[outstanding historical post, hopefully saved for posterity]
on kitco forum history -- mercury (...ahem [clears throat]...), 16:39:28 12/30/10 Thu
TITLE
unabashed Happy New Year 2011!, kitco 15-year forum anniversary (close enough for us glod loosers [kitcoism] history –all new mercuryreview rememberances post for the worlds greatest website (depending on year/day/month/site/poster) glodbug collective history revisionist past POSTie/THREAD:
INTRO
Hi,
i’m mercury.
My Kitco lurkdom started on Kitco in 1999, as a result of my search for further financial education beyond the tired and corrupted mainstream media. The site originated, far as I can tell, April 1996 with just a few posters. This post is based on a series of kitco archives (somewhat dysfunctional as currently on the web); other websites (for example, usagold forum archives are very intact); rememory; and personal notes.
I’ve read a few other recollections, some great, some not so much. All info posted below is my best attempt to provide some background – based on a fair level of effort. All errors entire mine.
The EARLY Days: 1996-1999
During the first three years there were only a handful of posters, growing to a couple dozen regulars. Although I just began lurking in 1999, I used the early search function (VERY operable and useful at the time) to review post archived between 96-98 to get a flavor for the handles, who was legit, etc.
Some of the more entertaining posts were the early foodfights between Bart Kitner and Vronsky, who was endlessly promoting his own site. The gentleman Mike Sheller tried to ‘broker peace’. Eventually Vronsky was just banned from the site for constant sig pumping. The foodfights were an early and constant feature of a vibrant Kitco.com (kco) forum.
In January 2000 I began posting, using the nom de plume ‘mercury’.
At the time, one could post using whatever handle they wanted to use.
This was the only handle I ever used until I signed on this current kitco forum using the name CoinMine, since the software reported ‘mercury’ was already taken. (Maybe I have it on a lost password?).
FORMAT CHANGES
Sammy’s timeline is pretty good; though I provide a different system:
KI: The first forum was chronological posting. You could select which time block of posts you wanted displayed. The background was white. Here is what it looked like:
web.archive.org
bin/comments/gold/display_short.cgi
The first change to old Kitco (K1) was just a color and graphics change; I’ll call it K1.a. The new background color was yellow.
K2: The next format, called K2 (circa October 1999) was a substantial improvement because it added a search engine. Unbeknownst to us, Bart had saved all (most) the forum content in an archive. The search format was actually very good, if a bit slow, because it would search by poster and/or keyword all the back in the archives.
This proved a quite useful tool b.c. it added the first degree of accountability to the site. You could no longer just post what you wanted, only to disclaim it later. Posts were verifiable, and people used it regularly to keep each other honest. Was a great tool to separate the wheat from the chaff. Of course in those days, people would sometimes use other folk’s handles, impersonating a ‘better’ poster, or just having fun. So, a new ‘security measure’ was needed…
Another big change was the requirement of passwords two months later, in versions KII.a! However, the problem was that you needed to enter your password and handle during each session, in two very similar looking boxes. Religious discussions and Y2K deliberations dominated much of the off-course banter, providing endless division and diversion.
2000
The new century saw some big changes in the equity markets and on the forum. There were some disruptive posters that never seemed to master self-control, and a few had their handles pulled in June 2000. At one point Bart graciously set up a conference-video call for the benefit of the community. One of the disruptors did their best to ruin the call. There was a raging debate both before and after regarding what a ‘free’ forum should look like. Of course, the forum wasn’t free, someone paid the bills.
Bart originally gave the forum quite a wide berth. Many folks thought there was too much leeway, actually. Since Bart paid the bills, and subsidized the forum, he should lay down the law, was their way of thinking. About that time I started to wonder if the forum was really costing that much in real terms. That is, the equity markets, Nasdaq in particular, essentially crashed in spring 2000. Many folks had begun looking around for a little more sensible explanation than they found in the mainstream media. Gold started perking up a bit also. These two threads found a home in the Kitco poster forum.
