TheTechArea.com Closes

Hello All,

It's with a heavy heart that we announce the retirement of TheTechArea.com, formally known as MsBetas.org. Due to site inactivity, the staff of TheTechArea felt like this was the way to go and to let TTA go out on a high note.

I would like to thank you for visiting and if you are a member, for being such a loyal part of a great community. We will all without a doubt miss the good times that we had at TTA.

Please read below for some memories and farewells that our staff wanted to share with you, and besure to enjoy this MsBetas.org site theme throwback.

Thanks again for visiting,

Dan

>> Source: In-House

Posted By cooldude7273 on March 13th, 2011| Discuss This Topic | 0 Comment(s)

A Farewell from Ben

I joined MSBetas (as it was then) back at the start of 2004, because I'd heard about this thing called Longhorn, and turned to Google. That search result pretty much set the course of my life so far.

The early days were a bit hectic, but some of the best. The community overflowed with incredibly intelligent amateurs and pros alike, intermingling to create something so much more than the sum of it's parts. I was a bit of a brat at the start, so while it may not have come across at the time, to anyone who ever taught me something way back when, I genuinly appreciate it.

I enjoyed so many good years laughing and blathering on about tech with friends, destroying my computer with the dodgiest leaked builds and of course, complaining about certain iCompanies...

But life marches on, so I and many others had to shift focus away from the forum, and it slowly declined. It's been heartbreaking to look at recently. So much excellent discussion of everything under the sun, sitting just below a stagnant layer of [not very] recent posts, in a mostly-broken forum. This is both the saddest and kindest thing to do.

I jumped on the forum one last time and dug up my first ever post. I started a topic titled, "Does Anyone Have Lh 4074?", on 26th May 04, which read:

"Hey, anyone who has LH 4074, have they fixed the mem leak problem. Cos im usin 4051 and i was wonderin how much better it was??"

It's odd looking at the replies I got -- so many people who went on to be friends, and in some cases still are. Shane was right there - we ended up running another forum together not too long after, and in recent years have been more-or-less in charge of TTA - as were some old forgotten names like cjb1118 and Jack Pearce.

Of course I can't name every long-forgotten person I come across, there are literally hundreds. But I have to acknowledge some of the enduring friendships that formed here.

Dan was like a god to me in the early days -- not much older than myself, but running a successful website. For years I tried to get in on it, begging to be staff despite my unruly behaviour, always being turned down. I'm not sure if he saw potential, or just wanted to keep me quiet, but eventually he gave in and I started my role on the staff. I still regard Dan as a damn smart guy, and if he ever yells "CODE MONKEY!", I think I'll jump to attention instinctively.

Shane was the best friend to come from this place. As I said, we became friends very quickly, and it wasn't too long after he launched his own forum, Beta-Place, that I joined staff there too. Shane always makes me smile, and I hope we continue to be friends for a long time.

Finally, Alex - or Mak; KSoD, whatever you know him as. Looking at his topic in "Introductions" from 2005, a familiar trio of myself, Shane and Dan all welcomed him. In years to come, Mak became staff both here and at Beta-Place, and I got to know him well. Alex is dependable above all else, and a true techy - a point he proved by becoming a Microsoft MVP for his participation here and on many other forums.

I figured I should also try and pick a favourite topic, and by god I wanted it to be an old one, circa 2004. But I just can't remember the specifics, and I haven't got the time to trawl back through the archives. So instead, I've picked a thread from 2006 that's still a good read for anyone who hasn't seen it, and encapsulates a lot of my memories of the TTA experience from the glory days -- there's some drama, some technical chatter, little bit of pointless internet arguing, but mostly a bunch of people having fun. That thread is entitled, "What's a megabit?", and details conversations with a "know it all" who knew nothing, to hilarious results. You can enjoy that topic right in archived PDFs @ Page 1, Page 2, and Page 3.

If anyone's wondering what happened to the illustrious "John", well, we may never know... But we'll always have videos of his computer starting up.

So when it comes down to it, what will I remember of TheTechArea/MSBetas? Every last glorious second of it, and every amazing person I met along the way. Thank you all, and I hope we meet again soon.

