Suggestion - Added Rank

[BigTransformerTrev]

No, that's only the date when someone joined this current incarnation of the board, not when they joined OzFormers. My join date is 27th December 2007, but I joined OTCA in 1997. We didn't have an online forum then, but griffin did issue out membership cards. I think I was member #48 IIRC.

Out of interest, when did the club actually start? And then when did it subsequently turn into an online forum? My interest is piqued

Oh, and on the subject of added rank, consider me Switzerland - I'm totally neutral on the issue.

[GoktimusPrime]

Club started in 1996. I first set up a forum that was used by members in 1999, but the first "official" forum set up by griffin was around 2005 IIRC. We also used to use a channel on IRC; #transformers on austnet; although we didn't set that up. In 2000 I came across it and it was already established by some other people who weren't even TF fans and when I tried to talk about Transformers with them, they initially got freaked out, even mad. Then started kicking me off the channel. I messaged one of the ops and eventually he agreed that a channel called #transformers should be better off in the hands of people who want to talk about Transformers (duh), so he deregistered the channel and it was either myself or dirge who re-registered it.

[griffin]

Out of interest, when did the club actually start? And then when did it subsequently turn into an online forum? My interest is piqued

A brief timeline of Ozformers...

1995 (mid) - I first got online and found the only TFs fan community at that time (ATT newsgroup), and my first fellow online Australian fans.
1996 (mid) - Knew at least a dozen Australian fans by now, and decided to track down as many as I could, to create an email mailing list. Had about 20 on the mailing list.
1996 (Sept) - I offered to start up a printed monthly newsletter as a fun novelty thing for us fans away from the main fandom "action". 16 people were willing to pay a couple dollars per issue.
1996 (Oct) - Issue 1 went out, as a fan newsletter.
1996 (Dec) - Issue 3 was when the newsletter started calling us a fanclub, with our original name of "Austrans".
Somewhere at this point, I got written/email permission from Hasbro Australia to be allowed to call ourselves a Transformers fanclub.
1997 (Mar) - Issue 6 had our first NZ member joining. Members in the next few years would come from nearby Asian countries as well, as they felt just as isolated from the main American fandom.
1997 (May) - Released the first of 14 "Junior" issues, for our younger members at that time.
1997 (Oct) - Issue 12 of the main newsletter was when I was able to email the newsletter out to those who couldn't afford it.
1998 (Oct) - Issue 24 was our second birthday, and we passed 50 members (had 55 at this time).
1998 (Dec) - Issue 26 was when the club's name changed to "Ozformers". (to prevent conflict with a transport company name, & trannies).
1999 (July) - Goktimus set up the first Australian Transfan Messageboard (Planet Sabertron).
2000 (Sep) - Issue 47 was the last issue to get printed. We had 65 members by this stage.
2000 (Oct) - Issue 48 was meant to be the last printed issue because I was getting too busy and too late with each issue. As such, this issue was never produced.
2000 (Nov) - Issue 49 was when each issue would just be a webpage and emailed out to members. (quicker for me now, not printing them out)
2000 (Dec) - Issue 51 would be the start of a fortnightly newsletter, as the amount of news each month was too much for a single issue.
2002 (Feb) - A second Australian Transfan messageboard starts up (Theyareamongus)
2002 (Apr 13) - Following the lead of the other two messageboards, I finally get to set up one for the Ozformers club. (at Xorbit)
2002 (Aug) - Issue 91 ended up being the last webpage issue, due to us having a Club messageboard now. Weekly or monthly news-summary emails would go out sporadically, if I had time.
2003 (Jan 17) - Ozformers V2 messageboard relaunched at Ezboard.
2004 - TFs fan convention in Sydney.
2005 (Jun 10) - Ozformers V3 messageboard relaunched at invisionzone
2006 - TFs fan convention in Sydney.
2007 (May 24) - Ozformers V4 messageboard (Vbulletin) created on my own (otca) server, finally opened for business Dec 27th. (the current location)
2013 (mid) - Ozformers V4 messageboard to be eventually relocated to the Ozformers.com domain.

Hope that sheds some light on the history of Ozformers.

[1AZRAEL1]

Somewhere in 2005/06 I first joined up under possibly the same handle or not I cannot remember. Lost contqct with the boards for a whil there because of things in my life. Not til couple years later when my life settled a bit befor I returned. Interesting to see its developments.

[Ravagecat]

When I read Cat's idea I immediately pictured some little stripes (military rank style) beside the board members handle. I'm for some visual candy that represents a board members seniority or significance to the board. I think we need to take some suggestions at face value and not look to hard into them.

Thanks for the History Lesson Griffin Was interesting to read the evolution of OTCA

[BigTransformerTrev]

Somewhere in 2005/06 I first joined up under possibly the same handle or not I cannot remember. Lost contqct with the boards for a whil there because of things in my life.

Heh - I did the same thing. I never left a post though, just joined, read things on here now and then, got the emails in my hotmail and then lost contact for a couple of years until I re-registered in 2011. No idea what my old username was, prob some variation on BigAngryTrev. Griff probably knows better than me as my hotmail address is the same.

And cheers for the history lesson Griffin, looks like there is a fair bit of backstory to the site we all enjoy today

[GoktimusPrime]

1999 (July) - Goktimus set up the first Australian Transfan Messageboard (Planet Sabertron).

