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Thanks to Jack Bauer for this
Release Date: March 2002
![[Image] The first Tau Online](http://www.tauonline.org/Articles/Misc_General_TOHistory_1.jpg)
[The first Tau Online homepage; a far cry from the current layout]
Initially, the site started small, naturally. The site's Creator, Tau Online, founded Tau Online on a free host, from his ISP sometime in March 2002.
On this fledgling site were Hints on Starting a Tau army, Galleries (Static pages, not dynamic one's like it has now), Battle Reports, Scenery, Painting Tips and Tutorials, Links, Army lists, and of course, a message board.
![[Image] The link to the early forums](http://www.tauonline.org/Articles/Misc_General_TOHistory_2.jpg)
[The Link from the homepage to the forums, note the old avatars section]
The message board was vital to the continuation of Tau Online, providing a discussion forum upon Tau and every other 40k race. In addition, with off- topic sections, there was something for every 40k player.
Although the link is no longer in use, http://www.tauonlineforums.proboards15.com was where the original forums originated. These forums had a few members initially: To my knowledge, around 10 or so when I (Farseer Del) joined on 02/28/03 at 15:05:43.
And, not meaning to sound like I'm bragging, but that moment was indirectly a turning point in Tau Online. (Edit by Tau Online: It really was!)
![[Image] The forums](http://www.tauonline.org/Articles/Misc_General_TOHistory_3.jpg)
[The old forums. Still around, but more or less locked up in favour of our arguably better, newer forums.]
Most notably the fact a few members were ensnared from Eldar Online by myself . Possibly the most important of these was Wargamer, as his arrival saw the suggestion of a few new boards. Tau Online's old forums offered a few avatars made by another important member, Lord Commander Erebus (My older brother). The GIF's made by Erebus were relatively popular with users, including the now slightly infamous spoon and head gif. To the site itself, a jokes and house rules section worked their way on, most submitted by myself (Del) or Wargamer.
![[Image] The top 20 posters](http://www.tauonline.org/Articles/Misc_General_TOHistory_4.jpg)
[The old top 20 posters, a varied bunch of folks!]
Release Date: Early 2003
A short pause, and then, for a short while, Tau Online's main page was actually dead and the forums were dying too (they were only getting a few posts a day). But after 1 month of being as good as dead, an e-mail was sent out to all members of the forums. This was the last chance - if members responded to it Tau Online would survive, but if members didn't... you wouldn't be reading this!
Obviously people responded! This bought many members back. In late 2003/early 2004, Tau Online (Website not Forums) came back, with its second layout, and a new section: Fluff/Stories. The 2 URL's of the short-lived TOV2 Layouts are now inactive but below is a screenshot of it:
![[Image] Version 2 of Tau Online](http://www.tauonline.org/Articles/Misc_General_TOHistory_5.jpg)
[Version 2 of Tau Online was a temporary "Revive Tau Online" thing!]
Release Date: March 2004
Due to growth, http://www.tauonline.org was bought, and Tau Online was finally big enough to be moved onto a paid host, with a big, fancy, paid domain name!
![[Image] The new forums: faster and better!](http://www.tauonline.org/Articles/Misc_General_TOHistory_6.jpg)
[The new forums. The same design, although new software offering a faster and more in-depth service to the old ones]
The third version of Tau Online saw many changes to the previous two versions. New forums themes were available, a neater design, and the milestone of 100 Tau Online members. This of course needed more global moderators, so, if my memory serves me correctly, I was asked to be the second global moderator at around 50 members.
![[Image] Version 3 was released](http://www.tauonline.org/Articles/Misc_General_TOHistory_7.jpg)
[Version 3, the best so far]
Release Date: June 2004
This upgrade was fairly small. There were a few visible updates- dynamic galleries (no longer in use), the design was made a bit lighter and the navigation bar was changed so it was more organised, and a few sections were added/removed and also a few behind-the-scenes changes were made.
