Origin and History of the Dinotoyblog and forum.

[Tyrannosaurid lover]

Seeing how big this comunity is I allways asked myself, how this idea begin?
Like how does someone open a blog for this specific group of collectors and get so well recived

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Hmmm..I'd say a LOT of luck.

[tyrantqueen]

It's a combination of many things...a user friendly, well designed site, relaxed atmosphere, a community with lots of active contribution, a hard working moderating team, and great links with the paleontological community in general (for example, we have sculptors posting their stuff here, and even toy companies have contacted us in the past to hear our opinions). And we have longevity on our side as well

[Libraraptor]

With a certain size and after a certain time, systems become self-reflecting. Your question hints at this law of systems theory. It´s interesting to watch new members ask for the origin of this idea. Could be a sign for they can´t believe that a forum like this exists, where all the needs of a collector for self-confidence, comparison, appreciation, informaton are being satisfied. So much for the theory.

But it does exist and is more alive than ever, due to a great idea that has been conversed aesthetically and technically on a great level, a friendly and benevolent prevailing mud and great connections to the palaeontological world, palaeoart and dinomania,  the Admin itself being a palaeontologist.
I was led here searching for Invicta blue whale and I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere and the great acceptance. So I stayed. I´m in the seventh year by now.

[DinoToyForum]

I remember answering a similar question on the forum before but can't remember in what thread.

Basically, yes, a combination of factors!

[amargasaurus cazaui]

It all began with a strand of "dinosaur collector" DNA found inside a mosquito in a block of amber that was cloned and...oh wait, wrong story

[tyrantqueen]

But it does exist and is more alive than ever, due to a great idea that has been conversed aesthetically and technically on a great level, a friendly and benevolent prevailing mud and great connections to the palaeontological world, palaeoart and dinomania,  the Admin itself being a palaeontologist.

I've never heard mud described as "friendly" before. Maybe that's the reason why elephants and dogs like to roll around in it?

[DinoToyForum]

But it does exist and is more alive than ever, due to a great idea that has been conversed aesthetically and technically on a great level, a friendly and benevolent prevailing mud and great connections to the palaeontological world, palaeoart and dinomania,  the Admin itself being a palaeontologist.

I've never heard mud described as "friendly" before. Maybe that's the reason why elephants and dogs like to roll around in it?

Autocorrect strikes again!

[Libraraptor]

Oh, I see
I´m not in the mood of being in the mud today

[Stegotyranno420]

I wonder sometimes while im on here, who came up with the idea for this place. Who were the Founding Fathers and Mothers? What was before the forum. How did it start. Was it in a team of people who proposed the idea, or was it just one person. If the former, how did they meet. Why did they do it. What hardships were faced. The forum is like a country, with its own origins and history. The earliest evidence of the forum(including the archives) i have found were from C.E. 2008. I would had only been 0 or 1 depending on the month at the time. It is so fascinating how long this forum existed for. How some of the original members of the earliest days still reside. Its been about 13 years since the beginning and modern state of the forum. 13 years from today, i will be 26. I will become an adult. And i hope i am still on the forum, which i really hope still will exist. This has been some of the best things in my life. Never had i had so many friends and neighbors with such similar interests? My gratitude to all my friends, neighbors, staff members, workers, admins and moderators, and artists that reside here.
Edit on 09/03/2021: Today marks the 9th anniversary of the first post on V2 of the Forum, something cool i noticed that might fit in context

[sauroid]

i started being a member in Version 1 in 2011. as far as i know Dr. Admin started it alone (?) and a lot of the original members who are still active are still with us. the ones i can remember are Dr. Admin, Gwangi, Postsaurischian, Roselaar, Libraraptor, Stoneage, Bokisaurus, Blade of the Moon, Patrx, takama, UK, john, SBell, Ikessauro, etc.

[DinoToyForum]

  Topics merged.

[Libraraptor]

i started being a member maybe two years after the forum began in Version 1 in 2011. as far as i know Dr. Admin started it alone (?) and a lot of the original members who are still active are still with us. the ones i can remember are Dr. Admin, Gwangi, Postsaurischian, Roselaar, Libraraptor, Stoneage, Bokisaurus, Blade of the Moon, Patrx, takama, UK, john, SBell, Ikessauro, etc.

There used to be a person called "Tomhet", too, who I would describe as a co-founder, but who parted ways with us after a while.

[sauroid]

i started being a member in Version 1 in 2011. as far as i know Dr. Admin started it alone (?) and a lot of the original members who are still active are still with us. the ones i can remember are Dr. Admin, Gwangi, Postsaurischian, Roselaar, Libraraptor, Stoneage, Bokisaurus, Blade of the Moon, Patrx, takama, UK, john, SBell, Ikessauro, etc.

There used to be a person called "Tomhet", too, who I would describe as a co-founder, but who parted ways with us after a while.

yeah i used to see his name during the early days but completely got obliterated through the years.

[DinoToyForum]

I'm sure I've recounted the story before but I can't find it written anywhere, so let's see, a concise history.

It started with the Dinosaur Toy Blog, which I launched on 14 July 2007. At the time it was free-hosted by Wordpress. One of the first visitors to the blog, Tomhet, offered to contribute some early guest reviews. Many of my own early posts have since been deleted because they were so short.

At the time there was already a small forum for dinosaur collectors called Dinoworld. There were four or five contributing members. I had some constructive changes that I thought could make that forum better, to encourage the community to grow, and to strengthen links with the Dinosaur Toy Blog, but the owner didn't want to change it and didn't want me to be a co-admin. So, that's when I launched the Dinosaur Toy Forum (version 1) in January 2008, to put my ideas into practice. DTFv1 was a free-hosted Proboards forum, like Dinoworld. Tomhet joined me as a moderator but left the forum after a few years because of some disagreement, I can't remember the details now. A few other regular members were promoted as moderators during the V1 days and are still with us today.

In 2010 I registered the domain dinotoyblog.com and migrated the blog to its own domain. However, the forum still remained hosted by Proboards because there was no way to migrate the forum content. Eventually, I became dissatisfied enough with Proboards to bite the bullet and decided to launch the new Dinosaur Toy Forum as well, running on a 'SMF' installation here at dinotoyblog.com/forum. Forum members had to join from scratch and I was unable to migrate the old content, so it was a new start for everyone. The v1 forum is still accessible as an 'archive'.

A decade passed. And here we are.

[SidB]

It's interesting that only one review remains on the DTB (as far as I can tell) from Tomhet, edited by Plesiosauria, from December 0f 2007. This is his review of the venerable Battat Tyrannosaurus rex, versions 2 & 3. I suppose that this was overlooked when he removed his other reviews from the DTB.