Happy Founder's Day!

I've been here a long time, and I look back at what it used to be and look at it now, and I say "WOW!" Jon has taken all that Mark has done and helped to make us even better! Keep it up Jon, and cu, and Mario, and Guint! Happy Founder's Day!

Ah, yes, time for my annual speech regarding this, as always. Before I do that though, in Founder's Day tradition, there will be a chat open tonight for everyone who is a member of the site, beginning at 8PM Eastern, in the 7:30 PM room. If you aren't sure how to get there, click chat, 7:30, and you're in. Click on your username to change it if applicable, and cu, Guint, Scott, Mario, myself, etc. will add you in as a member, so you can chat. Hope to see a lot of you there!

Without any further ado...

It's said that the 5th anniversary gift is that of wood; steady, strong, and in constant growth. While all of the above do apply to wood, rather obviously, they apply to the site, as to where it's come from, and its humble beginnings. The site started off as any piece of wood would, as an acorn; the trees of foundation were something of a mix of Golden-Road and a long forgotten site to most, Nate/Junky's site also about The Price is Right, featuring a live show. Thus, the seed was planted, and growth would occur, in its due time. In the first year, your current head admin joined the site as its 27th member, in July of that year, quickly volunteering and gaining access to moderating the Host Your Own section of the site; currently known as Game On!, primarily because it would be a simple section to moderate.

It was easy to notice site growth lacked; a few members were active, we had an absolute mess for design, and honestly thought the site was going to be, at best, a site for rejects of other game show sites. There were many games, in varying odd chats, and no sense of direction. After all, upon asking then-lead admin Mark about ways to grow the site, and market it better, this was always the received response: "I don't know, Jon[.]" Furthermore, the concept for an alumnus/alumni ranking in the system was heavily desired, as a reward for those that had been on the show (and to all who wear that star, especially Sanam, Jon D., and Kate, you make it look great!), the stupidly elementary answer was that there was no alumnus ranking. Of course, the rankings at the time were New User, Regular User, Super User, and God, completely unedited from the Proboards default. Let alone making a new rank, this level of incompetence couldn't even modify the existing irrelevant ranks as it was. Alas, that was the true cold and chill for the seed of our site; not everything growing in those chills make it. Perhaps the highlight of the year was when Mark stole one too many recaps from the then dominant Sony boards. Andy, rightfully so, yelled at Mark for what he was doing, and told him to stop. However, not too long after, Andy took over Mark's role as recapper, and did a tremendous job of doing so for about 4 years.

All this lead to wondering in early 2010; why not add a quick game that adds some originality to this site? That is, as opposed to what the site always did until that time (and would do so for the better part of the next 18 months), basically copy rules, concepts, whatever there was under the sun, and pass it off as the site's own. Wheel's official page had something of an irregular daily puzzle, but really, it was kind of random, no point, no pun intended. This needed to have points, some level of competition, and eventually become a site tradition with champion. This is what became the Daily Puzzle Game, in a truly broken format. Numerous times, puzzles were themed, making them too easy, related to the day's news (which started at puzzle 1; HAITI, based off the the tragedy that happened there just before the start of the inaugural season), just way too long, or, long lapses in between puzzles. This fails to mention what a broken system we had: 2 points for each correct response, nothing if you didn't. Granted, my personal puzzles for that season (XYSTI, XOLOITZCUINTLI) twisted that a bit, using the now partial credit rule and a simpler version of the doubler rule. That season lasted about half the year, intentionally, to tie in with the length of an MLB season (bet you didn't know that!). Beyond that, though, this really didn't help- and no branches were starting to grow, despite a few people who played DPGs daily, leaving us with just a weak stump. Members were coming, sure-- but 90% of them never posted to the forums. Of them all, we did have at least one amazing member, MarioGS! Site wouldn't be half of what it is now, without his insight and jaw-dropping graphics (he does header work, so like his posts when you can).

Founder's Day, 2011, was interesting, and, really, the site's turning point, where the sun reached out, and let us grow, and gain our green, sadly not literally. To start, a new member came in out of the blue, SuperKingT, in an old site chatroom. He honestly doesn't get enough love for how funny he is, in addition to the fact that he really revolutionized the direction in a bunch of unsaid ways. Well, they're getting said now, right? He came in with a totally new set of graphics, that really did help the site look more 21st century, and not one that feared that Y2K would crash the whole internet. Because of that, Mark named me an admin on that night, so SKT's graphics could be input by yours truly, which he wasn't sure how to do that; a skill which Mark lacked. This is fairly simple, if you're curious, just go to the image directory, replace the image file with the URL of the image you want there instead, at least, for V4. SKT got named a tech mod which made sense, and has impacted the site more than he knows, today. For instance, to code the various headers we've had, Guint used SKT's code to modify accordingly, which was simple enough. The funny part about this, is when discussing site growth with Mark around this time, Mark mentioned rather hilariously, the following: "and hey, we got a new WOF Live player in superkingt," thus failing to mention all the graphics, and site upkeep SKT had provided him, literally a week ago.

