The history of the Monster List - from my point of view. ;D
I bought the first Monster in September of 1997, without doing any online research or even reading about it other than a Cycle World article back in 1993. Once I had the bike, I was suddenly anxious to learn all I could about it.
Searching for forums about the Monster sent me to ClubDesmo.com, which was great for many years, but has totally decayed and become a home for spammers, plus the group organizes some good track days. But you can't find a good motorcycle discussion there anymore.
Right after that, I found cowintech.com, which had a big Ducati forum and a smaller Triumph forum. It wasn't much different from an e-mail digest, except that it was available on-line. That one had some strong personalities, but was a great source of information for several years. Eventually the strong personalities drove everyone else away and it died. The site no longer exists.
Sometime in the late 90's, I discovered the e-mail list that still exists today, available at http://micapeak.com/mailman/listinfo/ducatimonster This is where the name "Ducati Monster List" originated and a small number of participants keep it going. It's e-mail only and you can choose to either receive every e-mail message or receive a digest. It was a great community up until 2003 or 2004, when DucatiMonster.org finally took off. The list originator, Thomas Alberti, was seriously injured in a tank slapper accident and finally dropped out to pursue a medical career or something. There were archives covering several years, but I don't know if they still exist online or not.
It wasn't until late 2002 or early 2003 that DucatiMonster.org was started by Jeff Higginbotham (I hope I spelled that right). I managed to be number 10 or 11 to sign up for the list. You can see an early post where the early member introduced themselves here: http://www.ducatimonster.org/forums/showthread.php?t=91844 That was back when I was a moderator for No Monster Content, before it turned into "The Garbage Disposal" (from my point of view).
It took about six months to reach critical mass, and there were about two dozen people who kept the forum going back then. The number one poster, by a long ways, was Daffe. Back then, you got a ranking based on how many posts you had, like newbie up to 50, junior for 100, and so on up to Advanced Member for a bigger number like 1000 (all of these names could be wrong). But a new category was created called "DaffeLike" for those who got over 2000, in honor of the many posts that Daffe made. He finally dropped out after he got married and had to concentrate on his chiropractic business.
And everything went along smoothly until May 5, 2008 when The Other Board got wrecked and this one suddenly took off.
So let's hope that http://ducatimonsterworldwide.org has a long and interesting life.
Feel free to correct any "facts" that I've messed up, or add more details.
I always wondered how it all started, thanks for historical trivia
Thanks Scott. Interesting stuff. wt:
I had no idea that I registered for the first time right at the beginning of the board. I didn't become an active member until 2006, though. What brought me there was searching for a solution to my suicide sidestand problem. I found the blasted replacement bolt and continued to be a solo rider for the next year and a half.
I remember finding TOB in '02 when I got my first Monster.
It was great to find so much info.
I also remember posting a couple of typical newbie questions to which no one responded.
Kinda stayed away after that ...... but eventually, returned and met a lot of great people wt:
TOB in 2003 for me. I remember daffe... and daffelike.
That's nice to think about... I think I might be a tad depressed about the failure of the DML.
I remember the old days, Scot was the only other person who use to like my yellow baby duc.. That is when the 620 first came out.
Here are some pictures of way back then at a dinner for the old DML, at Armadillo grill...and than later on at the first meet of the now call MOB.
(https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3168/2476474133_68ea96e64c_o.jpg)
(https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3227/2476475095_af32dbec78_o.jpg)
(https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3168/2476474133_68ea96e64c_o.jpg)
Cafe Triste, San Francisco Ca. Before the Zgs.. ;D
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2070/2477289142_f55d20a360_o.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2043/2476476181_03e464a5b4_o.jpg)
Wow everyone looks so young ;D
Wow, Armadillo Willy's (I'm a doin' wheelies) when Chris Kelley was in town to haul off my old engine and other parts of my wrecked 1997 M900.
That's the only Ducati event that my wife has ever attended with me, by the way.
Wow, think of where all those reflectors went. ;:|
Must've been very early '03 at the latest, as I joined in March '03, and the board was rolling fairly well at that point.
