The Early History of
The Amazon Basin Community
July, 2000
It started from a comment in the diabloii.net Amazon Strategy forum back in late July of 2000. The comment was "someone should start an Amazon-only guild so we can all play together." That comment was made by Vehementi (everyone should know who he is).
August 11, 2000
No one ever started it, so by early August, I decided to. I created a
forum on ezboard.com on August 11th and opened the web site (jamesbroome.thehospital.com/amazonbasin)
the very next
day.
I invited all the regulars from the diabloii.net Amazon forum to join me.
20 people took me up on it. The original members were Coffeegrrl, Tornadokick, Skyelar,
Sheena, Qelial, Psyon, Odiin, Mudfoot, Jennivere, Irish, Gothmog, Golden_Bow, GhostMouse, Faramir, Dontio, Crosidine, Carcharoth, BrianDNA, bolshoi
too,
and Ariel. (fact of note - Coffeegrrl actually sent me an email asking to join on August
3rd - nine days before I opened the Basin!)
The first guild-wide email sent on August 20th included the following:
| The first week of existence for the Amazon Basin has shown it to be an early success. We have 20 official members, with quite a few other folks posting on the forum site without joining. Total posts in our first week - 103! Thanks for all the positive feedback and great topics - especially in the Javazon Room. |
Javazon big-shots BrianDNA and bolshoi too were the moderators of the very popular Javazon Room - our Javazon forum.
August 21 - September 25, 2000
I put up a page on the site which would allow interested people to just type in their email address to join. Doing so would get them into the guild as well as generate an acceptance letter. Between August 21st and September 25th (the last day of open enrollment), we admitted 93 more members. They were Achillea, AK404, Alinna, anaxamandra, Aurenna, Baroness Zeliah, Berner, Blondazon, BowJackson, Bowslut, cas123, Cauldren Born, Cellaneous, CHHAS, Chuck, Cilicia, Cordeiro, Cosmic sloP, Danielsk, Dev, DigitalSoul, DSYee, elf, fx8n, Gadrial, Ghirakhan, HaloNyne, Hecatonchires, Hochoona, Jayyness, Jyyi, Kael Quickblade, KasumiChunLi, Keana, Killer_Demo, Koebra, KpJDaddy, laiernie, Lareldar, LineNoise, Little Pig, Madrala, Mageta666, Malphigian, Mary Jane, Megaera, Metamay, Mooglez, Mout, Need, Nezhit, Night~Hawke, Nppsolota, Oliven, Oprah, PlanetRudy, Raychel, Roninwar, Rose in the Wind, Rulrose, Running Dog Lackey, Sac, Saddguy, Sairfox, Semvhu, Shizuka, StarFoxN64, Starslayer_D, Steef, Super, Syr Osric, Tagazon, Talys, Tankazon, Tha-Ama, The Tiberian Son, TheOccult, Tiercel, TV, UberAmazon , Valkiera, Valkrye, Vehementi, Vixan, wAr2wIz, Whistle, Wintermute, Wiz, Wolfsong, WordMuncher, wpmvii, Xentax, Yakut, Yellowdemon, and Yobbo.
Excerpt from the guild-wide email sent on September 26th:
| Monday, September 25th was the last
day of open enrollment. Problems with maintaining the list of nearly 115
members was getting to be quite a chore. Also, problems arose with some
newer members and the use of the Mules (see below). Ironically, today it
was reported nearly 90% of the items on the Mules were removed without
notice. I can't do anything about the missing items, nor can I keep anyone in the guild from removing items only to sell or trade for a personal profit. The password will only keep non-members out, not ill intentioned Amazon Basin members. I welcome any ideas to keep this more in line with our purpose. The new enrollment policy is as follows: new members will be admitted without question if they are recommended by an existing member in good standing. Simple, huh? This will cut down on the up to 20 requests daily for admittance to the guild as well as weed out some of the bad seeds who might try to make their way into the guild. |
Members Talys and Saddguy, along with some diabloii.net Amazon forum regulars, started posting screenshots of their games on another site. This site later became D2Realms.com.
September 25, 2000
Open enrollment in the Amazon Basin ends. Instead, we start a policy wherein people could join if a current member requested their entry into the guild. Again, quite a few got in that way.
January 9th, 2001
The Amazon Basin holds its first Amazon Basin Membership Game which when played by a non-member
with a current member hosting, would be used for us to 'evaluate' others and let
them evaluate us. Everyone was invited to play, and again, it got way too hectic
way too fast. The guild-wide email sent following the first Tuesday night
game contained the following:
| Last Tuesday's
Membership Games were a huge success. In reading the posts from the
general public as well as members, it was apparent everyone enjoyed
themselves. Aside from some early kinks in getting everyone split up
into workable groups, it looks as though it went off without a
hitch. Well, we're doing it again tonight. Anyone interested in
hosting a game should be in the channel by 9 p.m. (9 Eastern for
those of you hosting USEast folks, and for those of you on the West,
show up on 9 p.m. your time). And since there was some confusion
over this, please let me clear it up - prospective members only need
to play in there realms time zone. If they are on East, they show up
and play at 9 EST. If they are on West, they show up and play at 9
p.m. PST. I sure hope that helps. |
January 11, 2001
I apply for and am given web space on a new server. Net-Games.com allows me to move my site from the 5MB of space I had been using on a freebie account.
January 15, 2001
Two fairly big items in the history of The Amazon Basin take place on this date. First, I purchase theamazonbasin.com from Network Solutions, and Geoff Frazier of Blizzard requests my permission to link to The Amazon Basin from Blizzard's Arreat Summit site. These two items mark turning points in our history.
