of distraction in my life. My Dad is the one that got me into this board- he's a regular poster here, but I won't give away his identity. (hi daddy!) I thoroughly enjoy the discussion here- the good, the bad, and the ugly- and hope I can contribute, too. Now I just need a nifty signature...
Am I the only person from the Stone Age? In about 1990-91 I started to post on Prodigy. They had a site for Longhorn football. By about 1991-92, a bunch of the people had come to rely on me for recruiting information. I got all of the periodicals (Jerry S and Inside Texas, later Horns Illustrated, AAS, Houston Chron) and would type up reports like Rpongetti are CarKev do now. In other words, I was the God of Texas Longhorn recruiting. No inside info was really posted. It started to become an obsession, with me on the computer from 8 until midnight every night during recuriting season and after games. Combined with MBA and law school, I never left my room, and it drove my wife crazy. That's why I am really a lurker here (posting takes time). Anyway, I started to go to spring practice and met some other guys from the "bulliten board". It was really fun. But I eventually got burnt out and the internet took over. My handle on prodigy was "hook'em george" As prodigy became irrelevant, I saw many of the people migrate to 360, but I have totally lost track. Are there any "stone age" posters out there from Prodigy?
Welcome back, Angel! I too joined the 360 BBS in '96. I found it shortly after I moved back to Austin. I was a quick convert to HornFans.com based on the thread formats and the fact that the flames had a shorter half-life. I can never get over the generousity of Katy and Robert and the way they help others in the community. Keep up the good work and let us know what we can do to help ensure the future viability of HornFans.
THUMPER! You forgot Thump. As well as Bully and Megadittos of TexasBBS fame. I joined the TexasBBS in November of '97, and just recently gave up on it. But, I made some lifelong friends there... thumper, utvol, crow with knife, alfredo, and brocko. We fought like cats and dogs (or, donkeys and elephants)... but, life was burnt orange and we always had that in common. They are all men that I have a tremendous amount of respect for because they are each solid individuals and good Horns that are a pleasure to hoist a beer with. I remember how much I despised Megadittos, but damn if I didn't grow kind of fond of his rants and actually looked forward to reading his posts. Thumper helped put him in perspective for me. And, Brocko is a stand-up guy, that's fun to hang out with (you can never have enough friends that are big and drive bad-*** motorcycles). Bully joined us on one occasion and it was like being in the same room with Elvis or Fonzie. I miss the BBS the way it was a few years ago. A couple of names not mentioned here have turned it into their personal litter box that they can [censored] in. And, they have enough newbie lackeys to shout down anyone that disagrees with them or their points of view. But, I feel fortunate to have been there at or near the beginning when it was in its hey-day and the height of its popularity. It was fun.
Whatever happened to BuckeyebyBirth? Perhaps he will show up some time before our trip to Columbus in '05
One poster from 360 no one has mentioned yet is vcu_lou. He was the friendliest poster on that board. He sent out welcome emails to new posters after they had been indoctrined. I don't know what became of vcu_lou; I never see him on hornfans. He slowly faded away from 360 as well. Also, no one has mentioned the NOJA's. What the hell is a NOJA you ask? That is a secret no one on this board shall ever know ;-). My 360 handle joined under the reign of NOJA II.
Great, scally - so now we're gonna fight over the name for Angel and Horndfl's first male offspring -- just when we were all getting along. Well, I like my chances over bullard ... nm Hook 'em.
Hmmm... while those certainly are great names, I might be partial to the name "Major." On second thought, considering the derision around here for girls that go ga-ga over Major, perhaps I might go with one of my earlier football crushes- Corby or Aaron. Then again, dfl hasn't even said yes. Cart. Horse.
Just so the record will be straight: 77077 was the failed refuge of the Okie scoundrel previously known as Roserockmeteor. In '96 & '97, Hookemcom [on Austin360] was my lifeline from "home" to "temporary home", which was Melbourne, and to "away", which was Calcutta & London. Once Roserockmeteor, an obese, non-practicing, Sooner lawyer, made it his mission to defecate on everything Longhorn, running his *** off became my mission. Thanks to a number of people who kept kicking Roserockmeteor/77077 thru the goal posts of life, he left Hookem.com before I did, and he can still be found resting amidst the carrion on several Sooner sites as "Roserock". You will have to look closely as Mr. Flaccid seldom rises to the occasion anymore. I agree with the poster who said cas87 is one of the more intelligent ags [I know, I know .... "intellligent ags" = oxymoron] who frequent the Internet. However, the ONLY AG I consider intellectually agile enough to verbally joust with a score and more of erudite Horns is Panhandle Slim. If you are out there, Slim, tip-o-the-hat to ya'. You should have been a Horn. Nice move, dfl. Texas Angel sounds like the best and brightest ... but I wouldn't be surprised if you already knew that. Shalom!
I've seen Panhandle Slim recently over on the Austin360 High School Football boards. It was right around the end of the regular season of high school.
Anyone remember Longhorn Bob's pregame and postgame commentary? That was some funny crap. It's actually what sucked me to hornfans.com long before the BB aspect hooked me... Too bad he's stopped doing those.
