Seahawks.NET Celebrates 20 Years!

AROS

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It's incredibly hard to imagine that it has been two decades since this community was launched. Back then, Seahawks.com was nothing more than a black page with a tiny graphic with a couple links that went basically nowhere at all. It was in fact the very reason I started Seahawks98.com. I wanted the fans to have a voice. It was really that simple.

I remember when I created the first forum I think there was about 10 of us or less. It didn't matter. We were the happiest 10 Seahawks fans on the internet. "Holy **** you mean there are others like me?" It was instantly a hit.

By the time the site was called Seahawks99.com our community was taking off. Over a hundred 12's if I recall. The thirst for Seahawks information was palpable so I decided having a writing staff made a lot of sense. Through the years I was blessed to have many talented 12's writing articles including Doug Farrar, Matt Wolfe, Doug Snazel and others. By 2003 Seahawks.NET was a legitimate presence in the NFL fan forum world. Speaking of, I got tired of having to renew a new domain name every year so in 2000 I discovered Seahawks.net was a available domain name.

Wait, what?!?

How in the world the Seahawks or the NFL did not have that domain taken will always be a mystery to me. Alas, it was mine for the taking. 18 year's later, it remains in the hands of 12's where it belongs.

In the years since, I have had the privilege and the honor to watch true friendships be born on this site. Nothing, and I mean nothing, gives me more satisfaction than thinking about the friendships that have manifested here. People that are unforgettable. Take Les for instance. The impact he had and so many of us is my greatest reward.

This site has always been about COMMUNITY. Even when I moved to that network, my focus was always about keeping the community strong. One of my proudest moments came when I broke free of that oppressive network and went back to being 100% independent and advertisement free. The donations from the community were always enough to keep the lights on.

After a decade or so, I decided to sell the site. Our beloved landlord Mark Olsen (aka RockHawk) took up the challenge. I asked of him one thing. Just keep .NET's community the heart of the site. And he did not disappoint. It's not easy to run a site like this. There's a lot of work that goes into making this the valued community that it remains to this day. Mark overseeing the website, Anguish...ANGUISH! the amount of blood, sweat and tears he has poured into this site to keep the back end running efficiently...The volunteer mod staff...My word the silent heroes!! The Kidhawks the Kitsaps, the countless volunteers who have and continue to make this forum so well ran could never be the great community it remains without their tireless and humble efforts. Never has it been about payment or reward. Always about the mutual love for the Seahawks and the camaraderie of being a fellow 12.

I don't have a clue where this site will be 20 years from now but I want to give my respect to everyone that has made this site what it is and remains to be. The whole point of .NET was to bring 12's together, to have a place online we could all come together and commune over our favorite team.

I never realized the friendships that would blossom. I never thought about the impact this site would have and so many, and for that I am most proud.

20 years. Wow. Here's to another 20.

Go Hawks!
 

Heyseed

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Ricky Watters era line art was a classic .net header
Amazing and inspiring design throughout the years Aros , not forgotten
 

Sports Hernia

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Just think, in another year .net can legally drink. 8)
Thanks for creating this site Todd. Without you this place doesn’t exist.

Also thanks to Mark, Neal and the mods that put up with the good, bad, and ugly here. If folks knew about all of the behind the scenes work that goes on here to keep this place all spiffy, you’d be impressed.

.... but we are all .net, we may fight like brothers and sisters at times but we all love our team and that’s why we keep coming back here. :)
 

chris98251

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Sports Hernia":1zqo7ua6 said:
Just think, in another year .net can legally drink. 8)
Thanks for creating this site Todd. Without you this place doesn’t exist.

Also thanks to Mark, Neal and the mods that put up with the good, bad, and ugly here. If folks knew about all of the behind the scenes work that goes on here to keep this place all spiffy, you’d be impressed.

