With all the support so rightfully shown for you during this very trying period, I could not help but wonder:

Did you ever imagine Synth-Zone to be this big?

How about a How/What/When/Where and Why as to the creation of 'the Zone' as I most affectionately refer to it?

What were your expectations for this site?
Have they been met?
Any regrets?

Nosey minds want to know!

thnx,
t.

[This message has been edited by tony mads usa (edited 09-06-2006).]

Thanks Tony. Before the Internet in 1991-1993 I used to subscribe to a Chicago based dial up BBS called the MIDI BBS where I could download synth support files. When I first got on the Internet back in 1994 it frustrated me that there were no portal sites where I could find links to files and info for my collection of synths back then ( Roland JX-8P, Yamaha TX802 and SY77, Casio CZ-1000 & CZ-1000, Oberheim Matrix 1000 and Waldorf Pulse ) I got sick of searching through search engine results all the time so I decided to put up all the links I'd found on my homepage. I needed a name so I decided Synth Zone pretty much described it.

In 1996 so many people were using the website I went and bought the domain name Synthzone.com I guess other people also wanted a portal for electronic keyboards. I then started up the first forum so people visiting the website could talk to eachother. Chris Hansen in Denmark emailed me to ask if I could start a forum just for arranger keyboards which was when this forum began. Chris moderated it for a few years before demands of life and family made him give it up. In 1997 I changed to this UBB software which was a better system for running multiple forums. That is why you can still find some posts here that date back to this time.

About 200,000 people each month visit Synth Zone though most of those are probably to the links pages rather than the forums. I guess a lot of the traffic is due to having good search engine placement. Typing "synth" or "synthesizer" into Google always brings up Synth Zone as the first non-sponsored link.

I have been criticized for not changing the BBS software for 8 years, but that would mean losing all the old messages and also all members would have to re-register again before someone else takes their username. Until this system breaks down I am not prepared to do that just for a couple of extra features like avatars etc. The long history of information is much more important to me.

The earliest archive the Wayback Machine has is Feb 1997 http://web.archive.org/web/19970220131515/http://www.synthzone.com/
You can also see the archive of this forum [URL=http://web.archive.org/web/20001109112000/www.synthzone.com/msg/hansen/hanseneold.html]http://web.archive.org/web/20001109112000/www.synthzone.com/msg/hansen/hanseneold.html[/ URL]
You'll recognize names of many members who were here around a decade ago and are still with us.

So that is the history of Synth Zone. It survived the dotcom meltdown in 2000, a couple of serious hacker attacks and a brain anuerysm I had in 2000. In fact it will probably last longer than me.


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 09-08-2006).]

Nigel ... thank you ... very interesting ... I enjoyed (and I'm sure others will) looking at the archived posts... it's amazing to see how many of the folks are still here ... That is a tribute to YOU ...

It was also interesting to see that many of the 'types' of topics were the same as today ... only kinder, gentler ... Even a lot of the models of kbs are the same ...

I appreciate the response ...

Looking back, would you have done anything different?

t.

What i love about this place is that i can research any keyboard i like through all the tons of threads. Its a treasure of info u cant find anywhere else. Thank u for protecting this treasure

Nigel,
Thanks for that interesting piece of history.
I often wondered how and when this got started.

Like Rolandfan,
I too am glad that the info treasure chest is still available.

The oldest post I see from me was Sept. 98, but I'm pretty sure there were some older than that.
A lot of the same guys are still around, Dave, DanO, Bob Gelman (has his own sites now).
I'd almost forgotten about Hoxophones.
DonM

I found it interesting that the layout was similar to the old technics site ... was that the format then?
t.

The Perl script that was used by the forum back them was a freeware script that was commonly used across the Internet at the time. So it's very likely that a bunch of music sites used exactly the same script.