When did Wellesnet start?

[tony]

Is it my imagination, or was there an even earlier Wellesnet site that had a picture of a young Orson smoking a pipe at the masthead, and it began in 1998?
Or am I hallucinating?

[Le Chiffre]

You're probably thinking of D FOR DIALOGUE, a web board that ran for abut a year until Jeff Wilson founded Wellesnet around May of 2001. Before D For Dialogue there was the Welles Tierranet board which started in 1997 and ended in spammed out ignominy in early 2001:
https://web.archive.org/web/20010418224 ... board.html

[tonyw]

I seem to recall Orson with pipe being used in the early days of Jeff Wilson. What is this about "ignomy"? It recsalls Kenneth Williams's famous line in CARRY ON CLEO - "Infamy infamy! They've all got it in for me."

[tony]

I seem to remember a Jeff Wilson Wellesnet board that predated the "new and pimped up" version he announced in 2001, and that I was a member of from 98 or 99- that is, unless as I mentioned, I've hallucinated it.

[Le Chiffre]

As far as I know, the Tierranet board was the only Welles board in 1998 and 1999. Jeff Wilson made the first Wellesnet blog post in March of 2001. On May 30, 2001, he became the first message board member. Which means, of course, that Wellesnet is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year!:
https://wellesnet.com/25th-anniversary/

***

I seem to recall Orson with pipe being used in the early days of Jeff Wilson.

That could be. There have been a lot of different pictures of Welles used for the main page over the years. You might be able to find it at Archive.org.

[tony]

Thanks for the clarification, Le Chiffre!
By the way,are you Terry? My memory is really going now!

[Le Chiffre]

No. I used to post here as "mteal", but about ten years ago I switched it to Le Chiffre as an April Fool's joke. Nobody noticed, so I just kept it that way.

BTW, little bits of D FOR DIALOGUE survive at Archive.org:
https://web.archive.org/web/20010519131 ... 7302941470
IIRC, Orson with the pipe was at the center of the board, although not in this image.

[tony]

Thanks, Man of Mystery!

[RayKelly]

This is how the website appeared in 2001 when it was built using an Adobe program.



In 2005, Jeff Wilson revamped the site using WordPress. The Kubrick theme he chose used a rotating header, so there were five alternating images.

[crimesofpassion]

This is a little bit off topic, but I was raised on the internet and it's always surreal to see websites older than I am. Genuinely really nice to see it still stands, unlike many other sites and forums I loved that have unfortunately fallen in a much shorter time , and that it's still a community I could join. Congrats on all of it!

[RayKelly]

This is a little bit off topic, but I was raised on the internet and it's always surreal to see websites older than I am. Genuinely really nice to see it still stands, unlike many other sites and forums I loved that have unfortunately fallen in a much shorter time , and that it's still a community I could join. Congrats on all of it!

Very kind of you to say that. Thank you.

[Jeff Wilson]

This is a little bit off topic, but I was raised on the internet and it's always surreal to see websites older than I am. Genuinely really nice to see it still stands, unlike many other sites and forums I loved that have unfortunately fallen in a much shorter time , and that it's still a community I could join. Congrats on all of it!

It's surreal to see people comment about how sites are older than they are, too! Wellesnet must surely be up there in terms of non-corporate sites still running after all this time.

[Le Chiffre]

Yes, a tribute to Orson Welles' oceanic body of work for sure. Even after 25 years we're still finding things to discuss and people out there are still finding Welles-related things to work on. We did have a close call last year though, when we were overrun by Asian bots and almost lost the board. It was only due to Ray's tenacious ingenuity that this forum is still here. It would be nice to have a new board, but it would be a shame to lose everything that's on this one. Some of it might be saved at Archive.org, but not in any coherent way.

[crimesofpassion]

This is a little bit off topic, but I was raised on the internet and it's always surreal to see websites older than I am. Genuinely really nice to see it still stands, unlike many other sites and forums I loved that have unfortunately fallen in a much shorter time , and that it's still a community I could join. Congrats on all of it!

It's surreal to see people comment about how sites are older than they are, too! Wellesnet must surely be up there in terms of non-corporate sites still running after all this time.

I have to clarify it's not by much, I'm in my early 20s, though it's still trippy. But yes, absolutely, this site is a gem.

Yes, a tribute to Orson Welles' oceanic body of work for sure. Even after 25 years we're still finding things to discuss and people out there are still finding Welles-related things to work on. We did have a close call last year though, when we were overrun by Asian bots and almost lost the board. It was only due to Ray's tenacious ingenuity that this forum is still here. It would be nice to have a new board, but it would be a shame to lose everything that's on this one. Some of it might be saved at Archive.org, but not in any coherent way.

That was a scare lol. When it comes to online communities, it always feels like I arrive just as the party is ending so I was already bracing myself. Thank you, Ray Kelly. May the board hold on for as long as possible

[Wellesnet]

Thank you, crimesofpassion.

Orson Welles Web Board failure fueled Wellesnet:
https://wellesnet.com/orson-welles-web-board/