Seek42
https://seek42.net:443/phpBB3/

Just over 11 years ago...
https://seek42.net:443/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=22296
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Author:  ShadowCat38 [ Wed 11-09-2011 12:54AM ]
Post subject:  Just over 11 years ago...

With a feeling of nostalgia that one gets when visiting past relatives in a graveyard, I decided to look up the ancestry of Seek42, and found StrangeSearch.net. Not surprisingly, it met the same fate as the core functionality at around the same time. However, it also spawned a forum community that remains active today at Strangetalk.net. So, with that feeling mentioned above, I left this post in the bowels of their thread library:

Quote:
Just over 11 years ago... ... a friend of mine visited ISU, discovered StrangeSearch, and was inspired. He took that inspiration with him back to central Missouri to a small engineering university and began crafting a similar endeavor in his own image. And thus, Seek42 was born. Seek42 was a wonderful beacon of freedom and organization in an otherwise clumsy and unreliable network. In an effort to aid in participation, a forum, much like Strangetalk, was born bearing the same Seek42 name. Still, the core functionality of Seek42 grew to be a massive thorn in the side of the RIAA and MPAA types much like StrangeSearch's reputation developed. Over the few short years that the core functionality was present, legal notices became uncomfortably commonplace among the student body. And thus, the core functionality was removed. Seek42 began to die. More and more covert and underhanded technologies were developed in an effort to keep the community alive with its original purpose, but most worked poorly or failed altogether. During this time of creativity, the discussion forum side of Seek42 leveled off, and took on the role of an unofficial university discussion board. Unfortunately, the lack of a strong force of attraction to new-comers (and an overbearing presence of trolls that liked to prey on newbies) sterilized all efforts of continuing the forum side of Seek42. In its crippled state, Facebook became mainstream, further damaging any need for such a specialized community gathering place. Like a stage 4 cancer patient, Seek42 was losing its ability to stay useful with more and more features being surpassed with faster-growing outside options.

Today, Seek42 is a dried-up husk of its former glory (but can still be visited at seek42.net). It made my college-days memorable and exciting with a much wider sense of community than I think would have been possible without its existence, especially since I was able to join it in its prime after much of the initial development had been finished. With only about 25 active members remaining of a count that once surpassed 4000, I consider it to be clinically dead, with the only one in control of life support still clinging to hope like a distraught wife still waiting for her comatose husband to awaken from his 3+year slumber.

Despite its current condition, I still have the memories, and none would have been possible without my inspired friend, and his inspiration would never have manifested itself without the timely existence of StangeSearch. Since this is as close to the original I can get, I want to thank you all for being a part of the part of the cause of something amazing.

That is all.

-ShadowCat38


This is probably going to be my last post ever on Seek42. I doubt I'll even lurk much anymore, especially since this is the first time I've visited the site in around 3 months. Thanks, everyone, for being a helpful, hurtful, spiteful, colorful, comical, informative, and enjoyable group of people to spend way too much of my college days with when I should have been studying. I still managed to graduate, and I even landed a sweet job (even if it is in Iowa). Good luck, God bless, May the force be with you, Live long and prosper, Happy Trails, and goodbye, I'm out.

See you all on Facebook!

-ShadowCat38 (a.k.a Eric Wickstrom)

Author:  Trav2003 [ Thu 11-10-2011 10:51PM ]
Post subject:  Re: Just over 11 years ago...

I was never fortunate enough to see the rise of seek42, as I arrived on campus in the fall of 2003, but even then there was a sort of underground mystery and intrigue associated with seek... it's a shame to see the membership decline and the legacy die.

Edit: Just noticed my registration date is August 2003. I must have joined during O-week or very shortly thereafter. Just goes to show how magnetic Seek42 was at the time. Within days of arriving on campus, people knew what it was and wanted to be a part of it.

Author:  modernmystic [ Fri 11-11-2011 10:16PM ]
Post subject:  Re: Just over 11 years ago...

That was a pretty good and depressing description. It's hard to let it go even though I never dealt with many of those running it and yet I felt like a big part by spreading it around and helping dozens take advantage of the network whether it was getting a file or getting a ride. It was as if I was the liason for a few floors in TJ or a building or two or Collegiate (before reslife infestation) or wherever.

I'll probably still check on here every once in a while. I've never cared much for facebook and I think my profile has less activity than seek's index so this is how I get my rolla news and honestly, I'd feel cheated if I lost that. I don't trust the university to keep up with most things and I was always able to get more details than the paper.

Well, all in all, thanks for your help Eric, and I wish you the best.

Brad Tissi

Author:  mccreary [ Sun 06-03-2012 1:52PM ]
Post subject:  Re: Just over 11 years ago...

For the ultimate in amusing, I decided to see if these were still up, and here I find that they are and this post by Eric, who I roomed with and still talk to every few months. It is a bit sad that these are so dead, because they were so alive back in the day. I guess we all have to move on at some point.

Author:  Randum [ Thu 06-28-2012 10:21PM ]
Post subject:  Re: Just over 11 years ago...

I also have to chime in, I was walking around the internet tonight and figured...I wonder if seek42 is still alive??? Well I think I found my answer!

Author:  CatYourAssToDevNull [ Tue 10-30-2012 7:36PM ]
Post subject:  Re: Just over 11 years ago...

How many times has the server changed hands since Ryan graduated? Someone is still pressing the power button every time the electricity goes out...

Author:  CPT Redleg [ Mon 11-19-2012 1:16PM ]
Post subject:  Re: Just over 11 years ago...

Interesting post. I remember it used to be the place to go to find out what was going on around campus. Nowadays, not so much. Oh well, times change I suppose.

Author:  love2mud [ Wed 12-27-2017 10:11AM ]
Post subject:  Re: Just over 11 years ago...

Randum wrote:
I also have to chime in, I was walking around the internet tonight and figured...I wonder if seek42 is still alive??? Well I think I found my answer!


gay.

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