The forum obviously had attracted some interest from far aflung crowds. Back in the day, the government agencies didn’t mask their ISPs, and we could tell there were a number of viewers from the Treasury Department, Commerce, IRS, intelligence services, etc. Some saw some sinister motives. I figured much of the traffic was simply the government employees who were aghast at seeing their TSP plans tank, and were enjoying some of the finest economic discussion anywhere on the internet, at a little place called the Kitco Bar and Grille.
2001
2001 was an interesting year. A number of new posters arrived, coming from out of the woodwork. In or near September, Bart rolled out a new forum look, with the canary yellow background. I call that version KCO II.b
Despite the influx of new folks, the same old contingent caused forum disruptions. There was a darker tinge to some of the postie smears; an unease was in the air. 911 seemed the gestalt, in hindsight. Also, both the metals and metal stocks had entered serious flux. Many of us laid out a strong argument why gold had entered a nascent, if not fully obvious, uptrend – possibly a sea change. Others posted the contra arguments. And too some posters may have had ulterior motives to disrupt the free flow of information and economic discussion.
By the end of 2001 many posters had tired of the off-tired bickering. Some left, others migrated, albeit temporarily to other sites. Sharefin started up his forum about this time. Alas, as many have found out -not so easy to run a goldbug forum!
For all the events of that year, there are very few archived pages readily available. Unfortunately, I also lost a fair amount of data that year due to a hard drive crash.
2002
Kitco Bar and Grill open and serving up higher gold prices. Gold was over $330 and silver over $4 for most the year. The denizens celebrate with various and sundry parlor games. One of the favorite crowd pleasers was the ‘guess the weekly close of price of gold’ game; proved the relative mettle of many a poster.
For my money, 2002-2003 were the Kitco Golden Years a revival of the 1998-1999 forum – the best financial site on the internet, hands down.
2003
Good posting days continued. Gold moved over $370 for most the year with silver breaking the $5 barrier. The XAU/HUI moved up smartly; outside of the usual seasonal periods. Many folks expected the typical April/May pullback and summer weakness. However, quite a few gold stocks strengthened all through the summer into fall. I remember a majority of folks, great posters with now large followings, missed the bulk of this move! (Of course, I got pretty well creamed in the correction of spring 04!)
2004; fourm mark KII.b
Gold broke the $400 mark and silver moved over $6.
Kitco forum added a feature, the ‘ignore poster’ function. I call that forum KII.b A couple disrupters had upped their game in early 2004, causing a disturbance in the force. The entire forum lowered their standards, IMO, by forcing out a few posters who insisted on posting religious themes. A couple of them were pretty savvy technicians/investors.
2005
Silver started outperforming gold for the first time in years; breaking the 7.00 barrier in September. This federal disaster response to NOLA hurricane added more impetus to the monetary metals. By the end of the quarter silver had broken through $8 USD and gold was knocking on the $500 door. Just a few short weeks later, in December, Silver had pierced $9 with Gold well over $500. Even though the metals pulled back in price before the new year, several of the most watched gold stocks had printed golden crosses (50 Day EMA move up through 200 D EMA), portending a very golden 2006.
As in the past, breaking these psychological levels renewed interest in the monetary/political metals. This interest, in turn, brought out new quasi hackers that preyed on accidentally released passwords bringing a new level of disruption to the boards. Many of the posters had already realized the golden era of the kitco forum was lost, as was much of the early Age of Innocence of the world wide web. A new, darker, chapter in disinformation was enveloping.
2006
The metals continued to soar, gaining new momentum as silver broke through $13.50 with gold over $650 by April. The quality of the posts continued to decline thanks to new agent provocateurs and a few older posters dedicated to disruption. By June Bart introduced to the forum the ‘survivor’ inspired gimmick of voting off posters with the three strike rule. Although it generally worked to eliminate the most banal of posters/disruptors, the entire process served to undermine forum cohesion and continuity.
