Happy Birthday Us!

All you wonderful members, get your party hats on, your streamers out (ooh er!) and join us for our once in a lifetime 10th birthday bash!

Yes, it was precisely 10 years ago that the FIAT Forum went live (albiet, in a much more basic form than this!) and thus began the ride on our journey to creating the most awesome FIAT site in the world

For people who don't like reading lots, just take note of the bit that says "Post up your favourite FF memories / wishes in the comments section" - but for everyone else, here's a bit of a story.....



The Beginning

People always ask me why did I start the site, with the basic answer being quite simple "I bought a FIAT and I liked building websites" - however the full story has a little bit more meat to it.

Back in 2002, I had run my dad's poor Rover 214 into the ground and needed to get something of my own - I'm not sure why or how, but I discovered the FIAT Bravo and decided that was the car for me. A couple of viewings later and I had one, purchased from some nice chap in Maidstone


The main website for checking up about the Bravo at that time was the Bravo Forum (now known as FIATBOO) - which still looks exactly the same 10 years on.

Whilst it had a lot of useful information, it wasn't in a very friendly format and used a very basic forum engine. So, I put it to the guys on there that they would be better off with a more advanced forum engine and that I could do it for them.

Being a lot younger than I am now, I'm pretty sure I didn't come across in the best way - and remember upsetting a few of the regulars - however, a few were helpful and pointed out that instead of trying to emulate their site, why not create a forum for all FIATs.....

UPDATE: Here's a link to that thread - http://www.network54.com/Forum/15639...New+Fiat+Forum

And so the FIAT Forum began, with this first post!



Kick Off!

Originally there were just 2 mods, me and @paul (who ran the Bravo forum) - but we soon recruited a number more, in particular a chap called @HP (who back then was known as fixitagaintomorrow) who then joined me in "super status".

I should dedicate a little paragraph to him here actually, as he put in so much work in getting the site off the ground and building it up - thanks Pete!

So we were off - running the Snitz forum system on one of the slowest servers of all time. Actually I'm surprised the site really got any members, it was sooooo slowwwwww.

This got rectified in January 2003 when we switched hosting provider (Kiwihost) and finally the site was useable - hurrah!



Meet The Members

The traffic started to grow, slowly but surely and by early 2003 we decided we wanted to hold our first meet. At this point, the forum userbase was still small enough that most people knew everyone else (at least virtually) - so a meet was a good idea.

Just needed a location .... I seem to remember it was @alfanige who provided us with one and @Babysei who pushed through all the details - so our first meet, 1st of March 2003 at an out of town bowling alley in Coventry - here we all are


We had planned to go to TGI Friday's for dinner - but in true "new at this" fashion, no one had thought to book - and being a Saturday night, it was full up.

So instead we switched to a trusty backup .... Drive Thru McDonalds!! Haha.



Avalanche!

The meet must have gone well, as that was what kicked off the traffic on the forum - in a few months we went from about 20 posts a day to over a hundred! This trend continued well into 2010 until things finally began to flatten off

(Fun Fact: Throughout 2002 - the average amount of posts per day was 5!!!)

Infact the traffic got so busy, that the Snitz system wasn't coping so well (by this time it was no longer using an Access database, but still) - so we moved over to vBulletin in July/August 2004 - and then it looked like this.

This switch brought over many MANY new features and finally we were rocking!

We also had a couple of name changes throughout 2004 as well, though fortunately, nothing ever stuck and we went back to the original (FIAT Central was nearly the new name, after we had voted out the disastrous FIAT eXchange - still have all those old domains though!)

Talking of rocking though, this brings me nicely on to something that occurred in September of 2004...



Skeggy!

Once again, an idea by @Babysei - instead of just turning up for a car looking / dinner affair - let's try a whole weekend away at the Butlin's in Skegness!


I think in total we had 30 or so people show up! You can see the full galleries here, which includes Gaz's Chalet party with the closet of shag....




Dedication

By the end of 2004 - the site was now so popular that it had become too big to run on shared hosting and after seeing a new years offer for dedicated machines - the switch was made. So from January 2005 the FIAT Forum was now running on a dual Xeon 2.8Ghz server with 2GB of RAM and 2 x 120gb IDE (yes... I know) drives in Software RAID (yes, again, I know!).