Daffe was the *man* in those early years, for sure.
Lots of good times.
Very interesting to know how it all started,and ended. ;D
Ahh Daffe, I hadn't thought about the guys for a while. I remember wondering if I'd ever become daffelike myself. I joined TOB in May '03, and it soon became my daily obsession. For some reason my performance review wasn't very important that summer... ;)
Did he ever get that solid white one-piece fully perforated suit he was talking about? mo:t:
dj
Quote from: dj on May 08, 2008, 05:19:30 PM
Ahh Daffe, I hadn't thought about the guys for a while. I remember wondering if I'd ever become daffelike myself.
Did he ever get that solid white one-piece fully perforated suit he was talking about? mo:t:
dj
hehehe... ;:| Yea, I think he did..!
I want a picture! I just never could picture lil Daffe in a solid white suit. Images of the Power Rangers keep entering my head. :o
I joined up in '04 after lurking for a bit. I remember when only a few people had 1000 posts, that was insane! I remember that it took a good couple of years after Daffe left for someone to actually pass his post count :o . I also remember the "I love yabba" or something like that ;:|
I remember the board crash before the 'Big Crash'.
I also remember when politics were discussed on the DML, back when Warren actually liked boobies ;:|
I remember my first experience with the DML, but it wasn't direct. The belle and I were new riders, and we were just discovering the local riding communities in the Bay Area. She told me she was going to Zeitgeist to meet a bunch of "biker doods" for a few beers. I couldn't make it for whatever reason. Considering what little I knew about Ducati's, bike culture, and Zeitgeist, which encompassed a full array of misconceptions about all three (well, not Zeitgeist, that really is as skank as I imagined), I have to admit I was a bit nervous. Well, instead of being met with the grizzly scowl of seasoned leather faced urbanites who wanted nothing to do with lil sweet belle, Juan was out front with a big smile, ready to help her park her bike on the sidewalk (as is custom), and introduce her to some of the coolest people I've ever met.
Quote from: enzo on May 08, 2008, 06:29:14 PM
... and introduce her to some of the coolest people I've ever met.
I wasn't there that night ???
Ahhhh, those were the days. Thanks Scott :)
I joined at the end of 2003. I was trying to research Monsters of course. I almost bought a S4, until I saw the S4R that was coming out. December of that year I bought by bike and in early January, I rolled it out of the dealership and onto Cyclecat's van so they could use it for prototyping. That whole winter and early spring I was on the DML every day looking for ways to pimp out my bike even more and to become even more prepared for it when it came home for the first time in May, 5 months after I bought it. My bank account would never be the same after joining the DML.
Honestly, I'm still a member on TOB, and I'll be on there now and again, but mostly to look up information and help the others who are unaware of what really happened. I'm still going to keep my DML cover plate on the engine that I bought years ago too; just to show my appreciation for what it was.
Thanks guys,
Tim
I remember when the s4r came out, the Monster of the month was literleaner's blue/white strip s4r. He then went to add to his post's re: his MOM, that it was now for sale. That's how the classified section grew, there was this big stink about spamming your shit for sale in the general monster section!
Quote from: pt33 on May 08, 2008, 06:43:35 PM
I wasn't there that night ???
some of the coolest people. even more of the coolest people I've been meeting ever since. especially you, pt33. especially you. :-*
Thanks Scott. Daffe. I couldn't have pulled his name out if I'd been pressed. That's sad as he was certainly a prime character in the beginning. Daffe-like. I ended up with over 3700 posts but if Daffe'd continued at his pace he'd have been over a million ;D
I felt like I was very late in coming over from the list. I was dragging my feet. Had never been on a BB and didn't know why I needed one. Yet I looked at the first few pages of the introdution page you linked and found I was #16! Guess I wasn't that late afterall.
It was fun seeing the screen names of a bunch of the old timers that we haven't heard from in ages. To them dr::
Quote from: pt33 on May 08, 2008, 06:49:33 PM
I remember when the s4r came out, the Monster of the month was literleaner's blue/white strip s4r. He then went to add to his post's re: his MOM, that it was now for sale. That's how the classified section grew, there was this big stink about spamming your shit for sale in the general monster section!
