History of Changes

DECEMBER: Well another idea that had a lot of work put into it, notes. Except this one didn't really take off as well as expected. Still, sometimes ideas just need to one tiny thing added to make them work...

NOVEMBER: The Event Posting Bonanza Period was born, where people who are signed up to an event can post three times as many messages a day from three days before to three days after the event!

OCTOBER: Sometimes there's a great idea and you spend a lot of time working on and then you just pray that people will actually use it. Well I shouldn have worried about the Met List, it's proved very popular indeed! Also new this month, the Messages List was broken into different categories (previously it was one enormous list). The maps that were added in August just showed where people were in relation to each other, this month saw the Multimap overlay!

SEPTEMBER: Two more fields for the profile - "Industry Sector" and "Occupation".

AUGUST: Well I managed to get my hands on some postcode/os data hich meant we could have links to maps, calculate distances using trigowotsitory etc! An "Upcoming Events" list was added to the Messages List. I also won a Golden Fredie for best dressed man on Feesch for the second year running!

JULY: Postcodes (well the first half) was added to Feesch profiles, which meant (in theory) we could have links to maps, calculate distances using trigowotsitory etc. I also added a file upload to the contact us form which I can honestly say has made a big difference ever since!

JUNE: Not a change to the site as such, but I announced that we raised £750 for Nat's wheelchair fund at the Springbash (known as the Mayday Bash that year), something which I think is sufficiently news worthy to be mentioned in the history of Feesch?

MAY: The Icon Game (which is completely orginal and not based on any other game) was unveiled. Also, Feesch's answer to the ICQ Universe (due to lack of inspiration called the Feesch Universe) added an interesting new angle to the Buddy system. The Tshirt Ordering System allowed everyone to become a TOSer. You know I actually thought that would mean no more tshirt cock ups ever again?

APRIL: Board Sample added, a page which lists the most recent message posted on each of the message boards. T-Shirt Ordering System added for events. Feesch Buddies extended to include personality and relation, Feesch Universe added too. Icon game added for a quick giggle.

MARCH: Yet more behind the scenes stuff to make my life a little easier, plus a few minor tweaks. The only major change was the addition of 'assistants' to Groups and Events.

FEBRUARY: As well as lots of behind the scenes changes to the site, event attendees were given the facility to say how they are getting to an event and where they are staying, also the ability to search based on this information supplied by others.

JANUARY: The main change this month was the "under construction" system which allowed members to preview changes to their profile before making them live. Also added were backgrounds for birthday and /feeschiversaries, plus the option to send a greeting card. Deputy decisions were also added to the profile so members could see what actions had been taken lately (more easily) and the message boards for events got a new form and icons to encourage people to update their probability, transport and accommodation settings. The "clipart folder" was added to the Feesch SMS settings, icons appeared next to the names in the buddy lists and the number of journal entries were also displayed on profiles. And of course this page was created!

DECEMBER: Well the most colourful change was allowing people to add their preferred background colour to guestbook and message board posts, it was shortly followed by a button to remove formatting to make messages readable! We also saw folders for clipart added, random Q&As on profiles and of course Buddies.

NOVEMBER: Flash text was added for Extra Pages. Freddy Badges and Fridge Magnets went on sale in the Feesch Shop. Also added Guestbook of the day Background and the ability to post private messages in Guestbooks.

OCTOBER: Banner Search, Personal (ie family birthdays) and Public (ie bank holidays) entries added the Event Calendar.

SEPTEMBER: Random Search, Gallery Images for events, GoldFeesch earrings went on sale in the Feesch Shop, snazzy cursors added the Editor, "More Details" popup when mouseovering (?) people on Message Boards.

AUGUST: Privacy options added to Gallery Images, Extra Pages added, Feesch SMS service launched, Feesch Summary e-mail service launched and Feesch Vouchers went on sale. Oh and the Gold Sushi Badges first went on sale as well.

JULY: The mighty Feesch Guestbook was launched, additional clipart webspace was made available, sample clipart was provided, links to photos for an event listed on the message board and a prompt was added to the Editor in case you try to close the window or navigate away from your message by mistake.

JUNE: Feesch Stickers and Balloons went on sale in the Feesch Shop and the Birthday Calendar added.

MAY: Feesch's 5th Birthday!!!!!! Approximate membership 35,000 members. What an amazing night that was, one which will never be forgotten by those who attended, the Travel Inn or the McDonalds involved. The "Notes" field was added to events for those attending, the big red warning message about editing your message was added to the boards, the Visitor Calendar was added, and the "personal" fields were added to the profiles (marital status, sexual preference, seeking).

