History of the Cafe

[Gary Hedrick]

A thought for you of the "core" group that are the brain trust of the Cafe. Why not have a section available that tells about the history of the development of the Cafe? In the years that I have been involved with it, it has gone through many changes and tremendous growth and has become a major force in the world of mandolins etc. From a social standpoint it is a really impressive undertaking .....many countries....many styles of music...educational levels....a true multinational, multicultural, multi everything place.

In fact this might make a heck of a thesis subject for a PHD in a number of fields. Such a mix of different peoples and angles of music and instruments.

I ought to write Neil Rosenberg about it....enough of my brain dump

[Scott Tichenor]

Gary, I've been looking at this waiting for someone else to reply I guess. Not sure how one would approach something like this. I don't think I'm the guy to do it though. Here are a few entries that may be of interest from the "This Day in History" project I launched this past April:

November 18, 1995 - Mandolin Cafe appeared on the web for the first time.
June 13, 1996 - mandolincafe.com domain name registered on this date
July 29, 1996 - Mandolin Cafe builder database launched with fewer than 50 total mandolin builders listed.
November 26, 1998 - Mandolin Cafe Classifieds launched.
April 4, 1999 - First version of Mandolin Cafe Message Board added.

[man dough nollij]

What happened around 2002? I never see any Cafe members with "joined" dates before that time.

[JEStanek]

I'm no expert on the history but I believe there was in iteration of the Café prior to the last forum that launched ~2002 and all the users had to be rebuilt, thus the no earlier than 2002 Member since dates. Notice Scott is a Member since September 2002 but his signature has since 1995.

I believe the old forum was launched in 2002 and cobbled together with bits and increasingly larger bits of custom code by Dan and Scott until maintenance became so time consuming that it was either time to close down due to burn out or explore new software.... and here we are.

Of all the tubes that make up the internets, this one is my favorite.

Jamie

EDIT:
I waited to reply until Scott had first stab at it as I wasn't around then and my knowledge is anecdotal and thread based.

[Scott Tichenor]

What happened around 2002? I never see any Cafe members with "joined" dates before that time.

The 2-3 forums prior to the one launched in 2002 we never moved accounts, nor content. Most forums start fresh when they change software--zero posts, no members, and everyone has to re-register. There's a lot of wisdom in that from an easy-of-use point of view for the owner, but that'd also be a lot of lost content.

[MikeEdgerton]

The History of the Cafe, courtesy The www.archive.org Waback machine.

May 15, 1997
June 14, 1998
April 30, 1999
April 10, 2000
April 2, 2001
May 25, 2002
April 6, 2003
April 3, 2004
April 3, 2005
April 5, 2006
April 6, 2007

[Bob DeVellis]

Wow, Mike, thanks for the trip down memory lane. I remember the 2000 iteration and even found a classified ad I remember responding to.

[Gary Hedrick]

Now that's what I remember.....Wasn't there an email posting format also. I got all the postings via email if I remember correctly.

[Chris Biorkman]

Wow, I just saw a Gibby MM for $6,500 in 2001. How things change.

[MikeEdgerton]

In the thread that discussed the ability to edit posts I made the statement that if one was worried about their posts becoming a permanent part of the web they shouldn't post. This is proof positive that what you say may never go away

I love archive.org.

[Randolph]

Mike,
Thank you for the links. My very basic skill level, coupled with an old funky computer, made browsing the MandoCafe archaeological digs problematic. However, I did unearth the name of Elen Brandt. I well remember her kind and astute responses to several of my inquiries and began to wonder where she has wandered. I also remember a photo of her beautiful hands holding her new Brentrup (if my brain cells are firing correctly). I'm sure some of the folks here remember the antics of Ted W. and the sort of cowboy chaos that stampeded until Scott reined things in and insisted on a civilized level of discourse. Perhaps I've mellowed, or perhaps simply grown older, but the Cafe has truly become a much more comfortable community as the years have passed.

[Ted Eschliman]

That WayBack machine is scary, like looking at old high school yearbook pages. Adolescent JazzMando.com.
Hand me the Clearasil...

[MikeEdgerton]

From the archive of jazzmando.... "No longer confined in the minds of the masses to Bluegrass, or an occasional rendition of the Theme from the Godfather at a wedding dance, JAZZMANDO seeks to promote the mandolin as a sonorous apparatus and legitimate voice in the jazz genre...."

Lofty Ted, really lofty.

[JimRichter]

Now that's what I remember.....Wasn't there an email posting format also. I got all the postings via email if I remember correctly.

What's funny to me, Gary, is the notion of email. Although I would look at news articles for the Cafe, as well as classifieds, I wasn't interested in the message board, because we had CoMando. CoMando was a much more powerful communication force at that time (in my opinion). Closer to real time, cool themes like the Guest of the Week (that was invaluable), and because it came in email, seemed easier to peruse than sorting through several different sub-forums and threads.

Also, there is one's connection speed to the Internet. I didn't go broadband until late 2003 and I created my username in early 2004. Before that time, I just didn't feel like waiting for the dial up to load message board pages.

And as more people turn to broadband, the Cafe has grown accordingly. I can think of very few grassroots (non-corporate) music community sites which combine the fun, refinement, and rich content (both graphic and cerebral) that the Cafe possesses.

[Phillip Tigue]

So is this why older posts are gone? I've noticed some of the subjects on the message board only have about 10 or 15 threads.

[MikeEdgerton]

All the older posts are still here. Nothing goes away automatically.

[Bill Snyder]

Most all (if not all) of the threads since late 2002 should be available. I know threads I posted in in January of 2004 are still a part of this board and could be brought to the top of the list if a new post were added.

[Mike Bunting]

I'm wondering if there is a way to find out when I joined, I think back in '97 sometime. Is there a way to do a search?

[Mike Bromley]

I'm just amazed it took me so long to find the place!

[JEStanek]

I'm wondering if there is a way to find out when I joined, I think back in '97 sometime. Is there a way to do a search?

Look in the OLD Fourm. I believe you joined on September 4, 2002.

For other users, use the old forum and look for a post by the old uers ID then you can use a thread to resolve their "new" user name. That's one way to skin the cat.

Jamie

EDIT: OK, I misunderstood your question, Mike. Sorry, man. You meant the OLLLLD old forum! I dunno how to find that. For everyone else, your join date to the last forum was carried over into the new forum.

[MikeEdgerton]

I don't think the old original one is there but if you went to the wayback machine, set it to a date prior to September of 2004 and found one of his old posts he might find it there.

[Eugene]

Man, I didn't realize that I've been here since very close in time to the inception of the forum. It's a little unfortunate to think how much of my potentially productive practice time was squandered here in the early 2000s.

[Dan Adams]

September of 02 was when the Forum board was re-designed and we all had to re-register for the Cafe. Scott alluded to this re-registration in an earlier post. I think my original sign up date and my 'member' number changed at that time. I didn't re-register right away, so my 'member' number is slightly higher than my original number. Just speculation and maybe some history. Dan