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Author
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Topic: Forum suggestions???
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Rick Long
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 759
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 09-12-1999 07:27 PM
Brad, as one of the Forum "newbies", I would be interested in the history. How long has it been "on the air", how did it get started, how many people have replied, what countries are represented, ect.
Thank you for bringing us all together into one "room" to share our opinions. I, for one, am finding it most informative.
I have talked to a number of industry people who have heard of, and seen, this Forum. As yet, I have not seen their names here.
To all of these people, I ask that they too, share their opinions. They have spent a lot of time in the booth. Surely they have something to say.
Above all, don't be afraid of making what may be dumb statements....Obviously, I'm not.
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Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
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posted 09-12-1999 08:38 PM
History? Hmmm, well ok. The site went up on an AOL server on January 3, 1999. I was just trying to learn html code at that point. It was under the name "Brad Miller and Associates", which was the name myself and my guys performed private engineering services under for several years. It started with only a few dozen hits a day and within 3 months grew to as many as five hundred a day. Problem was, AOL is very annoying to work with and there was a limited amount of storage space (10MB, which I had to spread over 4 other AOL screennames to get that amount). In March (I forget the date) I moved over to Simplenet as my web host provider and had 100MB of space. This is also when the internet address became "www.film-tech.com". Credits go to Joe Redifer (whom I'd met from the AOL site in January) for the name. At that point, I dumped the BMA name and switched my business over legally to Film-Tech. It was Simplenet when the first version of the Film Handler's Forum appeared in April. It used the traditional bulletin board many other web sites use (which I hate, as it takes far too long to keep clicking on that back button to read each individual response). I started searching for another type of bulletin board. I late May I found a bulletin board known as the "Ultimate Bulletin Board", which is what we use now (with a few improvement hacks). Only problem was Simplenet wouldn't allow access to a private cgi-bin to make it work. They were also going to bump up my monthly fees due to the larger amount of traffic the site was receiving. So of course, it was bye bye Simplenet and I purchased the UBB. On June 6th the site changed invisibly over to my current provider which I have signed up for a 500MB storage plan (and a darn good thing I did with all these manuals). At the time I thought I'd never use all that storage. Well, the site is well over 400MB now (boy was I wrong). At this point, I manually transferred all of the old forum postings (noted by the "unregistered" below the postee's name) and the forum as we know it now was started. Currently there are 140 or so people who have registered and posted at least one time. However, looking at the usage reports, the number of people who simply lurk quietly is unbelieveable! On better days over the last month the site has been receiving 6000 visitors a day. When the actual "accesses" are broken down, the forum is typically between 40-60% of the usage within the site. We've got all sorts of people looking in on us from the equipment manufacturers and such. (Yes, I can track which companies download that "stripper" program on the links page.  )
If someone from Kodak looks in, it'll show up as kodak.com. The same would go for a DTS rep, which would show up as dtstech.com, etc, etc, etc. Speaking of DTS, there were over 200 downloads of the DTS player manual within the first 3 days of the Adobe download page being posted! That was the number one file. Before I forget, everyone make sure to thank the King of manuals, Mr. Ken Layton for sending me the Adobe pdf maker program and about 200 pounds of manuals to make those downloads possible! Currently there really isn't a good place for everyone from managers and projectionists up to engineers and the equipment manufacturers who can get together and discuss problems and tip each other off on solutions. I'm always around to help in any way that I can, and I can honestly say I believe most everyone here is the same way. Personally I'm very happy to see this site is heading in this direction. There is no discrimination here. Everyone from a theater usher to a film collector to George Lucas and his coherts at THX are equally welcome. Mr. John Pytlak from Kodak, as well as many other key people in the field have joined in and provided much valuable information to everyone. Hopefully some of the lurkers out there will register and join in too! 
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