History of the Zone?

[pony2]

Just wondering how long the zone has been going and how it came to be? I've read mention of the old zone, what were things like in those early days?

The zone is indispensable resource and I'm sure the envy of many other lesser makes of vehicle. Credit to the founders.

[oylegate]

Thouroughly agree with you. Extremely well structured layout of the site. Goldmine of information!

[march109]

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... story+zone

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 15&start=0

Search?

[march109]

http://com4.runboard.com/be30zoneforum

old zone.

[pony2]

Thanks March, very helpful and yes "search", but it just nice to ask the question sometimes.

[Chris-W]

Here's the text we had for Santa Pod last year :

The E30 Zone concept was created by Steve on Monday, 24th March, 2003 at 4:01 pm, on the BMW Car magazine forum, (but not yet named).

Quote from original thread:-

"I noticed a lot of E30 forum members recently wanting to post pics on the forum. Thought it might be nice to make a webby where we can host all these pics and have a full spec of the car as well.

I will host anyone's pics but it will be mainly for E30's, if you're interested, send me the pics + specs and I will sort it. I'll also host any tech advice, project car or anything E30 related."

This created a lot of interest, as many members had found a lack of E30 sites in the UK.

Quote from original thread:-

"what you got planned for this website? a decent UK based E30 site would be superb. Its doing my head in trying to read German lol."

Quote from original thread:-

"yeah trying to get as much info as possible, having the same problem finding decent E30 sites also. I'm thinking about calling the site E30 zone"

Voila, the E30 Zone name was decided and the site was starting to take shape with the help of the some of the members of the BMW Car magazine forum, some of which are still active members today : Ant, Ste, Gareth, Lizzie, Duncan (remember notthezone?), M3GTR (Paul —a Zone Racing) and yes, even Jonb !

On Friday, 4th April, 2003, at 11:50 pm, the E30 Zone went live ! Still very basic, but starting to look good and attracting a few more members —a Bootyman, GaryMorgan and Buster to name a few.

It wasn't long before the Zone started to take off with E30 enthusiasts submitting their E30's left, right and centre.

And very soon, the Zone needed a bit more than a few photos and links. By the end of May 2003, the Runboard forum was added.

With the forum now added, the Zone needed a team to run the site —a Ant, M3GTR, Lizzie, Duncan, E30Adam. The forum and site grew rapidly and new team members were taken on —a Bharat and Caesarbob.

It wasn't long before the very basic html site had out-grown itself and a new site was built.

With the new site up and running, the Zone added even more members and the team was finding it very hard to keep up with the information being submitted as everything at the time had to be added manually to the site.

Runboard, the forum hosts, added a few more options to the forum, which made it more workable, and the forum had an overhaul, as did the site, with some new images, colour scheme and new banner .

By this time PeteE30Touring, Iain (HartgeH27), Paul325i, Ian332iSport and Andrew (Demlotcrew) had joined the team.

By December 2004, the Zone was no longer able to support all the members. The forum hosted by Runboard was very limited and unable to cope with the demand from E30 Zone members and the decision was made to completely redesign the Zone.

Keeping in mind the limitations in Runboard in the background, for many months now a new Zone (Version 4) had been under construction, with the team often working on it until the early hours of the morning.

On Monday, 14th February 2005, at 8pm, version 4 of the Zone was released, unknown to members that the new site was coming. This was a whole new world to the E30 Zone, as the new site was dynamic (database driven) with its own PHPBB forum, that had many features we so desperately needed.

With the new site established, new members were joining every day and it wasn't long before the hosts were sending us bandwidth bills in excess of £450 !

A new host was found, as a member of the Zone at the time provided us with a package with unlimited space and bandwidth with his hosting company.

The Zone was going from strength to strength, but on 9th May, 2005, Steve decided to call it a day, and handed the Zone to E30Adam.

Adam restructured the team dropping Lizzie and Paul (M3GTR), and adding Jimbob, Malcolm (Tylerma), Neil (320Touring), Simon and Brian (Moore) to the team.

After a year of running the Zone, Adam stepped down and handed the Zone back to Steve.

At the same time, unknown to us, our current host at the time had sold his hosting company to another company. They still provided us with free hosting, but their server could not handle the Zone and kept turning us off, until another member on the Zone stepped forward and offered us free hosting. This was short lived too, as he also under estimated the size of the Zone.

The Zone was moving home every 6 months. It was a big site to keep moving about but there was light at the end of the tunnel. A long term respectable friend of Iain was approached and he agreed to provide us with a commercial hosting package for the Zone.

