OK, so I'm a day late... :?
So, in brief, here’s the deal… (please note, there have been *many* members who have contributed to the growth of these forums, some as former moderators and many more through their participation. As a history of how the DF came about, most of those I’m mentioning by name are members of the current administrative team)
DanceMentor first launched these forums (back on September 18, 2002) out of a desire to have a place where quality information about dance could be discussed and exchanged free from commercial interests.
Of the currently active members the earliest to join the DF include Spitfire who joined on Jan 24, 2003, as the 19th member and Larinda McRaven who joined on Feb. 7, 2003, as the 20th member.
I stumbled across this site and joined on March 28, 2003, as the 38th member. While I was (and am) a member of several other dance discussion sites, I really liked the lack of commercial interest associated with this site and, after my initial participation, was invited to become a Moderator, first of the ballroom forum and shortly thereafter of the salsa forum as well. Not too much later, as we started adding other active moderators, I became Site Moderator.
Salsarhythms joined on April 4, 2003, as the 46th member and became moderator of the Salsa Forum on April 19, 2003. Vince A. joined the DF, as the 88th member on May 16, 2003 and d nice joined on July 10, 2003 as the 128th member (at the moment I’m unsure of the exact dates that they both became Swing Forum moderators, but it was sometime in August 2003). The next member of the current team to join was Swing Kitten who joined on Aug. 10, 2003, as the 185th member, and became Dancers Anonymous and Funstuff & Inspiration moderator on Sep 9, 2003. Pygmalion joined as the 210th member on Aug. 22, 2003 and became Ballroom moderator on Sep. 8, 2003. Our resident poet, Borikensalsero, joined us on Aug. 27, 2003, as the 225th DF member, and joined Salsarhythms as a Salsa moderator on 23, 2003. MadamSamba joined the DF on Oct. 4, 2003, as the 296th, and took over as Argentine Tango moderator on Jan 23, 2004. The last member of our current team to join was Sagitta who joined on Oct. 23, 2003, as the 336th member, and joined Vince A. as moderator for General Dance on Dec 19, 2003.
Here are some other historic events/milestones in the evolution of the DF…
Sep. 18, 2002: 1st DF post :!:
July 3, 2003:
1,000 total posts
Aug. 11, 2003: 2,000 total posts
Aug. 14, 2003: 200 registered members and 7 “registered” members all logged in at the same time…then a record! (LOL)
Aug. 26, 2003: 3,000 total posts
Sep. 12, 2003: 5,000 total posts
Sep. 13, 2003: General is the first individual forum to reach 1,000 total posts
Sep. 18, 2003: 6,000 total posts
Sep. 26, 2003: 7,000 total posts…and Swing & DA join General in the 1,000 posts Forums club
Oct. 3, 2003: 8,000 total posts
Oct. 4, 2003: 300 registered members
Oct. 6, 2003:
Photo Album added to the DF!
Oct. 10, 2003: 9,000 total posts
Oct. 19, 2003:
10,000 total posts
Oct. 26, 2003: 11,000 total posts (and SwingKitten makes the 11,111th DF post!)
Nov. 3, 2003: 12,000 total posts (and 12,000 views reached for the Photo Album)
Nov. 10, 2003: 13,000 total posts
Nov. 18, 2003: 14,000 total posts
Nov. 21, 2003: 400 registered members
Nov. 25, 2003: 15,000 total posts
Dec. 3, 2003: 16,000 total posts
Dec. 10, 2003: 17,000 total posts
Dec. 19, 2003: 18,000 total posts
Dec. 25, 2003: 19,000 total posts (and the Photo Album reaches 25,000 views)
20,000 posts reached before New Year’s!!!!
Jan. 1, 2004:
The 2003 Dance Forums Awards!!!
Jan. 4, 2004: 21,000 total posts
Jan. 8, 2004: 22,000 total posts
Jan. 11, 2004:
Help the Dance Forums added
Jan. 14, 2004: 23,000 total posts
Jan. 21, 2004: 600 registered members
Jan. 22, 2004: 24,000 total posts
Jan. 30, 2004: 25,000 total posts
Feb. 5, 2004: 26,000 total posts
Feb. 11, 2004: 27,000 total posts
Feb. 15, 2004: Dance Forums switches hosts, form WestHost to Pair.com
Feb. 17, 2004: 28,000 total posts
Feb. 21, 2004: 29,000 total posts
Feb. 26, 2004:
30,000 total posts
:banana: