For Americans, today is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is, traditionally a day where we give thanks for what we have. This year, Thanksgiving fell on Zetaboards 1 year anniversary: November 27th. Because of that, many of us would not be around to enjoy the day properly and so we decided to extend our celebration to compensate. However, Nicola had the wonderful idea of a topic on the history of Zetaboards and looking back on where is came from. It seemed very appropriate for this day.
Zetaboards began with a single topic in the staff forum. At the time, Invisionfree was doing very well and the software we used, Invision Power Board was upgrading to 2.0. We were at a crossroads on where to go with this service. Brandon pitched the idea of making our own software. The pros for this included features curtailed to the unique setup of this service, ease of use to update and improve and unlimited growth potential. The cons included the amount of time it would require. The staff unanimously decided to go with making our own software. It was codenamed IF2.

Brandon was very excited about this service and would frequently brag about "IF2" over conversations. Seth also got very involved and made a series of mockups of the website and features. One, which he called "toast", most of you would recognize as the new pm pop up. He also made several mockups for the board, wiki, website and other goodies.

The staff first had their first taste of "IF2" in February 2006. At the time, the first build had no skin and was loaded with errors. In the days that followed, all of Brandon's hard work began to become fleshed out. And a temporary skin was applied. It was a very exciting time for me as all this hard work was starting to pay off for the service. I knew, as did the other staff, that this software would be very impressive. And it was exciting to participate in the early beginnings of this software. The staff used bugzilla to report the bugs we found in features and Brandon would fix any confirmed bugs.

Seth began to work on the theme and recruited Nicola to help. Soon the brand new theme was applied to the board. It would change numerous times before release, but it was exciting to see the theme take shape. That was when the software really started to feel unique.
- Nicola
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I felt very privileged (and still do) to be working with Seth on Zetaboards' appearance. Throughout the 14 months Seth and I worked together, I had a lot of fun, and I also learned a lot more about HTML and CSS from Seth. I can literally say that blood, sweat and tears were definitely involved in putting this great software together

, but the end result is fantastic. Those involved in its development, the staff, the beta testers, and members who reported bugs in the beta test period should be proud of what we've all managed to accomplish.
The name "Zetaboards" was announced on March 23rd 2006. Soon after, the documentation team consisting of Nicola, Locke, Scotty, Pete, Sani and Harry Potter was formed. The doc team were the first group next to the staff to see Zetaboards. They immediately went to work reporting bugs and documenting features. Everyone was excited to participate in this momentous occasion.
In October 2006, the first private beta was announced. Testers included Dale, Kezzie and Dennis.
- Dennis
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It was a lot of fun being one of the first people to see Zetaboards. I was happy to be chosen and it was kind of hard not to tell people about it, because Brandon and Seth asked us to keep it to ourselves. We suggested features and found bugs for a few months before the public beta.
- Hazel
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It was fun. You got to see the inner works of something everyone was talking about. Seeing it so early on meant you got to see it develop and mature. we could also laugh and what people were saying "it's not real" etc. It was also nice to have your voice heard and feel like I was part of it all. You got to talk to staff one on one and you knew your opinion was valued
In January of 2007, Zetaboards saw its first public beta. The response was overwhelming. Members flocked to the test board, eager to see the software that had been under development for several years and kept secret. In February, members were able to register their own betaboards.

Throughout 2007, the software was continually tweaked and improved. The Personal Message system received an overhaul early on and the theme was also tweaked several times. More features were added, including the "Admin Assistant" feature.

On November 27, 2007 Brandon released Zetaboards and opened support.zetaboards.com, the official Zetaboards support forum. Finally, after a year of betatesting, Zetaboards had been released. Members hurried to register their board and began working with the new features and learning the new css. The Support board was buzzing with activity from all members, both new and old, excited to use Zetaboards.
Zetaboards would never have been possible without the aide of many people. And on Thanksgiving, it seems appropriate to give these people thanks for all their hard work:
First: Brandon. Without Brandon, this software would not exist. He worked tirelessly for years using all his free time to make Zetaboards and it was well worth it.
Second: Seth. Seth worked hard on many improvements to make the software unique. His work with jquery and creating the toast feature, as well as making the documentation wiki, the website and helping make the theme were all invaluable and we thank him for all his effort.
Third: Valleri and Locke. These two made several of the early images for Zetaboards. These emoticons you see on your board are Locke's work. Many of the default buttons are the work of Valleri. Their contributions helped make Zetaboards just a bit more special.
Fourth: Nicola. Without Nicola, no one know how to theme. She and Seth did their best to make the theme easy to use and understand. She made dozens of theme documentations to help board owners learn to theme. And she is always willing to help users struggling to make their theme. As Support staff, she spends hours in the Theme Support Ticket forum, helping board owners learn how to make their own themes.
Fifth: The Staff, Documentation team and the private beta testers. Without all of these people, Zetaboards would have been filled with many debilitating bugs. The staff and testers spent their free time trying to catch every bug available. They would test every feature to make sure it would work properly and if it didn't, they would immediately report it. Without the doc team, Zetaboards would be much harder to support. When Zetaboards launched, it had a wiki full of information on how to use new features and how to make a theme. Their dedication is greatly appreciated.
Finally: The members. Without our loyal members, none of this would have been possible. While others believed Zetaboards to be a hoax or grew impatient with waiting, many of our loyal members stuck around. They patiently waited for Brandon and eagerly awaited release. They praised Zetaboards and suggested ways to further improve it. Without their feedback, Zetaboards would not be nearly as unique.
And so, on this one year anniversary of Zetaboards, The administration and current staff team would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to everyone who made Zetaboards a reality.