We also gained my current and similar asshole in crime, (thereal)cu2010, who honestly was always admired and targeted as a member, for don't know how long (pun intended). cu has helped reform DPG, bring me down from bad times, think up many aspects you see today and countless other devices. There was also mysterywedge, the long forgotten awesome admin, who may be back around May- and we all miss how witty he could be, on basically everything, knowledge of retro recapping (heck, it even got Scott a job, too), and a strategy ALL Wheel players should consider. Also joining us was tenpoundhammer, who introduced the WOF History Wiki to us, which we now sponsor in the header, along with long time site contributor, WarioSajak. We had a whole lot of amazing, amazing people, and that's not even to mention all the awesome folks like Wayo, OMK, McBride, etc. who came over when Sony's Lulzsec attack happened, that summer.

However, not all was good. We tried a summer chat, in an attempt to get to know users better, but many times, rather foolish members, often linked through a certain Youtube channel, caused much chaos. For instance, there were numerous friends of a certain user who were under 13 (including a 9 year old at one point!) in the room at numerous times when it was not possible for me to respond, being in Seattle, 3 time zones away, leaving for Alaska on a cruise, leaving me hopeless. Thankfully, cu had been promoted to temporary admin at that point, for the sole reason of said vacation; a role which lost the title of temporary, given his outstanding work not only there, but in the since deleted section mess that was Hosting Other Shows, or HOS, for short. The section was designed to get more people on the site, even if it was through gaming; a mistake that is never to be repeated on this site by ANY admin, for the future of this site, even in 50 years (this better still hold true in 2063). We had cheaters, crazy formats, people not following up on their shows, and people who didn't listen. That got closed fast, and was an absolute epic fail. Thankfully, after that point, the site's sanity was soon restored, and we were on our way to the awesomeness that was 2012 for the site, in every way, basically. Not before cu pulled a fast one on me though, and made a fake account to claim he was one of those friends, which got me in a legitimate rage, but had me in stitches after the guise had ended. For reference, here's a new retro look at the site, July 22nd, 2011, on SKT's 2nd skin, for those curious, or just want a reminder of the cuckoo world the site was then: wayback.archive.org/web/20110722212730/http://wheeloffortunelovers.proboards.com/

2012, we had Scott join, Kori had to leave because of uncertainty, the recap team, and basically, a smooth sailing ship. Sure, a ban, from time to time, but that's business, it's expected. The site had a lot of hidden changes then that are all fairly obvious now, though, in that time, like the URL change, as forever ago as that seems, as well as the impending V5 board. These would not be possible without MarioGS, cu2010, and Guint, for a variety of reasons, and if your name is not listed here, please say so; you likely deserve the praise. We also had a huge amount of contestants, past, present, and future come in, most notably Steve Monk who gave us not only great information and stories, but what it was like to return, and be on 2 different sets. Additionally, Sanam, Kate, and Jon D. our most active of those who have appeared- we get lots of background info on players, rules, what WOF says (like the THING definition, that was AWESOME!), etc. It makes an already personal game show, feel more personal, as we root all of you with alumni stars on, since you're a bit of family here to all of us here. The site basically got sourced quite a few places throughout the world wide web, and is known fairly well to all in the game show community! Amazing, isn't it? The only other thing to add about last year is that we had early BAVGO plans near mid/late December, to make us further grow, since there's never too many good quality users to have. Things were exactly as expected, and should have been for the site.

Thanks in large part to you awesome users, too, we are possibly the Marc Green and John Sly of the 2010s. Absolutely remarkable, considering the following that has never shared before now: If the site had nothing going on by the end of 2011, this would have been kaput, done for, Old Yellered, killed, and deleted, nothing but a mere memory. Now we are easily in the Top 3 of game show sites anywhere, in terms of knowledge, not to mention, humor, and the kinship we all share. To each of you, that have made this happen, wood; a part, a section, a bit of that ever-growing tree. Just as one final reminder: Continue to mend, and care for the tree; water it, give the tree warmth. Don't let the axe come in, tear down our strong, steady structure, with mediocrity. Let's instead, be bigger than a mighty oak in our numbers, our knowledge, contributions; let's be a mighty redwood; the biggest, most marvelous, amazing there is, from 2013 and beyond. It all starts with you, and through proof, without a doubt, in my pride beaming heart, we can, where others have let weeds and parasites enter their growing spaces, we will not; furthermore, we will blossom like the beautiful flowers soon to rise, as they do annually, in the springtime. Thank you.

Let me also add, Jon (and Mark, too), I am forever grateful to you both for allowing me to be a part of this awesome staff and thanks to Jon and cu for letting me stay, and putting up with my crap. (If I were you, I would've fired my dumb ass years ago!) It means a lot to me. I haven't done much in 4 years, but I have always tried to do my best. I've always had a deep love and appreciation for this site, in every high and every low. It's a joy to be a part of the growth and future of this awesome place!