The second major software revamp was the introduction of the new Gold Forum, with threaded topics, and the end of the old style open post chronological forum. This forum mark, KII.b was branded the ‘Community Forum’). The old chronological forum was eventually junked and the community forum is, more or less, as appears now
An introduction to the new threaded community forum was the use of moderators. Some of the kitco community posters migrated to the threaded forum, though most stayed on the chronological format forum. This moderated forum, in a threaded format, never attracted the majority corps of the old posting community, though it did continue to attract new posters.
The new forum required ‘application’ to join. As far as I could tell, all the old posters without three strikes were accepted, though most of the old posting community never joined the new formatted/moderated forum. Instead, the old community founded two new forums. I will not link those forums out of consideration, but should note that about 50 posters migrated to the new moderated forum and about 150 posters migrated to a non-moderated forum, where most of us continue our now decade+ economic conversation. The main spinoff forum actually had a couple of moderators at one point, though we no longer have had one for a number of months now, nor have a need for one.
There are about six or seven refuge forums where former Kitco forumites landed after the change to a moderated/threaded forum.
A number of us speculated why the old forum was shut down.
As Bart never came out and said why, speculation was never authenticated. The jist accepted was that the few disrupting posters were not worth the hassle, and a heavily moderated forum was the only solution.
Another obvious point is that five or six members were very unhappy with unpopular political views expressed, and ACTIVELY petitioned Bart to shut down the forum.
Another band grew increasingly critical of the kitco feed, and noticed that certain price spikes and corrections were smoothed in the price feed, for reasons never made clear.
So too, reading between the lines showed that some minor contingent of the powers that be (PTB) didn’t exactly appreciate the financial knowledge available on kitco forums. Plain financial criminal acts perpetrated by corporations and government agencies, especially with regards to commodity manipulation, were well documented in mass every day. This proved an obvious embarrassment to the ruling criminal class. No doubt this ran afoul of some Canadian ‘hate speech’ rules, and the pressure to silence always remained a latent lurker
TOPCIS
One major difference in topics is that in the late 90s/early 2000s guns/weapons provided a large side topic, along with religion (found distasteful/detracting to many, and a reason some posters were voted off). Now the major side topic on the main spinoff forum is health and wellness, a not surprising development given the natural cycle of life.
LURKERS
There were literally thousands. Some of them would occasionally post. After a while it became obvious a few were inside industry players, mining executives, government, and industry analysts. Some of the content posted in the early days was obviously paid-content, industry analysis, and government analysis.
POSTER LOG
See below for a poster roster for those years:
Note: I have only provided a poster’s real name if they outed themselves, or were outed and provided no objection, or are now deceased).
At one point I had noted which posters were disruptors and eventually had the site shut down, though I removed that content – better part of discretion.
Still included is light commentary on a few posters that continuingly proffered high quality content with whom I know longer communicate or see post. For those posters still using their handles recently (within two years), on any forum, I marked ‘extant’ next to their handle. For those I have not found, would be interested to see where they currently offer their thoughts.
Also have NOT rated any of the posters I am currently still in contact with. To a person, those posting (about 150 posters) on the main refuge forum (with perhaps a 5% variance) are incredibly astute and have regularly posted financial commentary far and above what else is out there, free or paid content, for over a solid decade.
POSTER ROSTER – The First 10 years/500-600 posters (more or less)
A1
A.goose
Ag_Bug - extant
agaurus
AKA
albatross
ALBERICH
Albert Cheung – extant; qindex.com
Allen
Another scribd.com
APH
Apollo - extant
Africanminer
Alan Greenspan
Alex
Amor pijltjes
Apprentice1
AragonIII
Arby
Argent
Artalou
art_vandila - extant
AU_BUB
AU_NB - extant
AU1000
AuGeo
audude - extant
auger
Aurator - extant
Auric
aurophile
AUwolf - extant
AUMAN
AURUM
Auspec - extant
AynRand
AYORK
AZAU
AzusaGold – Ron retired; stopped posting treasurenet.com
B.A.A
baal shem
Barney
Bart (Kitner); Site owner www.kitco.com
BassicBlues
BEN
Bent Rifle - extant
Bernard_Barouk capitalstool.com. He is looking for URL of voy and outkasts forum, someone with a capital stool handle might consider poking him.
