The History of Benies-Blogs.com
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So you're here to learn the history of this website, hmm? Well, before
I can mention how beniesbuilds.com turned into this, how I got into
blogging and all of that..., you have to go back in time to the early
2000's, to the true origins of myself owning a website.
You'll see my highs... and my lows right here.
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THE
'TheBeaverDam.com' ERA, (1999-2003)...
The birth of TheBeaverDam.com started from being hosted by
"NoMonthlyFees.com". As the name says, I didn't have to pay monthly
payments on my hosting plan or the domain. It was $70/year.
TheBeaverDam.com was a fan website for my favorite number 1 show;
The
Angry Beavers.. a cartoon show that started somewhere in 1997
on
Nickelodeon, and lasted for about... 4-5 years I think. The 90's had
the best kid shows on Earth back then. It was when the Technological
Age was in full swing.
Anyway, I loved that show so much that I made a website of them (I also
gave myself the nickname "BeaverMon" due to the show), doing
all the episodes, when the show would air. Stuff like that. Of course I
wan't the only fan site out there at the time. Also, I was struggling
trying to learn HTML. And I also never really liked the homepage,
because to me, it "never looked professional".
My aunt actually came to my rescue, giving me a retail program for
free. It was called 'Visual Page', where I could visually edit the
webpage and didn't have to bother with HTML. That program was really
helpful. It helped me create seasonal editions to my homepage, such as
the 'Halloween Edition', 'Thanksgiving Edition', etc.. launching them
on the 15th of the month (with the Thanksgiving Edition being released
earlier).
All editions had gifs, and seasonal music.
A few years went by, and a new cartoon entered my life.
Hamtaro.
It was
part of Cartoon Network's 'Toonami' series (aka their Japanese cartoon
series). The show eventually stole #2 on my top 5 TV shows of the 90's
and early 2000's list. Inspector Gadget (back in the 80's) had that
spot for quite sometime. I decided to merge it with TBD, and make it
the "TAB and Hamtaro Site".
More years passed into 2002, and TAB's future was in question. Season 5
missing a few episodes, and it started not to come on as much. Fears of
cancellation began to circulate umost the community.
This is when they (and myself) started to do petitions and other ways
to talk to Nickelodeon and keep the show alive.
A few weeks later, I was invited to an interview with another website
manager, stating my site was one of the biggest TAB sites in the early
2000's (due to the commotion). Since then... I did something that I
still regret to this day; I got the big head, saying how I'm the best
website ever. This... would only lead to the website's downfall and
myself not ever doing another website. I will spare you the details, as
they are too painful to mention. :/
All I can say is it tought me a valuable lesson that I still keep to
this day; to never feel you're better at something when you clearly
aren't. It will only lead to depression... and in this case, having
your once fans turn against you.
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THE
CO-HOSTING/BLOGGING ERA, 2008-2015...
Fast forward to 2008, 6 years after the downfall of TheBeaverDam.com. I
met this guy on the
Facepunch Forums named 'Mr. Angry'
(though I just
called him 'Angry'). This was when I was really into Garry's Mod (and
also dragons, due to joining WoW three years before this). He
helped me with a plane I was having a lot of issue trying to program.
Gmod has a addon called 'Wiremod', slightly similar to Redstone in
Minecraft (except you can do a LOT more).
We became friends.. good friends. However, that friendship would remain
unstable for 8 long years. Two years later(2010), I was watching the
Indy 500 one day, and I noticed the ads for Godaddy.com. It
wasn't because of
Dannica Patrick being all hot and stuff in those ads, but from what I
saw. I really wanted to get back into website making, but with another
goal; to make it a website to host my Gmod builds.
See, in this time, I was getting into dragons a LOT (not like that, you
perverts of 'The Dargon Megathread' on Facepunch...). We eventually
agreed on the name "BeniesBuilds.com", with angry and I co-hosting the
website.
A few weeks after the launch, I started to get tired of Garry's Mod,
and it defeated the purpose of the website. Angry however wasn't
bothered by this, and used the website as a coding sandbox. Also back
in 2008, I started getting into blogging. I originally started using
Blogger. Time passed and angry heard me having issues with the program,
saying how it lacks so many features. So he thought of instead of using
Blogger, to use WordPress on the websites instead. And this is when
'Benie's Games Blog' was born. So was 'Benie's General Blog'. We
somehow got to move Blogger's posts over to WordPress, which is why the
descriptions of the blogs say how it was "since 2008" when I started
blogging.
Since then, I blogged about a TON of stuff... with my Games Blog being
the most active (especially when I got into WoW in 2005). I've
literally moved away from website management, to blogging.
Several years passed to where it's now 2012 (way before I joined the
MRT Server). We've been having issues with the website. We moved away
from GoDaddy to another site (that I can't remember the name). This too
was bad. Angry discovered Arvixe, a website where they will host your
domain for free forever. No more $70/year. It would be $60/year instead.
So we went to Arvixe. We were happy with their hosting plan, plus it
had a lot of what angry wanted (the main reason he talked me into this
hoster).
