Long time visitors may remember this site's modest beginnings as a haven for my fan fiction and a few pieces of crappy art - back when it was known as
Purrsia's ThunderCat Fan Fiction. That was back in July of 2001 when I launched that little blip into the unsuspecting cyber space. Well, whether or not my art is still crappy is a matter of opinion, but I do like to think I learned a thing or two over the years as I experimented with site design and taught myself html until the site grew into what it is now - one of the biggest Thundercats sites on the net! As of early 07, it's got almost 3 gigs of info for visitors to plow through. And still, so much more is yet to be added.
I've always run the site by myself (more about webmistress Purrsia can be read about
here) and as it grows, the task gets more daunting. However, as more time goes by, the more I begin to think of it as everyone's site. The new url is meant to reflect that, I suppose. There's been generous donors over the years of materials, and of course, the fellow fans who come here to share their thoughts on the boards or upload their fanworks to share. At any rate, it's been a fun way for this little housewife to develop a hobby and keep trying new things, while having fun with an old, favorite show. And without you visitors, I'd just be a crazy lady talking to myself here about a 20+ year old show! Insanity loves company, so thanks ;)
While rummaging through some old floppies and site backup discs one day, I ran across some long-forgotten archives of this site and the various ways the main page has been presented. For fun I reconstructed them and took a screen shot. Keep in mind things like the counter and calendar are still in use and so will reflect current stats and dates at the time I took the screen cap. You can click on the thumbnail to see a larger shot of the images.
About the only thing missing is the very first incarnation of this page, from back when I started out on geocities. I have long deleted my geocities pages and didn't have the know-how or foresight to screen cap the main page so I could embarrass myself with it later. However, I'm sure the collection below will do ^_^ Let's go for a trip down memory lane!
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Date: April 2002 | May 2002
Notes: It really wasn't terribly different than the very first version. And although I was no longer at geocities, the page boasted much of the old html from those days. I knew very little html at this point and I guess it shows :lol: Oh but who could forget the toilet gif email link?
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Date: February 2003
Notes: I moved to host bravenet and got a little braver. Look, ma, I learned how to do tables! But boy was I in need of Photoshop. MS Paint wasn't cuttin' it for graphics, ne? I also notice this is when I had my first domain name, purrsiathunder.com :)
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Date: May 2003
Notes: Don't be too impressed - this was the result of my first foray into templates. I found a spiderman template at geesh.com and spent many many frustrating hours making it over into a Thundercats theme. I didn't get that damn award for my troubles, either. I also discovered the joys of free javascript for menus and scrollbars.
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Date: August 2003
Notes: A few months later I tinkered with the left hand table and proudly displayed my neat donated Lion-O gif. Stylistically, it was still largely influenced by a template...I cheated! The shoutbox was also a neat interactive addition - until it became a spam-o-rific vortex of pop up ads. All free things must come to an advertising end!
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Date: September 2003
Notes: My I was the ever-tweaking one in 2003! Tired of the template, this is one of my first half-way decent designs, though I still borrowed from the concept of the scrolling content with the faded background. This one was a royal bitch to line up and probably looked like crap in non-IE browsers. The sword image however, rocked. Yay for PSP! This is also about the time I went to my current hosting and got the current domain name.
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Date: July 2004
Notes: For much of 2004 I settled on this basic design, and it served me well for a time. It was my first foray into iframes, but after awhile I found them too restricting...so they too eventually got ousted. I still miss that neat dropdown menu, even though it didn't work in non-IE browsers either. Note that this is when I also changed the site name over from Purrsia's Thundercat Fan Fiction to Return to Thundera. Concepts changed more than style this year, including the jump to php and style sheets.
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Date: March 2005
Notes: This design reigned since a major overhaul at the start of 2005. Gone are the frames, and I fixed blunders in my css that made for better mass editing along with more use of the php include function. All this should make my site easier to overhaul in the future as I'm sure I will. Also, everything aside from specialty menu scripting was coded by me on this page...no more template crutches for me!
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Date: October 2005
Notes: I found another horizontal drop down menu and had visitors test it in multiple browsers to be sure it would work for most people. I also reworked the main banner and background image to further update the site's look, and it seems to be the most well-recieved incarnation yet! The use of php include docs made the switch a real breeze...easily the best web design trick I've learned yet.
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Date: March 2007
Notes: Finally time to really shake things up! New CSS tricks meant I could offer different "skins" for visitors to choose from (works best in IE). I also went with another vertical menu and put it on the right for a change of pace. Definitely the most dynamic design yet!
Contentwise, I reorganized the server, streamlined several areas on the site, and updated info wherever I saw it out of date. True Spring Cleaning! I also got another domain name with 'thundercats' in it - thundercatsfans.org - hopefully it's the last.
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The Show
