Firstly thanks Greg for posting the 365 thread, it was great to get some positive feedback for the site. I just wanted to make an official thread to mark our 1 year birthday and document the journey so far.
We started out on 14th June 2007 with a clean slate. The old forum had disappeared and people had scattered far and wide. Wherever I looked I found people from the old community. Some were happy in their new homes, but lots were hankering after the atmosphere they had in their old "home". I decided to set up a replacement forum to see if we could get back a little of the lost community spirit that seemed to die overnight. At 7:31pm BST z4-forum.com was born.
A blank forum went up, some categories were created and I desperately tried talking to myself. A few people came to join me, amongst the first were WLH, Spokey and Color. We quickly tried to get some information on the forum and answer questions that came in within an informal SLA of 2.5 seconds! :rtfm:
We cleaned, polished and redesigned the forum a little, and I rapidly learned that in forum world (I was completely new to being a form admin) whatever you do will get you hung drawn and quartered (virtually, of course). I looked at myself in the mirror, I looked different, I had aged a little, it was the thick skin I was growing!
As time went on we lost some members (muppet etc). Some people sold their Z4's and went off to pastures new, some people sold their Z4's and stayed with us (Wondermike! :cheers: ). We also gained some real personalities, FlyboyAJ :cpilot: , fire-n-ice
olice: , Enfield :gfight: (sorry mate, couldnt resist!), InTgr8r :stir: to name but a few!
Bit by bit we built up a moderating team and added WLH, Ovrkll and Color to the team. One thing I am very proud of is one year on we have not (yet!) had to ban anyone. There have been a few close calls but some of the negativity of the old community seems to have died with the old place. I am thankful for that, as I am sure you all are. It is in no small way thanks to the mod team and also thanks to all of you. The forum has been largely self moderating and I hope that continues, it is rare in the forum world, as I am learning.
The level of expertise and knowledge that has been built up is outstanding. Long standing members such as pvr and GvfB brought us a lot of how-to's, advice and assistance. We have a new kid on the block with cj10jeeper who seems to be building a new Z4 from bits he found in his garage and on ebay!
The gallery is another thing we have built up and have to be proud of. WLH has taken on the task of looking after most of it and is doing a fine job. The standard of the entries is truly amazing. We had some plans to use some themes for different months but didn't quite get round to it. We will hopefully get these set up soon and see what comes from that! :camera:
We have our first unofficial forum merchandise in the form of the forum t-shirts rabman5 is organising. From what I see so far everyone has been over the moon with them. Now we have the membership levels up we are working on some official merchandise which will follow in the next month or two (watch this space).
Homecoming is just around the corner, as always a great opportunity for people to put faces to names, have a laugh and have some ICB's! I will not be able to attend unfortunately but I'm sure certain members will make sure we have some pics to remember it by. 2008 will unfortunately be the last Homecoming at the factory but our very own IMZ4N will no doubt be working on a replacement get together for next year!
Just to get back to the membership, the statistics show we are gradually taking over the world. There are not many countries in the world where we haven't had visitors from. We also have (to the nearest 0.5%) the same amount of visits per day from the UK and USA. We are truly an International forum!
We have come a long way in such a small amount of time, I can only imagine where we will be in another years time. Whatever happens with the new Z4/Z6/Z9 I am sure this community will continue to thrive.
That just leaves me to say a big thank you to everyone. Thank you for making this a great place to be and a great resource for people new to the Z4 game. I know I have mentioned just a few of you in person on this thread, but there are so many of you who have been a massive part of what we have built up, there are just too many to mention! You know who you are! :friends:
Ok, well seeing as it's our birthday, I'm off for an ICB to celebrate... HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!
:icb: :bday:
P.S. sorry if that was a bit long winded, I'm crap at speeches!
We started out on 14th June 2007 with a clean slate. The old forum had disappeared and people had scattered far and wide. Wherever I looked I found people from the old community. Some were happy in their new homes, but lots were hankering after the atmosphere they had in their old "home". I decided to set up a replacement forum to see if we could get back a little of the lost community spirit that seemed to die overnight. At 7:31pm BST z4-forum.com was born.
A blank forum went up, some categories were created and I desperately tried talking to myself. A few people came to join me, amongst the first were WLH, Spokey and Color. We quickly tried to get some information on the forum and answer questions that came in within an informal SLA of 2.5 seconds! :rtfm:
We cleaned, polished and redesigned the forum a little, and I rapidly learned that in forum world (I was completely new to being a form admin) whatever you do will get you hung drawn and quartered (virtually, of course). I looked at myself in the mirror, I looked different, I had aged a little, it was the thick skin I was growing!
As time went on we lost some members (muppet etc). Some people sold their Z4's and went off to pastures new, some people sold their Z4's and stayed with us (Wondermike! :cheers: ). We also gained some real personalities, FlyboyAJ :cpilot: , fire-n-ice
olice: , Enfield :gfight: (sorry mate, couldnt resist!), InTgr8r :stir: to name but a few! Bit by bit we built up a moderating team and added WLH, Ovrkll and Color to the team. One thing I am very proud of is one year on we have not (yet!) had to ban anyone. There have been a few close calls but some of the negativity of the old community seems to have died with the old place. I am thankful for that, as I am sure you all are. It is in no small way thanks to the mod team and also thanks to all of you. The forum has been largely self moderating and I hope that continues, it is rare in the forum world, as I am learning.
The level of expertise and knowledge that has been built up is outstanding. Long standing members such as pvr and GvfB brought us a lot of how-to's, advice and assistance. We have a new kid on the block with cj10jeeper who seems to be building a new Z4 from bits he found in his garage and on ebay!
The gallery is another thing we have built up and have to be proud of. WLH has taken on the task of looking after most of it and is doing a fine job. The standard of the entries is truly amazing. We had some plans to use some themes for different months but didn't quite get round to it. We will hopefully get these set up soon and see what comes from that! :camera:
We have our first unofficial forum merchandise in the form of the forum t-shirts rabman5 is organising. From what I see so far everyone has been over the moon with them. Now we have the membership levels up we are working on some official merchandise which will follow in the next month or two (watch this space).
Homecoming is just around the corner, as always a great opportunity for people to put faces to names, have a laugh and have some ICB's! I will not be able to attend unfortunately but I'm sure certain members will make sure we have some pics to remember it by. 2008 will unfortunately be the last Homecoming at the factory but our very own IMZ4N will no doubt be working on a replacement get together for next year!
Just to get back to the membership, the statistics show we are gradually taking over the world. There are not many countries in the world where we haven't had visitors from. We also have (to the nearest 0.5%) the same amount of visits per day from the UK and USA. We are truly an International forum!
We have come a long way in such a small amount of time, I can only imagine where we will be in another years time. Whatever happens with the new Z4/Z6/Z9 I am sure this community will continue to thrive.
That just leaves me to say a big thank you to everyone. Thank you for making this a great place to be and a great resource for people new to the Z4 game. I know I have mentioned just a few of you in person on this thread, but there are so many of you who have been a massive part of what we have built up, there are just too many to mention! You know who you are! :friends:
Ok, well seeing as it's our birthday, I'm off for an ICB to celebrate... HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!
:icb: :bday:
P.S. sorry if that was a bit long winded, I'm crap at speeches!
I am very proud to be a part of this community. Y'all are incredible 