APRIL: Flash support was added to the site, who could imagine the site without it now? GoldFeesch were given a continuous countdown of how long they have before their membership will need renewing, characters (icons/avatars) were added to profiles (there were 118 on the site at the time) and finally, "Formerly Known as..." was added for those who like to confuse people by changing their names a lot.

MARCH: Not an awful lot of changes this month, but it was more than made up for the announcing of the The legendary Feesch Awards!

FEBRUARY: Fitting for the month of lurve, the Group Match feature was added. Rather helpfully, postcodes were added to events to enable links to mapping sites like multimap.com. Also on the subject of events, The Events Calendar! And more event stuff, icons for those who supplied event photos!

JANUARY: Star Dates were added to profiles, the spam filter was added to message boards and Sushi Badges (just the blue ones) first went on sale in the Feesch Shop, the Gold ones arrived in August.

DECEMBER: Feesch broke the 30,000 member barrier. Feesch'2 fourth server (dedicated database server) was brought online. Feesch Business Cards were printed and the current Messages page was born, before that we only had the over burdened group subs page of course. In fact the "Last Read" bar and "Previous Page" link were also added this month. A busy month indeed.

NOVEMBER: A new star was born and lit the Feesch sky, and what a star! The one and only Freddy, the StarFeesch with the wobbly eyes has since been seen at many Events and now even has his own line in merchandise! Sadly the confectionery range has been put on hold, apparently the marketing guys here tell me there's an issue calling them "chocolate starfish". Anyway, this was a busy month, we also saw the new dropdown menus on the site! Oh and the Online Search too.

OCTOBER: Customised icons appeared all over the site, they had escaped from their cages on the group message boards and had wangled their way on to various search result pages the little blighters! This increased use of the customised icons lead indirectly to more people upgrading to GoldFeesch.

SEPTEMBER: Public Leaderboards, Birthdays and Anniversaries. The last two at least certainly changed the shape of the GoldFeesch board.

AUGUST: Expert mode added to the Editor.

JULY: Big changes were made to the Group Subs page, providing more information and links direct to the right page of message boards based on the last time you read it. Message board e-mails were also grouped so each member only received one e-mail per day.

JUNE: Online status indicators (green, orange or grey flower) sprung up all over the site.

MAY: Feesch is four years old, approximate membership 27,000 members.

APRIL: The Editor was beefed up with the addition of keyboard shortcuts and a context menu (right mouse click). Feesch events got their own message boards, can you imagine life without them now? And quick guide to what's on when and where was added, the Event Summary.

MARCH: Questions and Answers were added and we all gained an insight into our fellow feeschers. I decided it would be nice to provide some information about the sort of people that visit your page, so Visitor Leaderboards and Visitor Stats were added. The number of recent message posts was added to profiles. The Top Names list was added, mostly as a bit of fun, but also to encourage people to be a bit more inventive with their nicknames (have a look and you'll see what I mean!). And for the goldies, sample backgrounds and midi files were also provided.

FEBRUARY: Feesch characters (icons/avatars) were first added to the message boards and they've certainly been reproducing ever since. Smilies (graphical) were also unleashed and have been emoting all over the place. The Event Photo Section went under the knife and came out of the anaesthetic feeling not just more aesthetic, but also highly searchable. I also published my immensely popular "chatting guide" which some have referred to as their bible, I just call it common sense. And finally, I added a little HTML generator to the clipart manager for those who can't or won't use the Editor.

JANUARY: The ability to save Clipart images on the site was added (and what a huge difference that has made), and a little warning message was added to images which haven't been checked by a deputy yet. The site was also registered with the Internet Content Rating Association (formerly RSAC/PICS) so the site is properly labelled and classified, all very responsible.

DECEMBER: This was a very trying period in my life to put it mildly, without going into details the site's web address was withdrawn and I was forced (without notice) to move to the address we use today. Still, not all doom and gloom as Feesch's 4th Server was brought online and there was much rejoicing!

NOVEMBER: Well at this point in my life I was mostly concerned with my 30th birthday party (and rightly so), though the previous week I went to a Feesch wedding in Kent! I also made a few improvements to the Editor and extended the Feesch Ignore List to a few other searches.

OCTOBER: Well people had been playing with the HTML Editor for just one month before I unleashed the almighty RAINBOW TEXT! It has as predicted, certainly added a splash of colour to the site in the same way that young people do to the pavements after a good night out.

