How old is this site?

[cheerknithanson]

I've been wondering how old this site is. I'm have a feeling it's been around since I was in the single digits (I was born in June 1995).

And how many of you been there since the beginning?

 

[Mathman]

I joined in 1998, and there are still a few active posters from the original version on about.com before that. Golden Slate moved to its current vbulletinboard format (from ezboard) in 2003.

 

[Flaya]

That is interesting.

I was a huge fan of figure skating before internet. I am 34 now and really followed it from 8-9 years old to around 15... and then, I only followed the Olympics and nowhere near all that went on, at times World Championships but rarely...

And then I regained my interest at last year's Europeans, suddenly like that...before the Olympics. I had no clue this website is THAT old, although I likely have visited it before once every few years looking for some info.

 

[cheerknithanson]

When in 1998?! Dang! I was a witty-bitty weird toddler who was a bad sleeper (And still am a bad sleeper) back then.

 

[ks777]

I was originally a member of the USFS board and heard about this site and joined.

 

[dorispulaski]

I go back before the move from ezboard. I know I was on before the 1998 Olympics..

 

[R.D.]

I originally joined in the spring of 2002, just after the SLC games. It was on ezboard at the time.

The board is older than I thought though. I didn't know it went back to the 90s...

 

[yelyoh]

I lurked when it was on about.com and then joined a year before Nagano and then dropped my profile and then joined again 2003. When it was on about.com there were basically the same two people in every thread: Joesitz (where is he now?) and wofice who dropped out after Sara won gold in Salt Lake. There are very few people left from that time. Sniff.

 

[R.D.]

^ Very true - just like on the skating scene, we have a new generation of posters here. Very few old-timers still around, and even fewer continue to post regularly (ex: MM).

But I am not surprised. I think in general, a good number of fans left during the 2002-2006 quad. And after '06, most of the old boards disappeared as well. I remember fans used to be divided among numerous dedicated skater forums (Kwan, Cohen, Slutskaya, Hughes, Yagudin all had one, I remember, and there were others too), general forums (like GS, FSU) and, of course, the notorious "anything goes" forums. And a lot of those boards had thousands of members...yes, many cross-posted but each had its own group of original users as well.

Now, the only major boards left seem to be GS and FSU. The fans have converged. Gone are the days where the top skaters each had their own dedicated forum and there were places to "vent". Now, people just do it all on social media, for better or worse...

Man, just thinking about it makes me miss the good ol' days well, sort of, anyway.

 

[cheerknithanson]

^ Very true - just like on the skating scene, we have a new generation of posters here. Very few old-timers still around, and even fewer continue to post regularly (ex: MM).

But I am not surprised. I think in general, a good number of fans left during the 2002-2006 quad. And after '06, most of the old boards disappeared as well. I remember fans used to be divided among numerous dedicated skater forums (Kwan, Cohen, Slutskaya, Hughes, Yagudin all had one, I remember, and there were others too), general forums (like GS, FSU) and, of course, the notorious "anything goes" forums. And a lot of those boards had thousands of members...yes, many cross-posted but each had its own group of original users as well.

Now, the only major boards left seem to be GS and FSU. The fans have converged. Gone are the days where the top skaters each had their own dedicated forum and there were places to "vent". Now, people just do it all on social media, for better or worse...

Man, just thinking about it makes me miss the good ol' days well, sort of, anyway.

And also new generations of fans. Like people who were witty-bitty during the 1998 Olympics. Then I was an awkward 2 1/2 year old and my parents didn't know why I was different from the others my age though clearly I was different.

And 4 Olympics later, we have new ways to connect with skaters. Even more and more non-skaters are interested in the sport of skating like myself (I'm a cheerleader though I can find analogous similarities to cheer and skating).

While people bickered over the ladies event from SLC 2002, my dad showed me a picture in the newspaper from the medal ceremony and showed me who Michelle Kwan was (Cause a few days prior I watched an episode of the children's show "Arthur" where she guest-voiced herself) and I was a weird first grader who didn't really have lots of interest though from an early age I've been interested in medicine in some minute way or form.

