CHAT THE OFFICIAL TB2K 25th ANNIVERSARY THREAD

Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
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Sacajawea proposed an “anniversary thread” where folks could talk about their history with this place, I thought that was a terrific idea. So here we go!

Technically, the site was started by Ed Yourdon in the fall of 1997 so people could help suggest changes and edits to his book of this name. That was on MIT’s “Greenspun” (Phil) servers. I found the place through Anita Spooner. We hung out on the MSNBC Y2K discussion board at the time. That was the fall of 1998. Ed was going to close the forum after rollover, but many of us had developed strong friendships and didn’t want to be “cast upon the wind.” We were on EZ-Board service at that point in time. At that particular time, I was between contracts, I duplicated the look and feel of the EZ-Board layout, and the rest is history.

OKA, OUN OR OLD, LONG-TIME MEMBER OR NEW, step up and tell us about your journey with our version of the “corner Cheers bar.”
 
I can't remember when I joined here I think it was post Y2K.

I was fascinated with the wealth of prepping ideas and work arounds all in one place.

I was also drawn to the morals and right leaning mind set. In fact the only other place that I can think of that was something like this was the Tree Of Liberty site but it went downhill fast and I think it is now closed. SO when people want to get onto the Mods for keeping this site in line be thankful. Because I have seen what happens if it's too strict or a free for all. Appreciate the moderate modding they do.

And during the Covid scamdemic it was an invaluable resource. In fact this board knew something was up in China well before it hit the news because I remember someone posting a bulldozer sealing off areas in China and said "somethings up."

Plus because we are so scattered that when something happens there is usually someone with boots on the ground that gives actual facts vs the carp we are fed in the news.

It's just "real" here and I love it.
 
I'd love to hear people's stories of how their prepping has changed since those days, too. I know mine has. It's evolved - some things aren't DIY anymore; my D lives on the property (in her own house) now, and it mostly works out OK.

In the late 90s I was still at the first homestead. And EVERYTHING was DIY. Had a huge garden, had planted an orchard, a hillside herb garden. It was very remote and often times, my grocery shopping took place at 11pm-midnight; I taught night classes. Oh - and I commuted. It was great when I could drive up the driveway; in the winter, I had to pack a sled, lash down my haul, and trek overland, cross a creek and then up a steep hill in the snow to the cabin. I was just in my 40s then. And I was already agitating for working smarter, not harder.

Things changed; the ex got the homestead. I did something else for 15 years. Then, that hubby died and I wanted to be surrounded by hills and trees again. Lucked into this place and then lucked into a LOT more acreage that provides a buffer against civilization. That was 10 years ago. I'll turn 70 this year and I've gotten almost ALL of the additional buildings needed built, existing buildings updated & improved and the mechanical systems replaced (they were 20 years old). And now it's time to apply that "work smarter not harder" idea to how much we produce here ourselves. I knew canning years ago, baked bread, grew almost all our food (we never went full vegetarian)... and will be passing all that on, to the D with the help of a friend.

I hit the prepping world at Backwoods Home. Was there some years. Did a stint at Survivalist Boards (and "seceded" with a tight-knit group of friends. Tried Tree of Liberty but never got stuck in. Night Driver recommended this place and it's still a cozy place. I don't mind conflict; it's sort of our family dynamics around home - but it DOES get old. LOL.
 
I joined in 2006…. Wow 20 years!!! Back then I was just a single mom trying to get ideas to prep in case of the unthinkable would happen. I always worried about my babies starving lol .

Over the years l have been active and then not so active (like right now) but I always check “the boards” once or twice a week. Sometimes life is so busy I just don’t have time for online stuff unless it’s work.

I love ya all!! This feels like my online home!
 
Started lurking here in mid 1998. Joined in 2008. Didn't do much posting till maybe 2015 or so.
Love the personalities(at least most) here over the years, and horribly sad about the many that have passed. THIS is the information news source online. There is no better or faster reporting than here. And that is why I keep coming back.
Oh, and the knowledge. So many knowledgeable, helpful people here.
 