Oh yeah! I remember that! What a stink fest that turned out to be. That was a nice bike too. You don't see (ok, I don't see) many blue and white S4Rs around anymore.
Quote from: enzo on May 08, 2008, 06:55:49 PM
some of the coolest people. even more of the coolest people I've been meeting ever since. especially you, pt33. especially you. :-*
Thanks hommie, I am a middle child. I need constant attention! mo:t:
I found TOB in september 2004, while looking for information about a tale chop of all things. read everything i could find, did the deed.
joined up right after (herman_munster back then ) so i could post pics and say thanks for the how-to..... mo:t:
Quote from: ScottRNelson on May 08, 2008, 01:58:19 PM
And everything went along smoothly until May 5, 2008 when The Other Board got wrecked and this one suddenly took off.
I wouldn't quite say smoothly although nothing like the upheaval/transmogrification of late. The Big Crash and the demise of Boobies not Bickering were pretty big tremors ;D
I started looking at Monsters when I saw the first one on the back of a magazine in Flagstaff..around '96, I believe. I (thought) I couldn't get a Ducati at that time because I was in college, didn't have a garage, it snowed there and the nearest dealer was about 150 miles away. :-[
Fast forward..
I waited until 2002 to start looking at Monsters again. The end of that year, I did a search and found a small community called the DML. I believe I posted the always famous..Monster vs. SV650-What one should I get? thread. r:e) My goal was to become Daffe-like in the DML community. Bought my '03 620 in March 2003.
So, 5 1/2 years of riding the heck out the bike, up all night on the dml, bees, nails, IZ_ pics, name changes, scandals, toasters, clutch covers, pipe mods, mullets, BOOBIES, meeting too many people and making lifelong friends.. be::
Unfortunately, it had to come to an end..but it's only an end to that era and onto a new one!
I love you guys!!
be:: :wine
i joined tob a couple days after i bought my 620 in '05...
slowpoke was our daffe.
interesting info.. thanks for sharing it :)
I noticed that after 50 posts I graduated from New member to Jr. Member. Maybe this forum could include "Daffe-Like" afterall, for maybe 2500 posts or something. ;D
I joined in the DML 9-2-2003 while living in France and having Euro bike fever.
I just had my DML mod title taken away today unannounced to me :'( I couldn't bare to resign like the others did, it really depressed me thinking about how much time I had wasted there only to leave.
mitt
Quote from: mitt on May 09, 2008, 09:59:39 AM
I just had my DML mod title taken away today unannounced to me :'( I couldn't bare to resign like the others did, it really depressed me thinking about how much time I had wasted there only to leave.
mitt
I'll say this in true Italian form ;D: "Whatsa behinda U...izza not importante!!" Cheer up mitt. wt: You're a hero now.
Been on the DML for a long time, probably since some time in '02, before that I was on the old mailing list. Some amazing acts of kindness happened on this the board. Often we are more like family than an internet community. I typed this by accident because the same feeling is here.
Quote from: howie on May 09, 2008, 11:40:13 PM
Been on the DML for a long time, probably since some time in '02, before that I was on the old mailing list. Some amazing acts of kindness happened on this the board. Often we are more like family than an internet community. I typed this by accident because the same feeling is here.
well said howie!
i was thinking the other day that TNB has the same feel that TOB had back when i joined up in 04. exciting, lively, little or no bickering and drama. i like that wt:
Quote from: mitt on May 09, 2008, 09:59:39 AM
I joined in the DML 9-2-2003 while living in France and having Euro bike fever.
I remember that! You had a french-themed avatar if i remember right. ;) You guys just keep stirring up the memories.... be::
dj
Quote from: ScottRNelson on May 08, 2008, 01:58:19 PM
You can see an early post where the early member introduced themselves here: http://www.ducatimonster.org/forums/showthread.php?t=91844 That was back when I was a moderator for No Monster Content, before it turned into "The Garbage Disposal" (from my point of view).
Feel free to correct any "facts" that I've messed up, or add more details.