Show Time

Up to this point, the FIAT Forum had never attended any shows, mainly due to pressure from other FIAT clubs who were worried we would steal their cars. However, by 2005 - we had pressure from our own members who wanted to show with FF....

UPDATE: Here's the thread that discussed that - http://www.fiatforum.com/site-ideas/...ut-window.html

Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly as we hoped with this - people did still feel toes were being trodden on, however we pushed forward anyway to display at our first event.

Standford Hall 2005


Complete with yours truly and my precision parking instrument ....

(If you want to make a good arch, you need a big stick!)

Now the FIAT Forum was properly on the map and the events really began! You can see more of them listed in the FF Events Gallery

This was also the last time I could get personally involved in any meets for a while, as I decided in August 2005 that I no longer wanted to live on English soil and set sail for Japan - I had only planned to be gone a year, but, well - you can see my location now in the top left of this post



Fresh!

The site itself was upgraded regularly with each release of vBulletin, although the look never changed - that was until about March 2006 (at a guess) when I had some time off work and redid it to the design you are all used to.

Also in 2006 was when things started to slow down again as the site was just too big for one machine to handle, so the old server was replaced with 2 new ones (one for web and one for database - finally using SCSI) with these going into operation in January 2007.

That configuration held out for about a year, before needing to be upgraded again - although this time was a lot simpler, just some new processors for the web server



Konnichiwa!

Although I couldn't make Stanford Hall in 2007, I was able to promote the FF at another event! I had been invited to the Japanese FIAT Panda event "Pandapoli" which was held in the Italian Village in Nagoya.

As you can see, they made me feel very welcome




All Our Stuffs Are Belong To Us!

The forum kept on growing - and as we attended more and more shows, we started accumulating quite a mass of stuff. This made transporting it around a bit of a hassle, so in May 2009 we purchased our first FIAT Forum Vehicle - the wonderbus!


Which had its first outing at Stanford Hall in June that year - as you can see, we were a very professional bunch ... haha


No seriously, this event was the start of a new era for forum events - we had got a bit of a routine going and our stands now started to look like this:


I then moved to the US - and whilst there, found a fantastic deal on a new marquee (which was back in the UK) - so with a couple of long distance phone calls and quite a few favours (thanks @missey !), we got hold of the FF Tent - BIGGGG tent, which was first used at Stanford Hall 2010:


Ok, NOW we had a stand! Just a shame it required 8 people and a couple of hours to put it all up Luckily it's modular, so we can build the small version if not so many people are about!

Oh - also this was when the FF BBQ made its debut as well (now we had something to transport it in!)



Stateside

2009 also gave me the opportunity to spread the FF word to the US and also see how things are done stateside after being invited to the rather fabulous FIAT Freakout, run by the FIAT Lancia Unlimited club of America!


We think we can organise events, you need to go to a Freakout - you will just be blown away. Check out their group photo!!! (10 points if you can find me ... ) ... I'm sure we'll get there one day!




More Servers

The site once again started having speed issues from about Feb 2010, mainly down to disk issues on the webserver. Unbelievably it took the data center 4 months (yes, 4 MONTHS!) to arrange an upgrade path - during which time the site ran like total balls.

However, August 2010 and we were all sorted onto our new (and current) machine (Dual Hexcore with 24GB of RAM) running HyperV to virtualize all the individual services.

Whereas before I'd just been buying to cover what we needed, this one was a massive upgrade and easily able to power everything for a good few years - so hopefully we won't need to update again soon!



2011 - The Year We Cracked It!

Unfortunately, the FF Bus wasn't handling rust very well and was costing more and more to put right, so it was decided to get rid of it. Also unfortunately, we weren't able to get a replacement in time for Stanford 2011 - so erm, we used a Ford Transit instead

This was rectified a few weeks after the show (doh!) when we got hold of our new Ducato, aka Bluemu... much better!


I then spent a week or so designing the interior, so everything could be stored to allow for quick and easy site constructions It was around this time that we also sat down and thought how we could make our shows better....

We'd had feedback from Stanford that, although we had a lot of cars, we'd lost a lot of the social aspect .... we obviously wanted this fixed, so put our heads together and came up with the perfect show plan which we implemented with great success at Mitcar 2011 - Name Badges, Coffee Mornings, Lunchtime BBQs, Group Photos and Raffle - yay!


