Something that I forgot to mention yesterday was that our online community – that place we lovingly refer to as the THorum – celebrated its one year anniversary yesterday. Finally, I fell like we’re over the hump when it comes to providing a place for Theater Hopper fans to communicate with one another.
The history of the THorum is a long and complicated one. Marred by gross ineptitude on my part, this is actually the third incarnation of the community. Those who have been with me from the start know the story I am about to tell.
When I started Theater Hopper in August of 2002, one of the first things I made sure to have was a forum. I believed strongly that developing a community was key to getting the site off the ground. Initial fans would congregate and then spread word of Theater Hopper to all corners of the internet.
When only 20 or so people signed up after 3 months online, I grew impatient and shut it down.
Hey, don’t blame me! I’m a moron, remember? I was totally naive to the fact that having 500 unique visitors per month wouldn’t necessarily translate into an online community. Remember, I’m the same guy who tried raking in donations and advertisements when I was barely a blip on the radar screen. At that time, Theater Hopper was a pimple on the ass of web comics. I’m happy to say we’ve since moved up to “boil” status.
About 6 months after voluntarily closing the first forum and steadily watching our readership grow, I decided to take another swing at establishing a community. Another forum was forged.
Things went well for a while. We had gathered a little clique and we were online without and problems for a good length of time. That is until a catastrophic server failure totally crippled the site. The database that ran the forum was lost and I nearly lost a year’s worth of blogs. Of course, like a fool, I had never made a back-up of the forum. So it was gone, baby. REAL gone. Strike two in forum world.
Desperate to reconnect with the community that was lost, the third version of the forum was brought to life January 17, 2004 and we’ve been plugging along ever since.
It hasn’t been easy, though. Luckily with the help of my team of administrators and moderators, we’ve been able to keep it up and running without much data loss or obnoxious post whores ruining it for everyone. So my thanks to AdSquirrel, Brian, JClark and MadMup. You’re help has been invaluable.
In the course of our existence, we’ve even been able to implement custom features to make ours a totally unique environment. A web cam portal, The Friday Five, The Danza and The Urkle. Even our own dictionary – or THictionary for the unenlightened – of THorum-specific vernacular! Did you know we did a holiday gift exchange last Decemeber that went off with flying colors? We did, and it was great!
Now before you start thinking that the THorum is some sort of secret society or members only cabal, know that there has never been a more welcoming group of people online ANYWHERE. Friendly and bright. Gracious and insightful. And several of them more hilarious than anyone you will ever meet. My thanks to these THorumites who make our community one that I have looked forward to posting to every day since its inception. Thank you.
If you think that sounds good, sign up in the THorum today. You won’t be sorry.
