Ghostbusters International® Turns 3

[Spengs]

On Monday, September 4, 2006, (commonly known as Labor Day in The United States Of America) Ghostbusters International® will be celebrating its 3rd anniversary. It was late summer 2003 when the first GBI message board went on-line. Followed by version 1.0 of this site (hosted on a much different server) which went live on Labor Day, 2003. I can still remember working a lot that weekend to make sure everything for version 1.0 was right. Even then I knew a new version of the web site would be in the making.

On Monday we'll take a look back, showing where we've been and where Ghostbusters International® is going. While we're looking back, whether you're currently an employee, a former member, potential franchise/field agent, or a fan (and aren't we all?) we'd like to hear some of your memories since the club and site have been officially around.

[Dr. Kyle Peterson]

Well I'll be celebrating Labor Day by LABORING at the pharmacy...weeee!

Ahhh, memories! It's been a wild ride so far, and it can only get cooler from here! Going up to the "ancestral homeland" (PA) and whupping up on Baccardio with the gang.....Halloween time....hosing down an entire crowd in Asheville with mood slime .....going back to Wilmington NC, but not getting to enjoy it since Blackbeard's ghost showed up ....The "Soul Eater" incident ....meeting new freinds (and enemies, in certian cases *cough* Peck *cough*....

Hard to belive it's coming up on my own anneversary as well!

Here's to billions more zapped and trapped in the next 20 years!

*looks at work schedule* Hey Rich....is there gonna be punch and pie tomorrow? You know, I could ALWAYS call in sick!

[tampabuster1]

Three years at the best job you can have. Salue! (downs beer)

[GBNJ-Bill]

It's hard to believe that it's been three years already. GBNJ joined mere months before the original GBI site was born. I remember the night Rich and I made the purchase of the original domain from that crazy french domain company, gbiweb.net how i knew ye. And the fun of setting Rich up with 1&1 Web Solutions and the current ghostbustersinternational.com. all the photoshop shirt designs for the web store 1984. The first major franchise gathering in NYC days after Ghostbusters celebrated 20 years, haning with Rich and Will. to the BACCARDIO files.

GBI here's to you, may your ghost traps always be full. Cheers!

[Kevin K]

Man what a ride! Its been a great couple of years (2 for me). I have met some great people, saved the world a couple of times, and it still is as great as the first time.


Happy third everybody.Heres to a brazillian more!

[Spengs]

Happy 3rd Anniversary to all of our members and fans! Today we're looking back at the beginnings of Ghostbusters International® as a club, how we've grown, and what our goals are as we go into our third year and beyond. We wrote all about it in our Ghostbusters International® Club Timeline.

Kyle: Yeah, their should be some beverages and snack foods. Everyone will have to buy them at there 'food store' of choice considering we're all over the world! Maybe by the time Ghostbusters International® is celebrating its 5th anniversary, we can have more of a party.

Bill: I remember when we set up the old gbiweb domain with that "simple" French company, how they screwed up the transfer of the domain (which worked out for the better in the end) and us setting up the new hosting company. I talk a little about that in the 'retrospective.'

I also remember when you and I and then a little later Ben King would design all those t-shirts and more for 1 9 8 4. Of course I couldn't forget the big apple franchise gathering or one of our major case files, dealing with Baccardio.

Or that time my defunct franchise went out of business because of all that legal trouble from Friday, the 13th at GSP. And later on how we'd merge. Remember before all that the NJGBA?

Good times with great friends.

[Dr. Fritz V. Baugh]

I go on "vacation" at exactly the wrong time...

When I was asked to join the Ghostbusters West Coast in 2003, it was right in the middle of the whole GBI/GBInc mess. GBWC was technically listed as a GBInc Division. Louis had, for whatever reason, literally torn GBI apart. I take a little bit of pride in the fact that, when the GBN message board was reconfigured and restarted, I took a role in spearheading efforts to reunite the company.

It has certainly been interesting to watch the company grow and change. Even the message boards kept changing. First we were on Boardnation and had that restriction to 750 posts. Then we were on that Invision board. Then a PHPBB (the lack of warning for that change did ruffle a few feathers, didn't it?). And then, finally, here.

I gotta give Rich a heck of a lot of credit for stepping into the middle of a bad situation, and making it work. I'm not going to lie--I haven't agreed with every decision he's made, and a year ago things looked almost as bad as in the days of split--but he's still held things together quite well.

I think we all can be proud of what the company has become.

[Spengs]

Thanks Fritz, it means a lot. In the last year I've "held things together" under some very difficult personal circumstances.

Yeah, the message boards. All I wanted was for GBI to have a message board like the one we've been using since last year. If I knew we could have done that in 2004, it would have certainly helped.

For nostalgia sake, I've opened the Invision message board for archive purposes and/or to take a trip down memory lane. Its fun to see how after we moved, the spam bots moved in, fun fun fun.

[tampabuster1]

I totally agree with Fritz, and speaking from a standpoint of an outsider (meaning I wasnt here for the split) I can honestly say that seeing the community split in two would have broken my heart, because we all work together so well and I've always said the biggest part of being a ghostbuster is the sense of comradary between everyone on the team (or company in this case). I think because of Rich and Fritz's efforts we've reached previously unthought of heights in the fan community and may we have many many more anniversaries after this. Mazeltov, and thanx for the memories!