SEPTEMBER: This was indeed a prolific time for me, due in no small way (as Feesch Historians will tell you) to the fact that I was single at the time. GoldFeesch members were given a real treat, the maximum size of their comments/messages was increased from 1,500 characters to 5,000 characters! Not only that but the HTML Editor was released into their grubby little hands, it was like a feeding frenzy in the piranha tank. Was it a popular improvement? Try taking it away from them now! Hey would you put your hand in a piranha tank and say excuse me can I have my gerbil back? By strange coincidence, this was also the time that Credit Card transactions were also made available through the site. Believe it or not, this was a huge gamble at the time. If there wasn't a substantial increase in the amount of people going gold, it would have been a very expensive mistake. I had no way of knowing for sure, but luckily it paid off and now I see no way of the site surviving without it. A few other little morsels were also thrown to the hungrily awaiting Feesch members, eager to enjoy more new features. Visibility Stats provided a wealth of information about who had been knocking on their proverbial door. The Ignore List was also added, and for balance so was the Favourites List.

AUGUST: Feesch Visitors were born. Well the concept was born obviously, not the actual people, otherwise they'd be too young to be on the site silly! Has it made much difference? Well I reckon if I removed the system now I'd probably be stoned to death, so I'd say it's a much appreciated part of the site.

JULY: This month I asked everyone's opinion about visitors (to their profile, not from outer space), next month it went live. The spell checker was improved and given to everyone to encourage better litrasie. The gibberish generator was also provided and has been causing confusion ever since.

JUNE: Feesch got it's third server up and running, it's still doing sterling work today running all the scripts, but it them days it hosted the database as well. Oh and I also had a bit of fun with the Feesch Hall of Mirrors, have a play if you like.

MAY: Feesch is three years old, approximate membership 20,000 members. Gallery search was added, and coloured scrollbars appeared on the site. The FAQ page was born.

APRIL: The big news this month was Galleries, after much putting off and telling people to go and get a picture trail account, I buckled and gave people the option of having more images on their profile.

MARCH: Groupe Du Jour was launched, which of course is a pun based on "soup du jour" - soup of the day.

FEBRUARY: The "Site Stats" page was split into two smaller pages, one concerned with averages, records, projections etc, the other a history of joinrate for the current month and historically. Also revamped was the "User Stats" page, the last of the stats pages to have been upgraded to the mighty Feesch 2 standard, baring the contemporary hallmarks of improved functionality and smarter appearance.

JANUARY: I was doing a lot of work at this time on converting the site over to the database format which is in use today. The Group and Event sections were sorted out this month.

DECEMBER: The PO Box was born! This does actually cost Feesch a three figured amount every year, so why not help support it by sending it a cheque? lol. Hey it was worth a try!

NOVEMBER: The first phase of development for Feesch v2 started, the first benefit to members was the main member search which (apart from a few extras here and there) is still in use today.

OCTOBER: This was the time when the number of Feesch servers went from two to three, and more plans for Feesch v2 were unveiled, all based on the fundamental change to the way data was stored. This provided a quicker, more flexible foundation to rebuild the site on, we are all still enjoying the benefits of that labour today.

SEPTEMBER: The HTML Newsletter was born! Not only does it look nice (well more colourful at least) but it also allows me to use images, change key words into links etc. It's more work for me of course, but I'm sure it's appreciated. This was also the month I unveiled my startling plans for Feesch 2, an awe inspiring vision of the future. For those of you who are wondering what happened to it, well you're using it. So did it stand up to the hype? For that answer I guess you'd have to ask people who have been around on the site at this time. I can tell you that most of the features you enjoy today would not have been possible without the transition and that even the original features would not have stood up to the sheer weight of usage we get today. To use the analogy of the time, I replaced a worn out bicycle with a spangly new train, of course I do occasionally have problems with buckled rails and leaves on the line.

AUGUST: I was excited about the site having 12,500 members (we now have nearly three times that). I did a bit of calculating at the time and worked out that if all 12,500 members stood one on top of another, the person at the top would be over 21.6Km (13.5 miles) high! That's about 72 times higher than the Eiffel Tower. The poor soul at the bottom of this theoretical and theatrical tower (probably me!), would be instantaneously squashed into a gooey mess, unable to withstand the 965,837.5Kg of Feesch above them, the equivalent of 185 Asian elephants, or to put it another way, over 2 billion bags of sugar!

JULY: Shortcuts were unveiled, a nice simple web address for going straight to someone's page without the need to know their ICQ number. The link2us page was revamped with new banners and buttons ie "See me on Feesch".