>> Source: Ben :)

Posted By cooldude7273 on March 13th, 2011| Discuss This Topic | 0 Comment(s)

A Farewell from Dan

Wow, it's weird writing this. TheTechArea, previously MsBetas.org, and even before that, Microbeta.net has been a wild ride.

Let's take a trip down memory lane... Microbeta.net in its earliest days was run by a man who went by the name ThirdShift on the forums, formally known as Jeff. I joined his website, which was made in Frontpage and didn't work in anything besides IE6 because I wanted to know more about this thing called "Longhorn". Soon after, I started helping him with the day to day opertations of Microbeta.net. Fast Forward a few months, Jeff stepped down from Microbeta.net, and the domain was taken out of my control and eventually became nothing more than a redirect domain pointing to X64bit.net

With Microbeta.net taken away and destroyed, I took my last backup, teamed up with a few good men (Shane, Ben) and we started MsBetas.org. The site grew and grew and was a insanely vibrant community at the time. A few years later, we felt the MsBetas.org was too narrowly focused on Microsoft, so we renamed the site TheTechArea.com to be a more general tech site. This would be the final stage of a great website.

There were so many good times at TTA. Back in the early days, it was uber-dramatic much of the time, and I was certainly a big part of that. Staff would get promoted, then demoted, then promoted again. Online chaos at its finest at certain times.

Because of the journey of TTA, I have made so many good friend and had so many good times. Alex, Nick, Shane, Ben are all top notch men and TTA never would have gotten this far with out them. TTA was a team effort and I couldn't have asked for anyone better to help me run this place over the years. Also, Ben will always be my Code Monkey. :) I look forward to continuing my friendship with you guys via Facebook now!

To all the visitors of TTA - thank you for coming here! Even with a great staff, no forum can ever succeed without posters and contributors. For several years, TTA/MsBetas was one of the top places to go if someone needed tech advice, had questions about Longhorn, or just wanted to sit back and talk politics. You, the users, made this site a great place to be.

Finally, I would like to give a final shout out to our moderating team here at TTA and our top 20 posters as well:

Staff: Ben., chrialex, cybertimber2009. KSoD, and Subject Delta, and myself.

Top 20 posters: Subject Delta (Shane), KSoD, Ben., myself, cybertimber2009, Danny, Michael, stevenaxe, nitram, cjb1118, RandomX, Knockturnal, Vicious Darkness, glitch409, michaelas10, SnaveZ, marco13185, Jamie-James, Biohead, and Vice.

Total Posts: 143, 081
Total Members: 23,047
Online at Once Record: 1,514 (set on April 29, 2008)

Thank you all! It's truely been a pleasure!

>> Source: Dan

Posted By cooldude7273 on March 13th, 2011| Discuss This Topic | 0 Comment(s)

A Farewell from Shane

Hi Everyone

It's with some sadness and regret that I am writing this, as this forum (back when it was still MicroBeta back in 2003) was the first tech forum I ever really called home. I remember the amusing start I had, the first thing that ever happened was a warning to do with a topic about Windows 99, it's funny to look back on things now. I would also like to sincerely apologise to all members for initially siding with the wrong people during the split with MicroBeta, what Kelpfries and BSOD did was unfair, and I hope you can all accept my heartfelt regret.

This site has been through some great times, and some tough times, and Although I appreciate things haven't exactly always gone brilliantly between myself and the members, I would like to make it known that I truly appreciate the fun I have had on this website, and I will miss it and the members sincerely. I would also like to thank all of the people that have been loyal enough to stand by us over the years.

I would also like to say that I am thankful for all of the really good friends that I have made through my time on this website, Ben, Dan, Alex, and everyone else besides. It's been a privilege working with you all, and I hope this is not our last project together. It's been a great ride, but sadly a lot of good things end up coming to an end.

I wish each and every one of our members, and staff both past and present and all the best and if anyone wishes to stay in touch feel free to add me on facebook.

>> Source: Shane

Posted By Subject Delta on March 13th, 2011| Discuss This Topic | 0 Comment(s)

Your 2 Cents

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