Memory Lane: How did you get here?

[JustAskJulie]

As we are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Swingers Board, some of you have been around quite a while and may even remember when there wasn't a forum (believe it or not, it's true). So I'm going to start a few threads to let us walk down memory lane together.

In this first thread, share how you found your way to be on the Swingers Board (if you can remember) and what you remember about what you found when you got here.

[JustAskJulie]

I'll start with sharing how I came to be here....lol.... or how the site came to be, rather.

Way back in Jan 1997 (the Swingers Board is actually older than 10 years, but it's only been at SwingersBoard.com for 10 years) I got my first computer (actually myself and my husband at the tiime). I'd never had a computer of my own to play with and anytime I'd ever touched anyone else's I was scared I would break it so this was a new thing for me. The internet was also a new thing for me (and for most people).

As a couple who was pretty open minded sexually, what was the first thing we searched for on the internet? PORN, of course! We weren't really into swinging yet, hadn't really thought about it much, although my husband did have a swinger mag or two around from when he was single (we'd only been married about 6 months or so). Anyway, we surfed porn and chatted with strangers. And as I surfed the web I looked at the pages that existed at the time and said "I could make something that would look better than that! Or at least as good". So I decided I was going to learn how to make a webpage. I built one or two on our AOL webspace using their page builder, pretty easy and actually my very first porn site was put on our AOL space... we lost that account soon after (and at least 2 more would follow). So, deciding I needed to actually learn HTML I signed up for a summer web design class. I bought the book which came with a very basic HTML editor and before the class ever started I had taught myself (and dropped the class).

After I created my first porn page on AOL and got kicked off and got contacted by some kid. I decided I needed to do something to keep kids out, so I set up a second one and this time put an AVS (adult verification system - sexkey, etc) on it. This time the site lasted about a week before AOL caught on and in that time (since it was still the time of build it and they will come) I made about $100 off it. My husband at the time had said if I could earn enough to buy a domain I could get one. Back then they cost $100 to register!! I had earned enough so I got my first domain - justsay.com

It started with a nude celebrity site (the same one that had gotten yanked off AOL twice already) and I added more and more pages/sites to it with different themes. Sometime that summer we got contacted the first time by a swinger couple. They had found our AOL profile and I guess since it said we were into sex they assumed we were into swinging. We weren't at the time but it did start a new discussion and a new train of thought. As I learned a little about marketing and had looked around a little at what was out there for swinger personal ads, I realized this could be an opportunity. If I provided a site for FREE swinger personal ads (back then you had to pay to PLACE and ad, and often to view them too), I could put banners on it for my other sites and use the ads to draw people in then get them to my other sites.

It didn't work! I did draw people in. People loved the Swingers Board. They loved the free ads. But I learned pretty quick that the people who were into swinging, weren't necessarily the same ones looking for the other stuff I was promoting (for the most part). But, the Swingers site grew. I added swinger stories to the site (allowing people to send in their own true stories) and I added a chat room.

Somewhere along the way, probably that fall or winter we actually started exploring swinging ourselves with close friends of ours. It started off with me playing with another girl. Then moved to threesomes with one or the other half of a couple we were good friends with. Then eventually we actually started looking for others to meet. All that time, "The Swingers Board & Gigalo page" as it was at the time was growing. Finally, the next spring I decided that I needed to move it off and make it a seperate site on its own domain. So that's what I did and it continued to grow and change over the years.

I tried to keep the ads intact. In 1998 I actually wrote a script to allow the ads to be posted automatically. Up to that point I had been receiving them via email and posting them by hand each night (if you can imagine the time that took). Of course, that little script only kept up for so long as it didn't have a very great search capacity. So, in 2000 I paid someone else to write a script to do it better. They did but wasn't all that they had promised (not even close) and they refused to follow-through and actually fix the bugs that existed. For most folks it was great, but for those who had issues... well it led to enough complaints that I decided that wasn't the direction I wanted to continue in. Around the same time I had added the forums, and by then I had also added an advice section to the site and the club listings (with reviews). So I dropped the ads and decided that others did it better than me and would continue to do so, so I would focus on an area not generally covered (the community). At the time when I added the forums, there was no other swingers "community" online. There were plenty of ad sites by that time, but they were just that AD sites. Of course, many have added forums since.

