View Full Version : TGP history lesson
baxen
10-19-2008, 05:31 PM
I've been aware of this forum for a little under 2 years and am curious about the early days. How did the forum evolve and did the early members ever imagine the size and scope of its current state? I for one have learned a lot and laughed a lot reading the posts and am very glad it exists.
90wreck
10-19-2008, 05:56 PM
One word that made TGP what is today.
TAG.
;)
:rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao
Honestly...The amps/pedal forums has taken it a long way IMO.
re-animator
10-19-2008, 05:59 PM
The size of TGP increases incrementally with each robben ford album.
Randaddy
10-19-2008, 06:00 PM
I've been aware of this forum for a little under 2 years and am curious about the early days. How did the forum evolve and did the early members ever imagine the size and scope of its current state? I for one have learned a lot and laughed a lot reading the posts and am very glad it exists.
I've been here for a little under two years also, and I agree with you. I've learned lots of great things and laughed much.
Hurray, TGP!
P90Nut
10-19-2008, 06:03 PM
What a great idea for a thread! I gain so much in information & laughter from this site.
Mark
michael.e
10-19-2008, 06:10 PM
Oi.........
If I feel like it later, I will elaborate..
I am crusty. I am also not a standard Blooze guy..
Emee
violetlove
10-19-2008, 07:39 PM
no blooze or Robben here either, but yes, I get a lot of laughs from this place. There are some very funny buggers here, and while it can get serious at tiems, moslty people see the light side of stuff.
A lot of knowledge and motivation too.
Thank you TGP !!
VaughnC
10-19-2008, 07:54 PM
Long story short:
TGP started its life as "The PRS Forum" and later became affiliated with PRS guitars. After a few years, the Forum owner decided to break the affiliation with PRS guitars and the forum was then renamed "The Gear Page". A few thousand subscribers later, here we are ;).
Scott Peterson
10-19-2008, 10:02 PM
Vaughn's pretty close.
At first, there was the PRS Forum. And it was good. Affiliation with PRS followed, it was good. We had PRS Forum Events there for 4 or 5 years; precursors to the current PRS event's they have now.
We had enormous non-PRS related traffic in the Amps/Cabs section of the PRS forum that was as heavy a load on the servers as the PRS related discussion was. I thought it was a good opportunity to create a new forum independant of the PRS Forum with absolutely no corporate affiliation whatsoever.
When I was a kid, there was a small local music store in Allen Park, Michigan called "A&R Music" (it's still there). It was my thing to go there on Saturday during the day in my teens before I was old enough to drive, riding my bike close to 45 minutes or so to get there one way, and play gear and talk to musicians. You had national acts, regional acts, local acts and all sorts of guys showing up through the day to buy strings, speakers, etc. that were in the area for gigs that weekend and they'd hang out and talk. Show you some stuff on guitar, sort of mentoring young guys like me and others. The store was cool enough to let me put my dream guitar (which I sill own) on layaway for over a year and pay $5 or $10 a week towards it as I could. Never any issue with me being there, playing gear, nothing.
The Gear Page was my idea of making that happen on a world-wide basis. A place for guitarists and musicians to hang out and respectfully talk shop and music.
When the "Amps and Cabs" section of The PRS Forum was getting as much or more traffic than the "PRS Guitars" section of that site - and most cats there were not PRS guys at all - there was serious consideration for simply deleting that section outright. It was my idea to break it off and create a forum that was not tied to any manufacturer and accepted no advertising so that it was truly independent of that sort of influence. Brian said, "It's your baby..." and off we went.
Brian and I felt the PRS Forum had run it's course when PRS started trying to exert control over the content of the Forum. That wasn't something in Brian or my DNA. So we closed it and redoubled our efforts with TGP.
And here we are today.
twinrider1
10-19-2008, 10:23 PM
...(snip)
Brian and I felt the PRS Forum had run it's course when PRS started trying to exert control over the content of the Forum. ...
Is that something you can go into, in a general sense? Was it as harmless as "hey, we're rolling out a new model and we'll send you one to try out. If you like it, talk it up on the forum?" Or was it more heavy-handed, "Member X is hacking on our product, ban him."
Okay, here is where I was going to write that I understood if you didn't feel it was proper to go into it. But I want to know, so spill it! :D
The PRS Forum begat TGP and Scott and Brian saw that it was good.
I'm not gonna elaborate who has been thrown out of Eden...
sosomething
10-19-2008, 10:32 PM
I've been here for a few years and I still have no idea what's going on.
Scott Peterson
10-19-2008, 11:19 PM
Is that something you can go into, in a general sense? Was it as harmless as "hey, we're rolling out a new model and we'll send you one to try out. If you like it, talk it up on the forum?" Or was it more heavy-handed, "Member X is hacking on our product, ban him."
Okay, here is where I was going to write that I understood if you didn't feel it was proper to go into it. But I want to know, so spill it! :D
No one was ever sent any gear, nor given any gear for review or to talk anything up. Brian got a PRS Bass as a gift at the last PRS Forum Event. I got... a free mousepad.