Linky no worky any more....Looks like they killed that thread too
I've used the same avatar since May 2003 over there, but had to change it today out of disgust for killing that particular thread.
Quote from: bdfinally on May 11, 2008, 10:56:21 AM
Linky no worky any more....Looks like they killed that thread too
Great! >:(
Now I guess I can go ahead and delete all of my links to any articles in TOB. If I can't find any old articles it has now lost whatever small remaining value it might have had.
I found TOB in 2004, when I bought my '94 M900.
Here's to hoping that the new board is as good as most of the old was. [beer]
I got on the the old E mail list in May of 2000. I resisted the web DML for a long time. I lurked for a while and then gave in! Is the old list still active? I remember about 2002 or so getting pulled out of the Sazerac bar by my SO one Christmas time. I had met up with some DML e mail listers.
Scott,
Thanks...I found the DML in 2006. The information was invaluable.
Quote from: ScottRNelson on May 08, 2008, 01:58:19 PM
Sometime in the late 90's, I discovered the e-mail list that still exists today, available at http://micapeak.com/mailman/listinfo/ducatimonster This is where the name "Ducati Monster List" originated and a small number of participants keep it going. It's e-mail only and you can choose to either receive every e-mail message or receive a digest. It was a great community up until 2003 or 2004, when DucatiMonster.org finally took off. The list originator, Thomas Alberti, was seriously injured in a tank slapper accident and finally dropped out to pursue a medical career or something. There were archives covering several years, but I don't know if they still exist online or not.
It wasn't until late 2002 or early 2003 that DucatiMonster.org was started by Jeff Higginbotham (I hope I spelled that right). I managed to be number 10 or 11 to sign up for the list. And everything went along smoothly until May 5, 2008 when The Other Board got wrecked and this one suddenly took off.
Feel free to correct any "facts" that I've messed up, or add more details.
I've been on the email list since early 1999, it's still going, although the traffic is minimal. Pre-board it was great and you could get a tech answer in minutes if need be. I'm almost 99% sure that the list originator Thomas dropped out to pursue his law degree not medical. Either way, at that time he sold the list name and rights to Martin from Motowheels and Jeff H. There is no public info that I have seen that documents when Martin was dropped or bought out. Late '02 the board started and everyone resisted a bit but eventually got on board (no pun intended). Sadly, it seems that the direction of the "list" was pointed to it's May 5, 2008 demise long before (like the day Jeff bought it) any of us knew it. The worst thing in my opinion was taking "donations" to build a business for yourself, even taking them while you are in the process of selling it to a corporation.
Hey Scott, thanks for the trip down memory lane, and to you Juan for posting those pictures to remind me of how old I've gotten! ;D
I joined in Nov. of 2002, mainly to find out more about the bike. But I started noticing that there were things about the site that could be improved, so I kept bugging Jeff H. about them. In retaliation he made me "webmaster" so I got to play in my own sandbox. Much of the early work was cleaning up the horrible cruft left by the original FrontPage version of the site. The growth was phenomenal, and we kept running out of server disk, cpu and bandwith. Every time we upgraded and thought we could relax a while, the demand overwhelmed us within a few months. We did some stuff behind the scenes, like switching to a faster Forum system (YABB to SMF) and I used a ton of CSS to make the pages load faster, but we were always just one step ahead of running out of something or crashing. Of course until we weren't a step ahead and things did crash.
But it was a great experience watching it grow, and I've made so many friends and had such great experiences as a result.
bump, cause this thread should be a sticky [thumbsup]
~early 05 HERB was gone
~06 the big crash
~06 the rise of tosty
~08 skynet VS becomes self aware
Quote from: DanTheMan on May 14, 2008, 11:33:38 PM
~early 05 HERB was and Allycat gone
~06 the big crash
~06 the rise of tosty
~08 skynet VS becomes self aware
fixed it for yah ;D
Quote from: DanTheMan on May 14, 2008, 11:33:38 PM
~early 05 HERB was gone
I joined in Feb 05 and I remember Herb. I can't fully get ride of his "self portrait with clutch cover" photo from my brain.