Joined in 2008. Was a member of the Tree of Liberty before that. Too much infighting there caused me to find this place. The rest is history. I come here for up to the minute news, prepping info, and any other information that is beneficial to my existence. Thank you, Dennis, and to all the Mods keeping this place up and running. Smokin'
 
We were never into prepping until about 2012-13.
I do not remember how I found this site but joined in 2014. But I liked it and stayed.
This is now where I get all my news. Sometimes I do research additional information when something that interests me is mentioned here.
So glad this site and the people on here exist.
 
smokin said:
Joined in 2008. Was a member of the Tree of Liberty before that. Too much infighting there caused me to find this place. The rest is history. I come here for up to the minute news, prepping info, and any other information that is beneficial to my existence. Thank you, Dennis, and to all the Mods keeping this place up and running. Smokin'
Click to expand...
Yea, I hung out @ TTOL and posted as AUnut. Yes, it got intolerable there. I first found TB2000, but posted more at TTOL, toll it went sideways. Yes, it has always been "Level headed" here.
 
I think I discovered you sometime around the 2008 housing crisis. I think I found Tree Of Liberty first. Can't remember when I joined 2011? I was into all the Survivalist and Prepping websites. My first friend on here was Old As Dirt and her DH. There were few times I was in trouble on here but mostly behaved myself. Pride myself on never having been in time out. Better watch out there is always a first time.
So Happy Anniversary TB.
 
I always lurked on the Greenspun sites. And Yahoo had some great Y2K groups, too. So as I'm much older now, my brain has meshed together a lot of my memories. So some friends/characters I confuse as to which Board I knew them from originally!

Yes, I was on the "Quesy" board, but I think my name was ShyLurker back then!

Thank you, Dennis for keeping the shop open!

I do miss "The King of Spain" and Diane Squires? Forgot that "Lady Logic".
OMG the escapades of "Maiden"!!!!! Miss Fruitloop and of course the members who have passed on.

Mike 9 or10 was ALWAYS a favorite! I could go on and on and on!
 
I come from a scouting family so was always prepared. In 1976 I came to know Jesus and found out about the rapture. I think one of my rapture sites led me here. I hung out here for many years before joining. I was glad to hear about Y2K early so I prepared for my family of 9 gathering 9 months of supplies. My kids thought I was crazy but gathered around and stocked up in their own homes. None of us went super crazy but stored what we needed. Hubby and I left our home up north and came south so we didn't have to shovel snow 14 years ago and scaled back our preps for retirement living.

Thank you TB family for all your love and information over the decades!
 
Wow, we go way back to the pre-Y2K days, I guess it was Greenspun, I don't recall! I believe my forum name back then was Alexa, a tribute to near where we were living in the DC metro area. I can tell you back then, the PDs in that area took the threat very, very seriously!

We've long since left the DC metro area, and are now retired in Texas. Prepping became a permanent thing, but we were lucky enough to learn a lot by actually doing along the way. Next stage of life for us is retiring up to the hill country in an over 55+ apartment, probably within a very few years. Getting a bit too old to handle the ranching way of life and property, and shopping and medical care are easily an hour+ away.

Nothing is simple!
 
I was working IT as a developer for an international corporation - I became aware of and concerned with the Y2K topic and brought it up in one of our department meetings some time in '96 or '97 (that's such a long time ago to remember exactly - LOL) and from those humble discussions I was made a member of a new Y2K identification and remediation team. There were two (TWO!!!) of us at the start. LOL

I found Ed Yourdon's work, then the forum environment during regular investigation activities, joined Cory Hamasaki's list (DC Y2K Weather Report), was an avid reader of "Gary North's Reality Check", and similar groups as a part of my remediation and education efforts, and I've been here ever since.

:)

It's interesting how my use of this site has altered through the years. It started solely based on trying to learn, understand, and mitigate Y2K related issues for work. Then, because I was still a relatively new first-time home owner from '94, it shifted (thanks to Infomagic, Paul Milne, et al - LOL) to survivalist ideology (related to potential issues if Y2K hit hard); I printed out the original drafts of the "Triple-Ought" book (which became "Patriots: surviving the coming collapse by James Wesley Rawles) as it was being written and went deep down that hole. Then it shifted to distrust of . . . well . . . pretty much everyone in positions of power (LOL); and here I am today.