A deal was struck and the Zone moved to its new home, and hopefully here we will stay. But it also means that the Zone has to fund itself, as it is no longer viable for the team to put up the money themselves.

After the site had been moved to its new home, Steve split ownership of the Zone between a consortium. This was done to ensure there would always be someone around to make a decision and run the site.

Since then the Zone has been registered as a club, and more moderators have been taken on. E30Mark, Ziggy, Chris-W, d6dph, BillgatesE30, Gortour, old_skool_2002, and Daz (our php coding guru), to cope with the ever growing forum which averages 30 new members every day, 20700 members in the database and 45000 hits a day and attracts its fair share of "larger than life" characters !

The Zone is run by a highly dedicated team who all have full time jobs and help in their spare time for free. Without this team the Zone would not be possible.

[march109]

What I really want to know though is where is Adam and why hasn't he sold me his Sport yet?

[Jeepster]

Very interesting

[stevotheevo]

good job guys, much appreciated

[andyp]

o no ive been on here since 2003, i still remember the very first meet we had so everybody was new and it was at lakeside in about september that year, yes im sad i know.

[d6dph]

Showing your age now Andy

[andyp]

do you know summink i knew you was gonna come out with that comment, i better go do the lottery tonight.

[pony2]

Really interesting thanks for all the info.

Just went to the Old runboard zone, it's frozen in time, strangely creepy. Lots of familiar names on there.

[Jesus325iTouring]

o no ive been on here since 2003, i still remember the very first meet we had so everybody was new and it was at lakeside in about september that year, yes im sad i know.

Remember those 4am chats back in the day Andy,nearly got divoced because them! Good ole days!

[Ziggy]

Nearly ****ed my degree up too Rog!

[Simon13]

seems like a long long time ago now

[buster]

The good old days.Can't believe ive had an e30 for all this time.

[madaboutthe30]

Thats one hell of a story, pritty interesting.

Wish I was here from the early days. Sounds like I missed out on a lot of fun

[78dude]

I remember for about 2 years ago, I was tierd of my Italian cars and I had always wanted a Beemer. I made my self a profile and I started to ask people for advice..... Now I hate Beemers and during the weekend I will go and pick up my 3rd BMW! God I love them!!!

[dlatch]

Duncan (remember notthezone?)

lol can't remember being notthezone at anytime but i remember being there at the begining

E36 muppets made the zone happen maybe we should thank them

[grantfk10]

Hey, I bought my first E30 from M3GTR (Paul —a Zone Racing) shortly after joining the Zone - seems like a lifetime ago
Anyone remember this 316 touring? :



Sadly, due to terminal rust, what couldn't be recycled has now gone to the E30 graveyard

[Jesus325iTouring]

seems like a long long time ago now

Yeah it does,my Tourings just had it's 5th MOT since I joined up.Where does the time go??

Nearly ****ed my degree up too Rog!

Still,was great fun eh??

[bmwe30mtech]

Double post

[bmwe30mtech]

Anybody else at the time think the new zone took ages to make? I remember checking it every day to see if it was done .

Interesting thread..

http://com4.runboard.com/be30zoneforum. ... Coffset=30

[smithy318i]

I joined shortly after version 4 of the Zone was released in 2005.
I even remember my 1st post (in the test section) were everyone welcomed me.

[andyp]

thats what it was like back in the day, and yes jesus i remember them very well if memory is right only 3 of us still have the same cars now that we had then. start thinking about it jesus

[buster]

I had my sport back then,still got it now.

[Ziggy]

Still,was great fun eh??

Yep!
Still keeping the coffee & menthol intake up?!

[andyp]

i thought that was a different sport, ok then 1 car 3 cabs, cant think of any others

[Simon13]

demlot has had the black car a while? i remember driving it to stevenge meet when it was a standard 318iS!

i've had about 6 E30's since i first came on

[Jesus325iTouring]

thats what it was like back in the day, and yes jesus i remember them very well if memory is right only 3 of us still have the same cars now that we had then. start thinking about it jesus

It's no good Andy,I saw this post this morning and have spent all day trying to think who still has the same motors,all I could remember was yours obviously, and Busters...............help me...........I'm at a lost

[Ziggy]

Hmmm Steve's had that 4-door for an age, hasn't he? Adam's still got his sport...

[march109]

Hmmm Steve's had that 4-door for an age, hasn't he? Adam's still got his sport...

You seen Adam lately? I want his sport!

[Jhonno]

Ive still got my 316i from when I 1st joined the com4 board..

[tylerma]

still have mine too