| History of TGSF |
| Do you want to know how TGSF got started? Here it goes. This happened in July 2001. It all started with a bunch of trolls (mean posters) invading the Game Show Network message board (I am known as The_Millionaire on the GSN board). The moderator (I won't mention her name on here, I'll tell who it was via e-mail or in the TGSF Studios) refused to do anything about it. So I held a secret meeting with all the nice people in the GSN chat room. We voted on one of three things: 1. ignore the mean posters (which is very hard to do because they make you so mad) 2. move to a newsgroup (not the alt.tv.game-shows newsgroup, where most of the mean posters came from) 3. create a new place to go to After everyone voted, I counted the votes. The majority of the votes were for creating a new place. So I quickly went to Network 54 to get a message board. After I got my message board, I posted the URL on the GSN board so the nice posters would know. I'll bet that you are asking "Why would you do that with all the mean posters on there?" I have moderation features, and I know people's IP addresses, so I could ban users. All the nice posters were thankful that I created a new message board to go to. After everyone came to the new board, they started posting lots of stuff. The next thing to do was to think of a name for the message board. I was watching the morning news and one of the anchors mentioned the popular term used on Fridays, "TGIF". Then, a big idea popped in my head. I thought of all of the people as game show fans. I then named it "The Game Show Fans", and gave it the nickname, TGSF. In September, in appreciation of all the support, I decided to create a web site. I finished it in about 2 weeks. Right after I finished it, a new moderator took over the GSN board. Her name was Guide_Angel. She did a little "housecleaning." I thought "Oh no. It looks like the end for TGSF." It actually turned out that people still came over to post stuff. I was glad. There was a few times when the GSN board went down because of server problems, etc. So everyone "flocked" over to TGSF. I decided that I needed to add more stuff to TGSF. So I did that. I added a TGSF Trading Floor, a chat room (more on this later), and a "terms of service". TGSF stayed the same. I decided to do something that eventually made TGSF popular (especially on weekends). I decided to host games. I started out with a Network 54 chat room. It was the worst disaster since Andrew hit Florida in 1992. Messages didn't go through, it was slow, etc. So I tried to find another chat room. I found Bravenet. I got one of their chat rooms. I breathed a sigh of relief, becuase the chat room worked perfectly. But a little while after I got the new chat room, trouble started. One week, a person lost the BMG and started using foul language. One or two weeks later, a different person did the same thing. After that 2nd time, I added a clause to the TOS saying that in extreme cases I (The Millionaire) can ban anyone who violates the TOS. In November 2001, I did something that I don't think has been done before. I created a "pilot" for the new TGSF Home Page. Everyone liked it. When December came, I switched everything over. TnGSF (this name only lasted a few weeks) was now in business (TnGSF = The New Game Show Fans). I added more stuff, added more clauses to the TOS, etc. I kept adding more stuff. Later in December 2001, I thought of a way to stop mean people from coming into the TGSF Chat Room (now called the TGSF Studios). I started requiring everyone to register to use the TGSF Chat Room (you no longer have to register to use the TGSF Studios). It worked. I also created a TGSF Community Central, replacing the 2 Network 54 boards I had (TGSF Message Board and TGSF Trading Floor). Registration was already required for the TGSF Community Central. I was still trying to look for a message board that was better than the TGSF Community Central. I found one. It was Ikonboard. But there was one problem. Geocities doesn't support CGI scripts. So I had to go somewhere else that has free CGI access. I tried Prohosting. It didn't work. So I went to Spaceports. Not long after I installed the TGSF Community Central, I got a software error message. So I gave up on Spaceports. After the elections for the TGSF Government were over, the President, CardShark, offered to build the TGSF Community Central on his server. It worked. That's where the TGSF Community Central is today. In March 2002, I got a new chat room. It has moderation features and everything. Now that's the new TGSF Studios (and will continue to be unless I find a better chat room). Also, TGSF is in the stages of moving to a new web host. This is only 99% of the story. The other part of the story is about stuff that's going on right now, the TGSF Lottery, TGSF in a web competition, etc. TGSF is continuing to expand. If I win a year of free web hosting, TGSF will grow some more. I'm still trying to think of stuff for TGSF. |
| © |
| 2002 The Game Show Fans Company |
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