What was the first Post here / Oldest Poster?
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Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil. -
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Hearth.com is actually much older than 2008 . . . it has gone through a few changes over the years.
I think Craig was probably the first guy, considering he owns the place. His first post probably said:
Test
Lol.
Test
Lol.
BrotherBart, Elkimeg, MoHeat, Corie, rudismallfry, myself and a few others migrated from the Hearth.com BBS to the forum back in November 2005.
Easy Livin’ 3000
Minister of Fire
Any idea how far back the bulletin board system version went back?
Oh . . . Pook . . . that guy's post reminds me of another poster here. Half the time I couldn't figure out what he was trying to say . . . the other half of the time I just kept hoping that folks wouldn't think everyone from Maine was like him.
Pook and the sedore stove! Lol.
I also remember Dylan. I think he only burnt cardboard in an old VC stove that was falling apart.
Anybody remember burning issues?
I also remember Dylan. I think he only burnt cardboard in an old VC stove that was falling apart.
Anybody remember burning issues?
been here a while but don't know what happened to mo heat. went to school on his posts for the winter warm
If I remember correctly, Dylan got a job as a designer/engineer at a stove manufacturer. Also, Mike someone from Long Island, NY - he's the reason I bought my Jotul Kennebec - had all the tips and tricks. And Eric something from near Utica, NY had 20 years of wood already stacked. Ah, the good, old days.
Are you thinking of Corie? He went on to work for Englander and designed the 17-VL.
Eric Johnson was a super person and a moderator here and is greatly missed. Sadly he died from a long bout with cancer last year. We also lost moderator Rick Booth aka fossil this year.
(broken link removed to https://www.leiknessfuneralhome.com/notices/Eric-Johnson)
Eric Johnson was a super person and a moderator here and is greatly missed. Sadly he died from a long bout with cancer last year. We also lost moderator Rick Booth aka fossil this year.
(broken link removed to https://www.leiknessfuneralhome.com/notices/Eric-Johnson)
Dylan & Pook were both from Maine, kinda hard not to think everyone from Maine has been drinking some tainted water, but we know better with you. ;-)
Lol, I haven’t heard anyone mention a bulletin board system in many years. I and a friend used to run a C=64 BBS way back in the mid 80’s. Computers were like magic back then, so much fun!
Right, we started out at 300 then 1200 then a whopping 2400 and that’s where we stayed until the end of the site. I remember we got a "deal" on a 1 GB HDD for $1000 so we could retire the stack of 1541 floppy disk drives.
I have to say that I’ve been on many forums looking for information on what I’m working on at the time but this is the only site that I’ve gone steady with. It’s a good place to hang out especially in the long cold winters while the fire crackles in the stove.
Edit: BTW- 2400 baud was the highest baud rate that the Commodore 64 could handle.
Last edited:
jetsam
Minister of Fire
I still have a 10MB external hard drive with a bbs and a ton of apple ][ software on it in a box somewhere.
1GB would hold 6,355 1541 disks!
jetsam
Minister of Fire
I had a 300 baud hayes smartmodem that was not only almost 3 times faster than my old 110 baud acoustic coupler, but also you did not have to jam a telephone handset into it to make it work! That was Fancy.
I think I can still whistle a 300 baud handshake well enough to get the other side to put out a carrier.
I think we converted the drives to double density back then and used DD disks. That was a big improvement but yes 1GB was huge. I had a cassette drive to start out with before we set up the bbs and before the disk drives became affordable to buy, I could start to load a simple 8 bit game then go take a long shower and come back and it was just about done loading.
I would have to ask Craig. I know we discussed but he bought the domain name hearth.com in 1995. Not sure the BBS date.
It went like this......
Domain purchased at end of 1995 I think - before that I had my "Stoveworks" (retail store) web site and I sold a bunch of stoves from a listing there. I also posted some info on it.
There are some wiki articles and a podcast about the start of hearth.com (here or links to such).
The Internet Archive can give anyone a perfect view into what was what and when!
Without digging too deep, it went like this.
The original internet didn't have any interactive features because no standards (php, javascript or java, etc.) were in use. I remember reading each monthly mag (Internet rags, Byte, etc) about the up and coming languages and what they could do (stock ticker, etc.). I also went to Internet and Mac trade shows in Boston and NYC.
The original hearth.com was mostly based upon articles I wrote and "Ask the Webmaster". Ask the Webmaster was questions I took by email and then saved. I put a number (10?) on each page and eventually had numerous pages of them. At some point I transferred them to a Filemaker Pro database and a plug-in which let them be online - the mac running filemaker was on my desk at home connected with a 28K modem, but the slow speed was not noticeable since the actually pages (data aside) still came from the server farm (Pentium 90 or so - at first, a shared server but soon after I got my own co-located one which was in Doylestown PA).
So that was the first "database and search" and we were up to about 2,000 questions and answers. I continued to add articles here and there also.
The first "forum" on the site was a program called
Ceilidh
https://perlwatch.net/projects/forums/ceilidh/page-source/drive_frame.html
My guess is that it could have been 1998 or so. It was fairly crude, somewhat closer to Facebook (funny that FB is so crude, yet people think it is not!)....
