Thankyou David.

Welcome Pinkboarders.

In 1997 I was on stage in the Sydney Town Hall receiving a Mardi Gras award that David was presenting. He surprised me by saying “also known as Panther”. At that stage I wasn’t aware how far my reputation, or should I say notoriety, had spread.

I have never exactly kept it a secret who I am, and many people here would know me through other roles. But I have never exactly become the face of Pinkboard, even though my photo has appeared in Campaign in the early nineties and the SSO last year.

Back in 1986 I started Pinkboard on a Telecom service known as Viatel. 2 years later Pinkboard became a bulletin board. Then on 21 st May, 1995 I shifted Pinkboard onto the Internet.

That’s 10 years ago. That’s what we are celebrating tonight!

Well, 10 years ago there were not that many people who knew about the Internet, and they were mostly hobbyists and people in the industry. (confidentially) There’s a few in the room tonight.

Now we have Internet virtually everywhere. No one could survive without one or more email addresses. Everyone knows what www means.

At home we have done away with the phone books. We pay almost all our bills over the Internet. We use it to read the daily news, check out the movie or TV times, find out how Kylie is. We communicate with our friends via email or instant messenger. We would be lost without it.

In ’95, when I moved to the Internet, there was not much around in Australia or overseas. So it was up to Pinkboard to pioneer many areas. Personals and classifieds, venue listings, community group listings, accommodation guides, galleries, information on safe sex, advice, links to other sites … phew. There is a picture of the Pinkboard home page from 1997 in the foyer, showing all of this.

Over the years other sites, better staffed and funded than Pinkboard, have taken over some of these roles. Up until 2000 Pinkboard was The most popular website in the GLBT category. It slipped only from number 2 position about a year ago. Not bad considering that Pinkboard’s advertising budget is virtually zero, and that I have to juggle looking after it with a full time job.

But Pinkboard has not disappeared. It is still quoted regularly in the papers. It is still scanned avidly by party promoters and DJs to get feedback on their events. It is still discussed by boards of our community organisations. It is still the source of many rumours, true and otherwise. It is still where the bitches and wannabees say how much they hate everything. It is still checked out by around 4000 members and lots of others every month.

Pinkboard has also been bringing people together all this time, for brief encounters or much much longer. Every so often someone will come up to me and say “We met on Pinkboard”.

Many people have also received help and advice, debated politics, found a place to live, or found a ticket to Azure.

Pinkboard is also starting to become a fabulous source for historical information. For instance you can find out from the Party Graffiti Wall number 4 that Arq opened on Friday the 13 th of August 1999, that Warren Gluck and Steve Carley DJed, and Martha Wash did a show. The auditions for Sleaze were held the next day.

Google someone like Glen Horder and you will come up with Pinkboard.

As to the future, I don’t know what that will hold, but there are a few new features that are close to ready.

Before winding up I do have to say a few thankyous.

Firstly to Arq and Michael for organising tonight and to Murray, Talon and Greg for helping pull it all together.

Thankyou to tonight’s DJs Murray, Shanobear, Dan and Luke, and Brad on lights, who are all regular contributors to Pinkboard. And to Shauna and Portia who will be performing later.

Thankyou to all those who have been with Pinkboard for the last ten years or more, and to everyone who reads, posts, replies and promotes Pinkboard.

Thankyou to the volunteers who moderate the Graffiti Walls and to the friends who let me take holidays.

And last but not least I would like to thank someone who has stood behind me for all these last 10 years. Who has supported and advised me. Who has kept me fed and clothed while I spend hours in front of the computers. My partner of 12 years – Greg.

Broad Poster
Tall Poster
Photos
Pinkboard History