About Netcult

Netcult. The name itself strikes fear into the hearts of the uninitiated.

Since the dark ages (1998), Netcult has been commited to bringing you a lack of perfection. In that time we have evolved quite a bit. When it was created by Cary in October of 1998 (see history), b0b "decided that THE CULT had some real web page potential". It started out as a couple perl scripts running on b0b's server at work. The graffiti wall immediatly became frequented by our members. The original design was by b0b and used k-rad's controversial image of Damascus High School on fire.

But the design became cumbersome to expand so k-rad redesigned the site and b0b recoded many key elements and added things like the forums and newz. Ben also coded the survey and suggestion box. Eventually b0b also reimplemented everything as mod_perl modules. b0b kept on expanding and eventually added a members section. He also acquired the netcult.org domain. At some point the cult moved to b0b's dual celery at UMCP.

At the end of May 2000, b0b needed his computer back and we needed a new connection since we were all moving off campus for the summer. So the cult moved once again, this time to Ben's computer on Ethan's DSL. Ben then set about the arduous task of collecting funds for a new box for Netcult. Once we had some money together a few of us went to the computer show and sale to make some bad investment decisions. During the next few weeks Ben set the box up and then finally exchanged it with Ethan for his own.

Netcult's motherboard broke in late 2002 and k-rad put a new box together using parts donated by Ethan, this time installing OpenBSD on it in the name of a learning experience, and creating a temporary site to implement some of the new design ideas.

In the late summer of 2003, Ben began rewriting netcult from scratch for the umpteenth time, this time actually doing a little planning first. Finally, in June 2004, he reached a point where the code could be put into use. Since OpenBSD turned out to be horrible for netcult's purposes, he and Ethan installed FreeBSD on the box (currently a speedy Celeron 200). Two days of compiling later, the new code was installed and ready to go. Features of the new netcult can be found here.