I then went over to a php based REAL forum software called pmachine which then changed into Expression Engine.
BB and BG and others remember that we transitioned to Xenforo about 2011 or so.....BB said it was the finest transition he was ever a part of....
I remember every single character involved...to this day. I have been cursed with a good memory. Examples.....
1. Dylan, I think, was the guy who felt it OK to say "peni$" over and over again on the original forum. At one point I had the police knock on his door and that stopped quick.
2. We all loved Elk, but I am mad at him because he told me a way to save money on my addition (use pressure treated for foundation - sitting on piers) and it's rotting away now and letting termites in. He also gave some bad advice to others...but, all in all, he also helped many people.
3. Corie is my friend on facebook as are some of the others from the forum. We loved his enthusiasm for stoves, so I paid to fly him out to the Reno show (he had never been in a plane before!) - where he met Harman and eventually got a job.
Lots of other tales and memories....but one thing I can definitely say. Our Mods and Regular Users are/were the best ever. When you look at all the acting out around the internet these days it becomes even more amazing. Sure, we saw the same thing here but it was a tiny percentage.
The real "lesson" is one that my friends who started the first popular BB's (The Well) learned long ago. That is "you own your own words". This, in addition to staying on subject and moderation/curation is what makes for a good informational web site.
Probably preaching to the choir here, but in many ways I am disappointed in what much of the internet has become. Everything is bought and sold and used and abused as opposed to the "sharing spirit" that was more available in the early days. I don't think I have found a "great new site" for many many years. I still love forums...when I am looking to solve car or house problems, etc, those are the only places to get the info.
Happy Holidays to all.
Domain purchased at end of 1995 I think - before that I had my "Stoveworks" (retail store) web site and I sold a bunch of stoves from a listing there. I also posted some info on it.
There are some wiki articles and a podcast about the start of hearth.com (here or links to such).
The Internet Archive can give anyone a perfect view into what was what and when!
Without digging too deep, it went like this.
The original internet didn't have any interactive features because no standards (php, javascript or java, etc.) were in use. I remember reading each monthly mag (Internet rags, Byte, etc) about the up and coming languages and what they could do (stock ticker, etc.). I also went to Internet and Mac trade shows in Boston and NYC.
The original hearth.com was mostly based upon articles I wrote and "Ask the Webmaster". Ask the Webmaster was questions I took by email and then saved. I put a number (10?) on each page and eventually had numerous pages of them. At some point I transferred them to a Filemaker Pro database and a plug-in which let them be online - the mac running filemaker was on my desk at home connected with a 28K modem, but the slow speed was not noticeable since the actually pages (data aside) still came from the server farm (Pentium 90 or so - at first, a shared server but soon after I got my own co-located one which was in Doylestown PA).
So that was the first "database and search" and we were up to about 2,000 questions and answers. I continued to add articles here and there also.
The first "forum" on the site was a program called
Ceilidh
https://perlwatch.net/projects/forums/ceilidh/page-source/drive_frame.html
My guess is that it could have been 1998 or so. It was fairly crude, somewhat closer to Facebook (funny that FB is so crude, yet people think it is not!)....
I then went over to a php based REAL forum software called pmachine which then changed into Expression Engine.
BB and BG and others remember that we transitioned to Xenforo about 2011 or so.....BB said it was the finest transition he was ever a part of....
I remember every single character involved...to this day. I have been cursed with a good memory. Examples.....
1. Dylan, I think, was the guy who felt it OK to say "peni$" over and over again on the original forum. At one point I had the police knock on his door and that stopped quick.
2. We all loved Elk, but I am mad at him because he told me a way to save money on my addition (use pressure treated for foundation - sitting on piers) and it's rotting away now and letting termites in. He also gave some bad advice to others...but, all in all, he also helped many people.
3. Corie is my friend on facebook as are some of the others from the forum. We loved his enthusiasm for stoves, so I paid to fly him out to the Reno show (he had never been in a plane before!) - where he met Harman and eventually got a job.
Lots of other tales and memories....but one thing I can definitely say. Our Mods and Regular Users are/were the best ever. When you look at all the acting out around the internet these days it becomes even more amazing. Sure, we saw the same thing here but it was a tiny percentage.
The real "lesson" is one that my friends who started the first popular BB's (The Well) learned long ago. That is "you own your own words". This, in addition to staying on subject and moderation/curation is what makes for a good informational web site.
Probably preaching to the choir here, but in many ways I am disappointed in what much of the internet has become. Everything is bought and sold and used and abused as opposed to the "sharing spirit" that was more available in the early days. I don't think I have found a "great new site" for many many years. I still love forums...when I am looking to solve car or house problems, etc, those are the only places to get the info.
Happy Holidays to all.
I think this was a 1200 baud modem (to right of computer) - probably 1986. That little girl is an engineer and an environmental attorney and is over 40. The D on the Mac stands for Drexel, because you could not buy a Mac...they gave them to colleges first. I bought it for $2500 from a teacher there who didn't need it.
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