The History of ControlBooth.com

[derekleffew]

I thought it might be interesting for all who weren't participants to understand how ControlBooth came into being. Some accounts have been fictionalized, and some characters added, deleted, or combined. Based on a true story, ripped from the headlines.

On the dark and snowy night of January 29, 2003, David (aka dvsDave), then a newly-minted college freshman, had a thought that there should be a place on the World Wide Web where students, teachers, and professionals could go for education and entertainment: "To provide a venue for discussion, information exchange, and technical advice, related to technical theatre, in a casual and fun atmosphere that fosters friendships among its membership." Friends who had grown irritated with his constant bemoaning the lack of existance of such a site, said, "You're such a geek, why don't YOU just do it?" He registered the domain name the very next day.

...(fast-forward though boring parts, and sections I don't know)...

Today, ControlBooth has 8,687 threads; 102,231 posts; and 4,014 members, 665 of whom have posted at least once in the past forty-five days.

[gafftaper]

Is there a way to search the database to find out which active members have been here the longest? It would be fun to hear some stories from the very early days. But it must have been really cool when Dave got his 10th, 20th, 50th, 100th member.

I know a lot has changed in the last 2yr 9mo since I've joined. There is SO much more activity in every forum and so many more new members joining every day.

[dvsDave]

Let me see if I can fill in some of the blanks. One of the oldest most-tenured active members is ship, with wolf825 coming along only about a week later.

I'll see if I can't find some of the early screenshots to post from CB's younger years.

[Footer]

I remember stopping by occasionally, this site looked NOTHING like it does now. I think I stopped by on a search for a gamcheck retailer, and thought this was the geekiest site ever and went away. That was when the "medal" system was still around. I finally registered one summer when I was working at a middle of no where theatre with no TV to watch. It was a pretty odd looking site those days. Looks MUCH better now.

[soundlight]

I do have to say, it's rather odd thinking back to the times before Gafftaper, Van, and Derek. I went back and read some of my earlier posts, and just about fell over laughing at my naivety back then. This site has indeed come a long way since then. I remember CBv2 and the changes that came with it, and going way back, I remember the old homepage and the scrolling "recent posts" pane at the side. Of course, the site had already been around for over 2 years when I joined it! I also remember when I had enough time to be one of the first people to post on every thread in the new members forum. That was fun times...

[avkid]

Originally Posted by Footer4321

That was when the "medal" system was still around.

Why did you have to say that?
Now I will have nightmares about 6 hour sessions of medal data entry.

[gafftaper]

When I joined, the rating level was "actor"... I found myself HIGHLY motivated to get those first 15 posts in to move up.

[dvsDave]

Very earliest snapshot of Controlbooth, these first two links were before I even owned the controlbooth.com domain name.

• Dec. 12, 2002 - very first version of CB that existed as a CMS and forum style
• Feb. 15th, 2002 - this was the last snapshot of controlbooth.entirelydvs.com, taken shortly after we moved to ControlBooth.com (Jan. 29th, 2003)

Snapshots of Controlbooth.com

• April 2nd, 2003 - Read the news articles, and no, I never got around to writing that gel organization article.
• June 7th, 2003 - Here's the announcement about our first community chat event.
• July 21st, 2003 - Here's a great example of all of the front page news that used to be posted all the time. I'd love to get back to that.
• July 1st, 2004 - Site chugging along, here's a snapshot after a recent upgrade
• Internet Archive WaybackMachine didn't index CB in 2005 or 2006... could never figure out why
• 2007 was the year of CBv2.... the front page system was a disaster.

[gafftaper]

Originally Posted by dvsDave

April 2nd, 2003 - Read the news articles, and no, I never got around to writing that gel organization article.

Note in the left column the newest member is... SHIP!

Originally Posted by dvsDave

June 7th, 2003 - Here's the announcement about our first community chat event.

About half way down the page:
"Posted by dvsDave on Wed May 14, 2003 1:00 pm...
The site has settled down after an incredible beginning and I am sometimes in awe of the fact that it's lasted this long. When this site started only 3 months ago, I wasn't sure if this idea that grew out of a conversation with a fellow techie about a lack of free information that was geared towards high-school theater techs. This site has gone above and beyond my most hopeful expectations and I would just like to thank everybody for their contributions and loyalty when the site in the best condition."

[gafftapegreenia]

Oh man, CB back in the day.

I remember for the first year after I joined I hardly posted, now look at me!

So, for old times sake:

Imperial 120v Pirate!!!

Luckily we found peace through cubits.