While not a poster of large volume, I remain a daily visitor and reader - the only time I don't have a browser tab open with TB2K being reviewed, is when not in my office or I'm out exploring the world (vacation, family travels, etc.).

HB
 
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In the 90s I was mostly trail riding with my horse boarders but I was seeing the ads for internet and the free AOL ads everywhere.
Totally uninterested in computers, but when my friend who was principal scientist at Lockheed (he was in charge of developing the heat shield tiles for the Space Shuttle) told me he could access information from all over the world, like being in the world's biggest library, that got me interested!
DH and I went to a "computer fair", bought all the parts, and built our first computer.

Soon I was surfing the web, and built my own little website to sell a horse product I was making. I joined Survival Ring, a community of websites linked together (before Rich took the same name), and began to read about y2k. I surfed every y2k forum, prepped with chickens, rabbits, etc, and I don't remember why I never joined here until 2005, but I know I was reading here pre y2k.

This was always the best place to come and read and became my internet home.
A deep debt of gratitude to Dennis and the mods for their work in keeping us together, and I owe so much to the members here now and those who have passed.
 
bbbuddy said:
I joined Survival Ring, a community of websites linked together (before Rich took the same name), and began to read about y2k.
Click to expand...
OMG, I'd forgotten about that. Refresh my memory . . . wasn't there some sort of web-part carousel solution that could be added to the bottom of web pages (my memory, which could be confusing unrelated topics, is showing me, like, a left and right arrow button, and you could cycle through similar pages)?

Am I remembering that correctly?

HB
 
bbbuddy said:
In the 90s I was mostly trail riding with my horse boarders but I was seeing the ads for internet and the free AOL ads everywhere.
Totally uninterested in computers, but when my friend who was principal scientist at Lockheed (he was in charge of developing the heat shield tiles for the Space Shuttle) told me he could access information from all over the world, like being in the world's biggest library, that got me interested!
DH and I went to a "computer fair", bought all the parts, and built our first computer.

Soon I was surfing the web, and built my own little website to sell a horse product I was making. I joined Survival Ring, a community of websites linked together (before Rich took the same name), and began to read about y2k. I surfed every y2k forum, prepped with chickens, rabbits, etc, and I don't remember why I never joined here until 2005, but I know I was reading here pre y2k.

This was always the best place to come and read and became my internet home.
A deep debt of gratitude to Dennis and the mods for their work in keeping us together, and I owe so much to the members here now and those who have passed.
Click to expand...
You MUST remember "Scary Gary"! Gary North.
 
Haybails said:
OMG, I'd forgotten about that. Refresh my memory . . . wasn't there some sort of web-part carousel solution that could be added to the bottom of web pages (my memory, which could be confusing unrelated topics, is showing me, like, a left and right arrow button, and you could cycle through similar pages)?

Am I remembering that correctly?

HB
Click to expand...
Yes, that was the whole point. Getting hits from other websites. Back then, your ranking in search engines was solely from hits and links from other websites. Popularity.

Besides Survival Ring, I had an entire page full of links. I just linked to a website, told them about my link, and they usually linked back.
That got my website up to the first 10 links in a search engine when doing a horse related search for quite a while. Then it became monetary, not link based.
And then we were burned out ( 2003) and my website with it.

I felt like this was "home". I remember when TOL started. I then read daily back and forth for a couple years, but always, this was the best.
 
Dennis Olson said:
Sacajawea proposed an “anniversary thread” where folks could talk about their history with this place, I thought that was a terrific idea. So here we go!

Technically, the site was started by Ed Yourdon in the fall of 1997 so people could help suggest changes and edits to his book of this name. That was on MIT’s “Greenspun” (Phil) servers. I found the place through Anita Spooner. We hung out on the MSNBC Y2K discussion board at the time. That was the fall of 1998. Ed was going to close the forum after rollover, but many of us had developed strong friendships and didn’t want to be “cast upon the wind.” We were on EZ-Board service at that point in time. At that particular time, I was between contracts, I duplicated the look and feel of the EZ-Board layout, and the rest is history.

