20 Years of fireservice.co.uk

[Keith]

The Early Days.

it's hard to believe how time goes on, but the main site and forum have been around for 20 years. The initial idea of a site was started in 1999 by Carl, to initially showcase photos of his Watch and Station at the time. With a few false starts and negotiating the early days of the internet the first version of the site went live around June 2000.

Now the site and forum have gone through many changes over the years, with Carl keeping us up to date with the latest technology and formats, but with the help of the Wayback Machine, I'll take us a trip down memory lane, starting off with the early years.

The first capture of the site was on 03/06/00 unfortunately though most of the images have gone so it probably isn't the best place to start. This version from 09/02/01 though certainly is and shows the initial ethos of the site, back in the Stretford Fire Station days. The next couple from  28/06/01 and 23/01/02  show how things developed with the later being the one that many will remember.

The forum began life as a Bulletin Board, the 2001 version looked like and quickly evolved to this in  2002. From these captures on 27/08/02 and 19/02/03 you can see how quickly we became popular and this this version from 17/08/03 continues the growth.

I'll leave it there for now as I know we have quite a few members who have been around form those early days and will give them the opportunity to share their experiences from then, before continuing the story.

[Messyshaw]

Thanks for posting @Keith and congratulations to @Carl and the team of moderators who have constantly maintained a high standard here. Strong and consistent moderating might not always been popular, but chaos and anarchy will ensue if its left to a free for all

I have to say I miss many of the old names that came up by trawling through the older versions of the site and regret they are not about any more. I wonder what they are doing now? The site was more about fire service chat by serving firefighters when I first joined, but has evolved to it's rather impressive status as the No 1 site for those wishing to join the UK Fire Service. I am aware some fire authorities refer potential recruits to this site, so that's a really good place to be.

The amount of experience available here is second to none. I don't mean by old farts like me, I mean by those who have recently suffered blood, sweat and tears over many years to achieve their aim- and now are generous enough to pass their experience to others to help them overcome the hurdles of becoming a 21st century firefighter.

[TandA]

The bulletin board for April 2003 has what, iirc, became one of the most hotly debated threads ever “How do you roll your hose?”.  That one ran and ran.  😀

[CaptainFlack]

12 hours ago, TandA said:

That one ran and ran.  😀

And then rolled back up and out again. !!

Some names on the list there!

What ever happened to the guy from the North East ?? - Fftrrm or something.  

[Noddy]

😲😲😲

[Messyshaw]

10 hours ago, CaptainFlack said:

What ever happened to the guy from the North East ?? - Fftrrm or something.  

God only knows. I wouldn't say he was an aggressive opinionated arse,  but he made Piers Morgan look like a pussy cat 🐈 

[Keith]

Moving swiftly on.🤫

[Bubbles]

On 16/06/2020 at 11:26, CaptainFlack said:What ever happened to the guy from the North East ?? - Fftrrm or something.  

Blimey I’d forgotten about him 😮

Definately a few names from them past there with Tim Gilks & DFB. Was good to see Tine’s name on one of the pages as well. 
 

There has been a fair few members who have come and gone over the last few years and yet some of us are still here. 

[Keith]

On 15/06/2020 at 08:02, Messyshaw said:

The site was more about fire service chat by serving firefighters when I first joined, but has evolved to it's rather impressive status as the No 1 site for those wishing to join the UK Fire Service. I am aware some fire authorities refer potential recruits to this site, so that's a really good place to be.

Very well put Messy and that has undoubtedly been down to the quality membership we've had over the years. Like all Watches, Stations and workplaces in general though, people move on so I suppose it's inevitable that this will also be reflected in the forum. The recruitment sections have certainly flourished and it would be interesting to know how many people have been successful in joining the fire service with the site and forums help?

The growing popularity of the forum nearly led to its downfall though. How many of you remember the first time we had to start it again? In late 2004 we overloaded the host and server that was being used at the time. Whereas before it wasn't simply a case of moving to a new one as there were other technical problems so we made the difficult decision to start it from scratch again. We needn't have worried though as everybody moved over and that forum ran very successfully until we had to retire it in 2017.

To continue the look back, here are a few more snapshots of how the main site and forum looked over the years, starting first with the main site in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2011. The corresponding versions of the forum 2004,  2006, 2008 and finally for now 2011

[Carl]

Fantastic post @Keith, I didn't realise how much time I have put in creating all those versions. Ive got the itch now to redo the site 😂

[Noddy]

Step away from the Forum Carlos 😂