Does anyone know when the ETS forums started?

10 years and only 369 posts.

Looks like you enjoy spending a lot of time "doing" rather than talking. Good for you.

I see some folks on forums that have thousands of long posts and very little time as members. Some folks post in several forums and blogs under the same handle.

Makes me wonder if these people ever actually go outside at all......

Before me at least! I started by lurking in 1999 and it was an established forum at that time; my first post was just after 9/11. Some years back I believe ETS had a computer HD failure and had to reboot and rebuild the user list. That's how I got user #34.

Doing a bit of looking around, the ABOUT page says ETS was established in 1994 but based on Doug's postings on CompuServe. Not bad since the WWW has only been around since 1991 in the lab and 1993 in the general public. By comparison, I've been online since 1986.

OK, what was the subject of the first thread (or first ten). I'm a history buff....

My guess would be something on aviation safety since that was Doug's focus.

Sept 19, 1996

1st Post:

Posted by Dean Miller on October 14, 1996 at 09:07:19:

Hi All,

Now that I have your attention, I have a minor question
about writing messages here.

Is there an automatic reformat for page width while
writing messages, or should I do a carriage-return at
the end of each line (as I am doing in this message)?

-- Dean -- from Duh Moines

1st Reply:

Posted by Doug Ritter on October 16, 1996 at 15:55:44:

In Reply to: Newbie posted by Dean Miller on October 14, 1996 at 09:05:03:

Dean,

Congratulations! You're the first to post a real message in the Survival
Forum (tm). Talk about 15 minutes of fame.

Thanks for your positive feedback.

Doug

1st Survival Related Post:

Posted by Dave Landset on November 30, 1996 at 11:09:55:

Hi Doug, Like the web site.
Where can I, as a total novice, learn to make a snare?
What is best to use as a snare wire?

Also, I'm having some trouble locating a drop point knife locally or in the popular catalogs.
Can anyone help?
Thanks.

Thanks...Wouldn't you just know that the first survival related post would concern knives?