[Spridgets] Happy Birthday!

[Mark Bradakis]

On April 11th, 1991, team.net became a new domain.  34 years ago, how 
time flies!  Back then it was just two lists, autox and british-cars. 
My, things have changed.  At its peak, there were 77 lists, I think, 
stemming from splitting the british-cars list into Triumph, MG, Healey, 
etc lists.  And shop-talk and the-local and Datsun roadsters and 
Bricklin and ... you get the idea.

While Team Net is no longer the only show in town as it was back in the 
early days, there are still just over 30 lists.  About half a dozen of 
these see daily, or almost daily, traffic.  Some see hardly any use at 
all.  Back in the mid nineties, the autox list would see like a thousand 
messages in August, leading up to the Nationals.  I think the one and 
only year I attended, '97, about 2/3rds of the entrants were on Team 
Net.  Lost track of how many stickers I sold.  Still have a few 
somewhere in my office.

As I recall, the very first server I set up at home was top of the line, 
with a 120 MHz processor.  Attached is the label for that box.  Cost me 
$2,500.  See the photo for the specs :-)    Actually, it didn't cost ME 
much money.  Before Team Net came about, I had a fundraiser.  Back then, 
having an internet connection at home was not cheap.  I think I raised 
like $3,000 which got us started down this trail.

Still accepting donations, though the semi-annual fund drives are a 
thing of the past.  When folks see fit and have a few bucks to spare, 
they visit http://www.team.net/donate.html - donate early, donate often!

Yep, it has been over 3 decades I have been doing this, a lot of effort. 
  Back in the day it would take me at least 10 - 15 hours a week dealing 
with errors, bounced mail, maintaining some of the web pages and so on. 
All that effort did land me a berth in the British Sports Car Hall of 
Fame.  That was nice.

And I plan on keeping it going as long as I am physically able.

Anyway, happy birthday Team.Net!

mjb.
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