Yes, it’s Rugby-Talk.com’s birthday today!
On 28 July 2009 a number of us packed our goodies and left the place where we previously discussed rugby, because it was’nt pleasant to discuss rugby anymore. Our discussions there was marred by terrible fighting between bloggers, by racial slurring and racial abuse and it was a shambles, to say the least.
We had our own “THING” in mind and amongst us there were 2 IT guys, myself and a chap called Ed-The Lion. We immediately started a temporary blog where a few friends continued to discuss rugby, whilst I started constructing our new home, Rugby-Talk.com.
At that stage web design was not my strong point or my expertice, but as an avid and accomplished coder, I set to work and chose the WordPress platform after proper research.
I signed Rugby-Talk.com on at the Web Hosts, Bluehost.com in the States, as it looked like they would provide a long term stable hosting scenario. I installed WordPress on the webspace and created our SQL Database and then started making use of one of the many free WordPress Themes out there (one which was quite adaptable, namely the Atahualpa Theme).
Soon we had a little Rugby-Talk Logo going and the bare essentials as far as Plugins are concerned and on 13 August 2009 we placed our FIRST ARTICLE and our FIRST PAGES and the site went live, with initial bloggers like Grootblousmile, Pietman, SuperBul, Supa Die Bloubul, KingPaul, Ed-The Lion, AB, Cuzzy, Kwagga Robertse, isigidi, Koos, SA Barbarians & K9.
We were a group of friends, no more and no less… who shared a love for rugby.
Soon some of our other blogging friends joined, whilst some other folks deliberately shun Rugby-Talk.com because they had not seen eye to eye with us at the previous website, from which we had migrated.
In no time Rugby-Talk.com got busier and busier and the public out there started to become aware of us.
None of us were journalists, but we soon adapted and we got better and better at playing rugby journalist, whilst our content soon expanded and started improving, due to pure hard work and a passion for our game.
On 31 October 2009 I decided to start measuring Page Impressions on the website and applied a Plugin for that measure, which we still use to this day, 11.3 Million Page Impressions later.
Some more Plugins were added as time went on, some were kept, some were discarded and some were replaced by better ones as time went on and as our experience grew. We have even written some of our own unique Plugins and features now.
We soon outgrew our Web Host, where we experienced serious CPU Throttling as well as other issues due to our busy nature and the traffic we started generating… and it was time to move on.
We moved to HostGator.com, to their smallest available Shared Server Hosting package, but what a hectic move that was! I remember our migration so well, because we were off air for 4 days! The migration process happened whilst we had not yet fully grasped the concepts of Domain Transfer and Renewal, Name Server Pointing and the time delays caused by Propagation of the website on the new Web Host Servers.
Before we knew it, our first and second birthdays had come and gone and some of the initial bloggers had moved on, replaced by a host of new friends.
The website kept growing at a steady pace and soon enough I realised we would have to go to an even bigger hosting package at HostGator… and since then we have upped that package twice more.
After a few years we had mastered the basics and had everything well-covered and had already applied and been accepted for Accreditation with some of the South African Rugby Unions.
Our entrenched policy of respect, no politics, no racism and no discussion about religion worked like a charm and the word soon spread that Rugby-Talk.com was The Friendly Rugby Website & Discussion Forum. Our growth started accellerating… it became an exponential curve!
In 2013 it was apparent that we were becoming a threat to existing competitors and in 2014 we overhauled the last rugby blogging competitor, when he abandoned his loyal followers. A lot of those loyalists were our friends from years before and it was only logical for us to embrace them and to welcome them here at Rugby-Talk.com, which we duly did.
Early 2014 also saw the need to code and design our own unique “Look and Feel” and webdesign and not to make use of 3Rd Party Themes anymore. Once again I jumped to accommodate… by now a seasoned web designer for clients and to the public, and an accomplished coder in the Scripts and Languages which are commonly used on the internet, namely HTML, PHP, CSS, JavaScript and I also was quite adept at managing SQL Databases. I am now also miles down the road and with huge experience on a number of Webdesign Software Platforms.