Bharat
Big Fisherman – extant; Subscription Newsletter
BigTrader – interesting early stuff, would like to see that archive
BIG BOB - extant
BillD
BillinOregon
Bizarro_Greenspan - extant
Blackbeard - extant
Bleuler
BlueFire
Boardreader
Bobbo
bob2
Bookmark
BrassBalls
Brian W. Pascal/BWP – extant; trinovant.fortunecity.co.uk
Brutus - extant
Bubbles/Fingerprint42 –extant; 321gold.com
Budfox - extant
Bufford - extant
Bullion
Bullishongold, Bullishonsilver, Bullishonbronze - extant
Bully Beef
Bw – extant; healthyprotocols.com
Cage Rattler Top notch early content. Read his correspondence with Martin Armstrong, and FOFOA commentary on such: fofoa.blogspot.com
Cajus - extant
Canuck
CAP811
Caper - extant
Captain_Kirk (great commentary, a working mans path to financial enlightenment. Would like to see his post archive.)
Carl
Cashcobb – extant; someone needs to build his post archive.
chas
ChasAbar - extant
Cheapo
CHEESEHEAD
Cherokee - extant
Chicken man - extant
Chrisophilos – extant; Hrysophilos on K3
Chris Powell www.GATA.org
CJK/cjk>doran - extant
CJS1_A
Claymoremind
CMax
Cobra
COGOLD
COIN
CompGeek
Cometose
CoolJing
Conspiracy Theory
Contrarian
Coral Calcium - extant
Cornucopia
Crazytimes - extant
Crmblr
Crunch
Crystal Ball
Cyclist - extant
D’ORWAY
Dabchick- extant; sharelynx.com
Dan - extant
Dandelion
Dangerbird
Dave
DaveD - extant
Deacon31
deadeye
Dee
DeepBreather – extant
Delphi
Delta.au - extant
Demiglod
DevilDog - extant
Dick49D
DiscoPro_Joe
DJ
Donald – extant
Doomdog (Smart commentary; would like to see post archive.)
Drifter
duppy - extant
Dzazter1
D2Eagle
Earl
Earl Grey
Eb/guacamole
Egoli
Eldorado - extant
Elliot
Ellix98/ellix - extant
Envy
EJ (Eric Janszen; www.itulip.com) Top shelf content by EJ.
El Borak Great poster(http://elborak.blogspot.com/)
EpicAutumn
ERLE - extant
Evenabrokenclock extant
eyes2sky - extant
FACT
Farfel/*F – would like see an archive of his posts.
Fatty
Fiendster
Firehawk
fisherman
Flash
FLGoldbug
flierdude/Chad C. Meek, Godess Venus, Chris, Diana, Satana,etc
Forestgold
FOX-MAN
forevergold
Fork Lift
Francess
Francis Lynn
francois101
FRED C. DOBBS - extant
Friend of Another (see FOFOA blog). Impressive summary: fofoa.blogspot.com
frewils - extant
Frustrated - extant
Gagnrad
Galearis- extant
Gambler
Gazebo
Gianni Dioro
Gidsek
GldHnd
GLENN
Glooscap
Gogold
GoldBuck
goldbuggerer
GoldBrick
Goldcall
Goldfinger - extant
Goldeen
Gold Coaster/Glod Coaster - extant
Goldbird1a (only one post, but a doozy!)