JUNE: GoldStar was launched, and GoldFeesch members started appearing at the top of search results. I also started recording some of the nice things that people said about the site on a testimonials page. The site stats page was totally re-written and became three times quicker. It also got a "search" column and I started calculating growth percentage. I also cracked a time synchronisation issue, which is the sort of problem you get when you start to run a site across multiple servers. The old wallpaper came down (people had been picking at the woodchip) and the new Sushi wallpaper went up. This was also the time when I decided the leaderboard had to go, it was simply too destructive. Not only was it harmful to the site, but I found it brought out the worst in people, lying, cheating, doing anything to get to the top, we don't need that on Feesch.

MAY: Feesch is two years old, approximate membership 10,000 members.

APRIL: Feesch's second server (later only used for the chatroom) went live, mostly just running the member search. The first server was so incapable of doing the job on it's own that when the second server went live the site usage tripled. This was also about the time when you could start dialling up to the Net via freephone numbers (initially off peak only), that certainly affected the site! Amazingly, this was when GoldFeesch members were given the ability to set their background image! Yikes, those animated backgrounds! Auto Uploads was extended, instead of being just able to change your main image, comments, background and midi were added. The newpix went from scanning the hard disk to use a database driven approach, behind the scenes stuff I know, but very important. The only noticeable difference for users was that it was 75% quicker! Star for the Day got it's own banner, complete with the current star's nickname.

MARCH: I spent most of this month trying to automate a few of my daily chores, and trying to shift some more of the burden on to the trusty deputies. I was also sorting out server number two, ready to go live. The very first Feesch merchandise ever produced were available, beautifully embroidered with a Sushi design.

FEBRUARY: The maximum board message size went up from 80 characters (would you believe?) to 200 (non-gold) and 2,000 (gold) and allowed the use of HTML (of course these days it's 5,000 for gold).

JANUARY: Feesch survived the transition between the old and new millennium without any hitches caused by the dreaded bug. The "Events" section became just a part of the "Interact" section. Message Boards were added to the Groups (that's a biggy!), Feesch finally got a chatroom, though a fairly crap java-based server, not the spangly IRC server we have today. Auto Uploads were also unveiled (more of which later), busy month eh?

DECEMBER: "Last Visited Date" added to profiles. Login added (previously you had to edit and save to set the cookie!). Groups were added! (though no boards at this point). Feesch Deputies were recruited (previously I did EVERYTHING myself). "Premium Membership" ("GoldFeesch" had not been coined yet). Previously, the cost of the entire site was met by yours truly from my very own pocket.

NOVEMBER: Two enormous moments in the history of Feesch, Sushi became "Sushi". and the 15 certificate was born! Before this moment, you just never knew what you might see when you viewed a profile - oooh no missus!

OCTOBER: The Help Page became the INFO section, the newsletter was put on to the site. Star for the Day was added! The Homepage became personalised, welcoming you by name.Feesch got a new mascot, yes Sushi was born! Of course the name came later... Contact Form added (to replace e-mail links).

AUGUST: The site was moved to it's very own server (instead of a shared one) for the first time, a shiny 486-100Mhz with 16Mb RAM. Perhaps "shiny" is the wrong choice of words, if it was a horse I'd have taken my shot gun out to the stables. Still, a few days later it was fitted with a new motherboard, processor, 4 times as much memory and two new hard disks! Believe it or not, that box is still pretty much unchanged and these days is referred to as "Feesch 1". It doesn't do much itself now apart from delegating. Just like an old office manager eh? You don't have to be able to do the job yourself, you just need to be able to tell someone else to do it.

JULY: Events section now broken down by area. "Couple" and "Family" options added to Gender. Graphical buttons added to profiles for sending a message and adding people to your contact list. Hits table added to the profile.

MAY: Feesch is one year old, approximate membership 1,800 members. The first real Feesch Event was held in the King & Queen, in Brighton. No pictures were taken, but I do have the list of people who turned up for posterity: LizardMan, Shutts, Jimboborelli, Nich, Duracell Bunny, Tiggles, Liz (and Adam), Val (Alan and Gill), AJW, Kellinda, Azur, Nero. Oh and Feesch was listed on the ICQ "Hall of Fame" page.

MARCH: Help section added.

FEBRUARY: Feesch moved from a shared server, to a different shared server. At that time, the site was about 30Mb in total, to put that in perspective, in January 2004 just the data for profile Visitors takes up about 500Mb. The total for the whole site including images is almost impossible to calculate, but certainly a few gigabytes.

MAY: On the 23rd, Feesch was born!