Creation of this Site
Submitted by
geoff on Thu, 01/25/2007 at 1:38pm.
History: Many years ago, Jay and I created a very juvenile family web site, called seversonfamily.com. The primary purpose of the site was to share photos, over the web, between our family members. As time past, we updated the look, added some features, tried to improve other features, and received much feedback regarding the usability. Jay integrated a java-based FTP interface, that was somewhat confusing. Then he attempted to update it with a better tool, that ended up full of bugs, so reverted back to the old FTP'er. Many issues made the site difficult to use. Some family members posted gigantic images, that you had to scroll up and down and left and right, just to see someone's nose. Some users called 'tech support' a number of times, trying to figure out how to even get their photos off the camera and into the web page. And more and more. I tried to update the site with methods to keep the home page 'current', but always found myself not wanting to go thru all the steps it took, just to update a feature story.
After a few years, and a few marriages, the name seversonfamily.com just didnt fit anymore. There were a number of members of our immediate family that were no longer Seversons. So, we had to ramble up a new name. Throughout our lives, our ridiculous family has played a game, where one family member would say the word "bop" as loud as possible, given the situation, as to not get into trouble. For example, whispering it during a prayer, saying it at church during a talk, etc. The person that says "bop" then begins to count... 1... 2... 3.. . hoping to get to 10, before someone says "bop" louder. The next person would try and say it slightly louder, without getting in to trouble. First person to get told to "shush" or "shutup!" loses, and the person prior to that wins. Simple game. Stupid game. Hilarious game. Perfect name for our site. Bop123.com became the new name.
Bop123.com became quite the heavy traffic site. Not only were our family members using the site quite regularly, for viewing and storing photos, but we were pointing our friends and extended family to the site to "keep in touch" with our entire family.
But still, the usability of the site was questionable, at best.
Since approximately 2002, Jay and I had off-and-on discussions about creating an enterprise solution for families to keep in touch with each other. Bop123 was in no condition to just re-wrap and offer as a product. So years of discussing potential features and functions of a good solution ensued. Input from a number of other family members was also analyzed. So many different ways to go about offering a solution.
Jay began working on a project with a friend of his. It became a very slick project, with top-notch programming, features, and clean design. It became apparent that it could easily be ported over, and used as a base skeleton for developing a family solution site.
In November of 2006, we began initial development on the concepts that had been discussed over the years. Files were created and modified, name was selected, logo was created, and TurtleFox began to grow.
The natural progression of a site began to take place. And by that I mean, when you implement one feature, it spawns questions and possibilities of at least a dozen other features. Jay, myself, and this friend Erik all began cranking on the concept and site technologies through November, December, and January of 2007. Bugs were found and most of them were fixed. Family and friends joined the rudimentary site and began pounding away at its features, reporting issues or dislikes. The pages took form. The user interface began to mold into place. I actually noticed an addiction beginning to grow. It was fun to log in and see who had joined, left comments, etc.
So launch day has arrived, for official TurtleFox Beta. I hope this short history was interesting. And thanks for joining. Use the site - spread the word - and keep in touch at your own pace.
208 reads | 13 comments |
5 votes:
Comments:
Back to top