Then the 2006 Torino Olympics happened. I was in 5th grade which was my last year of elementary school. I was 10 1/2. And around that time, I sprained my ankle in PE class (I must have landed on it funny when I was doing skipping exercises. All I pretty much remembered about the extent was that it hurt a LOT). I think around a little before that, I heard of Sasha Cohen from some girls in my religious school class because Sasha Cohen is Jewish like me.

Then the 2010 Vancouver winter Olympics happened. I was 14 1/2 years old, was a 9th grader (Freshman) in high school, had braces, a back brace due to scoliosis, a pink flip phone that was over 2 years old, was bad at cheerleading, had started taking weekly tumbling lesson for over a month, I knew where I wanted to go to college, and I was still under 100 pounds. Snomaggedon happened in the Washington DC area and it snowed 30 inches. I had no school for a WHILE. I was cooped inside for a while. That was the first time I watched SOME figure skating. Not a lot. Probably not even a full program. But that's where I really started to hear about it more. I learned names such as Meryl Davis and Charlie White, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek, Yuna Kim, Joannie Rochette, Paul Poirer and Vanessa Crone (I happened to tune into ice dancing on TV when it came on and I thought then he looked sort of cute. Oh ME oh my. I was weird), and Plushenko. Heard about them as a result from medal ceremonies, the story on that Rochette's mother died from a heart attack days before she was going to compete, People Magazine preview on the Olympics (And on Weir's fashionable outfits), watching some programs, and some news. And I'm very sorry to offend ANY uber Plushy fans out here, but when I was watching an interview on the results from the men's event when they asked Plushy if he thought he deserved gold or not, after he gave his reason, I thought to myself, "Wow, he's such a drama queen and crybaby." AGAIN, I was 14 1/2 at the time so I'm sorry, but that's how I came across it. And well, now I respect him, but I'm not a fan if you know what I mean.

I didn't really invest into it again until the Sochi Olympics. 2014. I was 18 1/2 years old. A lot of life changing moments happened to me in those 4 years. Enough to make another story. When the Olympics were about to start, I was freshman (first-year) college student. I was (and still am) majoring in biology. I was (And still am) a cheerleader at my college. I was (And still am) active in fandoms. But I haven't found a fandom following in a way that I could talk to other people about and not feel weirdish. By that I mean in the sense of that "I'm a new fan. I don't know too much. I can talk endlessly about it." That changed. I knew I wanted to see the figure skating events on TV. So I started by watching the first night of the team event. And I think the commentary on NBC was so fine and dandy on educating me on some skaters. I saw Plushy again and at first I though, "Oh him again..." Then once Yuzuru Hanyu stepped onto the ice and skated his short program, my life had started to change for the better. Then I became fans of Jason Brown and Kevin Reynolds. Then I watched more of the team event. I watched the men's short and free program livestreamed on NBC. The WHOLE thing (Thanks to we had two snow days perfectly on those two days). I learned more about other skaters. I started to make new friends from being fans of those three. By the end of those Olympics, my life had changed for the better. I learned more about the sport, the rules for programs, created some of my own, though two of them I co-created with a friend whom I met on Instagram, I eagerly awaited competitions, joined here and on FSU, watched competitions on shaddy livestreams with ads that take forever to go away, I found connections, and a belonging.

I've liked skating in some way or form since elementary school but I didn't have the sense of following it until over a year ago.

I know it's not about me on this forum per-say, but it's my journey of me and liking skating throughout the years since Golden Skate has been up and running.

 

[Mathman]

^ Thanks for sharing your journey.

I will switch this thread to the Cafe so others can join in with their personal remembrances.

 

[cheerknithanson]

^ Thanks for sharing your journey.

I will switch this thread to the Cafe so others can join in with their personal remembrances.

No problem. It's amazing how much time and stuff happens in 17 years.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Sweet! When in June of 1995?! I was born on June 18.

There's nothing that can make you feel old like looking up the charts for the week somebody was born, and having the following reaction:

"WHAAAATTTT???!!!! Surely that wasn't THAT long ago!!!" :shocked:

Here is how the charts looked the week you were born:

UK Charts
American Charts
American Charts (Radio)
French Charts


Anyway, getting back on topic, and I knew from the archives that the current forum went back to 2003. But, I didn't realise that Golden Skate existed before the forum came onto vBulletin.

