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After hearing a comment from Oliver the other day, something about being the 35th member of the site, I thought, "wouldn't it be great, in light of the site exceeding its 1000th member, to hear from the people who were first on the site; what was it like back then, how has it changed, etc."; what was it like "back in the day", lol.
I think it would be interesting to hear; you know, like sitting around your grandma's fireplace on a Sunday morning, hearing about the old days; anyone care to share???
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I am guessing probably less chatter and longer response time between posts? Some days I get on and I wonder where everyone is... With only 30-some members that was probably more the norm.
I remember mostly the other appearance and it was much slower! Since October 2011 the site changed alot in those cases.
It faster, much less errors. New smileys was add but one disappeared - THE COW With CROSSED FINGERS. I miss it, bring it back, please.
I won't say about members and threads quantity - its obvious =)
...New upgraded chatbox... =)
Honorary tenured advisor
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We had to post uphill - both ways - and we were grateful!
Our monitors were lit by candles, and when the keyboards ran out of ink, we had to make our own out of crushed emails and bandwidth we drew from the well.
In truth, it was already a fairly active community when I got here. Best to check with the "old-timers."
Without being too specific ...........
A very early event was the time that Fiddlerman's intonation game started to gain popularity on another forum which sparked a little friction (but free advertisement as well) 
"Most users ever on line : 47" ....... this happened in response to maybe the very first violin raffle when there were no "rules" about entering. Lots of participation.
Honorary advisor
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I take this opportunity to welcome back Barry, Robyn.Fnq, David Burns, Daniel, Pikachu and Pky and Anathama who were active at that time. There was always something to take the forum forward with those active members. Though I joined in August 2011, I was a regular visitor from June 2011 and I don't know why it took 2 months for me to enroll. Thanks to Chinny and Naska and Kevin M, the development was fast. Some tests were conducted such as bow hair burning to ascertain it was horse hair and not synthetic ones. Then came the opinion poll, format change, chat box and Christmas Project. But all along this has been a wonderful, friendly and helpful forum with the ever smiling and affectionate Fiddlerman as its boss.
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it ..(William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night)
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Sounds like we need to Re - interview 'the boss' to see how things have changed and get his thoughts a year or so on since his last blog.
I am amazed at how old people of my age are.....
Honorary tenured advisor
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I too watched quietly for about 6 weeksbefore doing any thing formal. This is a great site I wonder why so many people from a year ago don't say hello from time to time.
Honorary tenured advisor
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Because FM tutorials are so great they are all pro now playing in orchestra? 
"It can sing like a bird, it can cry like a human being, it can be very angry, it can be all that humans are" Maxim Vengerov
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I am just so lucky to have so many wonderful members and such a friendly attitude.
The forum was slow at first with mainly me talking to myself and soon after with Oliver. Oliver was persistent and asked tons of questions in which I was very happy to answer. Figured that was what it would take to get people to come here. An active, and not empty forum.
The first contests did exactly what I thought they would, produces members that only came here for a chance to win, though most of them were interested in the violin in any case.
As far as the inactive members are concerned, I can go on the back end and see who has visited and believe it or not a few of these come here to see what is going on on a regular basis. Barry had other plans for this forum and though I told him that we would miss him, he doesn't seem interested in this place anymore.
Somehow, it seems that when we loose one member we gain another and often, very valuable and friendly as well.
Now'a'days I have trouble keeping up with all the new posts. Usually over 100 per day.
Traffic goes up and down but is presently over 1000 unique visitors per day.
When I started the forum I was told by many of my web expert friends that forums are extremely difficult to get going. None of them have been successful. I was told that it would take at least a year to get any action.
The smiley is back now Naska, I don't know why but it was inactivated.
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
Honorary tenured advisor
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Any Forum has to greatly depend on the guy who starts it. thanks to FM he is the greatest.
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Fiddlerman said
I am just so lucky to have so many wonderful members and such a friendly attitude.The smiley is back now Naska, I don't know why but it was inactivated.
Thanks Pierre - We like you too!
Woo hoo, the cow is back!! Oh wait, I don't see it. Instead I see this dapper fella:
I think Naska and I were the only ones who missed the cow.
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Sorry, I checked the in use button and hit save changes but it never got saved.
In case you ever have problems and still want to use it just remember this:
:cow-fingerscrossed :
But no space at the end. If I remove the space, voilà.....
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
Honorary advisor
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Sure the site use to have slow response times and I use to spam the site every night but I think that might have been because everyone was busy when I was on due to timezone differences.
suresh said
Some tests were conducted such as bow hair burning to ascertain it was horse hair and not synthetic ones.
^ LOL that was a fun experiment. Got to play with fire - responsibly of course.
Pro advisor
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Ah Suresh, you didn't mention MGN? I joined June 2011 and the forum was slow but all the members were very interesting and I knew the forum was going to grow pretty fast because of all the free lessons that FM has on here. Oh wait... I never left 
Honorary advisor
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I did not forget you and our mighty Oliver. But you continue to be active. And I mentioned only those who were active then. In fact after posting I thought of your 109 years young grandmother. I invite all members to have a look at some of the earlier posts by Oliver;David Burns Photo at his workspot;MGN's posts of encouragement. There was some discussion on what questions be asked in member's interview. Interesting days..
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it ..(William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night)
Honorary tenured advisor
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I love the member interviews. That was a fun development!
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I just read all the posts; VERY cool hearing about "the beginnings".
Pierre, I think everyone on here has deep appreciation for you and your dedication and efforts; it's such an unbelievable site!
Thanks FiddlerMan!!!
Advanced member
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I like the member interviews. Just curious when its my turn. Probably a month or two later since I joined in Feb. I already have mine typed up and every now and then I reread to see if I can add anything else before the time comes.
16 years of experience and relearning.
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