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1998
- The Humble Beginnings
I suppose
I should start from the beginning... my escapades as a webmaster
began back in 1998 with a website called Warspyre's Fun and
Games. Warspyre was/is my Starcraft handle and common internet
gaming alias, and the site was basically a video game/Starcraft/Star
Wars Customizable Card Game fan site with little content and
benefiting from even fewer updates than this website,
which is saying something.
My interest
in Starcraft and Star Wars CCG was dwindling
in 1999, and much as I wanted to, I couldn't pull together
enough time to devote the site strictly to video games thanks
to an extremely unhealthy obsession with Ultima Online,
so I closed up shop. However, it wasn't long after that I
wanted to get back into running a website. I began brainstorming
with Lucas during lunch in 10th grade and came up with some
ideas...
2000
- The New Beginning
April
22 saw the debut of Land of the Frogs, a humor site which
I created to complement the wildly popular, yet short-on-content
Frenz.org...sorta. My original dream for the website back
in my highschool days was to create an online community that
ALL of my friends could go to and enjoy, regardless of who
their friends were, what cliques they were in, whether or
not they got along with somebody else, or however else you
want to define their social status. I was always one of the
folks who went between all the cliques, and it was always
pretty uncomfortable dealing with it when my friends in one
clique didn't get along with friends in another clique, which
of course happened all the damn time. But I digress. The point
was for anybody and everybody to come and enjoy the site's
content, discuss things on the message board, etc. The site
originally had background music, frames, and everything else
that a tacky newbie's website would have. The original content
of the site included Screwjob Theories, Beat the System, the
message board, and Ways of the Computer Geek. In the following
months, The Nameless Rant and the comic strip were added.
2001
- Stagnation
By 2001,
Frenz's supreme laziness and National Guard time sadly sunk
Frenz.org into oblivion. Land of the Frogs--now under the
new incarnation of Frog-Man.org--was struggling, as well,
thanks to my acquired laziness and lack of time to make meaningful
updates, a curse that still plagues the site today. A few
other areas of content were added like the audio show, adventures,
and whatever else. Frog-Man.org's audience grew quite a lot,
however, thanks to some public exposure and Frenz.org Grafitti
Wall regulars jumping to the board here.
2002
- More Stagnation and an attempt at something good....
The domain
name Frog-Man.org was lost as a result of complications in
an attempt to move the name from one server to another. Too
impatient to wait for it to become available again, I yoinked
frog-man.net, which became available a few days after Frog-Man.org
was lost. And here we are.
2005
or so - Frog-Man.net finds its place in the world (wide web)....
Since
2002, the site realistically hasn't seen a tremendous amount
of new content, but for the most part has been updated consistently.
These days, Quote of the Moment, Pic of the Every Other Week,
and the weblog are most frequently updated, with a special
feature added here and there when I feel the need to flex
the creative, mostly unused portion of my brain. The content
here isn't really the important thing, though--rather, it
is the community around the site. In a sense, Frog-Man.net
has become what I originally intended it to be, just perhaps
not to the scale I envisioned. But that doesn't matter. What
matters is that the site still serves my friends, which is
what I wanted in the first place. There were times when I
wanted to see the site grow into a well known internet funny
site, something along the lines of Seanbaby. Those aspirations
have passed. If I want to do that, I'll do it elsewhere. I
like to think that in some way, shape, or form (the board),
the site keeps all of us together. We're spread a little farther
and wider than we used to be. Many of us are still in school,
some are aspiring students/grad students, while others are
out of school and looking forward to the clicheed and inaccurately
termed "real world." But regardless of our location,
our age, our plans, how busy we are, and how connected or
disconnected we may feel to each other at any given moment,
the site is here to do its part in keeping us connected and
communicating with each other. We share laughs, we discuss
serious issues here and there, we plan our evenings and weekends,
and otherwise keep the tribe together, even when the wind
of change (Yes! I worked a Scorpions reference into this sap!)
sees fit to blow us in different directions. It is for you,
my friends, that Frog-Man.net lives to this day.
So
what is all this crap, anyway?
Frog-Man.net
Message Board
- This is what I was talking about above. A hub of communication
between my cohorts. Lots of people I know gather here to talk
about stuff, much of which I don't know about. Adam D. Morris
posts a lot, which is enough to make anyone want to look at
it.
Adventures
- Written accounts (with pictures!) of stupid things I and
other people do when we get really bored or get the urge to
steal MT's Buick and drive it across the Midwest.
Audio
Show - I decided to host an audio show one day when desperately
looking for a use for the little microphone that came with
the computer.
Beat
the System - The System is your sworn enemy. These tactics
are your only hope to stop it.
Downloads
- Self-explanatory. Not much going on here these days.
Lists
- I like to make lists of things. Why, here are some of them
now!
The
Nameless Rant - I don't like a lot of stuff, and neither
do the other rant contributors. Read our bitching and moaning.
Ways
of the Computer Geek - Lucas' original contributions to
this website. Learn to be a geek!
Weblog
- Since I can't keep a real journal, I'll just do
it the cheesy, techno-saavy way. (I keep a real journal these
days, too, but I don't write about the same stuff in it as
I do in the weblog. You can't see it.)
Weblog
Archive - I've changed blogs a couple of times. These
are the old entries from previous blogs.
Bios
- Meet the frog-man.net staff!
Hate
Mail - Two people don't like this site. This is what they
have to say.
Links
- I heartily recommend these websites, theme parks, eating
establishments, or other attractions.
Quote
of the Moment Archive - People sometimes say funny or
dumb things. If they're (un)lucky, I'm around to hear it.
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