Thanks everyone! I was going to post this for those who haven't read it, so here it is (I posted this a few years ago and had to edit a few things to make it relevant to 2016)
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On April 15, 1999, I was sitting home, bored with nothing to do, after finishing my grade 12 ESL homework for the day.
I started playing around with Altavista, searching for anything that came to mind. One of the things I typed randomly was "create my own website" I landed on a free service that lets you create your own free website. I started using it right away: the website was officially born, under the name "Assyrians in Canada website"
Few months passed by, and the website was getting a few hits each day. Nothing exciting.
In October of 1999, Atour Chat closed down. I didn't have internet at the time. Suddenly Assyrians were left with no chat. And no, there was no MSN, Facebook or MySpace at the time. My friend called me to tell me that people are looking for a chat, and there is nowhere to go. I felt like I had been given a perfect opporitunity. And the funny thing is, no one else thought about stepping up and offering a simple chat service. I DID! I had hit the jackpot! Of course, I didn't wait for my dial up internet to come back, so I went to my friend's house that same night and added the free chat to my website: now it was just a matter of people coming and using it. I relied on ICQ (the IM choice of the day) to spread the word. And it was amazing how little work we had to do to promote it, since people were already waiting for any chat line to open so they can use it.
From October 1999 till December 1999, Assyrian Voice was becoming more and more popular, thanks to the the text chat. It was a saviour. Then in December of 1999, a new company called "HearMe" introduced a new Voice Chat service. I saw it on IraqVoice.com first. Again, no other Assyrian website was offering it, and I thought "I hit the jackpot with the text chat two months ago, and looks like I will get it one more time..." And I did!
The addition of the text chat was the first explosion in growth. The addition of the Voice Chat was the second explosion. From one day to the next, we saw our traffic jump by literally over 200% if not more. Apparently a lot of Assyrians had heard of the voice chat concept and were waiting for it. Once we added it, things just exploded. For the first time ever, people were able to hear other Assyrian accents online, all from the comfort of their home. Moreover, they were able to hear their beloved Assyrian singers and other celebrities online. We were the first to host singers like Ashur Sargis, Evin Agassi, Julie Yousif in live online interviews, with people listening and asking questions.
Around early 2000, our website purchased the domain name 'AssyrianVoice.net' seeing how our network was giving our people a voice to express their opinion (a voice both in a literal and symbolic sense)
From here on, things just snowball...In March 2000 we added our first Message Board, and it was a suprise quick success. People weren't very familiar with them at the time. This, of course, was the precursor to the current forum that we are on right now.
Then came all the photo albums, music sections etc. and people kept coming back for more than just chatting. And in August 2000 we did our first interview with Donya (she lives in Toronto)
In 2002 we added two extremely popular services: MSN Assyria and ICQ Assyria. These were lists of Assyrian ICQ and MSN users. We registered over 3000 users between the two services in the first year alone.
In 2003 we switched from a message board format to a discussion forum, and that got us even more users. Then we switched to a better forum (SMF) and that only helped us strengthen this great community. In early 2004 Assyrian Voice gatherings became a reality, and would help us get to see members face to face, and not just online. Since 2004 and till now, we have had over 20 major gatherings, all around the world, including in 4 consecutive conventions.
In 2005, Assyrian Voice got its 3rd Million hit, and the 4 Millionth mark was hit in 2006...
In 2007, and seeing the huge success of Youtube, Assyrian Voice added its own video service (through
www.AssyrianVideo.com)
Assyrian Voice now has over 9,000 registered members in its various services, and thousands of other daily visitors. On average, we get over 250k page views a month (advetisers are free to see these numbers) and this number keeps climbing.
During these 17 years, I have interacated, communicated and had experience with literally thousands of users and names from all around the world. If they were to open my brain, they would find a special area dedicated to AVN, and all the memory it requires. Although some names have leaked out, I still remember all the thousands of names I have come across from day 1 till this day. Starting from the ancient age: Vexen, to DVD, Babylonita, Dabasha, Aiwa, Sam187, Ninwaya, Malakha, Elena, Tera d'khooba, Gabara, 3agrab, Shater, Biryani, JuJu, Assyrian Girl....to the middle ages of NEO, ASSUK, rumrum, ChaldeanChick, SweetHoney, Turlock, Hiwane, CAROLINE, Kekwanta, SONNY, Senalco, Marroush etc.... and through the modern age of Salem, Jrok, BellaMafia, Atourina, Peaches, Lovemoon, Anitaaaaaaa, BooQta....and of course the very very new group (you know yourself, those who joined after 2014 or so)
The above is just a quick summary of the major highlights of this website. If you want to know every detail, you have to give me at least 24 hour of your time
Assyrian Voice has come a long way, all thanks to the people who keep coming back. We really appreciate it.
Before I end, here are the top 5 most critical moments in Assyrian Voice history and its operaion
1-The entire server on which the forums reside got hacked, together with hundreds of other websites. This happened in April 17 2005, just two days before my exams for my final year of university were to start. Had to stay day and night to restore things back to normal. It was a nightmare. A hell...
2-In 2002, and due to misplaced email, we were about to lose control of our domain name; www.AssyrianVoice.net but thanks to a last minute reminder, I was able to save it. Otherwise, our title could have been something else now.
3-In September of 2000, less than a year after adding the voice chat, there was so much pressure on me to close everything down and not have to worry about anything anymore. The voice chat was getting so much traffic, and that was giving me so much headache, because it required so much moderating, and given the system we had then, it wasn't easy. I came so close to just shutting down the website, and it took a girl from Toronto and someone from Holland to get reverse my decision. Had it not been for these two amazing people, Assyrian Voice would have died just 1.5 years after its creation.
4-In June 2004, and in a very idiotic moment, I lost my laptop (left it on top of my car and drove off, as I was leaving a near-by Tim Hortons) Although I had back-ups of everything, not everythning was saved, including new photo albums that were due to be released the following month. 11 new albums in total were gone. I had to create everytjhing from scratch. Plus a few other updates which weren't yet saved. The laptop was never found.
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ASHOOR