Good potted history Scott. There were lots of other happenings crisies and other incidents along the way that it probably wise not to mention.
Quote from: Juan on May 08, 2008, 04:49:53 PM
I remember the old days, Scot was the only other person who use to like my yellow baby duc.. That is when the 620 first came out.
Bah! In the "old days" there were none of those new-fangled fuel-injected 620s!
We had _carbs!_ and we _liked_ them, though we lusted after FCR flat slides!
jaded-old-big
Quote from: bigiain on May 15, 2008, 12:28:04 AM
Bah! In the "old days" there were none of those new-fangled fuel-injected 620s!
We had _carbs!_ and we _liked_ them, though we lusted after FCR flat slides!
jaded-old-big
You have a point..!! to me however, I was the proud owner of a new 620 back in 2002 when I found the monster list, wait, or was the monster list that found me..!! ???
Quote from: czaja on May 11, 2008, 06:38:00 PM
I got on the the old E mail list in May of 2000. I resisted the web DML for a long time. I lurked for a while and then gave in! Is the old list still active?
Yep, alive and well with a great core of folks keeping it going. [thumbsup]
Carbs rule!!! and the list when I joined [thumbsup]
Quote from: DanTheMan on May 14, 2008, 11:33:38 PM
~early 05 HERB was gone
~06 the big crash
~06 the rise of tosty
~08 skynet VS becomes self aware
January 30, 2005 to be exact. :-X
Wow. I joined in 02 looking for more info about the monster The fourm was just starting I think that there was only about 300 members. I asked all of the regular questions and got great answers. The people were great! I waited two years to buy a bike.
In spring of 04 I bought a 2002 M620ie with 4k miles on it for just over $4,000.00USD. I jumped back on the DML in full force. I am reminded of the old days on this board.
Home Sweet Home.. :D
I think I joined some time near the beginning of the DML too, june 03, although I had kind off fallen off over the last year or so. I had a pretty good run for a while there. I even started a pretty famous thread back on the old site. At least I think it was famous. It was the "popped my first cherry thread" where I took apart my monster without really knowing what I was doing. Anyone remember it? It would be nice to know I found my old community and that someone still remembers me.
Quote from: de5m0mike on May 16, 2008, 07:57:21 PM
I think I joined some time near the beginning of the DML too, june 03, although I had kind off fallen off over the last year or so. I had a pretty good run for a while there. I even started a pretty famous thread back on the old site. At least I think it was famous. It was the "popped my first cherry thread" where I took apart my monster without really knowing what I was doing. Anyone remember it? It would be nice to know I found my old community and that someone still remembers me.
Yup Mike...I remember you.
Joined the DML after the Cowintech board went 'boom' sometime in '03 I think, or maybe early '04... Lots of good times really...
QuoteI even started a pretty famous thread back on the old site. At least I think it was famous.
It WAS famous and reached IR status (Interweb Renown). As I recall it was linked to from all over the place, including other bike forums and cage forums. Great thread. It was right up there with JohnnyOrganDonor's conveyor belt thread [clap] ;D [bang] [roll]
Feb '04
Posted up about how I disliked riding boots and prefered to ride in Danner's
the DML beat me like a red-headed step child for it
If someone would unlock the basement I could leave
Good summary Scott, I remember it every step of the way. My son Jeff stills rides your old frame and tank.
I'm new here... somebody hold my hand please
will you wash it first?
just shake his left hand...
[evil]
I'm Daniel Craig..... and I approve this message
Quote from: Norm on March 23, 2009, 06:47:15 AM
Good summary Scott, I remember it every step of the way. My son Jeff stills rides your old frame and tank.
And I still have your old Corbin seat. And one of Daffe's old levers. Duc parts were not east to come by in those days and we kind of shared. You sold the seat to AzMonster, who didn't like it and sold it to me. Nice to see this thread again. I was a daily poster from late '02 until the DML died. Met a bunch of you guys at the Monster Challenges and DucatiDayDaytona at the go-cart track. I ride with the CDC now but never replaced my DML timing cover. TOB sucks, but the hooliganized Ducati logo is still cool as hell.
Doc