History of IE?

[Irish_Angst]

A guy named Jason Svoboda aka Svo, boda, Irish Envy, and a half dozen other names, from Indianapolis started the board almost 6 years ago. He had a brother, cousin, or somebody he knew well who ran another board (Big 10?) his entrepenurial spirit led him to give it a go. IE started slowly. Same software as today but plain jane. It was about a year before the logo got developed through a contest. Then a guy was hired for something like $100 to finialize the logo. Members had a lot of suggestions. Membership grew and the site became a recruiting Mecca. We had members from around the country that feed in info on recruits in their local area and we had others that subscribed to recruiting services that shared info.
A year or so later (I'm not going into precise dates, details, and who) this board (and one or two others) was threatened with legal action by Mike Frank (his company before ISD) and another recruiting service (Jack Freeman's if I recall correctly) for posting premium articles and other articles from there sites. They threatened lawsuits and as the the sites they went after were all shoe string operations that did't have the resources for legal battles and all caved. I think all the threatened companies were put up for sale over time as the owner (one was a HS kid) couldn't live with the threats.
Svo put this board up for sale and it was bought by a Canadian entrepenuer purely as an investment opportunity. Svo was to provide administrative assistance for some time period as part of the sale which he did but not under his own name. He used a clever nom de plume. Offically he left because of unspecified job or family demands on time. No details were provided. As people learned of the new absentee landlord with no interest in ND except making a buck off the site. Readership waned. A volunteer administrater Tiger something or other, turned out to be an MSU fan. He wasn't a troll but that didn't help. Then some mods and members took it upon themselves to trash the site "to get even with that Canadian guy". It wasn't prettty.
An underground pirate site was set up and many key IE member and mods migrated there. This place became a sewer. It got pretty ugly.
Enter GoshenGipper, an ND Subway Alum, who lead the charge to rebuild the site. He was tireless as a poster, mediator, moderator, and cheerleader. He died about 2 years ago in a automobile accident.
Somewhere in this time frame Svo opened a new site with same software. It's around today.
IE went through another change of ownership and another decline around or after after GG's death. The board had a increase in trolls and smack (This is NOT a smack board) and a lack of moderators to update the board and maintain control. Those that tried to do an effective job were overwhelmed and exhausted.
About a year ago there was influx of new blood and the board went through another transition period. A bunch of posters were told to clean up their acts. Those who didn't lost their posting privileges. (Posting on IE is a privilege not a right. If you don't like the culture here, feel free to move on.) The recruiting forums were rejuvenated, football discussion grew, and Phammer expanded the graphics greatly. For those that aren't aware Phammer is full time ND student. He cracks the books, roots for ND and is the administrator (NOT owner of this site) in his copius free time. He does a lot of work (mostly unnoticed by the readers of this site) to keep this place running. None of the moderators own the site either. We're spread out across the country and most of us have never met and probably never will. But we do share a common interest, GCND.

GO IRISH!

BGIF, thanks for the historical context (I loves history). Perhaps this should be made into a 'sticky' post in a welcome to IE thread for all the new folks (like me).

Thanks again for your hard work.

 

[DomeisourHome]

Wow thats incredible, thanks so much BGIF, youve really seen it all, i was wondering about how some of the paid sites dealt with you guys, its an amazing story of a rise, a fall, a great restoration, a second fall from glory and a return. Hmm rockne through Leahy, restored by ara, fell out of glory, then returned by holtz (kelly?) wow you could write a book about this website, or at least a large pamphlet. I do remember coming through IE a few years back, saw a lot of trolling so i drifted away, but glad that IE is back and growing fast. Were gunna need a lot of numbers for the massive celebration of ND's 13th. And now i realize why you held Goshen Gipper in such high regard, i often find myself reading through some of his old posts, he completely revived this place, its like the story of Noahs Ark, one average person is called to save a great group of people and friends, well he has the best seats in the house now. Thankyou again for telling me this amazing, and touching story of how a small group of fans with a forum went up and were knocked down by the big boys, then with the help of dedicated fans, rose out of the ashes to become one of the leading gathering places for all irish fans. Thankyou BGIF for all youve done for me, for this website, and for all the irish fans out there.

Celebrate 13th Championship? Notre Dame only has 11

 

[BGIF]

Thanks to ALL who contributed positively to the growth of this board.

This thread is closed.