The Swingers Board was a first in many ways, many have tried to copy it and taken parts and recreated but I believe it is still a one of a kind. We will continue to grow and change and explore new ideas, hopefully for a long time to come.

I was going to post the link where you could see how Swingers Board looked throughout the years... but I can't find it. Someone else posted it here a while back, so if you can remind me where it's at, it would be great.

[sweet_tna]

How cool, Julie! Hats off for being a pioneer!

My story's pretty simple. The friends who initiated us in the LS recommended the board to us, as they knew I was already a regular on another (vanilla) message board.

What I found were answers to some of my pesky questions about getting started, and a bunch of fun (and interesting) people. Before long, I was offering advice myself and drawn into the flirting/joking around with some of the regulars. Good luck getting rid of me now, lol!

=)

[Bama0468]

wow I didn't think I had been around for that Much of it.... well with in reason.. internet wise... I was asked on occasion to check the pages to see if they displayed correctly in my web browser as I recall... back around the Justsay era. anyhow, I been here off and on since, especially since the swingers board went up, and as I recall someone posted a question (eons ago) and Jules thought I might have insite worth posting and wolla here I appeared.

[MRSfun]

Although it looks like I haven't been here awhile, actually I have. Together with fun4ds. He was the one that discovered the Swingers Board at first. I was mistaken and busted him one morning thinking he was checking out some kind of personal Hook Up web site. At that time, we had communication problems. He had explained that he liked what he found here on the Swingers Board because he felt that he had been learning from the people here about communication skills. At that time he was your typical male, living in a cave, emotionally. I'm not saying that like its a bad thing.

We had talked some about the lifestyle before and had some experience in what we really didn't understand at that point in our lives. The Swingers Board brought to light some discussions about our relationship. The INTERNET from what I saw in the beginning as very threatening. Everything was out there in those early days. From porno to personals. We had jealousy issues. My experience with computers was from work only. The Internet opened all possibilities and opened a few fears.

So he had explained that he wasn't looking for others, and that he wanted to talk openly and honestly about his feelings.There were topics here he didn't know how to talk about. He began hanging around here in the beginning and asked me for just my approval. That is when things changed. I found that he was asking for a way to be honest about how he felt. How to talk about them and listen to how I felt. I noticed that the people in the lifestyle and here on the Swingers Board would cover topics like NO means NO. Maybe swinging wasn't for one or the other in a relationship, and thats as far as it goes. We could talk about fantasies and sex without having to carry through. These were safety for me. I gave him permission to visit this web site as often as he wanted. Honestly, he never did hide anything.

From there we began communicating in an entirely different way. He would talk about things and listen. I know he was listening to me. We began our walk through the lifestyle slowly and the Swingers Board was our reference at that time about how to proceed and when to stop. How to understand not only our own feelings, but the ideas and feelings of others.

Thats when he also wanted to learn how to type and become interactive. He was the original poster. He would ask me about how to say things and wanted my approval before anything was posted. Then we felt like we were in the community here. We have learned so much along the way. We see some come and go. Some return, and many we share our personal lives and feelings here with. We were always fun4ds together here, but as we ventured in the lifestyle I took more time in the personal add sites and communicating with possible playmates while the man fun4ds, mainly kept us up with the new stuff here on the Swingers Board. I'm here now with my own profile and like the community relationship of the forums. We share so many ideas together but found it less confusing as too who was posting and when. Then again, I have my own opinions sometimes and I can give the womans touch when needed

[good times]

I don't remember when exactly I originally joined, for some reason the joined dates got messed up at one time. Either that or I really was here before justaskjulie.

