WB

[DFL]

Was prowling old threads (2008) and came across several references to what is another hammock forum called WB. Can someone tell me more about WB?

[Nightwalker]

Whiteblaze.net. Resides on the same server as this site. Not really a hammock forum, but there is a hammock section.

[moski]

Whiteblaze.net. Resides on the same server as this site. Not really a hammock forum, but there is a hammock section.

And didn't Atroll start this site because hammock discussions got a bit overheated over there at Whiteblaze.net ?

[Nightwalker]

And didn't Atroll start this site because hammock discussions got a bit overheated over there at Whiteblaze.net ?

I wasn't going to mention any negativity. The positive vibes around here are almost non-existent in the world of internet forums!

[moski]

I wasn't going to mention any negativity. The positive vibes around here are almost non-existent in the world of internet forums!

So very true !

[Peter_pan]

It is fair to understand that HF sprung from the early hammock forum of WB and those who are interested in the early history of modern day hammocking and the modern pioneers should go to those archives...

Pan

[Just Jeff]

Definitely some good info in the early Whiteblaze archives.

Attroll owns the server that both HF and WB run on, and angrysparrow does much of the technical work of running it while troll is out hiking.

HF broke off from WB in Oct 06, not b/c of negativity re: hammocks but just b/c of the increasingly negative vibe WB was getting in general at the time and b/c of the volume of hammock posts over there. We wanted a place to discuss hammocks that wasn't centered around a particular geographic area (WB focuses on the Appalachian Trail).

The hammock subforum there has the thread where we first started discussing making this site. It also has several early threads discussing the first underquilt prototypes, one of which became the JRB No Sniveler, named after SGT Rock's "No Sniveling" motto b/c he's the one who suggested the head hole.

[Savage]

I have been interested in the history of HF. This is good to know. I will have to go over to WB and look up the Archives.

John

[Just Jeff]

There are a couple threads in our archives where we discuss HF's origins in a little more detail. When we added the mods and such...I don't have time to search for it right now but if no one has found it when I'm on again I'll look it up.

[Just Jeff]

Here's one of the posts I was talking about.

And here you can see the member list sorted by join date.
http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/m...r=9%2F1%2F2006

There are a few threads here where we talk about the history of HF. Basically, we had the hammock subforum on WB and it got A LOT of traffic. Some ground dwellers got a little irritated at all the hammock threads, and at all the hammockers invading the threads where folks asked about good tents...kinda like here when someone asks about a good bag and everyone responds with suggestions for top quilts. So there was a WB thread where folks suggested making a hammock specific forum...Attroll (owner of WB and now HF) and I started working on HF. We went live in Oct '06 and haven't stopped growing yet. That growth meant we needed another mod, so slowhike started helping out, and then we added angrysparrow and headchange4u.

Once I moved to NC my job kept me from a lot of the moderating duties, and angrysparrow and headchange4u have taken on the burden of all the technical aspects...huge kudos to them.

Since the beginning, we've added a robust video section, tag-based searching, lots of articles, thousands of gallery pics, the HF store, reorganized the forums into a more logical/searchable format, etc...not to mention all the hammock hangs folks have thrown together. It's really a grassroots community where the membership is the true value, and we're grateful to all the vendors who are active on our forum, and happy to have helped many DIYers start their own cottage businesses.

Attroll hosts the domains and servers for both WB and HF, so it's not always clear that "this money" is going for "that upgrade" - some of it is easy to keep separate and some of it's not. Whenever the issue has come up, Attroll has said that we're doing pretty well with the donations and that money isn't an issue yet. So the member contributions (less than a monthly magazine subscription), donations from companies like JRB's Mt Rogers raffles and Grand Trunk's 1% donation, etc...we have a great community and since we're not in this for a big profit, neo's big donation drives are good enough!

I'm sure I've left out some important parts along the way, but that's the basic idea. We're committed to keeping the forum focused on hammocks even though we've added a few non-hammock related forums...there are a lot of hiking forums that also discuss hammocks, but there's only one dedicated hammock forum. We're gonna stay true to our roots and keep it that way!