.... but we are all .net, we may fight like brothers and sisters at times but we all love our team and that’s why we keep coming back here. :)

So your having a birthday party next year and there will be plenty of drink ? Start sending out invitations now so we can start saving for the Bail money thats going to be needed :p

Congradulations Aros, I say this because you had a idea, you made it thru the concept and rough times and created a gem cut from what was at that time a unknown stone, you kept us independent, you fought the law and you won as with the NFL for the Seahawks.Net domain, you gave us a place to talk, vent, celebrate and just flat out bitch at times, in other words be fans !

Thank you Rockhawk for the continued legacy of Aros's dream and idea and keeping it pure and functioning.


Thank You Anguish for being the Scotty of .NET, you held her together thru Hacks and outages :p

As a Former Mod I want to also thank all those I have worked with, it was a honor to be a part of the crew, my delivery may not have been the most PC at times, but then again look at my Sig, it was never going to be. But I always was trying to think about the site and keep personal beliefs out of things when it came to actual Moderation. A lesson from Les I tried to emulate.



Last but not least thanks for every member past present and Banned for making this sight the local hang out for all of us and keeping theings moving thorugh the years, this place is really about everyone that is a contributor and all those guests that may be some day as well.

One think I don't miss is waiting ten minutes to log on though, that 28k connection was a pain in the ass.
 

DesiHawk

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Congratulations and Thanks each and everyone for making this place as awesome as it is. :229031_thewave:
 

kidhawk

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Aros":qno5iq5d said:
It's incredibly hard to imagine that it has been two decades since this community was launched. Back then, Seahawks.com was nothing more than a black page with a tiny graphic with a couple links that went basically nowhere at all. It was in fact the very reason I started Seahawks98.com. I wanted the fans to have a voice. It was really that simple.

I remember when I created the first forum I think there was about 10 of us or less. It didn't matter. We were the happiest 10 Seahawks fans on the internet. "Holy **** you mean there are others like me?" It was instantly a hit.

By the time the site was called Seahawks99.com our community was taking off. Over a hundred 12's if I recall. The thirst for Seahawks information was palpable so I decided having a writing staff made a lot of sense. Through the years I was blessed to have many talented 12's writing articles including Doug Farrar, Matt Wolfe, Doug Snazel and others. By 2003 Seahawks.NET was a legitimate presence in the NFL fan forum world. Speaking of, I got tired of having to renew a new domain name every year so in 2000 I discovered Seahawks.net was a available domain name.

Wait, what?!?

How in the world the Seahawks or the NFL did not have that domain taken will always be a mystery to me. Alas, it was mine for the taking. 18 year's later, it remains in the hands of 12's where it belongs.

In the years since, I have had the privilege and the honor to watch true friendships be born on this site. Nothing, and I mean nothing, gives me more satisfaction than thinking about the friendships that have manifested here. People that are unforgettable. Take Les for instance. The impact he had and so many of us is my greatest reward.

This site has always been about COMMUNITY. Even when I moved to that network, my focus was always about keeping the community strong. One of my proudest moments came when I broke free of that oppressive network and went back to being 100% independent and advertisement free. The donations from the community were always enough to keep the lights on.

After a decade or so, I decided to sell the site. Our beloved landlord Mark Olsen (aka RockHawk) took up the challenge. I asked of him one thing. Just keep .NET's community the heart of the site. And he did not disappoint. It's not easy to run a site like this. There's a lot of work that goes into making this the valued community that it remains to this day. Mark overseeing the website, Anguish...ANGUISH! the amount of blood, sweat and tears he has poured into this site to keep the back end running efficiently...The volunteer mod staff...My word the silent heroes!! The Kidhawks the Kitsaps, the countless volunteers who have and continue to make this forum so well ran could never be the great community it remains without their tireless and humble efforts. Never has it been about payment or reward. Always about the mutual love for the Seahawks and the camaraderie of being a fellow 12.

I don't have a clue where this site will be 20 years from now but I want to give my respect to everyone that has made this site what it is and remains to be. The whole point of .NET was to bring 12's together, to have a place online we could all come together and commune over our favorite team.