Anyway, I found the site through a search engine. As has been told many times before here, we originally became interested in what we came to know as swinging, by some of our vanilla friends getting a little friskier than what is considered normal with us when they had been drinking. At that time we didn't know their was such a thing as swinging, but I had learned a long time ago, being involved in the internet from before it was the internet, that if we were curious about sex with others then we were most likely not the only ones. I also had learned that any kind of kink one could think of has plenty of people on the internet that share the same kink. So, I did a search for something like "wife swapping" or something, and found the Swingers Board. I actually lurked here for about a year or so before I posted for the first time. I remember when I first got here, Julie still had some of her other sites up (yep, I perved them at the time), and political discussions were still allowed. Man were their some lively discussions here back then, some of them not so friendly. Despite that though, their was a lot of good discussion about swinging.

As I would lurk and read the forum, I would discuss them with my wife. Eventually I started posting with my own questions and at some point my wife, Mrs. GT joined so that she could get involved too.

The important thing about this forum for us was, it showed us that swingers were regular folks just like us. Had it not been for this forum I doubt we ever would have taken the plunge and actually got involved with swinging. We actually read the board for about a year or year and a half before we actually started swinging.

An interesting thing, I have three forums that I run myself not related to swinging. I have over twice as many posts here as I have on all of my own forums combined.

[SW_PA_Couple]

The Swingers Board was recommend to JoAnn and I by one of our swinger friends of three years ago. We have not maintained contact with him or his SO nor do we remember the screen name that he uses here. He might well be watching are reading my posts even today.

Michael

[VegasLee]

You can see old Swingers Board versions back to 1998 at the

Way Back Machine

I have known Julie many more years then I have been posting here. She has always been a very special lady.

I watched her site grow over the years and finally decided to do some posting many years ago.

This site has always been the best at what it does and I believe it always will be.

[LFM2]

I was doing research since Dave was the one that brought it up. That was only about 2 years ago. I found it on a search engine. One of the best moves I've ever made!! (I mean about finding the board, not using the search engine, although if I hadn't used the search engine, I would never have found the board so maybe that was a good move, but then...)

[JustAskJulie]

I don't remember when exactly I originally joined, for some reason the joined dates got messed up at one time. Either that or I really was here before justaskjulie.

Your join date is right. Mine is the only one that got screwed up when I changed software for the board at one time. That's why my join date is late.

You can see old Swingers Board versions back to 1998 at the

Way Back Machine

Thanks for posting that! Wanna watch a hockey game?

[JustAskJulie]

Not sure if that's the same site someone had posted previously, I though it went back further than that.... cuz the other one actually showed what the first version looked like.

[Tia Vampire]

He brought up the idea of swinging. I did not know much about it, so I looked for information on the subject on the wed. I came across the board and have been an addict ever since. Very useful information and I'm glad to know others out there have gone through all of the pro's and con's, not to mention the trials and tribulations like we have.. I really found the do's and don't the most useful. Julie for creating such a informative board and not just another hook up site.

[VegasLee]

Wanna watch a hockey game?

Anytime with you!

[two4youinswva]

In 2004, we had been swinging for about 6 months or so.

I remember thinking, "this is so much fun, there's GOT to be a board or something going on out there on the internets".

So, I did the old internet search (I don't even think I was using the Google yet at that point) and just happened to run across the site.

I remember thinking that some of the folks on here knew a whole lot more about the lifestyle than we did, even though we had been successful and had made very few mistakes so far. I knew that we could learn a lot by hanging out and keeping an open mind.

I believe it took me a couple months to actually post. I stayed active on here for a couple years, then backed off for a while, as life got hectic, and, honestly, I got a little bit of the old board burnout (not a knock, it happens to me on all the boards I frequent). I've been relatively active again the last few months.

It is absolutely the best online community I've ever been involved with, and not because of the subject matter. It's just a great environment.

[good times]

Your join date is right. Mine is the only one that got screwed up when I changed software for the board at one time. That's why my join date is late.

Yep, I figured that out when I looked at the older versions of the site at Lee's link. I signed up officially right after the site turned pink.