goldbug23 - extant
goldeye - extant
Goldfish - extant
GoldFleeced
GOLDIE
gold nugget
GoldNoil
Goldstocktrader
GoldVoyeur
Goldenfinger
GoldFleeced
Golden Gloves
Golden Goose
Goldenprill/Goldgenprill2
Goldfingered
Goldhawk
Goldilocks
Goldmemeber - extant
Goldteck
Goldvoyeur
Gollum - extant
GourmetDan
grant
Greenstone Gold
GSkinner
Gspot - extant
gurk
gwyz
Haggis
Hambone - extant
Hank The Bank
HARDCASE
Hashim
HB
Heavy Hitter
Hedgehog - extant
Hepcat
HEAVYJUMBO
HEAVYMETAL
Heavy Metal Sunshine
HighRise
Hogan
HoldGold
HoldNGold
HOMESTAKE
Homestk Kid
Horace A Greenamier
humble1 - extant
IDT – extant
Igloo
Interesting Times
ION
IRQU
Island Dweller - extant
isure2
Jack
Jack Long
Jadedone
James - extant
James Nicholasson
Jasper - extant
jedster
Jeil
Jems B.
jims
jinx44
Jesse22 - extant
Jlee - extant
John Disney - extant
Jonboy – extant
jonesy
Jorick - extant
Josef
JPS
JRL
JTF
Junior
JustamereBear - extant
jyantkilr
KKC27
Kaptain Kaos
Kapex - extant
keyser soze
Khan - extant
kingyo
Kitkat - extant
Kiwi
klaski
Knapper - extant
Know it all Guy
Kodie - extant
kuston
labrat
lagoon
Lan Man
Lance Flatue
Ldg
legalgrad
Leland
LGB
LIBERTY
Lillbett
Logical
LoanHack
Longj
LordFrith
LUCKY
Lurker
Lurker 777/LURKER 7777 (This guy was interesting, came on board with almost a sure fire way to profit on call positions hedging his physical position – using ONLY Austrian philharmonics)
mag30
Markus
Moa - extant
McStew – extant
meg
mercury- extant; coinmine.com
Merde
messy79- extant
M. Hitter
Mica
Midvinternatt - extant
Mike
Mike Sheller (great commentator in the early days; would like to see archive post.)
Mikey
miles
MiloTrdr
mine herr
MiniMiner
Miro/Sailor - extant
Mo In To (Rest In Peace)
Mooney/*
Morbius - extant
MoRoGoLd/Moregold - extant
motherlode
Mozel - extant sharelynx.com
MRW - extant
Mr. Sunshine – extant?
Mugwump - extant
myrmidon
m2trains - extant
nabob
nailz
NATIVE GOLD
NAVY
neer-do-well - extant
Neophyte
Netpi - extant
newbie
newmoney
Newton
Newphys1
NTEOTWAWKI
Nicodemus
NickC/Nick@C
Nocte Volens
Nomercy
Normandy Revulsion
Nor’wester/Northwester – extant; rcgcoins.com
Nuggets - extant
numnuts
Observer
Ohp01
oilboiler - extant
Old Gold
Old Soldier
Oleman – would like to find his archived posts
Offal - extant
oncebitten
Open Loop
Oris
ORO – worth looking up his posts on the www.usagold.com archives
OROPHILE
P.Yorkie - extant
paddy
Payt
Pendragon
Penn Dutch
Perly21
Permabear1 - extant
PERMAFROST
Pete
Petronius
PH in LA
philbond007 - extant
phos
Plutrach
Pickerticker
PIERRE - extant
playrightman
POLARBEAR
PoP_Eye
Portinax
powmain
Praha
Preacher (Dennis Weaver, Rest in Peace)
Private Investor
Psilver Psyched
Prometheus - extant
Pure1
Pu`ukani - extant
Pyrite - extant
Quad extant
Quark
Quetsalcoatl
Rack - extant
Rad0
Raja- extant
Radiumflipper (great stock timing, would like to find his archive)
Ranharri - extant
Razorback
Rb
Reify
Retired Soldier (J.Franklin)
Rez
Rhody
RHG
Rick
Ricopp
RIP- extant
RJ
Rjjj670
RNGR
Roan - extant
Rob
RobNoel robbynoel.com
Rolly
Romanov - extant
Ron
Ronald Jett
ror
Rorschach Tested
Savage
Schultz
scorp54
Scott T.L.
