Thread: history of cboard

  1. #1
    Registered User rogster001's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Liverpool UK
    Posts
    1,472

    history of cboard

    Hey, I heart cBoard, would love to konw how it started, how long has it been going? I have received help and written here over a few years, It is like a diary of learning curve to go back through old posts etc, but it is amazing to think that with the connectivity that is now in the world infrastructure, forums like this and evolutions of the format, could have people that go right through their lives contributing to forums like this, it is really a strange and wonderful thing.
    Thought for the day:
    "Are you sure your sanity chip is fully screwed in sir?" (Kryten)
    FLTK: "The most fun you can have with your clothes on."

    Stroustrup:
    "If I had thought of it and had some marketing sense every computer and just about any gadget would have had a little 'C++ Inside' sticker on it'"

  2. #2
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    4,513
    Cprogramming.com has been on the web in one form or another since 1996, and moved to the domain cprogramming.com in 1998.
    About Us - Cprogramming.com

    I've dug all the way through the GD forum, and recently finished going all the way back to the beginning of the Brief History of Cprogramming.com forum (this was largely during the times that there was not much going on here at the moment - something I refer to as "C bored").

    It's extraordinary to see how this site has developed. Near the beginning, the most frequent visitors (in the GD at least) were high-school age kids. There were fights, public apologies (lol Rod and Lucky), immature rants, emotional out-bursts, trolls of various kinds (Troll_King seemed to be the worst), drama.

    It became clear that this site, almost like an organism, started young and slowly developed and matured into its current state. It gradually evolved into what it is today, where it's largely professionals or serious hobbyists who frequent the boards.

    Yes, I love cboard as well.

  3. #3
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    6,815
    Quote Originally Posted by Matticus View Post
    It became clear that this site, almost like an organism, started young and slowly developed and matured into its current state. It gradually evolved into what it is today, where it's largely professionals or serious hobbyists who frequent the boards.
    Yeah, but there are still regular occurrences of fights, the occasional public apology, immature rants, emotional outbursts, trolls, and drama. From members of all kinds, including those "professionals or serious hobbyists", kids, and plenty of others. Because the gap between kids and professionals is not as large as either the kids or the professionals like to believe.

    Kids still like to believe that adults don't understand them. Adults like to believe that kids they encounter are somehow less mature than they were at the same age. Neither are right ..... at least, not always.
    Right 98% of the time, and don't care about the other 3%.

    If I seem grumpy or unhelpful in reply to you, or tell you you need to demonstrate more effort before you can expect help, it is likely you deserve it. Suck it up, Buttercup, and read this, this, and this before posting again.

  4. #4
    Registered User rogster001's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Liverpool UK
    Posts
    1,472
    i want to be registered as
    Lord King of the Intarnet
    Wow, its mad going through the 'brief history of..' pages I went back as far as i could, Its mental, quite funny too, quote above is from link where members are discussing moderator status/roles, and fascinating to see comments from people getting to grips with the whole idea of 'posting' etc.. If something like this went on long enough - and of course other themed forums - you would have an amazing technology / social history archive.

    Link to the 'moderator' thread
    Thought for the day:
    "Are you sure your sanity chip is fully screwed in sir?" (Kryten)
    FLTK: "The most fun you can have with your clothes on."

    Stroustrup:
    "If I had thought of it and had some marketing sense every computer and just about any gadget would have had a little 'C++ Inside' sticker on it'"

  5. #5
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    4,513
    Quote Originally Posted by grumpy View Post
    Yeah, but there are still regular occurrences of fights, the occasional public apology, immature rants, emotional outbursts, trolls, and drama. From members of all kinds, including those "professionals or serious hobbyists", kids, and plenty of others. Because the gap between kids and professionals is not as large as either the kids or the professionals like to believe.

    Kids still like to believe that adults don't understand them. Adults like to believe that kids they encounter are somehow less mature than they were at the same age. Neither are right ..... at least, not always.
    Perhaps, but it's hardly like anything seen in the "old days" of this board. Arguing and mud-slinging are always going to occur on the internet, but today the "fights" seem largely more intelligent, well-reasoned, and well-stated than in the past (though perhaps, as you mention, no less cruel or mature at times). More of the arguments in recent times are in the form of debate than outright insults. Or at least that's what my observations tend to suggest.

    Mind you, I'm speaking about regulars here, not people with 20 posts who try to get people riled up.

  6. #6
    Lead Moderator kermi3's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 1998
    Posts
    2,595
    The site itself was a personal project of Alex's a long time ago that has long since taken a life of its own. Eventually he added forums. Alex is an old extremely close friend of mine, so at his request/my own young excitement to work on a big project with my friend, I helped by actively managing the boards for a long time. Clearly I don't do that as much anymore, and we have amazing moderators who pretty much own the place.

    If I recall correctly, my join date (roughly 08-09-1998) was roughly when the forums started - probably a few months afterwards actually. In August 2001 we moved over to vBulliten. That's why the oldest users on here all have roughly the same join date...That being said - some of them predate me (many of them are now mods)....At the time we just couldn't handle migrating everyone's info - the conversion to vBulliten was basically a complete forum reset. If you look at the General Discussion archive, you can see the posts that came right after the migration.

    Granted I'm not around here as much (I no longer program so....interests change) - but in my experience, the board is a bit 'older' than it used to be. There used to be a bit more slug festing. Some of the social element of the board split in 2002 or '03 and moved to a dedicated social board (making space for new comers). We continued having mod elections and actively tweaking and changing the board probably through 2005 or so....At various points we've also experimented with hidden boards (to get away from the board newbies ), contests, article boards, but somewhere along the way it became clear that we were best off leaving well enough alone, and so here we are....

    Anyway - I'm sure some of the mods can give you a better history - and the true "social history" of the boards has faded some, but that's the gist of it.
    Kermi3

    If you're new to the boards, welcome and reading this will help you get started.
    Information on code tags may be found here

    - Sandlot is the highest form of sport.

  7. #7
    l'Anziano DavidP's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Plano, Texas, United States
    Posts
    2,743
    I remember all the mud-slinging back in the day. Good times! I used to post in these forums quite often, but rarely in recent years just because life is busy with so many other things. I do still program though (it's my profession). I am one of those old high school students that used to post on the boards when the boards were young. I was around for about a year (maybe a bit less?) before the switch to vBulletin was made.

    It's cool coming back here every once in awhile to see how the boards are doing though. There are lots of new faces, but I still recognize a few old ones too, and I'm quite surprised to see some of them still posting.

    Mainly I am just waiting for the "most users online ever" record to be broken: "Most users ever online was 2,346, 12-11-2008"
    My Website

    "Circular logic is good because it is."

  8. #8
    Lead Moderator kermi3's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 1998
    Posts
    2,595
    That was a really strange day...
    Kermi3

    If you're new to the boards, welcome and reading this will help you get started.
    Information on code tags may be found here

    - Sandlot is the highest form of sport.

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. CBoard server
    By VirtualAce in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 05-16-2008, 06:22 AM
  2. For CBoard Newbies
    By ILoveVectors in forum C++ Programming
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 07-29-2005, 09:57 AM
  3. Bug with cboard?
    By jverkoey in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 14
    Last Post: 09-08-2004, 01:34 PM
  4. Why not much cboard at google?
    By anonytmouse in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 08-16-2003, 03:17 PM