A brief history of the development of the Disney Information Bulletin Board (theDIBB)

Many people ask us how the DIBB came about.

A few years ago I use to frequent a different Disney site, this site had a USA and a UK element to it. I was a major contributor on the UK site both Disney and Technical. For various reasons the UK site was shut down and parts of it was combined with the USA site.
Many people thought it would lose it's unique 'British style', so I decided to start a set of forums for those UK members.

The first site came on line 2nd March 2002 and was called Disney Info (www.disneyinfo.co.uk) it consisted of just a set of forums with about 100 members.

The hard part though was just as I started it, I received notification that I had to work overseas for 4 months and I knew there would be very limited internet access. Luckily we had some very good moderators that volunteered their services (all but one are still moderators now), Dave (theFatman) and Deano also stepped in as Administrators whilst I was away and kept the site running.

It was a very steep learning curve for all involved. I was technically capable but had never dabbled with running a dynamic website. Within the first couple of months the very first server soon ran out of bandwidth and we had to double the capacity. We didn't realise just how much bandwidth an active site uses. Very soon after that we had to increase it again and then again.
Each increase came with additional costs and it soon became clear that we would need an injection of cash as it was costing a small fortune to run.

We devised a scheme where members could signup to support the site for a small monthly or annual fee in exchange they would receive extra benefits and facilities on the site. Originally this scheme was called 'Premium Members' the name came from the Virgin Premium Economy Seats that many members were using. Currently this is called DIBB AP Holders. This is a very popular scheme and has even been closely copied by other main stream disney sites!

The site was becoming very popular, relying on it's friendliness and it's unique British feel to what is essentially an American holiday planning site.

Disney seemed to be having a purge on websites that were using the Disney name so before we were targeted we decided that it was probably a good time to change the domain name from www.disneyinfo.co.uk

We asked members to come up with suggestions and eventually after many discussions and a few Polls, the chosen name was 'the DIBB' which is an abbreviation of 'The Disney Information Bulletin Board'

Simon (SMAX) came on-board as an Administrator, he designed the current DIBB logo and came up with the slogan that we use, 'Disney with a British Accent'

The DIBB was now a major player in it's own right, we started to expand by adding a front page portal and many web pages. But the forums were still the main stay of the site. Right from the beginning we have had great moderators to help run the forums. These are unpaid volunteers who give up some of their free time to help run the forums and help keep it the friendly and happy place I hope it will always be.

We moved to a fast UK based Dedicated server located at a secure Data Center in Docklands London, this came with lots of premium bandwidth that allowed us to offer a many new features including Streaming Video and a comprehensive Photo Gallery.

The next stage was to totally revamp the DIBB's website, over a period of about 12 months we totally rewrote all the web pages and totally changed the look and style of the site to give much extra information.

We have since upgraded the site a couple of times to what you see now, in fact this is now an ongoing project and we are continually adding and revising the site.

That takes us up to now and the DIBB you see before you.

Our aim is to be the best UK based resource for Disney and Orlando holiday planning....

Our Ethos is simply to be a Family friendly site aimed at 'Orlando Holiday Makers' and Disney Fans.

I'd like to pass on my grateful thanks to all those members past and present, be they long standing members or new members, that have contributed to the DIBB. Also to fantastic unpaid volunteers, know as the Moderators. It is you that make the DIBB a success and it is you that help make this site friendly and welcoming.

Thank you for reading this and I hope you enjoy the DIBB.

Regards
Stu

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