Rugby-Talk.com’s new Logo saw the light, we started acting as sponsors to some worthwhile rugby and other causes… Business Cards, Posters and Marketing Material was ordered and all the ducks were placed in a row to start with a Commercial arm for Rugby-Talk.com – to cover the expenses which up to now had been carried solely by myself.
A Marketing Team was assembled, appointed and instructed – consisting of 3 experienced Advertising Gurus with a combined 57 years experience in the Advertising Industry. Initial Rate Cards, Marketing Material and Business Proposals were prepared and just recently the first feelers were sent into the market for the first Adverts to be placed on Rugby-Talk.com.
More development had to follow to code the Advertising Backbone of the website, which has to make proper provision for full Statistical and Measuring Analysis to be applied and presented to Advertisers and initial trials had to be done, which have now been completed.
The start of this week finally saw the Marketing Team going out to the world out there, to market our product. It has to be reported that initial progress has been exceptionally good.
Today on our 5th birthday, Rugby-Talk.com’s Marketing Team managed to sell it’s first official R 15 000.00 worth of Advertising space and there is already another R 198 000.00 in the pipeline. It is baby steps from here forward but Rugby-Talk.com now has the potential to become a powerhouse in the Rugby Media world!
All of this would not have been possible without pure dedication, countless hours of hard work and without the invaluable input and contributions by so many people.
As a community we need to praise and thank our Authors here on Rugby-Talk, for the brilliant content and we need to recognize and appreciate every single contributor, subscriber and reader of Rugby-Talk.com who have made this website and this community what it is.
But what is Rugby-Talk.com to me and to you?
Hopefully the joint happy answer is that it is our Rugby Home and Haven, where we enjoy our rugby passion and where we take rugby news to the whole world!
Here’s an invitation to all out there, join up with us, register with us, talk rugby with us… and enrich your rugby experience!
One again a pleasure to let you know what’s potting here at Rugby-Talk Central!
Regards,
60 @ Charo:
It will always be a work in progress, but like you said, it works well.
Thanks for the acknowledgement!
Congratulations RT Team… A great site and great people…
Happy B-Day
@ grootblousmile:61
you are most welcome and deserving.
just don’t think I won’t vloek you occasionally when you step out of line.
😀
@ Scrumdown:
56
Indeed
Ebola is transmit by human to human tissues’ contact, that MUST be sound familiar in SA?
🙁
Nothing more nothing less, we are surround by millions of HIV1 carriers for decades and no one panicked, why that new AIDS/HERPES type of virus should scare us?
Really
62 @ Gumboots:
Thanks Gummy Berry Juice!
63 @ Charo:
You are most welcome, I can take it!
@ grootblousmile:
61
Well done GBS!
66 @ Hondo:
Thanks.
Coming from our master conspiricy theorist, without a gripe and without a conspiricy theory about why we are doing so well or why it’s been 5 years already, is appreciated.
Well done GBS.
Lots of “on the surface” opinions but I guess it’s that type of environment and should be left that way.
To me the rugby season only really starts on the 13th of Sept. against the AB’s but I’m sure the game before against the Wallabies will be a thriller.
68 @ Tuff Gong:
Thanks
This weekend we have some great Currie Cup games and 2 good Rugby Championship Tests…
Wallbies vs All Blacks will certainly be interesting and it is ALWAYS a pleasure to see the Springbokke playing!
Just a little Side-Note to all the Telkom “Helkom” Internet users…
There is a problem in Name Resolution at some of the DNS Servers… for instance Google does not want to open at all, whereas Rugby-Talk.com and all other web addresses are fine and resolve easily to open up.
The problem is ISP specific – a SAIX problem it seems, and nothing is wrong with any of Google’s sites.
MTN and other SA ISP’s do not seem to have the same problem and Telkom is most affected in the Gauteng area.
Technicians are working on the problem.
GoBokkeAndIreland wrote:
I can only echo these words! Belated Happy Birthday & many thanks to all involved for making this site the fantastic site that it is; may you go from strength to strength!
