The history of the Monster List

[PizzaMonster]

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   :  "Whatsa behinda U...izza not importante!!"   Cheer up mitt.    wt:    You're a hero now.

[Howie]

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.

[herm]

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:

[DJ]

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

[bdfinally]

  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.

[ScottRNelson]

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.

[Speedbag]

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. 

[LMT]

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. 

[Xiphias]

Scott,

Thanks...I found the DML in 2006.  The information was invaluable.

[hbliam]

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.

[Michael Moore]

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! 

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.

[herm]

bump, cause this thread should be a sticky 

[DanTheMan]

~early 05 HERB was gone
~06 the big crash
~06 the rise of tosty
~08 skynet VS becomes self aware

[herm]

~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

[techno]

~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.