What was the first post on White Blaze

[Red Hat]

I thought I was one of the early Whiteblazers, of course I didn't join until 2003. Enjoyed reading LW's old thread, thanks KK!

I couldn't find #1, but I did enjoy reading several posts from 9/4/02. Click on Advance Search and scroll all the way down to Archives and click. Then choose a forum. Nice reads with Weasel, Hammock Hanger, Lone Wolf and others from back in the day. Loved reading the list of 2003 potential thrus.

[Red Hat]

This is the earliest one I found, but it is marked as thread #4.... http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/arch...x.php/t-4.html

enjoy these introductions from former thrus

[TOMP]

I think it was Earl Shaffers gear list. Youd be amazed at the ounces.

[bloodmountainman]

It was something about sleeping in shelters with your dog , while carrying a firearm.

[kayak karl]

is HOG the Hog-On-Ice we know?

[kayak karl]

WB was started 9-3-2002 so other threads were started same day maybe.

[Red Hat]

yes, a number of threads were stated on 9/4, but according to the numbers of the archives the one I posted, which is thread 4, is the earliest on archived. (I tried putting 1,2, and 3, where the 4 was in the http)

KK, I'm not sure about HOG... but it amazes me that in 9 years I only have about 1800 posts while some folks have more than 10 times that!

[restless]

Check out this screen shot from Nov2002 of Whiteblaze then! http://web.archive.org/web/200211300...hiteblaze.net/

[Jeff]

Back in 2002 there was alot of Wingfoot bashing too.

I imagine Whiteblaze owes its existence in part due to all the folks who were banned from Trailplace.com by Wingfoot.

[rocketsocks]

Thanks to everyone who posted,there is some very good reading when you dig-in.

[Kerosene]

I vaguely recall that WhiteBlaze was created from a prior site that Early started, but I can't remember the name. Sgt. Rock might, however. The membership of that prior site was still pretty small, with pretty much everyone signing up on WhiteBlaze within a week or two.

[rocketsocks]

Was it atbackpacker?

[Jeff]

I vaguely recall that WhiteBlaze was created from a prior site that Early started, but I can't remember the name. Sgt. Rock might, however. The membership of that prior site was still pretty small, with pretty much everyone signing up on WhiteBlaze within a week or two.

I think it was called the AT Forum. Tons of posts then from The Weasel, Peaks, Hammock Hanger and of course Easy.

[stranger]

Yeah didn't Easyhiker start up Whiteblaze?

I agree Whiteblaze got alot of traction thanks to Wingfoot's somewhat fascist approach to his site, banning people who were 'neutral' on subjects he was vocally against.

The thing that sucked on Trailplace was the constant rebuttals from Wingfoot, everything posted that had any teeth was torn apart if he didn't like it. So in a way, it was less of a forum and more of 'his' forum. I've always felt that Whiteblaze was the better site.

These days, Whiteblaze has declined in my view, you ask questions like "how far away is blah, blah, in this town?" and you get answers like "why you even going to that place, it sucks, go here instead", etc...

So these days I think many Whiteblaze posts are not genuine, but the ones that are still make the site an amazing resource for us.

[Furlough]

Back in 2002 there was alot of Wingfoot bashing too.

I imagine Whiteblaze owes its existence in part due to all the folks who were banned from Trailplace.com by Wingfoot.

And bashing Wingfoot was still a source of enternainment on WB in 2004. I recall because I was a member of trailplace, but found about WB from a thread on trailplace about a thread on WB about Wingfoot bashing.

[moytoy]

Here is a post from Sgt. Rock from 9/3/02. http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...hlight=#post84

[Snowleopard]

From the Wayback machine: the first date stored is a snapshot from Aug. 6, 2002. Here's the home page, but the links don't work and no threads shown:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020806145604/http://whiteblaze.net/home.htm
Here's a quote from the homepage:

4 August 2002

We have a first Stare dedicated site. attroll has set up a site with specific content about the Appalachian Trail in theState of Maine. Thanks attroll!

Now if your thinking about creating a site for the network - GREAT! You do not have to use a specific format, anything you want to do goes. If you want some help setting up something or want to use our format as a base, that is fine too. If you already have a site and are interested, e-mail us and we will get a link going!

Admin

1 August 2002

Welcome to the re-designed WhiteBlaze Network!

I think the format is complete, I've had fun playing with it. Besides some minor changes, this is it!

Now the real task at hand is to get out and start getting people interested in the Network and what we are trying to do. Only time will tell if we have any success.

Right now there are only a few sites in the network so we have room to grow. Hopefully we will hit the point some day where we need multiple pages and separate sections to keep it all organized. The rules aren't "legaleez" yet, but you can read the English version of the Network rules above. I'm also hoping to get some contributions from people with good historical knowledge about the trail that can help me create some content worthy of the project. Nothing will be rejected flat out - everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate.

Thanks for your support and suggestions up untill now. Hopefully we can live up to all expectations.

Admin

[Kerosene]

Advanced Search returned this as the earliest post to WhiteBlaze.net: http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...th-to-Katahdin

[Wise Old Owl]

Amazing that stuff is in there....

[The Weasel]

WhiteBlaze was started by Easy, after he and several others of us were banned (usually temporarily) by Wingfoot from Trailplace. While Easy had some other internet forums, this was a real attempt to replace Trailplace as an open, uncensored forum - a campfire, many of us called it - for people who loved the AT. I encouraged him a lot to make this into a full-fledged forum, but he was very unwilling to do that. Rock responded to strong encouragement to join Easy in managing the forum, and he did a wonderful job for a long time. As soon as that issue was resolved, we started creating a lot of threads to try to develop traffic. Obviously, we couldn't refer to it on TP, where doing so would (again) get you thrown off; for several years even mentioning WB there had that result. As the "canned" threads got interest, more and more people started posting. There's a lot more, but that's the gist of it.

The Weasel