Ludachris
Founder & Zookeeper
- 8,060
- 3,084
- Nov 12, 2001
-
Newcastle,
California
20 years... 
I've been so busy with different things that I completely spaced out on the fact that this site is 20 years old as of this month. The last DSM rolled off the assembly line in 1998, so the site hasn't been around as long as DSMs have, but I think it's worth celebrating the fact that it's still going pretty strong after all these years.
I still remember the early days when @larryd was here daily (he was our first moderator), sharing his progress on his gray 2g before he totaled it. Back when there was always some goofy drama between members in this forum and other DSM forums. We had @Defiant blowing up the leaderboard for posting stats (and tossing out lashings even when I asked him to tone it down). We've had countless great members spending WAY more time than they should here in the forum, racking up high post counts and making this place an awesome community to hang out in. Many have moved on to other cars and other hobbies. I really miss reading @Greg Collier's race recaps. We created several member calendars over the years. Lots of t-shirt designs. So many great friendships and businesses came out of this place. I'm honored to have been a part of all of it. We've had some awesome moderators who stepped up to keep this place organized, keep order, and perform a lot of thankless tasks to help keep things rolling along.
Thank you all for the time you've spent here, contributing to this community and helping me keep this thing going strong this whole time. I know it hasn't always been enjoyable for everyone. We've had times where the site was slow as hell, constantly crashing. There were disputes with moderators being too heavy handed (or not enough). Software changes aren't always welcomed by everyone. Some people have never been a fan of how I've run the site. We've had a lot of challenges over the years, and yet, we still have a decent number of members who have been here nearly the whole time, and still visit/post today. That's saying something. The flow of information has slowed down some obviously, as it has with nearly all forums - hell, most of the other DSM forums are gone now. But we still get great traction (pun intended) for a car platform that's been out of production for over 20 years.
Special thanks to all the supporting vendors and supporting members, who help pay the costs to maintain, update, upgrade, and repair this site and the servers it's lived on over the years, as well as develop new features that members here use daily. Vendors like @extremepsi and @Fuel Injector Clinic have been supporting our site since damn near the beginning. Without the help of them and all the other supporting vendors, I don't think we'd still be around today. Be sure to thank those vendors for their support of our site when you order from them.
I've always been drawn to this platform. I haven't pushed my cars to the extremes that some of the legends in our community have. But I've tried to push the platform and make a positive impact in other ways through this website. It really hit home when I was browsing through the early Vehicle Profiles the other day. We have SO MUCH information, photos, mod lists, and other data stored here, it's insane. I hope it's helped the majority of DSMers out there in some way.
Again, thank you. I'm working on some special edition anniversary shirt designs. I'll announce those as soon as they're ready.
I've been so busy with different things that I completely spaced out on the fact that this site is 20 years old as of this month. The last DSM rolled off the assembly line in 1998, so the site hasn't been around as long as DSMs have, but I think it's worth celebrating the fact that it's still going pretty strong after all these years.
I still remember the early days when @larryd was here daily (he was our first moderator), sharing his progress on his gray 2g before he totaled it. Back when there was always some goofy drama between members in this forum and other DSM forums. We had @Defiant blowing up the leaderboard for posting stats (and tossing out lashings even when I asked him to tone it down). We've had countless great members spending WAY more time than they should here in the forum, racking up high post counts and making this place an awesome community to hang out in. Many have moved on to other cars and other hobbies. I really miss reading @Greg Collier's race recaps. We created several member calendars over the years. Lots of t-shirt designs. So many great friendships and businesses came out of this place. I'm honored to have been a part of all of it. We've had some awesome moderators who stepped up to keep this place organized, keep order, and perform a lot of thankless tasks to help keep things rolling along.
Thank you all for the time you've spent here, contributing to this community and helping me keep this thing going strong this whole time. I know it hasn't always been enjoyable for everyone. We've had times where the site was slow as hell, constantly crashing. There were disputes with moderators being too heavy handed (or not enough). Software changes aren't always welcomed by everyone. Some people have never been a fan of how I've run the site. We've had a lot of challenges over the years, and yet, we still have a decent number of members who have been here nearly the whole time, and still visit/post today. That's saying something. The flow of information has slowed down some obviously, as it has with nearly all forums - hell, most of the other DSM forums are gone now. But we still get great traction (pun intended) for a car platform that's been out of production for over 20 years.
Special thanks to all the supporting vendors and supporting members, who help pay the costs to maintain, update, upgrade, and repair this site and the servers it's lived on over the years, as well as develop new features that members here use daily. Vendors like @extremepsi and @Fuel Injector Clinic have been supporting our site since damn near the beginning. Without the help of them and all the other supporting vendors, I don't think we'd still be around today. Be sure to thank those vendors for their support of our site when you order from them.
I've always been drawn to this platform. I haven't pushed my cars to the extremes that some of the legends in our community have. But I've tried to push the platform and make a positive impact in other ways through this website. It really hit home when I was browsing through the early Vehicle Profiles the other day. We have SO MUCH information, photos, mod lists, and other data stored here, it's insane. I hope it's helped the majority of DSMers out there in some way.
Again, thank you. I'm working on some special edition anniversary shirt designs. I'll announce those as soon as they're ready.
BUT if it weren't for this site, I wouldn't be as knowledgeable and wise with these cars as I am today....and I'm still learning new things also. Thanks Chris for keeping it around this long. I've been a moderator for a few forums, they are all dead and gone...but THIS one has stayed. Even through a few of the updates and changes people would whine about....the real die hards stay and deal with the adversity. Cheers to 20 more!!
