When Did OKC Talk Start?

[gjl]

Someone recently posted a link to a thread started in Apr 2009. I didn't know this forum was that old. So when did OKC Talk first start? Was there an official start date and can anyone post a link to the very first post? Pete?

[Ginkasa]

I joined 2006. I think the forum as it is has been around since at least 2004, but my understanding is the community spun off from some other board or BBS thing going back to maybe even the 90s?

[Pete]

My first post is from 2005 and I know it had been going 2-3 years before.

I bought the site from the original owners somewhere around 2008.

[gjl]

Oh I thought you started it.

[Swake]

My first post is from 2005 and I know it had been going 2-3 years before.

I bought the site from the original owners somewhere around 2008.

Malibu....

[Pete]

Oh I thought you started it.

No, I was living in California at the time and started to post a bit because I wanted to stay on top of what was happening here.

Eventually, I became a moderator and I told the owner -- a guy who started it but never posted or really cared about the site -- that I might like to buy it. It wasn't long before he took me up on my offer and I paid way, way too much for something that only had expense and no revenue.

But I felt like it could become something and just kept at it and then after a while, the whole thing blew up. The rest is history!

[Pete]

BTW, this is a good time to mention that I keep a database of site analytics; things like unique visitors and page views.

OKCTalk has higher traffic than ever and we have much more on social media where we are getting ready to pass 250,000 followers across all platforms.

The TV stations have more social followers but OKCTalk gets many multiples of their engagement (likes, shares, views) than anyone in the state outside of official accounts of sports (Thunder, OU, OSU).

I have two primary missions: 1) Get people excited about all the great things happening here; and 2) be an independent voice that is unafraid of speaking truth to power and identifying corruption and scammers.

[jedicurt]

i think i started looking at the site in like 2009. but didn't create an account and start contributing till 2012

[Swake]

I joined this site about the same time as I joined TulsaNow, in late 2003 to talk about the Tulsa Vision project. This isn't my original user account, though my user name is the same. I stopped posting here for a couple of years when certain posters seemed take over that had a particular political bent. I came back under the very fake name of user name of swakeII before restarting this user name back in 2012.

My understanding is this site was built when the city of OKC shut down a city based board. I never was on that site, but joined here very quickly after it was founded. There were very few users back then. I can't recall the old owners name, but Patrick posted probably half of everything on the site at that time. Other users back then were Metro, Kerry, Mr Anderson, Spartan. Midtowner was here back then as well. My memory is that Pete was Malibu.

[Midtowner]

If you look at my join date, it's within a few months of the place starting.

[Midtowner]

If you look at my join date, it's within a few months of the place starting. That was 9-15-2004.

So I just passed my 20th year as a member and not so much as a hello.

[Ginkasa]

If you look at my join date, it's within a few months of the place starting. That was 9-15-2004.

So I just passed my 20th year as a member and not so much as a hello.

well if it helps i pulled the 2004 number out in my post because your join date was the oldest i could find in a quick search

[Martin]

So I just passed my 20th year as a member and not so much as a hello.

well... that just kind of snuck up, happy 20th year to you. your celebratory plaque and commemorative set of okctalk steak knives might have gotten lost in shipment.

[taha]

pete have you ever thought about doing a interview and talking about the history of this website? i find it very interesting and i think many others would agree

[Pete]

pete have you ever thought about doing a interview and talking about the history of this website? i find it very interesting and i think many others would agree

I once was a guest on a podcast where we got into all that, but it's no longer online.

I've grown to like being somewhat of a mystery! I'd rather leave people with the impression OKCTalk is a vast operation. haha

[mrdude]

I’ve lurked almost daily since 2006 when I was in college. There were a few dramatic members back then that kept me from wanting to post and engage, and I do remember them also having meetups. Also the old banners before Devon, which this was the place to get the inside scoop on the tower before everyone else did. I still remember the Gazette with the originally proposed height rendering & okctalk being the only place to collectively talk about it and it became that for all the other things that momentum brought during the 10s when OKC was rapidly changing.

[Urbanized]

…My understanding is this site was built when the city of OKC shut down a city based board. I never was on that site, but joined here very quickly after it was founded. There were very few users back then. I can't recall the old owners name, but Patrick posted probably half of everything on the site at that time. Other users back then were Metro, Kerry, Mr Anderson, Spartan. Midtowner was here back then as well. My memory is that Pete was Malibu.

I believe this is accurate. I think the original board was a part of OKC.gov, but the City’s PIO decided it was too burdensome/tricky to manage and moderate, so the BBS that is now OKCTalk was spun off to a private entity.

[Bill Robertson]

I started lurking. I hate that word. In around 2008 and joined in 2010. So I've been around for more of the forum's life than I realized.

[Midtowner]

I believe this is accurate. I think the original board was a part of OKC.gov, but the City’s PIO decided it was too burdensome/tricky to manage and moderate, so the BBS that is now OKCTalk was spun off to a private entity.

I think that's accurate. Mick Cornett was a participant very early on, but found the place to be too negative.

This was early on in the days of the internet when PIOs and such did not yet know the full terrors of an unbridled comments section.

[Pete]

In the early days, the original owners and moderators created fake accounts and posted as Tom Ward and other prominent locals.

They didn't know how to build traffic any other way.

[Teo9969]

This brings up an interesting point of conversation.

Pete, have you ever looked into not only archiving this site, but the content of the many various and important links that are found in the discussions?

I read an article earlier this month that really got me thinking about this site and so many others
Business Insider Digital Dark Ages Article

[PhiAlpha]

i think i started looking at the site in like 2009. but didn't create an account and start contributing till 2012

Similar but about a year earlier on both. I pretty sure the Devon Tower announcement was what got me here.

[PhiAlpha]

If you look at my join date, it's within a few months of the place starting. That was 9-15-2004.

So I just passed my 20th year as a member and not so much as a hello.

[Pete]

Similar bur about a year earlier on both. I pretty sure the Devon Tower announcement was what got me here.

It's amazing to look through that Devon Energy Center thread, as we were all over it before it was even announced, had all the renderings and then literally thousands of construction progress photos, along with a webcam.

Strange to see photos of construction ending with the old I-40 still in place.

There are over 12,000 posts on that thread alone, and over 1.2 million on the site overall since inception.

[jedicurt]

Similar bur about a year earlier on both. I pretty sure the Devon Tower announcement was what got me here.

it was the Devon Tower for me too... so maybe it was 2008.