(ATTN MODS PLEASE KEEP THIS THREAD STICKIED IN THE BG DEN) It's been really nice seeing and reacquainting with several of you whom have been with Gator Country almost from the very beginning from 1995-96 onwards... It will have been an amazing 22 year run so far! I know some of you were around even before then when there was GatorNET, the Gator mailing lists which preceded the web and the browser. I remember at one time running it off my satellite internet dish set up and selling t-shirts to help fund it and GC... If you've been around awhile, it would be great if you'd check in here with the time you joined Gator Country and whatever tidbits you'd like to share from way back. I'll check in for Gus Garcia who was my partner at the time in starting up Gator Country before it was even a website. He passed away due to an unfortunate accident many years ago. You have not been forgotten, brother. If you know of others who have passed away, feel free to "check-in" for them. I look forward to hearing from the rest of you! Ray
Joined in 1997. Looking forward to a new fresh start for the football team..but just as pumped for all the other sports. Still giddy over the baseball NC.
I think I joined in '97, but maybe '96. I remember how my then girlfriend (and wife since 2000 - I barely survived waiting over 3 years to pop the question) used to think I was crazy to sit in front of the computer reading GC every night when I already was staring at a screen for so long at work every day. She also thought I was crazy for getting so mopey after every Gator loss. I still do both of those things, and she still thinks I'm crazy.
I don’t know if I qualify as an “old-timer” but I started using GatorCountry in 1999/2000. Not sure when I actually signed up though. I remember the first time I used GatorCountry was when one of my friends, a player on the team, told me about it. There was a thread about him so I came to the site to read it but couldn’t find it. He’d told me it was about a third of the way down the page. Neophytes that we were we didn’t understand that threads moved up and down the page or on to the next. Little did I know it would come to consume my waking hours during certain periods.
Yep still here. I don't remember the year but it was before it went HTML. I remember the decision dilemma to abandon the list aka the bbb and figure out the Netscape thing. Ha. Man have we come a long way. One aspect I miss most is how many rival fans we had who were decent posters with really good dialogue. GC was one of the early popular boards and it attracted a lot of fans who weren't Gators. Then the ESPN college football message chat room opened and that was really powerful. When they shut it down because it was too popular and did not want to support it anymore, GC surged. we've come through many versions of the board/platform and everyone lost their post counts and usernames. My username was GatoRaid and in one of the transitions I could no longer have it. So, it is in my signature below. Maybe we could have an old timer badge or something.
I've been around for a long time. Love Gator Country. Wish we could get an app so we could move around with more ease on mobile devices.
I go back all the way to the mailing list even before you got GC up on the Web. My brother forwarded the email and I got on the list. Been with you every step. I can remember the first coaching search drama in 2001 in the dial-up days. That was a pain.
Been around since late 95 or early 1996, The first email address I had was when Gator Country had email addresses...I think mine could have been BigG@gatorcountry.com or something close to that I wish we had that option again but probably too costly for Ray.....unless we paid an extra monthly fee???? I actually think some subscribers would go for that option if it would also be profitable for Ray and not a headache.
'96 here. Used to have to go to an internet coffeehouse to find the interwebs to get to GC. Company had 50 employees and no internets.
I started in 96 under the name Mastergator1, but sometime in 2000 I bought a new computer and GatorCountry would not let me sign in with that signature so after many attempts to get it fixed I started using Elcor, which is a shorten version of Elcordobez one of the greatest Spanish bullfighters and my favorite.
Been GatorGreg1 on here for 20-21 years, remembering back to the days of Swampie. It’s still a daily addiction that my wife no longer worries about. GatorGreg1
1995-1996. Joined when I was attending UF. Have had the name cegator the entire time which is civil engineering gator. I still remember sitting in a computer lab in Weil Hall reading Gator Country when Quezzie Green sat down next to me to use a computer.
Don't remember when I joined but it was many moons ago. Thanks Ray for allowing us all to come into your living room! When I joined I was CharlotteGator.
Been here since the very beginning. Dial up service in the Swampie days. Was it Compuserve or AOL/Prodigy...before Al Gore discovered the World Wide Web? Wasn’t Redman (aka Hollywood Bob/Tiny) and Franz here then? When was the first chat room with Hot Asian Chicks and Chuh and slapping your face with a trout? And Iceman's little buddy. And what year was Halley's Munkee brought in to close that recruiting class? I seem to recall the mUnkee having to go to Mandarin to close Marcus Thomas.