So, now I am wondering: who were the Moderators in those early days?

I know from the member list that 4 of the members who were Mods at the time I joined in 2012 (Doris, Mathman, Toni and the sadly missed Grgranny) were amongst the first to join after the move to vBulletin. But, were they Moderators back then, or just really keen to get back in action as soon as possible?

Thank you for starting this thread, cheerknithanson. It is letting us newer members find out lots of things we never knew about this site that we love!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[cheerknithanson]

There's nothing that can make you feel old like looking up the charts for the week somebody was born, and having the following reaction:

"WHAAAATTTT???!!!! Surely that wasn't THAT long ago!!!" :shocked:

Here is how the charts looked the week you were born:

UK Charts
American Charts
American Charts (Radio)
French Charts


Anyway, getting back on topic, and I knew from the archives that the current forum went back to 2003. But, I didn't realise that Golden Skate existed before the forum came onto vBulletin.

So, now I am wondering: who were the Moderators in those early days?

I know from the member list that 4 of the members who were Mods at the time I joined in 2012 (Doris, Mathman, Toni and the sadly missed Grgranny) were amongst the first to join after the move to vBulletin. But, were they Moderators back then, or just really keen to get back in action as soon as possible?

Thank you for starting this thread, cheerknithanson. It is letting us newer members find out lots of things we never knew about this site that we love!

CaroLiza_fan

What happened to Grgranny?

And no problem!

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

What happened to Grgranny?

And no problem!

I'm afraid she passed away in August 2013.

Here is the thread in which her daughter told us the sad news:

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?41765

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Mathman]

The board did not have any moderators at first. The owner and administrator, gsk8, did it all herself (including paying for it). After it was on EZboard for a while and started to grow in popularity, Joesitz became the first moderator. Joe believed in a free-wheeling discussion and rarely did anything to curb anyone's enthusiasm . A couple of other regulars were added as "greeters" and tech support.

A number of people have served as moderators over the years. Some became inactive and dropped out as other life responsibilities claimed more of their time.

 

[cheerknithanson]

Was there lots of bickering on the old site about the 2002 Olympics?

Or about the 1998, 2006, or 2010 Olympics? Does the site get more active during it?

 

[Mathman]

Was there lots of bickering on the old site about the 2002 Olympics?

Not so terribly much. One very active stalwart liked Sarah Hughes and thought others were picking on her.

In the earliest days the majority of Golden Skaters were Michelle Kwan fans, and some other members who weren't so enthusiastic felt a little unloved.

The hardest thing for the moderators is to balance "constructive criticism" of skaters against "persistent and unrelenting bashing" and to separate legitimate disagreement among fans from personal insults.

Or about the 1998, 2006, or 2010 Olympics? Does the site get more active during it?

The Olympics is always a peak time. We sometimes have more than 1000 people on line at a time. Some people feel adamantly that their favorite skater was robbed and are not shy about saying so. I wouldn't say there was an excess of "bickering," but fans have strong feelings -- which is a good thing. We wouldn't have a board at all it it were not so.

 

[Dee4707]

I joined in late 2002 rooting for Alexei. Back then there would be some lively discussions regarding Kwan fans versus anyone else. Then we had Princess Leppard who would take on anyone who said anything less than nice about Plushenko. I, of course, was always very nice and refined during those discussions. I remember back then Toni was known as HamiltonBrowning Fan. Grgranny was always helpful with our spelling and kind of shamed us when we didn't spell the word correctly. We then had the very lovely Piel, who got married and never came back. We had Ptichka who had a baby and never heard too much after that. Kwanfordwife shows up every now and then. We also had SpunSilver who was a great Sasha fan. One of the members that got in trouble a lot here was Fetal Attraction. He had a different sense of humor that was not always appreciated, humor wise.

I loved the 2002-2006 time and it hasn't been the same since then. I do think that it will though and I look forward to the next great skaters.

 

[R.D.]

I loved the 2002-2006 time and it hasn't been the same since then.

I completely agree.