January 19, 2001
Amazon Basin Membership Games (you know, the ones called 'a huge success' in the email above) are discontinued after 2 nights of games. They attracted so many people, we were not equipped to handle them.
January 27, 2001
The Amazon Basin completes the move from its old server onto net-games' servers.
February 6, 2001
We begin using our own domain name (theamazonbasin.com).
February 20, 2001
Trynity is cursed with the title of co-administrator to help TPJ with running the show. She pleads to be let off with a warning, but is handed the keys to be Basin all the same. (your replacements for the 4th lost set are in the mail Tryn)
April 14, 2001
The Amazon Basin moves from the net-games servers (due to their discontinuance of free hosting) to our new home on FatCow. We are given 5GB of bandwidth to use each month. Two weeks later we surpass our allotment of bandwidth. The overage charges will end up costing me an extra $100 extra per month. I start looking for a new host - and fast.
April 18, 2001
Original forums (ezBoard) are closed.
May 2, 2001
We move to a new host, ReadyHosting. They provide us with unlimited bandwidth.
May 9, 2001
Ikonboard software is installed on our server to handle the forums.
The Amazon Basin web site (including the forums) average 80,000+ hits daily and about 3.5 gigs of data throughput every week. (these stats accurate as of July, 2001)
August 18, 2001
Our 1-Year anniversary is celebrated. The entire community was able to meet online throughout the day in our channel on battle.net to play organized games, participate in give-a-ways, and meet fellow community members they never had the opportunity to meet before. The Birthday Bash ran from 10 a.m. to Midnight, EST. Since most of this was planned at the last minute, a lot of the festivities were unscheduled events happening whenever the feeling moved us, but here were a few things going on that day:
|
Reward &
Socket Run Kill Fest / MF
Run Yak's HC West
Games |
Woldstone Keep
-> Baal, Hell Diff Baal Runs
(normal diff)
|
September 8, 2001
We change hosts - again! This time, we were forced to move due to ReadyHosting offering 'throttled' bandwidth. this meant that we could have as much as we wanted, so long as we didn't use more than 'X' per hour. Well, that caused errors galore during our busy times. RackShack is our new host - offering us our own dedicated server. This move costs us dearly, but everyone feels enough donations can be obtained through the community to offset the additional fees. Guess what? Everyone was right.
September 11, 2001
The attacks on The World Trade Center leave The Amazon Basin with one less member. The community morns the loss and donations are taken for flowers to be sent to a close friend as well as for The American Red Cross.
This loss, along with those felt from the entire world, are expressed in our forums. Many cannot find the words to express their sorrow.
The entire site goes to black out of respect to those lost.
October 4, 2001
Our EverQuest guild is up and running. The formation of the guild has taken what used to be The Amazon Basin guild and changed it into The Amazon Basin community!
Talk of a Return to Castle Wofenstein guild are underway, but nothing has been decided yet. Each sub-guild will be somewhat independently run, however, they will all conform to the Amazon Basin principals: play the game the way it was meant to be played, and have fun doing it!
October 15, 2001
D2 Amazon Basin member Sally gets our very own IRC server up and running. For those of you out there who enjoy chatting in real-time, log in to irc.theamazonbasin.com. There are only a few channels right now, but more are on the way.
October 15, 2001
The Amazon Basin welcomes its third guild into the community. This one is for Dark Age of Camelot. SLS from the D2 guild gets the ball rolling with a little help from me.
November 6, 2001
I decide that my time is better spent taking care of the community itself
and running the server than trying to maintain the D2 guild. My News post
on the D2 website announcing the change:
| I've
decided to step down as Admin for the The Amazon Basin's Diablo II
site. My duties from now on will concentrate on administering the
community at-large. I will be maintaining the server as well as the
multiple sites The Amazon Basin will host on it. I will still be seen from time to time here at our first home, however, you will more than likely see me around our other guild sites as well: EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot. I am also very pleased to announce CorwinBrute as my successor here. He's been around nearly as long as me and has the full support of everyone here. If you've got problems, drop him a line using the Messenger service. I'm sure he'll get ya taken care of. If you'd like to read the details, check the post in the forums. Thanks everyone, Thomas Penfield Jackson Founder, The Amazon Basin |
December 10, 2001
In an effort to raise money for the site's hosting charges, a two-week fund drive is started. Donations are taken via paypal and snail mail. We hope to raise enough money to pay for another 3-4 weeks of hosting.
December 14, 2001
The Amazon Basin community officially starts a Dungeon Siege guild. If the game is the Diablo Killer everyone says it will be, there should be quite a few D2 guildies ready for a change.
December 24, 2001
The fund drive ends. After two-weeks of donations, we've raised $900 towards the upkeep of our little community we like to call 'home'. The drive's success puts a smile on everyone's faces heading into the holiday season.
January 31, 2002
The Amazon Basin community welcomes it's newest guild - Neverwinter Nights. This brings the number of guilds within the community to five - each showing a strong and loyal following.
March 13, 2002
Until now, our Neverwinter Nights guild was being run by TPJ. Today, SnowDog officially accepted the permanent role as the NWN Guild Leader! Hip Hip Horray!
July 21, 2002
After extensive testing, our tech team rolls out the replacement software for our forums. Ikonboard is replaced with Invision Board - and there was much rejoicing.
August 11, 2002
The Amazon Basin community celebrates two years of serving those looking for a friendly cheat-free place to play. August 12 will be the first day of our third year online!
March 22, 2003
Our beloved Sadira steps down from her roll leading our D2 guild. Longtime member Flick is welcomed as her replacement and is immediately ridiculed by the masses.
April 2003
The most recent Amazon Basin Fund Drive ends with an astonishing $2,200 collected over approximately 3 weeks. Some of the funds donated have been earmarked to help produce our initial line of BasinWear