This morning as I was checking my email, I came across a letter from Yahoo Group Labs. They were reminding me that they were shutting down their Group forums sections by July 4, 2012. I immediately thought of the group that I had created so many years ago, back in 2000 to be exact. I called it The2waycrazet900p9352000x. Yes I know the name is long but I wanted it to stand out:)
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| Homepage - click to enlarge |
So I went over to the ghost town of a forum and I started to just scan over a few things, read others, and I smiled the whole time. Remembering all the fun I had and how much work I had put into making the site.
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| Photo Albums - Click to Enlarge |
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| Files - Click to Enlarge |
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| Database - Click to Enlarge |
I wanted it to be a place people could come by and enjoy. Not just "another forum" for people to just cruise by. I even went on other social sites to promote it on Blackplanet, MiGente, MySpace, and a few others by setting up sub 2waycraze forums on those websites and encouraging them to join the Yahoo one. I also received tons of traffic from a friend by the name of Jerrel (from the NYC) who I still keep in contact with from time to time. He along with his friend Dizco (who is quite the character) really helped me in regards to getting the word out about the site and being so knowledgeable about the pagers.
Don't get me wrong their were other 2way forums out there, but I wanted it to be a special hangout for people and also inform them about their 2ways as well. The website saw the most traffic between 2001 and 2005. At that time it was so popular I had been contacted by a company that was interested in me promoting their website and tmobile sidekicks. They had sent me a contract to read over but it was just far too intimidating at the time for me to understand. So I told them thank you but I would have to decline.
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| Message History - click to enlarge |
After that it settled down because of the newer technologies that were coming out. People were not needing their 2way pagers anymore. Now cell phones that were coming out had an option to text. It was a no win situation. So I put away my 2way pager and assimilated into the "new era". I unfortunately did not need the forum anymore as did other people. But I just could not bring myself to shut it down. It was my baby and I just didn't want to let it go. I just went through life checking on it from time to time. I even would clean it up and make sure SPAM posts which had weeded throughout the forum had been taken off. I would check to see if anyone had dropped a message or a question. Believe it or not, there were still a few questions every now and then.
Now it's finally come full circle and my baby is being taken away from me. So after reflecting and coming to terms that my once special forum will be no more, I decided to send out one last Moderator message as a Special Notice.
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| Final Goodbye - click to enlarge |
Until the next episode....
