Mere snippets from a decade of woo.
I was lucky enough to arrive early on with B3ta, the Kill Your Friends game's amazing theme song got me to visit the site and you could post without an account so I did that at first. I thought at the time getting id 498 might mean in 10 years time I'd feel honoured to be one of the first 500.

Some of my very early favourites were Giant Bee, Electric Dreams with Hawking and the Cursor Love Bunny... we could be here another 10 years if I go through all of them.

It was all amazing, the speed at which things were made, the love put into them, just for the sake of a quick joke or to get some crazy idea out of your head.

I was always confident that b3ta was going to explode in popularity because it was so full of incredible things.

I made this predicted growth chart in June 2002

This is the updated version with the actual results superimposed, the Introducing Monday site was the kink in July 2002.

Bandwidth was a strain back then many times we'd get a red x once a pic's hosting had exceeded it's limit but being on blueyonder I was fortunate to have unlimited bandwidth. I thought I could test out just how unlimited when Joel asked if I could host a couple of flash files for his animations Outtathaway by the Vines and a Blode Episode. They're just a few hundred k, no big deal. Wow! is all I can say. So many gigs worth of hits came in month after month I kept waiting for the phonecall and a huge bill but thankfully they never came :) (Still hosting them to this day)

Another early favourite was Joel's trip around London with a crab mask from Newsletter 20. I ended up bumping into him a few months later and recognising him from this so he was the first b3tan I met (if you don't count the ones I found out later I'd gone to school with). The bashes began in earnest in 2002 and so many great bonds were formed and chaos was released from the furtive minds.

I should save all this for a book one day ;) The m3tatweening (Phase 1) www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1yeD17rVQE was one of the best things I remember from a collaboration point of view (the b3ta fish screensaver that appeared from nowhere one afternoon from scratch was another - if anyone has the swf of that let me know www2.b3ta.com/screensaver/ )

The first one was just meant to be a long animated gif, but I got so many people wanting to take part I realised I would have to make it a video, then more b3tans added a soundtrack to it. If you#ve never heard of m3tatweening it's a b3tan stream of consciousness animation where each one of 20ish animators only get a start and end frame. They can get from one to the other any way they want, then all of it will join together using those key frames.

EDIT: M3tatweening Phase 2 now online again for the fist time in 5 or 6 years - vimeo.com/28960828

By the time it got to Phase 3 & 4 vimeo.com/7464540 - (Full HQ version) people were using full on video, particle effects, ms paint, imageready, anything you could imagine and yet it all still flowed together, it's a hefty 24 mins and full of great woo! All from such a simple idea.

Domo Darko (removed from Youtube now) was made the day millions marched around the world to protest against the upcoming Iraq War. It is probably the best received thing I made on b3ta but it only exists because b3ta does. The same goes for so many wonderful things we have seen over the years.

Part of why the Domo Darko song was so great to me was that I first saw the film Donnie Darko at the Curzon in London with some b3tans; Misteralfie, Bob the Dinosaur and maybe a couple more, the night before the 1st B3tan halloween bash in 2002. The film's timeline leads up in date to halloween so it all seemed so right.

B3ta also once led me to ask the Liverpool St. Station announcer to put a call out for 'Kaiser Bulbmeister' who had gone missing on the way to a bash. The poor guy really didn't seem keen on the Kaiser part but was more than happy to ask for a Mr. Bulbmeister.

Anyway, I must stop all this reminiscing now.


My Regius Professor of Chronology comes from Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul btw, early on I had actually managed to keep up with reading every single post on b3ta (and posting as much as 5% of them myself).

Timespaz back to any archive pages from 2002/2003 and pretend you're a lurker. Even if some of the images are missing the banter and laughs are still there. I can't pick out a few, if you knew me back then I thank you for making b3ta such a special place. Treasured memories are treasured.

Edit: For the record 9 years, 9 months, 9 days. (8 but I couldn't wait until after midnight to post this and 9 looks better)
( Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 19:13, 9 replies)

Aha
There you are, I was just talking about you up there ^^^
( supermoore: HUNG, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 19:28, closed)

Hello
Just last week I was wondering where you'd got to :)
( popt_art, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 19:31, closed)

Fnord!
The last time I saw you was at Reckless Rik's! We were talking about you only the other day and wondering what had happened to you. Hope all is well!
(DMQOB, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 20:12, closed)

DOOOOOMMMMCUUUBBBEEE :)
I was thinking about you too the other day www.b3ta.com/links/678009

We should get a re-union bash set up somewhere, or at least I should get back in touch with you guys.
( Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 20:56, closed)

yes,
I would love a great big catch up.
(DMQOB, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 22:49, closed)

I was thinking about
you as well as this lot ^^^^ :)
( witchy is covered in BEES, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 20:42, closed)

Yay, I remember that graph from the first time round!
A few of us were hunting for the metatween not so long ago. Is part two lost forever?
( rogan, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 21:06, closed)

I remember it too.
I think I spent three quarters of my teenage years on b3ta. And it was far better than the dreary suburban alternative.
( bananaman, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 21:16, closed)

I can only imagine what would have happened if you'd stuck doing all that maths with no b3ta
to distract you.
( Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 21:44, closed)

I didn't do too badly
in the end, you know.
( bananaman, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 22:01, closed)

Hey Rogan :) I got nasty messages from Youtube and an official strike so I had to take off some things with certain music on
I've still got all the m3tatween stuff but part 2 isn't up hosted anywhere. I'll try and get it up on vimeo. Phase 2 certainly deserves more viewing than it has had recently.
( Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 21:31, closed)

Yeah,
you should do a kickstarter for a criterion DVD with directors' commentaries. Let us know if you ever manage to put it up anywhere
( rogan, Wed 14 Sep 2011, 19:47, closed)

Crikey
SOme old memories flooding back there! Just watched Joel in his crab mask again - I'd forgotten about that. Genius it was. Feeling very old now...
( Wifey, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 21:27, closed)

Ooh Wifey, hope you're well I remember spending the night of the first semi-official bash on the board with you and a few others
It was very quiet and I think you were the only mod left. Some bizzare things got front paged including a webcam of a random bar :)
www.b3ta.com/board/58918
( Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 21:41, closed)

I remember
The kids were really little and I was very bored and pissed off I couldn't go to the bash and possibly a bit drunk too. Didn't we have an hour where we FP'd everything?? I was never a very good mod....
( Wifey, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 21:48, closed)

We were
totally talking about you last week.
( 100% of Gibbon, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 22:12, closed)

I am starting to get a little paranoid now.
There must have been a mass posting of invisible 'Fnord's across the internet this month?
( Professor Fnord Regius Professor of B3ta Chronology, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 22:42, closed)

I often think back of all the really good people I've met through this place.
It's nice to see you lot again.
( Wildheart Baby. Drunken Mess In A Good Way, Mon 12 Sep 2011, 23:16, closed)