Who created this site?

[stylingazn]

just wondering =)

 

[NavyStyles]

History of the site: Â Â Back in early 2002, a good bunch of us posted on the GQ forum. Â It got ridiculous (people accusing everyone of being gay, threatening to track down people through the electronic signatures computers leave, and showing incredible amounts of immaturity). Â The biggest problem causer was some guy claiming to be a gay airline pilot saying he'd joined the Mile High Club several times over (and harassing others... mainly by telling them they could join it with him). Â Eventually, posts started disappearing

. Â Oddly enough, GQ left a lot of the vulgar ones up. Â They only took down anything that criticized the website. Â

  It was really getting frustrating and completely out-of-hand.  So, j mentioned a website he had been working on (the one and only Style Forum).  If you click "members" and search by join date, you'll see his name at the top.  He's listed as a "Super Administrator."  And I even saw someone mention him as "this mysterious j," which cracked me up.   When j finished his website, he sent a few of us e-mails or contacted us through some form of messenger.  Pretty much everyone with a registration date in early March heard of the website directly from j.  Eventually, j had other things to do and asked Steve B. to take over as forum administrator.   As you can see, over the years, the site has grown to 600 members... which is incredible for those of us who remember it at sub-100.  So, I think that's a pretty complete history of how this website came to be, so enjoy it.

 

[stylingazn]

Thanks Navy.

 

[jharrison]

Thanks for the informative history of the Style Forum, NavyStyles.

It is amazing to see the forum grow so much in so little time.

I'd be interested to hear comments from the first posters about how the forum has grown/changed for better or for worse.

Any comments?

 

[NavyStyles]

OH...  I think I left something out...

   There was a transition website for a short period, if I remember correctly.  Yeah, j set a temporary one up while this was still in the process of being functional.

   I'm happy to see how the SF has progressed over the years.  I'm pretty sure the site didn't originally have all the categories it does now (ie, Body Conciousness, General Chat, etc).  "Buying and Selling" is really quite new.  Tons of new members have joined with no problems... that I'm aware of.

   Steve B, Ambulance Chaser, Mike C, Bradford, GQ Lawyer, LA Guy, thc and Stu... I'm sure you guys have some memories of the website from the beginning.  Maybe?

 

[LA Guy]

In the beginning...

No seriously, it was created by j. as an alternative to the then rapidly declining GQ forums.

 

[NavyStyles]

I am so amused sometimes that I ever even read the GQ forum since the quality of content on there was very poor.

I'm pretty amazed that I subjected myself to that. Of course, the advertisements in the magazine were always so intriguing. I had to ask myself, "what is this mystical place called the GQ Forum? Hmmm..."

 

[jharrison]

Oh, our beloved PStoller.

I noticed his absence this past summer and actually gave him a call to see what was up.

He felt he was spending too much time involved with the forum and that such activity furthered none of his goals in life. So, he decided to employ what he referred to as 'all-or-nothing' self-control. He said he was never good with moderation and decided to leave the forum completely.

It's sad, you know. But at least the forum has a good archive of his stuff for all to learn from.

 

[Mike C.]

The main difference between the site when we first started and now is the quality of the posts. Just take a look at the stuff talked about in the first months archive... very basic analysis of clothing.

Now, 2 years later I'm amazed at the wealth of knowledge possesed and exchanged by some of the members here... Naturalat, Bangle-Stripe, AlexanderKabbaz, Steve B., LAGuy and so many others of course.

I was just thinking about how funny, yet obnoxious the old GQ forum was... remember when GQAirlinePilot (a troll) professed his love for GQLawyer (the guy who still posts here)... hahah.

Anyway, I'm not surprised that Pstoller dosn't post anymore... the guy used to post like 20 times each day. There's no way he could possibly be that into the board and not get burnt out.

 

[NavyStyles]

  I was just thinking about how funny, yet obnoxious the old GQ forum was... remember when GQAirlinePilot (a troll) professed his love for GQLawyer (the guy who still posts here)... hahah.

THAT was it. haha, I couldn't remember exactly what the situation was... man, that guy was terrible. Sorry to laugh at your misfortune, GQL; I can remember when you kept telling this guy that you had a fiancee (noting the two E's, of course). Knock on wood that we won't have any trouble like the GQ forum.

 

[bengal-stripe]

So, he decided to employ what he referred to as 'all-or-nothing' self-control. He said he was never good with moderation and decided to leave the forum completely.

I presume that is the only way to deal with addiction of any kind.

 

[Bradford]

I too remember the whole GQAirlinePilot /GQLawyer fiasco.

That all boiled over about the time that I first decided to check out the GQ Forum and it was incidents like that, plus the fact that the GQ Forum was so poorly designed that it was nearly impossible to follow the threads that led me to this group.

I have no idea if the GQ Forum still has the same layout, but at the time it was one of those annoying message boards where you would have to scroll through about 10 pages just to find out if anyone had responded to your post or your reply.

Somewhere on the GQ Forum, I saw a mention of this group and followed the link over. I've been quite happy ever since.

However, I will admit to a brief period when I was splitting my time between this group and the Men's Health Forum, however, again the juvenile discussion and general lack of maturity brought me back to this group full time. (Our very own Hermes can expound more on the Men's Health board as he the preeminent style god in that group.)

For me, I definitely consider the StyleForum to be my home on the web.

Bradford

 

[NavyStyles]

...the GQ Forum was so poorly designed that it was nearly impossible to follow the threads that led me to this group.

I have no idea if the GQ Forum still has the same layout, but at the time it was one of those annoying message boards where you would have to scroll through about 10 pages just to find out if anyone had responded to your post or your reply.

I had almost forgotten about the set-up; that was very annoying. I had to write down the number of my post (since the entire forum was a continuous scroll) if I wanted to have any hope of checking for replies.

 

[j]

Hi, everyone... this is a really funny thread. I had almost totally forgotten about the whole GQAirlinePilot thing. Actually, if anyone ever wonders why I'm not here, it's because I had the same problem as PStoller. The difference is that before I burnt out I started the forum.

I used to actually post style advice and check the GQ forum constantly as well, but by the time I had started this and gotten it up and running properly to the point where I didn't have to mess with it every day, it had attracted many posters with enough experience and good input to give that I didn't feel like I needed to reply to most of the questions. So I left it to you guys and started to get my act together, went back to school and started leaving my GQs in the wrapper sitting around for friends to pick up and read rather than devouring them the first day. I didn't feel the need to think about style or discuss it, but I'm glad you all enjoy it. Ironically, I came to the forum today to search on a style question for myself (first time I've done that) and this is what I find. Thanks to all of you for making this a good place to hang out and a valuable resource, and especially to those who've been there since before the beginning. And I guess, thanks to GQ for putting up a crappy forum that people wanted to leave.

Maybe I owe GQAirlinePilot thanks as well...

Edit: apparently, this is my first post.

I guess the post counter thing is not working right. Hopefully I will get all that ironed out soon as the forum is (in the next couple months) moving to mySQL and ikonboard 3.1 and will be faster and more stable. Yay.

 

[NavyStyles]

I think you actually have two handles (both called "j&quot.  I'm not sure how exactly that works, haha... but you must've signed into the one that you left unused.