OKA, OUN OR OLD, LONG-TIME MEMBER OR NEW, step up and tell us about your journey with our version of the “corner Cheers bar.”
Click to expand...
That was approximately the time-frame I found the site, having first learned of TB2K on Art Bell's "Coast to Coast" show one night, when he was interviewing someone (could it have beeen Ed Yourdon himself?) about the upcoming Y2K crisis.

It was that show, and this site (Greenspun), that started me on "prepping" like mad in 1998 / 99, so as to be ready in case "anything happened" Jan 1, 2000.

Especially since I had 3 little boys--one of whom was just a baby in 1998.

I've thanked God a hundred times since then for the fellowship, friendship, and great counsel I have found here.

We are truly a family.
 
TxGal said:
Wow, we go way back to the pre-Y2K days, I guess it was Greenspun, I don't recall! I believe my forum name back then was Alexa, a tribute to near where we were living in the DC metro area. I can tell you back then, the PDs in that area took the threat very, very seriously!

We've long since left the DC metro area, and are now retired in Texas. Prepping became a permanent thing, but we were lucky enough to learn a lot by actually doing along the way. Next stage of life for us is retiring up to the hill country in an over 55+ apartment, probably within a very few years. Getting a bit too old to handle the ranching way of life and property, and shopping and medical care are easily an hour+ away.

Nothing is simple!
Click to expand...
I think I remember you under that name!
 
Here ya go - a glimpse of where it all started.


Post I found:
I posted the first message to this forum on Dec 22, 1997 -- the beginning of a quiet Christmas week, when interest in Y2K was just beginning. Some 255,381 messages later (according to the statistics page a moment ago), I'm still here. The forum is a different place than it was back then, but I still think it is serving an important purpose for those who need information about Y2K.
Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), November 21, 1999.
Click to expand...

HB
 
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I was hanging out with Dennis, Anita and others at the MSNBC board and then hopped here at some point after y2k.

I knew so little about computers - pretty much just what I'd learned at work on a specific program. I remember that Dennis taught me to "cut-and-paste." (Still grateful, still think of Dennis every time I do it!)

Wow...25 years! Ah...the memories!!
 
I was a lurker in the Ed Yourdon - Greenspun days from about mid 1998. I finally bit the bullet and registered for TB2K in 2003 when access was restricted to members only. So officially I have been on this forum for 23 years. But actually I have been hanging around this outstanding group of folks for 28 years. Yes, I am that old - 81.
 
I’ve been here a long time, back before Sat got his transplant, Stu and his dancing Snoopy, and stayed up all night at rollover. I’m not here much anymore, caring for 91 yr old hubby, dog and cat and bookkeeper for son’s business but you all are still in my prayers every night. Thank you for all the information and friendship. Love you all.
 
A long long time ago, in a sad little dorm room far away, Blacknarwhal was trying hard to get a bachelor's degree amid the dying days of the dot-com era and just a little before 9-11 hit. Since he was not especially popular with the ladies nor particularly interested in illicit drinking, he filled his free time with television and the internet. That was when he first found doomer news. His first hit was Wake Up America, a fun little blog that promised death by government overreach on a regular basis and perhaps the kind of apocalypses that would let him channel his degree into becoming a warlord.

He then had the...mixed...blessing of discovering Stewart Best. For those not familiar, Stewart Best has an odd religious philosophy that says that nearly every professing Christian is actually going to hell because they did not have an "experience" with God directly telling them that they do not love correctly. The details are a bit sketchy, and much of what Best expresses can be interpreted in multiple ways. Those around Best also maintained doomer news presences, so he got his fill of news there, and periodically, from Rense.com.

But from there, he went on to The Tree of Liberty, eventually becoming a Senator before the site started crumbling underfoot.

After that, he came here, where he is now your problem, but remains the Narwhal with shrimp on his horn in an image taking from the Weebl's World classic song, "Narwhals."
 
I think I may have seen the Greenspun board way back around Y2K, but even with the idea of that looming large, I was not yet in a prepping frame of mind. That did not come until I lost a really good job in 2005, and found myself hard-pressed to find another. Being prepared was now a necessity!

