how did Hammock Forums start Grandpa?

[Crawldaddy]

I havent been around on this forum near as long as some of you. I do remember when underquilts were just an experimental thing. How far back can ya'll remember and when did you old timers get into hammocking? Who are the original contemporary pioneers before commerce actually took over?

[Mrprez]

Ed Speer is probably one of the original people to thru-hike with a hammock. There may have been others but he is one of the earlier ones that I am aware of. He hiked the AT in '99, '00 and '01. Didn't make it all the way in '99 or '00 but did a 1.5 hike in '01. I think he started somewhere in NY and made it to Katahdin and then turned right around and hiked SOBO all the way back to Ga.

I bought my first hammock on 2002. It was a Clark Deluxe model. Have had many others since then. Still have a Speer DIY and a Peapod.

[kayak karl]

Well son, Four score and seven seasons ago, our Fore-Fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new hammock, conceived in the woods, and dedicated to the proposition that no two hammocks are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil contest, testing whether hammocks or any other hammock gear conceived and so enormous, can break all records. We are met in a hammock-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that, as a final resting place for those who gave their lives that that hammock might thrive. It is altogether fitting and proper that we do this.
But, in a larger sense son, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate- we can not hallow-this ground. The brave crafters, living and dead, who have struggled here, far above our our poor power to add or detract silnylon quaility. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what we grew here. It is for us the Hammock Forums, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who attempted to make the record winner here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us hammock lovers to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us- that from these honored hammockers we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of growth- that we hammockers here highly resolve that these hammocks shall not have been made in vain- that this Hammock Forum, shall have a new birth of hammocks and that the Hammock Forum of hammockers, by the hammockers and for the hammockers, shall not perish from the earth.

[Mule]

Incredible and excellent! Thanks Kayak Kari.

[stormcrow]

Well son, Four score and seven seasons ago, our Fore-Fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new hammock, conceived in the woods, and dedicated to the proposition that no two hammocks are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil contest, testing whether hammocks or any other hammock gear conceived and so enormous, can break all records. We are met in a hammock-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that, as a final resting place for those who gave their lives that that hammock might thrive. It is altogether fitting and proper that we do this.
But, in a larger sense son, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate- we can not hallow-this ground. The brave crafters, living and dead, who have struggled here, far above our our poor power to add or detract silnylon quaility. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what we grew here. It is for us the Hammock Forums, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who attempted to make the record winner here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us hammock lovers to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us- that from these honored hammockers we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of growth- that we hammockers here highly resolve that these hammocks shall not have been made in vain- that this Hammock Forum, shall have a new birth of hammocks and that the Hammock Forum of hammockers, by the hammockers and for the hammockers, shall not perish from the earth.

The new HF Address! Do I have to memorize this one like I did the "other" one back in school?

That was great KK, you put quite a bit of thought into that one...I can only imagine...LOL. Very nice.

Adam

[Coffee]

Sounds better than I remember. Think I will remember it that way now.

[rigidpsycho]

Well son, Four score and seven seasons ago, our Fore-Fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new hammock, conceived in the woods, and dedicated to the proposition that no two hammocks are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil contest, testing whether hammocks or any other hammock gear conceived and so enormous, can break all records. We are met in a hammock-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that, as a final resting place for those who gave their lives that that hammock might thrive. It is altogether fitting and proper that we do this.
But, in a larger sense son, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate- we can not hallow-this ground. The brave crafters, living and dead, who have struggled here, far above our our poor power to add or detract silnylon quaility. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what we grew here. It is for us the Hammock Forums, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who attempted to make the record winner here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us hammock lovers to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us- that from these honored hammockers we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of growth- that we hammockers here highly resolve that these hammocks shall not have been made in vain- that this Hammock Forum, shall have a new birth of hammocks and that the Hammock Forum of hammockers, by the hammockers and for the hammockers, shall not perish from the earth.

This should be the creed for hamock forums.

[Cannibal]

Kayak Karl- Only thing I can think of is: cool!

I don't know the history of the site, but I do know attroll started the site with the best of intentions. I found a thread way back in Oct of 06' where it was suggested that a photo gallery be added to HF. attroll wanted to wait till the end of the week to buy the software ($70). At the time he even denied donations for the cause.

I've come to really love this site and call a great many of the people here "friend". What Kayak Karl wrote only reinforces this feeling. I doubt I would have reconnected with the outdoors the way I have without this site and the people that make it. I can't believe I only donated $10 last year, I'm somewhat ashamed . The information and the fun this site provides is worth many times that amount. Thank you to the founding fathers and an equal dose of praise to the people who continue to make this forum a great place. Way to go!

[GrizzlyAdams]

Here's the thread (started by JustJeff) at whiteblaze that led to HF.

Notable quotes: Slowhike

i`d like to find a place to put a grouping of photos & descriptions of home made hammock gear, but i`m not exsactly sure where to start.
but i`ll start looking into it. ...tim

headchange4u

I know other forums like White Blaze and Sgt. Rock have great hammock sub-forums but a hammock only site would be nice.

attroll

Hmm, an all hammocking web site jsut like WhiteBlaze. That is a nice concept. If I have the money for purchasing the software and knew it would get used I would host it myself. I will have to give this some thought.

JustJeff

I think a hammocking website designed like this one would eventually see traffic, but it would also steal that traffic from WB and yahoo. It would be watered down for a while...

neo

i plan on it soon,the neo style hammock camping neo
...

ShakeyLeggs

Build it and they will come.

attroll

I got really bored tonight and started playing around with a test web site I have. Here is what I came up with...

JustJeff

Oh crap. Now you've done it, troll. If I get divorced it's your fault.

attroll

I will think on this some more though. I think what us hammockers really need is a web site that has the best of all the web site put into one web site...

neo

i promise i will not post anything about my thing for hillary clinton
if we can start a hammock forum site,i will volunteer to be a moderator
neo

....

Grizz

[Just Jeff]

Once upon a time, there was a lot of hammock talk on Whiteblaze, which attroll also runs. There was some discussion about creating our own hammock site so the non-hammockers on WB didn't have to listen to our drivel (though we did get a lot of converts that way). There was also talk about us being able to discuss hammock without all that other drivel on WB (mainly the political and off-topic stuff). You can probably still find this thread on WB.

So shortly after that (in Oct '06), attroll bought the HF domain and put an experimental site up using the WB software. He and I played around with it a bit, and when we decided it was ready we made the announcement on WB and a few other forums, and he bought the full software for HF. So you'll find that all of the members for that first month or so came from Whiteblaze.

Then we decided we needed another mod, and asked slowhike. That was good for a while, but then our membership grew and I got a busier job, so we added HC4U to help out, and then angrysparrow to do a lot of the technical stuff.

And that brings us to where we are today.

As for who hammocked when, there are a lot of folks who were camping in hammock long before it was cool. In the early 90s, I camped in one of those little green military net hammocks that you buy in the PX...last time I camped in that was probably '98. But there are some threads on trailforums and WB asking this same question and lots of folks started before me.

When I started with real camping hammocks (HH BULA was my first...think it was '02), Speer and HH were already going, and JRB had just gone commercial after designing their quilts based on lots of feedback on WB (the No Sniveler is named after SGT Rock, with his "No Sniveling" signature line). You probably still find that thread on WB as well.

Then we get SPEs, SnugFits, Hammock Huts, winter quilts and tarps, Warbonnets, no net Claytors, Strapman custom-making hammock suspension, MLD making epic hammocks, etc. Great progress for the hammock campers!