They were not happy with pricing discussions online and they were not happy with negative posts about dealers. They asked us to remove them. We said no.
Nothing major and no big secret.
Han Solo
10-20-2008, 04:50 AM
I got... a free mousepad
:rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao
Donbo
10-20-2008, 05:21 AM
What years correspond with that nice little history lesson? :munch
And secondly, where do these Smilies come from?
twinrider1
10-20-2008, 08:44 AM
Is that something you can go into, in a general sense? Was it as harmless as "hey, we're rolling out a new model and we'll send you one to try out. If you like it, talk it up on the forum?" Or was it more heavy-handed, "Member X is hacking on our product, ban him."
Okay, here is where I was going to write that I understood if you didn't feel it was proper to go into it. But I want to know, so spill it! :D
No one was ever sent any gear, nor given any gear for review or to talk anything up. Brian got a PRS Bass as a gift at the last PRS Forum Event. I got... a free mousepad.
They were not happy with pricing discussions online and they were not happy with negative posts about dealers. They asked us to remove them. We said no.
Nothing major and no big secret. emphasis added
Oh sure, like I'm supposed to trust the guy with the pimped out PRS mouse pad! :)
It's interesting. I can understand their not wanting pricing discussions to a point. But it's hard to realistically expect dealer reviews to be filtered. In fact, they should use them as feedback to improve their network.
Anyway, it was common to hear people complain about car/bike magazines being on the take, giving great reviews in exchange for advertising, etc. So my curiosity about the PRS situation was peaked. Thanks for the insight.
whitehall
10-20-2008, 09:48 AM
Forums go through interesting gestation's. Once upon a time (2001) the LPF was a smaller but mighty bastion of like minded people. Then some of the more radical elements mutinied and formed their own forum (The Axehouse) there then ensued much screaming and bloodletting and some of those people wound up here as well. The thing I always liked about TGP is that it is so large as to be almost transparent. You post a question, either you get an answer pretty quickly or the post disappears downstream.
MikeyG
10-20-2008, 10:01 AM
I miss the early days - in particular, the people that were here then, and no longer choose to hang out here.
It was smaller, more 'personal' (as much as a web forum can be , I guess), and had a much higher signal/noise ratio.
It's really evolved ... people of all ages and musical styles come here when they get tired of the antics on other forums. I think the mods, for all the crap they take, do a good job at staying out of people's way unless it is warranted.
imonabuss
10-20-2008, 10:30 AM
BTW, thank you Scott and Brian!
Long story short:
TGP started its life as "The PRS Forum" and later became affiliated with PRS guitars. After a few years, the Forum owner decided to break the affiliation with PRS guitars and the forum was then renamed "The Gear Page". A few thousand subscribers later, here we are ;).
A brief history of TGP's time, yup!
I pretty much go along with what's been said here.
I've been a member since the get go...and was with the PRS Forum before this.
Alot of the guys who were there are still here...and that's a good thing.
I still dig PRS (I own 2), but dont go over to BAM nearly as much as here.
I like the bigger world that Scott and Brian have put together here...and would applaud them (and the mods) for keeping the quality high.
Long Live TGP!
S.
j
One word that made TGP what is today.
TAG.
;)
:rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao
Honestly...The amps/pedal forums has taken it a long way IMO.
No, not Tag. Tag was a rank amateur compared to TedM. Ted is a sincere hobbyist who would post his unique opinions on music and gear and literally set the place on fire. I specifically remember Ed Degenero having a melt down in one thread.
There was some speculation that Ted was in fact some high level player like Alan Holdsworth or ? but I don't think so. Ted is actually a sensitive guy who was simply looking to share his unrequited love of the guitar with others.
I miss his posts and his special point of view about music and he will always be welcome in any of my threads.
fyler
10-20-2008, 01:03 PM
oh, man...i had completely forgotten about TedM...
:messedup
Cottage
10-20-2008, 01:08 PM
Well, thanks guys for a great site. Its given my pals and I lots o' laughs and great info. ..... And we need that contact up here in Soviet Canuckistan!
Scott Peterson
10-20-2008, 01:36 PM
No, not Tag. Tag was a rank amateur compared to TedM. Ted is a sincere hobbyist who would post his unique opinions on music and gear and literally set the place on fire. I specifically remember Ed Degenero having a melt down in one thread.
There was some speculation that Ted was in fact some high level player like Alan Holdsworth or ? but I don't think so. Ted is actually a sensitive guy who was simply looking to share his unrequited love of the guitar with others.
I miss his posts and his special point of view about music and he will always be welcome in any of my threads.
TedM still posts. Search the clips section. He now does videos FWIW.
gkoelling
10-20-2008, 01:43 PM
Yeah, I saw a TedM video recently. I've sometimes wondered if Ted doesn't know more than he lets on but it really doesn't matter.
Honestly, I think some of his stuff is pretty cool.
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