I began surfing the web much more, and began looking to join a few forums, which I had avoided doing previously. I don’t like confrontation, and even back then people seemed way too argumentative for my taste.

Then I came across Rapture Ready, and thought it was the bee’s knees. After a while there, I ran afoul of the management, along with dozens of others, and left early on in a wave of bannings and self-exits. I helped run a small Christian forum for several years after that, but it eventually fell apart due to infighting. I also joined several other boards that all seemed to disappear over time. One was called End Times Round Table, a nice group of Rapture Ready ex-members.

ETRT led me to the Tree of Liberty. This was right around the time that the goobermint released its extremism report. I just had to check TOL out after they were mentioned in it. I only posted there 5 or 6 times, I’m pretty sure. I thought it was a great place, but I didn’t feel a real welcome vibe at all. That of course led me here to TB2K, also mentioned in the report.

I really liked what I saw here at TB, but the membership was closed. I waited patiently for 10 years to get in here! I'm so glad that you all opened a way up for people to join again. Thank you so much!
This place really helped me get through some difficult times the past few years...illnesses, nearly died 3 times. You all have been a boon companion for me through all that. I don't know how I would have gotten through it all without you all.
 
I joined around 08 I think. I always liked the news portion and have since started to follow more of the other parts of the form. I once lost my login (new computer I think) and was absolutely crushed. I was finally able to get ahold of one of the moderators and that got me back on. I still remember the feeling I got when I could get back to TB2000. Thanks to the mods for all that you do!
 
I found TB2K back around '97-'98 after reading about it on Scary Gary North's site. I was concerned about Y2K after getting started with the "Century Date Rollover Problem" (aka: Y2K) back in 1985 while in the Air Force.

We had tested a new mainframe computer system in 1987 that failed due to "embedded devices issues", after specifying software compliance, because "Y2K was just a software issue". By 1997 I hadn't seen anyone doing anything about the hardware side of Y2K and I knew the failure cascade could be disastrous.

I wanted to find more information about surviving the potential collapse and TB2K turned out to be the place. And what a long, strange trip it's been since then.
 
I was up to my neck in the entire Y2K thing back then (computer tech), so was on Gary North's site during that time, along with others, Didn't find TB2K until about late 2000/early 2001, joined then. Was also keeping tabs on that guy (up here in Canada?) that buried entire buses on his property to build a bomb shelter, followed him for a while, he was a character! Think he died a number of years back now.

Yes, it's been a journey! Hope it continues!
 
First time I heard about this site was back in the old Netmeeting platform with their public ULS directories from a few people.

I remember signing up, but then life got in the way. Don't even remember what my username would've been. I'm kind of surprised, because I remember writing my username and password down on a sticky note. But I'm sure that sticky note got trash a very long time ago.
 
I can't recall how I first heard of the place, I lurked here starting sometime around 2002 and joined in 2003.

I still visit regularly -- 1. for breaking news (I often find threads here before I see a news story anywhere else- thank you to all the news hounds on the board!) and 2. the Weekend Dance Parties!
 
I was on the Greenspun board in 98, or 99 at the latest, not sure. I was liaison for my company with other major companies in the Puget Sound area, so I used a pseudonym to protect confidences. We'd get together and brainstorm Y2k approaches, share tools, etc. I was a tool writer for my company, supporting the Y2k team that did conversions and advised coding teams.
 
Been here since 1999. Newish mom worried about 2 babies and getting thru Y2K. I read more on Greenspun than I ever posted. I believe I used the name Quiltjude back then.

Honestly, if we survived 2 months on preps, I would have been very surprised. No money, useless husband, and living in a 2BR apt. Ugh. Things are much different now.
 
First it was Media Bypass..
Then Backwoods Home, Countryside. Then on to a chat where you had to refresh the page, Y2K chat.
Then involved with my kids in the Joseph Project.
Met Gary North. Made it on to Rush's radio show once and talked with him on the air.
Later came other homestead forums. Then TOL and The Remnant. Met momof23goats there.
Frugal squirrels also. Alex Jones. Rense. Art Bell.
Found my way here and lurked a long time till I could become a member.
We're family now. Thank you Dennis and Mods.
Thank you also for being here during some of the roughest parts of my life..
 
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