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History of the Hub


Witkop

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Apart from me and maybe spinnekop and marius, can anyone remember when the hub all started? When lonestar had supercycling kill its discussion forum and had all of us move over to the hub?

 

What other historical things happened?

 

Rise of TCS and how it had to deal with the problems of being a team in the modern cycling community (fandicious?! and Colonel may remember this one)?

 

The great reset when most of us lost our accounts and had to start from ground zero?

 

The rise of Tumbleweed and TNT1( builder bob)

 

The rise, roast, renaming and disappearance of BigH

 

The great atheist thread?

 

have I missed something?

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I started here from an ill-fated google search in 2006 when the Hub was mostly fields. You could come on at night and there would be no-one here. In the day a third of posts were TCS, a third Cape Town and us plebs the rest.

 

Robbie Hunter posting from the Barloworld TDF was a thrill.

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When I joined on 15 Dec 2004 there were only a few hundred peeps on the Hub. Linnega and co. could still impart their wisdom without a bunch of wise asses trolling every thread.

Edited by Wannabe
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Come on Admin, dish the dirt!

 

Admin is like that disconnected voice they have in those old movies - big brother, always watching , always aware , always one step ahead, always there, no place to hide...

Edited by Skylark
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'Admin' should spill the beans, I am sure he has been keeping tabs.

 

Come on Admin, dish the dirt!

 

Admin is like that disconnect voice they have in those old movies - big brother, always watching , always aware , always one step ahead, always there, no place to hide...

 

I think some of the older Hubbers have more insight into the goings on over the years than me. I can give you the high level milestones and history of where things started, but for the dirt you'll have to look to some of the old timers ;)

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Even further back to the original site as launched in 2004.

 

Shocking yellow and all. (Excuse the broken images)

 

T h e H u b S A. c o . z a - The Centre of cycling in South Africa.png

 

The yellow lasted all of about 3 months.

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Admin/Matt , are you the original guy who started thehub or did you take the reigns over at some stage?

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Admin/Matt , are you the original guy who started thehub or did you take the reigns over at some stage?

 

I'm the original.

 

Since we're talking history, here is some insight on how it began:

 

Back in 2003 I had the idea to start a Cape Town focussed cycling 'portal' called Cycling CT. As a keen roadie and computer geek it was a cool project to combine two passions, fill a gap in the market and hopefully earn a little pocket money with time.

 

The site was to become the go-to place for CT based cyclists with news, results, event calendars, routes & trails, link directories and a message board. After spending weeks compiling various route maps, write ups and other content I quickly realised the content was a bit thin and very limited. Keeping it fresh and interesting for visitors would be challenging.

 

In researching web design I'd come across various user driven 'message boards' (as they were known at the time) which focussed around particular niches. Long story short, Cycling CT was scrapped and The Hub SA was born.

 

The first promotion was in the form of windscreen flyers at various Cape league & fun rides. A trickle feed of visitors began visiting and posting, but it was really only when Super Cycling restricted and subsequently shut down their own message board that we started to get some traction.

 

Their shutdown was actually lucky timing and pure coincidence, but certainly gave The Hub its kickstart into online existence.

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