![[Image] Version 3.5 was released; it had a lighter design](http://www.tauonline.org/Articles/Misc_General_TOHistory_8.jpg)
[V 3.5: Lighter layout and neater navigation bar]
Release Date: September 2004
As the fourth version of Tau Online came around, GOD (one of the global moderators) decided to step down as a global moderator of the forums due to the fact he would not be online as often. Probably on reflection of how big the boots the replacement would walk into were (especially since the other Global mod was a lazy good-for-nothing swine who only wrote the odd history article...) and also the growing size of the board, he was replaced by Farseer Tyross and Wargamer. Fortunately, since both were respected members, the boots were filled well. GOD received a custom title in honor of his contributions to Tau Online, a small price for so much work.
The fourth version of the website soon swung around, as did the 4th edition of Warhammer 40,000. With a new Tau Online layout and new 40k rules, there was no surprise at many changes: New skins, boards, and of course, members. In addition to all that, RJay submitted a variety of great avatars for use by members. At the time of writing, I use one of these. (Sign up to the forums if you haven't already, and you can select them from your profile)
With increasing activity, the boards soon hit 20,000 posts and then 200 members soon after.
![[Image] Version 4 was released](http://www.tauonline.org/Articles/Misc_General_TOHistory_9.jpg)
[Version 4: Offering a skin (theme) selector, more links to the forums (who's online list) and a new design.]
Over a year went by without any new versions were released. That's not to say nothing happened however; many miletones were met, and Tau Online has grown greatly (in forum posts and website articles). To summarise greatly, below are some of the things that happened:
Some more time passed! More and more content was added to the website, and many milestones were met (100,000 posts and 1,000 members, soon after 150,000 posts and 1,500 members, and then it seemed like a day went by and we had surpassed 200,000 posts and 2,000 members!) Work on version 5 of the website was also started around this time, although due to each page being hand coded, work was very slow and it was in production for many months.
Release Date: End of 2005/Start of 2006
Finally version 5 was released. With 10 different colour schemes to choose from, and improved presentation on all pages, this release was a big one. The galleries were closed with this release due to it being thought that the "Showcase" board of the forums was a suitable replacement. The navigation bar was re-organised to accomadate more for all other 40K armies - this release was also big due to this fact. Tau Online was seen as more for all armies due to this.
![[Image] Tau Online Version 5](http://www.tauonline.org/Articles/Misc_General_TOHistory_10.jpg)
[Version 5: A new design, more support for other armies and a colour scheme selector.]
Release Date: August 2006
Version 6 was released just a bit over half a year after version 5 was. The now familiar "Change Design/Color" feature was carried on in this version - you could select re-constructions of the previous website versions (mentioned above). Due to our growth, version 5 had quite a few articles in each category - over 230 unique articles! Due to this categories were broken up into multiple pages of 20 articles per page and you could filter by article type (i.e. you could see only articles of certain types). This helped to improve usability of the site. You could also comment and rate each article which was a useful feature to some.
Of course the forums were growing well also. It was released when there was roughly 420,000 posts and 4,000 members. Due to this there was a big moderation staff of 7 global moderators and 16 moderators!
![[Image] Tau Online Version 6](http://www.tauonline.org/Articles/Misc_General_TOHistory_11.jpg)
[Version 6: A new design, an improved "change design" feature and the ability to rate and comment on all articles.]
Well, as this article shows, we've come a long way. We started naturally small and now are currently getting over 700 posts on the forums per day. We're close to getting over half a million forum posts and over 5,000 members, and I'm confident we'll continue growing after that. Thanks for reading all.
If you like this site, please consider helping us out greatly by donating to us.
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| Comment made by israfel420 on 15:13:32, 9 September 2007 |
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| Nice I never knew some of you guys were so old :P |
| Comment made by stupidsimon on 11:06:45, 9 September 2007 |
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| Great history! But I don't understand how in the "Death or Resurrection?" paragraph the site started growing after emails to members. Wouldn't that just make people come back but not make people join? Why did it grow? |
| Comment made by Lord of the Pit on 08:25:15, 9 September 2007 |
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| Ahh... Nostalgia |
| Comment made by on 13:19:54, 22 February 2007 |
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| That is a great story of Tau Onlines history. Best site ever glad it made past its V2 stage |