Scruffy – extant?
SDRer – (Rest in Peace_
Sharefin - sharelynx.net
siempre33 - extant
SilverDragon - extant
Silverrain – (Rest in Peace)
Skinny - extant
slowman
snowbird - extant
Speed
Stair Maker
Stargold Shooter
Steve_in_TO
Streets of Silver
STUDIO.R - extant
Surfer
SuzyQ
Sam/Sammy - extant
SAMDOG
Samuel Adams
Schippi – extant; selectsectors.com
Selby
SEQUIN
Sharefin (http://www.sharelynx.com/kudos.php; Nick Laird)
Shek
shell
Sherlock - extant
$hifty - extant
Silverbaron
Silverrain (RIP; a fine gentleman)
Silver Dragon
SKI - extant
SlangKing
Slim
slowman
snowbird - extant
Soothsayer
Spenser extant
SpudMaster – good stuff, would like to see archived posts
SteveIS
Steve L - extant
Steve Puetz - uct-news.com
Steven Jon Kaplan - truecontrarian.com
Stilgar
Stinkfinger
Stone-Gold
Strad
Strat - extant
Stx
Streets of Silver - extant
Squirrel
Sunny spot - extant
SwampBoy
SWP
Takachi - extant
Tallbear
Tantalus - extant
Tarbet - extant
ted butler - butlerresearch.com
Tenabo
ThaiGold1
THC
TheGoldenProphet
thmann - extant
TheBeeger
themissinglink
TheFatMan
themine
(t) he Infidel
ThePacifier
ThePhoenix
The Vet - extant
Thomas
Thoreau
Tiredtwice
Todd - extant
tolerant/tolerant1/T1Namaste'GP&C
Tommy
tommyc
Turmeric
Traderneal - extant
trader_vic – extant?/retired in 2008? Would like to see post archive.
Traff - Would like to see post archive
Trinovant – extant; trinovant.fortunecity.co.uk
Trotsky – extant; www.acting-man.com
Trugold
Turbo - extant
TYoung - extant
Tyrant
Twowave - apmex.com
Tyler Rose
Uncle
Universal One – Would like to see post archive.
Uptick - Leonard Kaplan; LFG Bullion
Veg
Vincedes
ViPer
Viper
Vronsky- extant; www.gold-eagle.com
(first poster banned from kco forum?!?)
Waliac - extant
Warlord03848
WelcomeStranger
West
WetGold
Whatshisname
Who Cares?
Whole Wheat
WIFFO - extant
WileE - extant
WilloTheWarthog
Winston - extant
Wolfgang
Xau5
Year2000
Yellowcab extant
Zardoz
Z.D. Goldheart
Zaideh
zeke
ziva
zoop
Zygoat
1Lawbreaker1
2001yearforGold
4bear
6pak
2bro2B - extant
3-cubed
24k
P2
EPILOGUE
Congratulations to Bart for over 26,000 registered members now using his forum. Quite a difference from the early days when a few dozen cast the miners lamp into the stoped underground financial shenanigans and goings-on.
At any rate, this is how I remember things (helped with a few notes along the way).
Without a doubt the original kitco forum, between 1998 and 1999 and again in 2002- 2003 was in the top 10 financial intelligence sites on the internet. Period. Alas, all good things must come to an end. Obviously the current site has an even larger fanbase and has been able to capture new interest in all things gold, so kudos to Bart and his team.
If you want to set the record straight, have something you would like to add, or ask me to make an important change, please let me know. This forum ring has been one of the top financial site(s) (complex) for almost fifteen years now, and honest reckoning of financial history still merits importance to some of us.
Thank you all and see you around the net…
Most respectfully,
mercury
[all rights reserved! (har!)]
p.s
NOT YET POSTED (written)
– Gold Forum History
- Selected Poster Reminisces
EOM |
