Hard to believe it was twenty years ago today that SatelliteGuys was born! The site was born after I was locked out of another site I helped run. Long story short the owner of that site was upset people were calling his site, Scott's site as I was the one bring all the Satellite News and Rumors. A number of folks encouraged me to start this site and well here it is. I didn't want the site to be about me though, so I named it SatelliteGuys with an S at the end and I wanted others to be able to shine. And over the years boy did we, with the success of our Voom Forums lead by Sean Mota and Ilya Vetrov, the amazing Free to Air Satellite sections led by the unmovable Iceberg and more. Hard to believe that within a few months of starting the site that thousands of people would follow us here.
Back then we were basically strictly Satellite Talk, with a mix of sports thrown in. We quickly grew into a site that people came to and trusted. I was proud when it blossomed into a place where members helped other members. And soon our forum lineup expanded where we now help people and talk about almost anything! Within months a few thousand people followed us over and we kept on growing.
When we started out the satellite companies didn't like us because we were leaking a lot of inside information but then over time they both embrased us. SatelliteGuys is now proud to host the DISH Beta program that has SatelliteGuys members help test new DISH Hardware and Software, plus we are now home of the DIRECTV Cutting Edge (CE) Program. I am proud that our members are helping to make satellite television viewing better for all.
Back then I was so good at breaking industry news that I was hired by MultiChannel News and had an online column which was one of their most widely read features. At times some of my articles were even published in the print edition and also in Variety Magazine (the same company owned both publications.)
When we started we started ad free, but then companies started offerering us money to advertise here, which I refused. In talking to members they told me I was foolish for turning down the money and talked me into accepting ads on the site, which honestly when I finally did it was a good time because this site was becoming very expensive to operate. We then rode the Internet Advertising wave and made a good amount of money. I remember when VOOM was around and their ad agency came to us and told me that VOOM wanted to advertise here. The ad agency told me that VOOM had a budget of $15,000 to advertise and to write them a proposal. Me being the idiot I am I sent over an invoice for advertising here for $200 a month (and I thought that was too much) and got a note back from the rep who was upset and said, make the invoice $15,000 and send it back to me.
What did we do with the money? We invested it back into the site and purchased a few servers for everything to run on, I hired someone to run the servers and the rest went back to our members. I don't know if people remember our holiday parties we had back then, but boy did we give back... and we gave things that were hard to get, major prizes like XBOX's, Playstations, TV's and lots more. When we turned 10 we even gave away an all expense paid cruise for two! We loved giving back to our members!
Then after that the internet ad market began to crash and the world of Satellite TV began to change. Thankfully while our expenses continued to climb and with our revenues going down we had the amazing support of our Pub Members to help us keep the lights on for all. Many of our Pub Members have been with us since the start. I honestly can't thank them enough for their support over the years! With the ad market going down and down and down, I will be honest I wasn't sure how we would keep things going yet the Pub Members always keep coming through. Speaking of Pub Members a special thanks to our Bartender Bobby, who has been the bartended in our pub since we opened it. I am sure that guy has stories!
Other websites have been through multiple owners over the years but SatelliteGuys has had just one. I do this because I love the technology, helping others and keeping a community like this going. I have had to learn a lot over the years including how to operate servers, do updates upgrades, and push the software we have to the limits. With me it is what you see is what you get and I think you all for putting your trust in me over the past twenty years!
But a website like this is only as good as the people who look after it and take care of it, and that is our staff. All of these folks have volunteered their time to keep the site friendly and spam free. They have worked so well that now the site operates like a fine oiled machine. I do miss the days of meeting the staff in Las Vegas at the CES shows. We had a lot of great great times. I honestly can't thank them enough.
I have met a lot of you over the years and I thank you for the friendships that we have formed along the way.
As we celebrate 20 years I also sit and remember members who are no longer with us. It saddens me to learn when one of our members passes away. But I was proud to know that they were SatelliteGuys.
Finally I would like to say a big thank you to YOU. There are lots of sites out there, and we now compete with bigger sites like Facebook and X, so we are proud that YOU call this your home and join us when you can. Thank YOU for coming here when you needed help or advice, thank you for coming here to catch up on the latest news, and thank you for helping others! Members helping members has been our best feature over the years, and we couldn't have done it without YOU.
I thought about offering Lifetime Pub Memberships for one day only today, but decided against it as I didn't want it to look like a money grab. But for those who do want to support the site, please feel free and the money will go to the next twenty years. To become a Pub Member please CLICK HERE or if you just want to send a donation please CLICK HERE. Thank you!
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SATELLITEGUYS!
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