Your forum's inspiration

Very good explanation and description, Kevin. You should use that on your site somewhere.

It's a nice forum, too.

 

Inspiration was easy. As an enthusiastic MINI owner I joined a forum and worked my way up in the ranks to be an admin and create an online magazine. Then the owner got an offer he couldn't turn down to sell. The new corp overlords added all kinds of advertising, raised the rates 5x the basic rate and were not open to any changes. Along with the fact support tickets sat for weeks before being looked at. So with the knowledge I had and the fact I write all the documentation and do Q/A testing for a very small group of vB dev folks I figured it was time to take my ball and open a new stadium...

 

That was a nice little history, gnatster. I like sites that have a background like that. Lynne's forum is another one that started as something else and had a group of people break off because of what the original site wasn't doing right.

Hell, even Offtopic.com was created that way (It was a car forum (I think) with a very active off-topic section. The people in it wanted to branch off and create their own site or something, and so they did. Now look at it...).

 

I grew up playing sport every weekend, and almost every day after school I was practising, I slept dreaming of sport, I just lived sport full stop.

I was selected in a train on squad for a national Under 19 team at the age of 16 in one of the sports I loved, however injuries ruled me out. Shortly after my family moved to Australia and I continued with my sport - however in September 2006 I dislocated my neck while playing in a school sport team.

I was told I may never walk again, however after ages in hospital going through painful physio therapy I walked out of that hospital but am not allowed to return to sport - I tried going to non-contact sport but suffered from a broken ankle, and stress fractures in my back - so any Sporting Career I had wished to persue was over.

However I wanted to stay involved in sport and so spent 2 years planning and piecing together my website which is an Australian Sports Network, still alot of work to do on the coding side of things for the main website, however I am not a good coder so things have to stay how they are until I can come up with the money to pay someone to code more things for me.

But yeah thats the inspiration behind my sports network, I wouldn't sell it for the world, and its starting to grow in popularity as other sport sites in Australia are owned by media agencies who have contractual arrangements with teams and players and so when they do something wrong eg: Drugs/ Alcohol, they do not report on it however my site states the facts about the issue, and also supports womens sport something that no other Australian based website does.

Off course I hope to be more successful, and plan to expand but want to get my website perfect first and that wont be done until I can get a coder to help me finish off the actual website part of it.

 

merk_aus, that's a fantastic story and I'm glad that you're able to still participate in sports albeit mentally. But, it's still a great way to get involved in something that you love! Congratulations and I wish you continued success!

As far as my inspiration, well I grew up in Southern California with my family taking me to Disneyland (in Anaheim, CA) every year of my life. Since I was a few months old, my Mother and Father took me at least once a year and usually more since Disneyland was only 30 minutes away from us. If you go to the "Happiest Place on Earth" and spend any consistent amount of time there, it'll rub off on you. Plus, all of the LPs (those were like CDs, but bigger and made of vinyl...more on that in another story ) that I had from Disney giving the narration from the rides (Pirates of the Caribbean, Country Bear Jamboree, America Sings, etc) and shows were played constantly because I loved the attractions. Add in the books, shows and movies...and I was hooked!

So, fast forward to the age of the 'net and the websites dedicated to others' love of everything Disney and forums discussing the stories and memories shared at the Disney parks and about the movies, etc. After being a part of a few communities and websites I figured that I'd give it a go and try and put together a "Happiest Place on the 'Net" or, something like that

That's what brought me a little over a year ago to the vBulletin software and the fantastic support and discussion communites. From Brandon's vBulletinSetup.com to Nick/Savage/Chris' AdminAddict.com, I've been able to meet folks (virtually speaking, of course ) and make very good working and personal relationships from it. Hopefully in the future I can make this a fulltime job and support my family. And, if I'm able to provide for my family AND do something that I love to do....well, it'll be a great way to live!

 

My family has gotten used to my sudden proclamations of "The world needs a web site that does xxxx!"

 

My forum niche is a passion of mine, and from chatting to other users of a similar forum i found they were put off the other forum as the users were argumentative, so i created mine as a safe haven for them

 

I bet that's one of the biggest reasons people jump ship and find new forums... no one likes visiting a site that makes them tense, even if they're not an active participant in the argument.