Army.ca Hits 10 Years

[Mike Bobbitt]

For those meeting us at the Brig directly, it‘s at 25 York St, in the Market.

Hope to see you there! I may even buy a round.

 

[robertmullan]

Cheers
Hello Mike

Where is the Brig Near in the Market ?

Robert Mullan

My cartoons:
http://www.rcaca.org/Mullan-Humour.htm
http://regimentalrogue.tripod.com/mullan/cartoons.htm
http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/theater/7041/humour.html
http://www.canadaka.net/cka/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=30
http://www.cdnarmy.ca/
http://www.militarymags.com/cartoon1.htm

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

It‘s near the end of York St, by Sussex Ave. Won‘t be a long walk from The War Museum, just a few blocks.

There should be parking all around the area, especially at 1400 when we get there...

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

In 1993, this site made its debut on the Internet as The Canadian Army Home Page. Today, nearly 10 years later, it has been given a new look, new content and a new name: Army.ca

For the past few months, I‘ve been working on updating the site in anticipation of its 10th anniversary. I hope you enjoy the new site, which includes an updated intro, main page, military quotes, updated links, and much more. I‘ve also put together a "flashback" section, showing just how far the site has come over the last 10 years:

http://Army.ca/10th

To help celebrate, several of us are getting together for a tour of the War Museum and then off to the pubs for a few beer. Anyone local to Ottawa is more than welcome to join us.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone over the last 10 years for their corrections, assistance, patience and support. Over the years I‘ve seen a lot of people come and go, most good, some bad, but nearly all interesting. This site has been built by it‘s visitors, and therefore belongs to you. Special thanks to everyone for their recent support, including Kurokaze, St.Onge, and especially E-Town.

As a final note of interest, here is some useless trivia about this site:

• The actual 10 year anniversary is in December - I couldn‘t wait
• For almost a year, it was run out of Michigan
• It made the Ottawa Citizen a few years back about NDHQ "spying" on soldiers through these forums
• It predates any official DND web site by 3-4 years
• Estimates are that over 6 billion pages have been served to 2 million visitors
• Over 80% of visitors are from Canada, about 6% from the US and about 0.5% from the UK (the remainder of our visitors are from over 100 other countries)
• DND attempted to "buy out" the site in 1999 (today we have an excellent relationship with DND)
• I bought the "Army.ca" Internet domain from an online dating company, hoping to capitalize on military relationships (I just can‘t make this stuff up!)

Thanks again for making it 10 great years with many improvements.

Enjoy!

P.S. Unfortunately, because of the domain name change, everyone will have to log in to the forums again. Your standard username/password will still work.

 

[Spr.Earl]

First Mike,I would like to thank you for providing a site for those of us serving and for those who are interested in the Force‘s to were we can come and inform and learn,even I after 27yrs in the Reserve Engineer‘s,I have learnt quite a few tid bit‘s here.

Secondly,I like your new lay out,funky intro man,takes me back WOW!LOL.

Thurdly,You are providing an exellant service.
Thank you.

 

[Veteran`s son]

Hello Mike:

The changes/new look of the Army.ca site look great(the old site was great too, though ).
This site has alot of information for anyone who wants to join or learn about, the Canadian Army.

Again, thank you for starting this great site, Mike!

 

[robertmullan]

Great site Mike and all the best for the next ten years.I hope my cartoons has added bit of humour to your site.Look forward to seeing you at the anniversary.

:gunner:

Cheers

Robert Mullan

My cartoons:
http://www.rcaca.org/Mullan-Humour.htm
http://regimentalrogue.tripod.com/mullan/cartoons.htm
http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/theater/7041/humour.html
http://www.canadaka.net/cka/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=30
http://www.cdnarmy.ca/
http://www.militarymags.com/cartoon1.htm

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Thanks guys, I apprecaite it! It‘s been fun and very informative over the years, I sure have learned a lot!

Cheers

 

[Gorgo]

Let me add my congratulations to those who‘ve been thanking your for this service, Mike. I‘ve been able to learn and link to many things on the Net thanks to your site. All the work you and everyone else has poured into this place is certainly more than appreciated by this retired Adm Clk now teaching English in the Land of the Morning Calm.

Cheers!

Fred

 

[SNoseworthy]

Congratulations on ten years of excellent work Mike. Your site has been an inspiration for many CF websites, or, at the least, mine lol.

 

[Deleted member 585]

Hats-off to you, Mike... and also to every member that helps make this site worthwhile.

Cheers!

 

[zortag]

I haven‘t posted much around here, but I‘ve been lurking for a while and would like to give you my kudos on your site, it‘s great work.

 

[kurokaze]

Keep up the great work Mike, and care to provide
some details on the potential DND buyout and
the army.ca dating scheme? I‘m curious to
know more!

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Well, 3-4 years ago there were a lot of unofficial army sites, of varying quality and accuracy. DND put together a project to clean them up, by getting rid of most.

In some cases, such as this site, DND made an offer to host the site. A system would be provided, all the traffic would be free, and even a small stipend would be paid out. The catch however is that the site would then be under the official umbrella and would have to confirm to DND‘s content guidelines. I declined the offer.

Things have come a long way since then, and while DND may not condone this site, they do tolerate it. I don‘t know how DND/NDHQ feels about this site officially, but I do know that there are some good heads there who don‘t want us to go away.

As for the dating scheme, the when the .ca domain opened up a couple of years ago, I tried to get Army.ca, but was beaten out by someone else. (I ended up getting CdnArmy.ca, my second choice instead.) Turns out that the guy who got it runs an online dating service, and was looking to break into the military market. I talked to him several times, trying to persuade him to sell me the domain.

Honestly, I imagine an army centric dating system would go over like a lead balloon. At any rate, I finally offered him the right amount of money, and he sold Army.ca to me a few months ago.

The rest, as they say, is history...

Cheers

 

[McG]

Mike,
Excellent new look. I especially like the new navigation bar at the top of the page. You‘ve come a long way since you first opened the site. I remember seeing the original, but it was about two years before I began to visit regularly.

You don‘t seem to peak. I can‘t imagine what the future has in store for these pages.

 

[Doug VT]

Things sure have evolved over the years. In the beginning on the dragon server the "War Diary" was really nothing more than a guest book. Now it seems as it has made itself the main attraction of the Canadian Army Homepage. So much so that most usually only refer to the site as the "War Diary". Not a bad thing, I‘ve been here for the ten years in its entirety and its been interesting...

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Yeah, it‘s definitely come a long way. Thought it would be worth a chuckle to see it in it‘s previous incarnations, so that‘s what prompted me to dig up the flashback section. Couldn‘t find anything older than 1996, but still, finding a 6 year old backup isn‘t bad...

Doug, you‘re probably one of the very vew who have followed the site right from the beginning. If I‘d known then how much time, effort and money it would take, I‘m not sure I would have had the stomach for it, but overall it‘s been a good go.

Definitely couldn‘t do it without the help I get from you guys though, so I really appreciate it. Thanks!