@ Tuff Gong:
What is an on the surface opinion?
@ grootblousmile:
You are nothing in rugby until Rain Man had accused you of having a ref in your pocket.
😆
73 @ gunther:
Ha ha, the better team never wins, it’s always a conspiracy……mind you, he does sometimes have a point 🙄
@ nortierd:
He has to know everything otherwise how can he make his fortune in Sports betting?
😆
71 @ BrumbiesBoy:
Thanks Brumbie Jack!
73 @ gunther:
Herr Gunther,
I have to admit, I often do not know what Hondo baffles on about… it mostly does not make sense to me.
Maybe I’m too much of a realist to see a conspiricy behind every tree, and maybe there are some of the world conspiricy theories which makes sense and / or are indeed spot on.
Hondo’s theories make me fear for Hondo’s personal safety at times, he might conspire against himself some day!
One of his shoes might conspire against the other whilst he is still wearing them… on the street.
He might fear that the little green pills are not as good as the little blue pills…
His padded cell might run out of padding one day or he might try to eat his Galaxy Tablet or Notebook whilst it is still on charge.
Maybe I just do not understand the man, but I think he often does not understand himself either!
Whatever the case, remember it takes all sorts, like Smarties, to make a great community… and Hondo makes his mark here too.
@ gunther:
I would love to see his balance sheet after a weekend, or even just have him in a SuperBru group.
Similar to Skoppie, would have enjoyed having him in the Bru group, you can’t make your picks 2 days after the match has finished, and we know Skoppie was a master of picking “after the fact” sides
@ nortierd:
74
😉
Some Sever flaws in your logic!
1.Never shmever, I (and my selected teams ) win over 87% (on the capital), it all that counts
2. No conspiracy, just a plain, ugly reality, are you in the Ostrich business 😆
@ grootblousmile:
Hahahaha refgevaar?
@ nortierd:
Like a retarded Nostradamus you mean?
@ gunther:
Un-constructive banter which usually involved HG Skop Capo Sheriff and your favourite buddy from Philly.
77 @ nortierd:
Maybe Skoppie and Hondo are related!!
OR
Maybe, just maybe Skoppie is the Mr Hyde and Hondo is the Mr Jeckle in a weird Jeckle & Hyde personilty…
Anybody know if anyone has seen Hondo in real life… does he also own a Nokia with severely worn keys?
@ Hondo:
Join in on SuperBru, then we can all bet against each other 😉
@ Tuff Gong:
The one from Phily is the only guy that really got under my skin….couldn’t handle that chop, give me all the emo Guppie supporters before asking me to be on the same site as that bloke
hondo has been rabbiting on for years about his ref conspiracies… without any substance or proof… then suddenly a ref has a bad game and hondo claims that simply bad performance as ‘proof’…
they say even a broken clock is correct twice a day…
the problem with that is… hondo believes being correct twice a day makes him look like a swiss clock…
i think all it does is make him sound cuckoo…
what is a concern though is that some people seem to set their time according to hondo’s clock…
@ Tuff Gong:
I miss them all.
😆
@ gunther:
I don’t miss that tik kop from the flats.
One guy I miss is that fence sitting, cut and paste expert from PE.
@ Tuff Gong:
Which one?
😆
@ gunther:
#86 Capo
87 @ Tuff Gong:
88 @ gunther:
Farkit there were some seriously mad, dilly, iritating futhermuckers on Voldy in my time there (pre 28 July 2009).
Lillith, Transie, Langenhoven, Dawn… and a few others!
But then there were the regular good folk too.
That now already lies 5 years in the past for me, having moved onwards and upwards… to the better!
But time flies rapidly for you Ex-Voldy okes as well…
How long do you think you have been away from Voldy or how long ago do you think Voldy fell over and burnt to the ground around your feet?
It was in January or early February somewhere, when the poisoned dwarf abandoned you okes, already a full half a year ago!
Time waits for no one!
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