What a team



2012 and a new look

So here we are, present day and what's in store. Well I'm sure you've all noticed the new design, our first new look in 6 years! The fantastic header was done by our very own @ThisBitterPill - hats off to you sir!

We will of course be attending as many shows as possible this year - now we have our streamlined stand setup there won't be any faffing about either - so everyone can come and have a good time - keep your eyes posted in the events section for things popping up in your area.

We'll also be recruiting soon for new mods - more details of this to come, but if you think you'll make a good addition to our team and are willing to work hard - make sure to apply!



Fun Facts

Here's where I put the random stuff I wanted to say but without having a section for it

Firstly, a few people have asked what the FF HQ looks like - well that's easy, it looks like a front room - quite a bit like this one infact ....!


And this is what I see out my window each day


For those of you who don't recognise it, that's the Taipei 101 building - until recently the tallest building in the world. As to why I live here - the same reason guys do many things ... for a girl

Evolution of the logo - this is a short story, but the first logo was designed by @wimmy and looked like this:



This lasted about a year, before we switched to the next style (this time I did it)



The logo change to the current one occurred at some point in 2006 (though I actually thought it was 2005) - it was designed to look like the infamous FIAT blue key



Post Stats - As said above, 2002 was a terrible year as far as post counts go - the average really was 5 a day, with a lot of days having just 1 or 2! 2003 was when it picked up - though was still nothing special with about 200 a day by the end.

By the end of 2004 we were on about 800 a day and then things kept on climbing - actually, by 2008 we were up to 2000 a day! Though the majority of that was Leisure Lounge traffic!



And so...

Well firstly - a massive THANK YOU! to all you members who make the site what it is. Without your input and posting, basically there would be nothing here. You should feel proud of the information base you've helped to build up - we really are the number 1 resource on the web for FIAT information

When I started the site those 10 years ago, I never dreamed it could get as big as it has, it really is amazing!!

And then secondly - please put your hands together for the moderating team! As you can imagine, looking through all the posts on the forum takes quite a bit of time, as does moving them, editing them and generally making sure sections run well - again, we couldn't do the site without you!

So all that's left to say is - let's make this year bigger and better than the last so hopefully by our 20th year birthday I'll have even more interesting things to mention.

Actually, I'd love to hear your favourite memories about the FIAT Forum - events, epic threads etc etc - please post them to this thread so we can have a bit of nostalgia

So - for the last time, everyone raise your glasses and wish the FIAT Forum and very happy birthday!

Chin Chin!

Awesome post Ben,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FIAT FORUM!

Thanks for putting the work in over the years, and (only) your own money to begin with

Also, that purple classic 500 looks teeny compared to the new one!

Happy Birthday FF

Cheers Ben for all the hard work. This sort of dedication is why we are best, long may it continue.

Nice one Ben! I've often wondered about the history of the forum, and that was an interesting read.
I am a member of quite a few car forums, but this is the only one I visit on a regular basis, despite not being a Fiat owner for the last few years (I will be again one day though). No other forum seems to have the depth of technical information, speedy replies to posts, members who bend over backwards to help each other (possibly literally in some cases!), and the excellent banter.
Long live Fiat Forum!!!

Quite an achievement well done! The forum is as old as my car LOL

Cheers for all the hard work Ben and the moderating team (past and present). Long may it continue, I look forward to hanging around here for at least the next 10 years

Congratulations Ben on a great achievement that in its own way has added a lot of enjoyment and knowledge to a lot of people's lives.
For an old git like me the Fiat Forum is by the far the easiest to use and the best "run" if that's the right term of any that I have come across.
Here's to the next 10 years and beyond!

Happy Birthday to the forum, well done Ben and all you Mods, its a great forum ..

Happy Birthday FF

Thanks guys - keep the comments coming.

I'd also love to hear about your favourite forum memories - links of epic threads most welcome

We could never have believed the forum would become so big back then, how things change! Thanks for the kind comments, Ben.

Best memories must be the early Butlins weekenders, made some good friends and got up to all sorts of really, really silly things!

Happy birthday FF! Awesome work Ben & team, joined a couple of other forums recently and my god are they clunky to use in comparison, and nowhere else has the community feel this site manages. Looking forward to another 10.

Excellent post and where would we be without Fiat Forum
Cheers Ben and Happy Birthday one and all