More business productivity blogging coming soon, but for now I want to talk about a website. My other website to be exactly. I made reference to the fact that I relaunched Murmurs.com last week on a new design that I’m actually happy with. What I didn’t talk about though is that on April 26, 2006 it will have been ten years since that site was initially put online.
In January of 1996, when I was all of 16, I first put a webpage online when AOL offered that service. It was initially at http://members.aol.com/ethankap. The page was basically my hobbies, which was at that time beta testing Microsoft products, R.E.M. and Stephen King books. Realize that at this time, R.E.M. was right off their US tour, bigger than ever, releasing a new record. I was obsessed with that band, and had since I was about 7 years old.
Anyhow, April 26 1996, I spent 35 dollars (on my brand new Citibank VISA card actually) and bought Murmurs.com, and registered it to Hway Internet hosting (I don’t think they exist anymore). The initial site used frames and included Patti Smith.
Since then, 10 years on, I have befriended the band, had hearts broken, mended and renewed, gotten married. Been to college, been to gradschool, lived on my own, lived in a huge mansion, lived with my wife in Santa Barbara and now Pasadena.
Through it all though, for ten years, I have kept this site going. This big, massive, expensive, all consuming site. And I wonder why I’ve kept the thing going.
This site has cost me a lot. It cost me a social life, it cost me a job (nearly), it cost me a hell of a lot of money. I have put ten years of time, blood, sweat, tears into this piece of PHP and a 10 gigabyte database, and what I have to show for it is still what it was ten years ago.
Usually ten years does something to a website besides redesign. Yahoo is a behemouth, Google too. Ten years is a tangible thing that translates to movement, growth and success. Is Murmurs that? Is it just 24000 users and gigs of data? Ten years on, what has it become? What I have I become through it? How do I reconcile ten years into a summation of something that is outside just archive.org and the site as it exists?
Mind you, I have gotten a lot through the site. I’ve befriended my idols, it helped get me my current job, etc. But in the end, its becoming hard for me to reconcile those ten years against the cost from my life that it took. I suppose its a time for reflection, and its natural, but as the anniversary gets closer, the polarity of my opinions about Murmurs gets every more distanced.
Comments 5
Ethan, I just want to give my congratulations on bringing Murmurs this far. It was one of the first R.E.M. sites I discovered when I started going online in 1996; I remember the frames and Patti well. What it’s become since then is amazing and it’s still one of the sites I check out daily. When I wasn’t checking every day I almost missed the news that Bill left the band, so since then I’ve been super-dedicated. Thanks for all of the time, money, and sweat you’ve put into this.
Posted 02 Mar 2006 at 8:37 am ¶I’ve been checking out murmurs since day 1, which is right when I became a 13 year-old R.E.M. fan. I’m now a 23 year-old R.E.M. fan.
For a trip down memory lane, do you happen to have screen shots off all the different murmurs designs over the years? Talk about the way-back machine…
Posted 02 Mar 2006 at 9:13 am ¶I guess I started checking out Murmurs a few months (maybe a year?) before first seeing/meeting you at the Party of 5 taping in Feb. of 1998.
Flash forward 8 years later, and the site has branched way beyond the band it so wonderfully pays tribute to/respects/and has become the number one source for information on. It’s become a hub that has spawned great friendships, strong debates, thought provoking conversations on life, death and everything inbetween. It’s opened people’s minds to new music they probably would have never heard before. It’s created relationships, even marriages, and strong bonds with people across the globe. It’s bore witness to fights and apologies, loves and break-ups, and even the unfortunate passing of someone.
Hell, it’s even bore witness to Kelly A’s nipples.
I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that this all started as a hobby when you were still in high school. But now, knowing you for as long as I have, and watching how much your life has changed in the past 12 months, you should be proud that what started out as a hobby, was, in essence, the beginning of your life’s work. Because if you hadn’t been bored and anti-social enough during your pubescent years, you probably wouldn’t be sitting at that desk in Burbank that you’re sitting in today.
But Murmurs is only as strong as the people that are involved with it, day in and day out. From the people who spend their time moderating, to the people who just post, the site would not be what it is without that participation. Had you built it and nobody came, would you be where you are today? Just something to think about and reflect on.
Here’s a quote that I think fits…
“I long to accomplish a great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.” - Helen Keller
Congrats on 10 years of something that means a lot to many people. Including me.
Posted 02 Mar 2006 at 10:34 am ¶Hey Ethan,
Congrats on the 10 years! I will be reaching the same anniversary March of next year with greenplastic.com and can totally relate to how Murmurs has affected your life.
I know it’s taken a lot of hard work and sacrifice on your part and I definitely know that R.E.M. fans around the world value it.
Posted 03 Mar 2006 at 4:48 pm ¶Ethan,
We’ve had many conversations about the evolution of fan sites such as yours, mine, and jon’s. Ultimately, if you add up all the things that have come out of Murmurs wouldnt it be hard to reconcile any decision but to keep it going?
Besides… (correct me if I’m wrong) didn’t you meet your wife as some indirect result of Murmurs?
Posted 06 Mar 2006 at 3:46 pm ¶Post a Comment