[pct-l] Why Whiteblaze.net is So Good ...

[Mark Jernigan]

Whiteblaze.net is well organized and administered but from my memory what really put it on the map was TIMING !  If you've followed the AT internet history you probably remember a website called Trailplace.com.  It was way ahead of its time in terms of an interactive forum based website.  It actually allowed realtime chat among registered members.  Well,  the owner/webmaster (a former AT thru-hiker) of that site unilaterally decided one day that members/posters weren't playing by HIS rules and he shut the site down very suddenly and without warning for a rather lengthy time (I think it was 6 months) while he bandaged his pride and ego and restructured the website. That sudden loss of a place where AT enthusiasts could go to discuss/argue amongst themselves created such a stirr among the Trailplace.com adicts (myself being one of them at the time) that a vacuum, filled with pent up demand, was created overnight    ...enter Whiteblaze.net and the rest is history.
   
  Ironically, Trailplace.com still exists and continues to be an excellent resource for planning an AT thru hike (or section hike for that matter) however Whiteblaze.net absorbed the abandoned followers and rapidly superceded Trailplace.com it in popularity as far as a discussion forum website is concerned.
   
  At least that's my memory and my opinion of what happened.
   
  Footslogger
  GA -> ME 2003


 
---------------------------------
No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go 
with Yahoo! Mail for Mobile. Get started.