This community has been around for a long time...and we are always welcoming new members to the discussion forum.
It all started back in the days of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and their website called Postnet in the very late 90's and then STL Today starting in 2001. Postnet & STL Today had a discussion forum and a section of that forum was dedicated to the St. Louis Blues Hockey club called, Blues Talk. The hockey talk was decent, but there were those who insisted on trying to make the experience miserable.
In 2001, to get away from the troublemakers and create a much better message board experience, est1967 was created by Chris Degroat. It contained original commentary articles and a discussion forum. Many of the Blues Talk members were invited to participate in the forum and it did quite well. It was a lively Blues discussion forum that also had off topic subjects mixed in. But it's success was short lived as a hacker unexpectedly took the site down. Site members were greeted with this message from Mr. Degroat when trying to visit the site. With nothing backed up, the site was lost and Mr. Degroat decided not to rebuild.
I didn't want to let the good thing die. So in December of 2001, I quickly went into production on a brand new Blues Fan Discussion Forum. LetsGoBlues.com was the first choice to name the new site, but a company that sold playoff tickets already owned that domain, so StLouisBluesNews.com was used instead.
Many of the members from est1967 were either invited over or found their way over to St. Louis Blues News and the Blues News Forum (BNF)...and all was well in the Blues universe again. Using the same brand of forum as est1967 used, it was familiar for users and the conversion was a simple one.
During the NHL lockout, it was discovered that LetsGoBlues.com, the original choice for the site's domain, had become available. So that domain was purchased, the site was renamed, given a facelift and some new features, that were to hopefully coincide with the end of the NHL lockout in February of 2004. However, the NHL season was cancelled days later...but LetsGoBlues.com launched anyway.
Since there was no NHL hockey during the lockout, for fun, a mock-NHL Hockey Video League was created on letsgoblues.com using the PC version of NHL Hockey 2005. The default rosters were used and the games were simulated as the season went on. The Blues did quite well during the mock-regular season, but oddly enough and true to history, they struggled in the playoffs (what is the deal??). You can view the results of this league HERE.
Along the way, we also partnered up with a couple of other Blues sites ran by Blues fans.
During the 2005-2006 season, LetsGoBlues.com partnered with long time Blues fan site, BluesNet. But due to personal obligations, the BluesNet founder no longer had the time to mainain his site, and shut it down during the 2006-2007 season.
During the 2006-2007 season, LetsGoBlues.com partnered with The Blue Note Blog, ran by Greg Gaz. Greg's blog consists of in depth commentary and analysis of the Blues organization. Mr. Gaz often beats other news outlets to the punch with breaking news.
Another Blues Blog site we just recently partnered up with is The Checking Line, run by Chris Degroat.
Over the years, some LetsGoBlues.com members have ventured out on their own to create their own Blues fan sites. Some of which were, DoYouBleedBlue.com & BluesCrib, to name just a couple. Some survived, some didn't. We wish them well in their endevours.
Currently LetsGoBlues.com has over 2000 members that have contributed hundreds of thousands of messages since December of 2001 and we continue to grow each day. We have been linked off of the St. Louis Blues Official Site, stlouisblues.com, longer than any other fan site and we remain the most popular St. Louis Blues fan site and discussion forum. We are also linked off of other high profile websites such as CNNSI and Wikipedia.
Many members have spent time posting here over the years and I thank them for their contributions. Many members have stayed, some have moved on and we keep getting new members every day. Some of which lurk and just read, others join in and contribute with comments.
LetsGoBlues.com will always be here for Blues fans, and hockey fans in general, to talk hockey and have fun. So if you haven't registered yet, please do...and feel free to contribute at your leisure.
Thank you Blues fans.
Curt Price (cprice12)
Owner/Site Administrator
www.letsgoblues.com
cprice12@letsgoblues.com |