I never realized the friendships that would blossom. I never thought about the impact this site would have and so many, and for that I am most proud.

20 years. Wow. Here's to another 20.

Go Hawks!

:irishdrinkers:
 

Hawkstorian

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It was a big part of my life for many years. I used to feel like a lonely schmuck being a Seahawks back then, but at least here I could be a schmuck among friends. Thanks to all who made it happen, especially the GODFATHER himself.
 

Greenhell

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Has it been that long already? I've been a member of since inception. I can still remember seeing the new SH99 Watters on the front page of the site year 2 and being excited about that up and coming season.

I'm not much of a contributor here but I love this site and it's been my go-to for anything everything Seahawks.

Thanks Aros and everyone currently involved in keeping this place the best place for Hawk fans. You guys are the BOMB!

Salute!!! :irishdrinkers:
 

GeekHawk

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Dang, time flies! I think I was here for Seahawks98, I know I was for Seahawks99 and onwards. Back then my username was PatS as I recall, but that was deemed 'too short' (just like a certain QB... :mrgreen: ) during one of the switchovers so now I'm the geek. Definitely made several of the Temple pre-funks over the years, and made friends

Thanks, Aros! See, this is the real reason the internet was invented.
 

chet380

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Does anyone remember the AOL Hawks page or the Seahawks newsgroup from the early '90s?
 

Hawkstorian

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chet380":6yafemgp said:
Does anyone remember the AOL Hawks page or the Seahawks newsgroup from the early '90s?

Sporting News was my first intro to Seahawks message boards. That's where I first learned that "I'M NOT BEING NEGATIVE JUST REALISTIC YOU'RE BLIND IF YOU THINK JON KITNA WILL EVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING".
 

KitsapGuy

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There was Fanstop for awhile too. Once that folded most people came here. Myself included.
 

chris98251

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I really hated the Fanstop format of cascading threads broke out.
 

IndyHawk

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I wasn't around for the old days but back then it wasn't easy to
find a Hawks site..I had an AOL and dialup connection ..
I can remember after AOL being a member on a Fox Sports
forum with one other Hawk fan "QWest"and as you can imagine
we constantly had to endure the SeaChicken insults ect..
I'm glad to have found this site somehow and I know I missed
out on a lot prior but Thanks to Aros and a lot of others for keeping
it going through the years..~S~
 

Eltagi

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chet380":3qh2k5ap said:
Does anyone remember the AOL Hawks page or the Seahawks newsgroup from the early '90s?

Good lord, yes (the netnews group anyway). rec.sport.football.pro.seattle-seahawks - something like that. I remember the likes of Bill Besette, Bill Tommisser, Peter Reggio & others. There was someone else - California Kent - who I remember having a "discussion" with on the main NFL site on who the better FB was - Tom Rathman or John L. Williams. You can guess which one I was batting for! :) :49ersmall:

We had a group in the UK too, set up by Matt Cheesman back in the mid/late '90s I think. That too is sadly defunct.

Anyway, congrats for keeping this going for 20 years! I don't post here often (and I haven't been here long) but it's the best source of Seahawks stuff I've come across in recent years. So, excellent job guys!

:D
 
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AROS

AROS

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Eltagi":2z8a9jig said:
chet380":2z8a9jig said:
Does anyone remember the AOL Hawks page or the Seahawks newsgroup from the early '90s?

Good lord, yes (the netnews group anyway). rec.sport.football.pro.seattle-seahawks - something like that. I remember the likes of Bill Besette...

Wow, Bill Besette...Now that is a name I haven't heard in YEARS!
 

Hawkboi

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MizHawk and Myself have many fond memories of .Net Gatherings in Cheney, and Pre-Funking at Temples for games we have been fortunate to attend. Miss a lot that's happened over the past 20 years, but looking forward to the New! :irishdrinkers:
 
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