The first post in this forum, back before I converted it from another BBS system, IIRC, was in 2003, by "Walter", aka Bark. Elias chimed in shortly thereafter.
https://secure.thementalmilitia.com/forums/index.php?topic=2.0
I've been maintaining thementalmilitia.com since 2007:
Domain Name: THEMENTALMILITIA.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1208780802_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.publicdomainregistry.com
Registrar URL: www.publicdomainregistry.com
Updated Date: 2018-09-04T09:04:07Z
Creation Date: 2007-09-10T14:48:39Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2019-09-10T14:48:39Z
Yes you have, Bill, and you've been marvelous, all the time, every time, in whatever way was needed.
I'd like to thank you for digging up that link. Awesome!
Bark was the first dude I met when I moved to Montana in July 2001. Met him at a saloon in Three Forks, west of Bozeman. At that time Bark was webmaster for "Rockin The Rivers" --
https://www.rockintherivers.com/He took me out of that saloon and over to one of the owners' home -- there were two brothers and a pal from Billings who owned Rockin The Rivers, the property and the annual show. So Bark got me in with the wrong crowd right off the bat, lol!
But Rockin The Rivers did not pay him so well, and he ended up crashing at my house in Willow Creek. Having just moved to Montana I was glad to run into a dope smokin' Amigo who would build a national website for TMM, which Bark was and did. It was a beautiful php site, cutting edge for back in 2003. That site was launched and running when I chanced across Debra Ricketts' "Claire Files" website and noticed that Claire was lamenting that she and Debra would like to get a decent forum. Reading that, I then asked Bark if TMM had enough bandwidth to offer Claire a forum of her on, using TMM's space. He said yes, so I paid him to create this forum. He had built the TMM national site back in 2002, and he started on this forum in early 2003.
About that time I learned that Claire Wolfe was going to speak "live" and in public at the Free State Project's "Western States" conference at Missoula, Montana. I drove the two hundred miles to see her and meet her in person. That was awesome.
I had already emailed her and offered a forum at TMM's grace and she had accepted and Bark had already got it mostly ready by the time I met Claire in Missoula. It was very shortly after that conference in March 2003 that Claire and Debra were able to open their new forum, and of course the first post-maker here was Bark himself, as he had a lot of tinkering to do with this place. Well, in no time at all, Claire Wolfe drew quite a crowd. Soon enough there were thousands of members. But then along came the infamous flounce-off by Kirsten and Co., which finally burned Claire out on the whole idea of having a forum.
She announced one day that she wanted to sell the forum. I asked her how much. $1,500.00. I had given it to her for free, no charge, but it had a value four years later when she wanted to get out from under the responsibilities of running the place, 2007. I told her I'd ask the membership to raise the money with donations, and she said she'd go with that if I promised to re-name this place from Claire Files to The Mental Militia. We all agreed and did give her the fifteen hundred.
But just before all that came down, Bark came down with cancer and I had moved to a four-bedroom house adjacent to the Willow Creek Saloon, and took Bark with me. I'm flooded with memories. His death did not come quickly, so I moved his mom and his daughter into my home with Bark. Then came the hospice people and Bark's passing. And as I'm a dummy, I let the new TMM national site drift away with him. He never gave me the keys to the site, ack! He and I had some damn good years being outrageous outlaws before he flew away. Claire to this day will tell you that what I wrote the moment of his death will always stay in her memory. Claire loved Bark too.
So after Bark, here you came! Dude, you'll never know how much I value your consistent dedication to making your Internet rounds every day -- look how many years you've got with this place and FIJA and Claire's online archives! Dang!
Thank you Brother Bill. Words can't carry the fullness of my appreciation.
But don't let up, doggone it! We ain't done yet.

Salute!
Elias