Sabretron. Later on some overseas fans were setting up another TF fan site and wanted to call it Sabertron, but it seemed too similar to Sabretron. So after some negotiation we agreed that they could call it "Seibertron.com". Of course, Sabretron's been defunct since 2004 (shortly after the Sabretron convention). I just don't have the time or motivation to maintain it anymore (), and quite frankly, there just really isn't the need for it. I really enjoyed doing toy reviews and the "Transformers the Month" sections, but they would be fairly redundant now what with TFwiki and I'm content to just post my mini-reviews here.

[liegeprime]

A brief timeline of Ozformers...

1995 (mid) - I first got online and found the only TFs fan community at that time (ATT newsgroup), and my first fellow online Australian fans.
1996 (mid) - Knew at least a dozen Australian fans by now, and decided to track down as many as I could, to create an email mailing list. Had about 20 on the mailing list.
1996 (Sept) - I offered to start up a printed monthly newsletter as a fun novelty thing for us fans away from the main fandom "action". 16 people were willing to pay a couple dollars per issue.
1996 (Oct) - Issue 1 went out, as a fan newsletter.
1996 (Dec) - Issue 3 was when the newsletter started calling us a fanclub, with our original name of "Austrans".
Somewhere at this point, I got written/email permission from Hasbro Australia to be allowed to call ourselves a Transformers fanclub.
1997 (Mar) - Issue 6 had our first NZ member joining. Members in the next few years would come from nearby Asian countries as well, as they felt just as isolated from the main American fandom.
1997 (May) - Released the first of 14 "Junior" issues, for our younger members at that time.
1997 (Oct) - Issue 12 of the main newsletter was when I was able to email the newsletter out to those who couldn't afford it.
1998 (Oct) - Issue 24 was our second birthday, and we passed 50 members (had 55 at this time).
1998 (Dec) - Issue 26 was when the club's name changed to "Ozformers". (to prevent conflict with a transport company name, & trannies).
1999 (July) - Goktimus set up the first Australian Transfan Messageboard (Planet Sabertron).
2000 (Sep) - Issue 47 was the last issue to get printed. We had 65 members by this stage.
2000 (Oct) - Issue 48 was meant to be the last printed issue because I was getting too busy and too late with each issue. As such, this issue was never produced.
2000 (Nov) - Issue 49 was when each issue would just be a webpage and emailed out to members. (quicker for me now, not printing them out)
2000 (Dec) - Issue 51 would be the start of a fortnightly newsletter, as the amount of news each month was too much for a single issue.
2002 (Feb) - A second Australian Transfan messageboard starts up (Theyareamongus)
2002 (Apr 13) - Following the lead of the other two messageboards, I finally get to set up one for the Ozformers club. (at Xorbit)
2002 (Aug) - Issue 91 ended up being the last webpage issue, due to us having a Club messageboard now. Weekly or monthly news-summary emails would go out sporadically, if I had time.
2003 (Jan 17) - Ozformers V2 messageboard relaunched at Ezboard.
2004 - TFs fan convention in Sydney.
2005 (Jun 10) - Ozformers V3 messageboard relaunched at invisionzone
2006 - TFs fan convention in Sydney.
2007 (May 24) - Ozformers V4 messageboard (Vbulletin) created on my own (otca) server, finally opened for business Dec 27th. (the current location)
2013 (mid) - Ozformers V4 messageboard to be eventually relocated to the Ozformers.com domain.

Hope that sheds some light on the history of Ozformers.

Wow, a lot has happened waaay before I got in here.... I got in Ozformers on 2006 after dirge mentioned the site to me when I attended the TF fans convention at Wharf 8. Ozformers V3 (Invisonzone) - which we then moved after a year to this current board. I remember once logging in athe old board and it was creepy coz it has that twilight zone feeling that your in the forum, but no ones there..... at all it took a while before that old forum was totally "closed down" ,hehehe people here I remember kept logging in it and were saying "I logged in the other forum and it was creepy and eerie, heheheh" It took a while for me to change my bookmarks to this current forum as well so I don't accidentally log in the Twilight Ozformers forum.
We lost a couple of members as well during the move.... e.g. anyone remember Blackarachnia?

Anyways as per the added rank, nah. Don't need it IMO. we always have the Q & A thread anyways if you got a query - and everyone is there to pitch in their answers, new member or old. we could always just star a thread where people can put in their original join dates if that's the data Cat would like to know and then stickie that and just keep adding to it. Kinda like the collective collection thread

[CHILENO20]

Oh, and on the subject of added rank, consider me Switzerland - I'm totally neutral on the issue.

I'll admit, I like the idea of a rank but I'm with BTTrev. I'd support it if it comes along but in the end it really makes no difference . I'm just happy to be here. Though I just had a brain wave (i'm sure someone has thought of this before), what kind of bot would you be? Autobot, Decepticon, NAIL and what function would you be? Maybe put that up instead.

[Megatron]

I'll admit, I like the idea of a rank but I'm with BTTrev. I'd support it if it comes along but in the end it really makes no difference . I'm just happy to be here. Though I just had a brain wave (i'm sure someone has thought of this before), what kind of bot would you be? Autobot, Decepticon, NAIL and what function would you be? Maybe put that up instead.

Oooh, I really like that idea!! Oh can we have that mods/admin, pwease?? Or like a faction symbol/badge under our username or something.