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THE SECOND DOWNFALL (2015)
Fast forward to 2015. Yep... this year. And what happened is still
fresh. Once again, beniesbuilds.com was having some issues. This time,
it was caused by a mini-DDoS. Mainly it was spammers attacking my
General Blog, for reasons I still have no idea why. Maybe it's
something I said on it that offended people.
So Arvixe moved the server our website was on to a faster one in
Dallas. No more issues... except with a new restriction. Angry was
trying to access a specific area of the site and kept getting locked
out. He asked, and they told him that they blocked access due to the
new server. And the only way to gain access is to move us to a VPS.
They were willing to even give us a discount for moving.
However, I started to grow annoyed at Arvixe over failing to answer one
question; "Will our billing date be changed?" They kept dodging the
question, and I felt "well, they don't deserve my money, then". Angry
on the other hand, didn't care what I did. See.... since 2008, our
friendship has been... questionable. It wasn't a really good one. And I
only have myself to blame for it. Because I treated angry like I tried
all of my friends in the past, an 'emotional punching bag'.
See, what caused this second downfall, is I felt "Why in the hell am I
even paying for this?" I had forgotten back in 2010 of the reason why
the website was what it was, and only saw angry working on the site for
himself, and not for both of us.
*sigh*.... so, he left me, and was nearly angered enough to shut down
the website, but decided not to. It was in a way to make me remember
that I really did need him.
So I was able to get cPanel access after talking to Arvixe. Everything
he had was wiped out, as he said it was. He also removed any way of
contacting him, except for his friend 'goppend'. This is how I was able
to know if I actually had control of the site.
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THE 'Benies-Blogs.com' ERA, (2015 -
PreCurrent)
I've gone from a webmaster, a blogger... and now a webmaster again with
the broken remains of a once 8 year friendship. That makes it 16 years
since the fall of TheBeaverDam.com.
I debated if it was even worth keeping beniesbuilds.com, let alone
still pay $60/year. But I knew if I was, I would have to change the
purpose of it to something that was its real purpose. I thought of
'Benies-Blogs.com'. As I was a primary blogger. However, I didn't know
how to go about doing it. The only way I saw it working is if I got rid
of beniesbuilds.com (the hosting), and got a new hosting plan). But I
would have to go with a new billing date. So yeah. I FINALLY got an
answer to that damned question that costed my friendship with angry.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand. The new domain that I wanted was
$9.99. I thought for sure I was going to have to pay $70/year because
of it. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.
It was late September, and I really should be... back at sch-- err,
sorry. Anyway, I talked to Arvixe to get their advice. They told me all
I have to do is just purchase the domain, and they can replace my
current website with it for free. So all it really costed me was the
$9.99, and the hosting date would remain the same. So I got it done.
And what's even better, everything from beniesbuilds.com was there.
I was able to finally pull apart the blog posts of my Games and General
blogs, and learned how to make MySQL Databases (something I've never
done in my life).
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THE UNLISTED VIDEO ERA (Current)
And now, the past brings us to the present. Benies-Blogs.com is still
up and running quite fast. Angry's gone and I still miss him even as I
type this. But I'm sure he really doesn't care for me anymore. Probably
has even forgotten all about me.
So anyway, there I was. Finally had my own website again after 16 years
since the fall of my old one. The website was nothing but two blogs and
a homepage. I knew I needed to get more in to prove to me that $60/yr
is still worth it. Plus, I felt my Games blog posts were lacking in a
way to visually explain some specific games.
I wanted to do videos, but in a way they would only be listed on the
website. I remember Youtube having such a system, called a way to list
your videos as 'Unlisted', where only people with the link are allowed
to view them.
I thought of using a private streaming way of doing the videos, and
posting them on this website. I looked around and tried Livestream.
Except it's changed over the years. It no longer stores my videos.
Instead, they now delete them after a month.
I also tried to use my Livestream idea on recording my PS4 games, but
it just wouldn't work. But this was before I discovered the PS4 has its
own way of doing videos; a built in capture card and having its own
editing software (SHAREFactory) and ability to upload the video to
Youtube without me having to do a thing. All I had to do was record,
and it would do the rest. I fell inlove with this system, and really
wanted to kickstart an idea I had years ago; 'Benie Fails At'. And here
I was able to do it.
And so, as I said... that brings us to today. The day I write this
history page. I still sometimes look back and see how everything got
started, even remember the unstable friendship that angry and I had.
But if it wasn't for him, I probably would had never got into Minecraft
when I did.
So I hope you enjoyed reading that, as much as I did typing it. I typed
it using the Sticky Notes feature in Windows 7.
And a bit of pre-history of how I got the name "Benie". I was playing
The Sims Online back in the 2000-2010 time era. And for some reason, I
just really liked the name. Plus, The Angry Beavers was pretty much...
a dead show by this time. So I had to retire BeaverMon. And yeah,
that's how I got the name.
Plus if you take off the "ie", you'll have my first RL name.
Who knows what will happen to me and this website in the far future.
But as long as Arvixe (and myself) keep kicking, I'm going to keep
producing video and blog content for as long as I live.
Until then, this has been another Benies-Blogs.com Vid-- err, well..
Written
Production.
Cya!
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