How Did This All Begin?

Ahhh, was just wondering....... How Did CPF Start?

Recently, I've become addicted to CPF. I click on Main, check through new posts, get entertained with friendly but earnest auctions, informed by some heated discussions in the Cafe, send funds to funny causes, double check BST, go to another domestic flashlight forum, come back to CPF, take a look at ebay and another domestic auction, come back to CPF, and start all over again.

Yeah, don't tell me to 'GET A LIFE!', 'cause I'm gonna tell you exactly the same thing /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I recently checked out some very old posts, dating back to February 2001. There were many posts by people who are now just listsed as 'DONOTDELETE' along with many regulars I still see here today. I joined just a little over half an year ago, and have come to appreciate the comradeship among the many people around the globe for this somewhat obscure hobby.

So I ask, How Did CPF Start? And to the 'Oldies', what has changed?
I think other newbies like me would also be interested to hear.

Thanks for reading this /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Great question, nekomane. In the beginning there was darkness.

(I'll let others take it from here, because I don't have time right now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif . I've love to chate about the "good ol' days" though!)

It would be great to get the story written from then till now by 4 or 5 different people who have been around since the dark times. You know sort of gospel sytle /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif. I wonder when it started. I seem to remember running into a flashlight site in 99 or 00 when I did a search on led flashlights. It was VERY small and I didn't stay long. This might have been cpf, I don't know.

This is an excellent subject and it deserves the exposure available in a different forum. The Questions/Problems/Suggestions forum is actually more for administrative purposes. I'll move it to our Cafe.

Looks like it started here. As for how there are other threads about it. I'll search and post them later if no one answers. Gotta go fix dinner for the family. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've been around here for a while now. I'm not sure how it started but I was online and interested in flashlights before CPF was created. Brock's site was involved in drawing many of us here. I've been a member of BladeForums for longer than CPF and I seem to recall DavidW starting up CPF to give us a home to discuss all sorts of flashlights - not just SureFires.

I believe there were times when all members of CPF were online and posting at the same time.

I'm interested in finding out the details that I've obviously forgotten!!

Having done some digging, Dano has been around here for longer than me and is still active.
Brock's first post was about radios not flashlights at all.
My first posts were about the 12PM and how I used it to stop a car in Spain. I told this story again last week I think. Slightly different details. Didn't mention the poor quality road back then - the reason for shining the light at the car. But then I don't recall him beeping his horn. It was four years ago...

CPF was created about a month before I joined. It was easy to read everything posted before I posted myself. It's practically impossible to read everything posted in a weekend now!

Al /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

I joined in mid-August 2000, at the request of Brock.
And the rest is, shall we say, just under 4 years of history. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I don't remember what my very first posting was about. Might have been about flashlights; might have been about something else. Might have even been on the thread that Tree posted in this topic, two posts up.

I'm now looking for my very first posting. This might take awhile, but I should have it soon...
(Edit, a moment later)
I did find the posting, and it was in Tree's URL...it's right here if anybody is interested.

I too used to be able to read every single post in every single topic every single day; I don't believe I can do that any more. And if I'm away from CPF for more than a day or two, there's no way I could catch back up. When I was away from CPF from late September 2002 through early January 2003, I missed a LOT of threads and posts on CPF. I've still never caught up; if there's something from that time period I ought to see that you suspect I have not, please post a URL so I can see it. From early January 2003 to the present though, I think I've got everything reasonably well covered. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

A brief search revealed I was made a moderator of two forums on 04-18-02. I still moderate those forums; nothing's really changed there.

I'm sure there's more I could post about, but this is about it for the time being. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/popcorn.gif

Thank you for moving the thread Empath /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

What I want to know is who was the first registered user? I saw **DONOTDELETE** as member #1 somewhere, is that them?

Member number one has been a slippery thing. For a while, there was a place-holder member #1, and then that number was assigned to somebody (can't remember who, but a popular member) accidentally. Don't know the story now, but I'm guessing it is a placeholder once again.

So... I certainly wasn't here at the beginning. Long, long ago I was searching for a little LED light (basically, I wanted a Photon, but didn't know it at the time) and stumbled upon Brock's site. There was a link to CPF, and the rest is history. Back when I joined, I could read every message every day without problem. Even spent less time on the site than I do now, and could keep up easily. I knew all the regulars by name, and we spend as much time goofing off as we spent talking about lights. Ahh, the good ol' days...

Now, if I miss a few days I'm hoplessly lost, and can never catch up. I usually just give up and start reading current threads again and hope somebody fills me in if something important happens.

I think member slot # 1 had to be used for the system. So technically it's no one.

Here are some of the first posts. In this thread David W explaines why he started CPF. Here's some more talk about the beginnings.

I have not been able to follow CPF as much as I want to lately. Please excuse me for not thanking everyone who has filled us in with a bit of CPF history earlier. I am also amazed that some of you have, what.. over 6,000..7,000...10,000 posts!!

It is interesting to see that the Photon3 was one of the hot lights of the moment back then. Haven't we come a long way..

Many thanks to this great community, I hope to stick around some more /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Looking at this thread made me remember how much I have learned about my wonderful addiction to lights, and maybe inadvertently made a contribution to the SF Aviator look here

What do you think? Me thinks ... SF, Pay up!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif Send me one SF Aviator right now and we'll call it even, no need to give money to the lawyers. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I was wondering the same thing. Have you noticed that some of the oldest members do not have as many posts as some people who have registered more recently (including DavidW)? I found that interesting after checking those links to the first posts, etc.

Thanks, DavidW and the rest of the original team. This is my little secret spot where I go these days to escape from the world. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Don't listen to them...David just wanted something he could use to stop stubbing his toes in the middle of the night... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Used to be off topic threads in rec.knives about LED lights every now an then. I seem to remember following one of them over to CPF when it opened and lurking for quite a while before I register to post.

Well...Way back when, I did a lot of light related posts in Usenet and over at knifeforums/bladeforums.

DavidW invited me over to CPF when it was a fledgling little message board.

I registered on 08-11-00, Member #13.

First post was an answer about a SF 6Z/6P...

--dan

I thought it was Mr BULK who ended up member #1 for a while.

How did the forums come to change hands from DavidW to Sasha? I was here at the time, obviously, but must have been sleep-posting, because it was a very long time before I even noticed. I thought this was DavidW's board until a few months ago.

It's still mine, Joe.

Sasha does a great job keeping CPF up and running.

The admins and mods do a great job keeping CPF civil and on topic.

Hi David,

So who is or was member #1? I know I've said this before, but thanks again for your work and vision in making this place.

As to Sasha, here's a thread from a couple months ago, when Sasha hit her two year anniversary,. She describes how she became enmeshed with all of us:
Sasha's CPF Anniversary

Glad to be a newbie member, #6204!
daloosh