When did this forum first start on the web?

This version started in 2001, but the previous version, called the "old forum" had been going on a while before that. I can't remember when I first started posting, but it was in the mid 90's. At the time I started there were a number of competing sites where cat sailors could post. Those eventually faded away, but this one stuck.

Do we need to have an Anniversary celebration?

According to Archive.org the first forum started in 1996.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.catsailor.com

That Wayback Machine always scares the beegesus out of me. Is someone going to save EVERYTHING that has been written on the internet forever??? I'm glad all the really stupid things I've written were in the earlier days of the internet and are now all gone and evaporated into the ether. NOTHING disappears anymore.

Thanks for your answer, but I figured Rick or Mary would chime in with the exact date. Hmmm...they must be very buzy to have missed my little temptation.

Jeff,
I'm sorry, but Rick and I don't know when the original forum started. All I know is that it was after the magazine started, which was 1995. So 1996 sounds right. I didn't even know there were archives. That's interesting.