ICF's 3rd anniversary today(23rd October)

[kabira]

congrats. I think special mention should be given to Ravi. Initially he did all the work to set up the site. The site was once hacked and since then he has done everything to make it secure. Where are you Ravi?

[EnterTheVoid]

The site was once hacked

Can you please elaborate ?

[Malcolm Merlyn]

Can you please elaborate ?

yes i an elaboration is sure wanted

[kabira]

I bumped couple of threads in GEneral discuss on hacking issue

[Sachinism]

- Are there many people more knowledgeable and passionate than Gaurang/KDG/Birbal when it comes to Indian cricket and Indian cricket history?

Get these people on here

[yoda]

Get these people on here

Well all 3 nicks are the same person. He aint gonna leave that site. It is his baby.

[Mr. Wicket]

Get these people on here

Gaurang joined briefly, but did not stay. It is a shame. I know him personally, he is an incredibly nice guy (and very generous as well when it comes to sharing/lending books from his vast cricket library) and I have come across very few people with his passion and knowledge for the game, particularly in its classical form.

[Sooda]

He did post here a few times, and his knowledge will be more than welcome No ones gonna ask him to leave fever. The place is dead anyway, hell enjoy it so much more and be so much mroe appreciated here

[Bumper]

Ah, what memories! What the hell I'll post that *first* email (that Sooda refers to) that went to fellow ICFers. Mods if you dont think this is appropriate feel free to remove it.

Dear ICF-ers: The five of us (bumper, BossBhai aka BheemBhai, Dhondy, Gambit, Han Solo aka Shwetabh) have been posting at ICF for over 2 years. Over the years, we have always found moderation at ICF unfair and unfriendly. As you know, **** has always been dictatorial. He has insulted, banned & restrained the regulars for simply voicing their cricketing opinions. He's done a commendable job in building the site, but thats no license to treat his fellow posters this way. Oflate, he has taken his dictatorship to the next level. He's quick to support the anti-Indian elements (***_D, Pak posters etc) but always finds fault with the regulars. He readily plays spoil sport on anything the mass at ICF enjoys. He does all this knowing fully well, there is nothing we could do about his moderation. In the past many good posters unhappy with his moderation left the board. (Gullu -- former moderator, Thaleel -- now a cricinfo author, Dileep Premachandran -- cricinfo writer, to name a few). Many good foreign posters like Bongs, choor, OZGod etc. were also driven away from this forum. Besides the current moderation team (***, *** & ***) is hardly representative of the posters on this forum. They all seem like one team against the mass. ICF has many fantastic posters that will make a great community anywhere else. We dont want to lose this community because of ***'s antics. At this point, the five of us feel tired of ***'s high handedness and want to do something about it. If you think alike, we request your support. With the no. of online resources available, we could easily build a forum that all of us can enjoy posting on. We'd like that forum to be a democratic setup (it will be your MB), with primary focus on Indian cricket, along with an off topic forum. One or more among you will represent the moderator team. If as many ICFers as we expect, support this idea, you wont even miss posting with your fellow ICFers. If this thought excites you, please let us know if you will support us on this venture. We'd like to know how many of you are willing to join hands with us, in a possible new MB. Any suggestions that can help setup up this new MB will also be appreciated. You can still continue to post on ICF -- thats your choice. We wont restrict you. But the important thing to remember is that you could post in an alternate MB with your self respect intact. Please let us know what you think by responding to this email copying the 5 of us. Sincerely, bumper Dhondy Bheem Han Solo Gambit PS: We trust you as much as we trust ourselves. We'd like this to be kept QUIET until the plan comes into fruition. To ensure your privacy we have BCC-ed all your email ids. For your information we have emailed this to the below ICFers. Kabira DadaRocks Rajeev Seamer aka Ravi Avi aka Anakin Captain of Bangra aka CoB News Junkie Gullu talkSport aka PK Darth Sooda Ranj Don aka Straight Drive rajthebam DesiChap Shehazaada DravidDaBest Master Yoda Gator Mandrake Zaphod aka Rahul Nair (not on this list but is aware of the plan) Thaleel (not on this list but is aware of the plan) We dont have the email ids of the below posters, that we would like to contact. If u have their ids, please pass it along. In addition if you know an ICFer who has been missed out, please let us know with their email ids. VeeR Crime Master Gogo sm332 iterativeend (Zap Braginan) Anand_JaiHind Beetle aka Radhika As you notice, this is the CREAM of ICF. Please come out & support us, we can build a very successful board.

[yoda]

I remember that one of the ways we promoted the new site to other members at the old site was to add the new site's URL to our banners on the old site. Worked till you got banned. :--D

[Bumper]

I first stumbled on a cricket message board back in 2004 looking for cricket videos. This was post 2003 world cup & the 2003-04 Ind-Aus series, when Indian cricket was on the ascendancy at the world stage. This was the time India began playing Pakistan & Veeru had just hammered a stunning 309 to deliver Pakistan its first defeat on its home soil vs its arch rivals. I was craving for more test cricket back then. Never before had i loved watching our openers bat in test cricket. Such was the "veeru" effect on me. India suddenly was a powerhouse in either forms of cricket back then. Having endured subpar performances from this team all my youth, I craved for that recognition from fans of other countries. I found that recognition in message boards. In the ensuing months/years I kept getting sucked into this MB like an iron nail to a magnet. There are so many memories, where do i start ? We had our wins, losses, our "over the moon" moments, humiliations, our fist fights, MB wars, laugh riots etc. There was hardly a dull moment. In the process we made a bunch of friends, some enemies, shared a lot of "humous", had heated debates. And then we parted from the old board & started a new one with Ravi & Varun's help. Here we are at a point, where we have no idea what we have started. This place has more people i dont know than i do. Perhaps a whole lot of you dont even know who Ravi or Dhondy is. Thats the power of the internet. It humbles you. Recently I have quietly slipped into my own world of work & studies & make epehemeral comebacks to this board (moments such as these offer me that inspiration to be part of this exclusive club again!). Its hardly surprising that my mates of yore have done the same succumbing to the 'bigger' responsibilities life has thrown at them. This place now has gotten to a point where it will run on its own. There is so much talent among the posters, i cannot even begin to describe. Long live "Indian cricket fans". Jai Hind!

[Rajiv]

Gaurang joined briefly, but did not stay. It is a shame. I know him personally, he is an incredibly nice guy (and very generous as well when it comes to sharing/lending books from his vast cricket library) and I have come across very few people with his passion and knowledge for the game, particularly in its classical form.

Charged $30 for sending me a VHS tape, but nice to him to do that atleast :cantstop:

[Rajiv]

Ah' date=' what memories! What the hell I'll post that *first* email (that Sooda refers to) that went to fellow ICFers. Mods if you dont think this is appropriate feel free to remove it.[/quote'] The ball only rolled when I emailed Ravi and thats how the site was born Ask Ravi , please ladies and gentlemen - no more claps, plz sit down :hatsoff:

[Bumper]

Ofcourse Rajeev, your cricket videos site was the single biggest source of new members to ICF, not to mention your tireless contributions to make this place what it is today

The ball only rolled when I emailed Ravi and thats how the site was born Ask Ravi , please ladies and gentlemen - no more claps, plz sit down :hatsoff:

:haha::haha::haha:, your sense of humor though hasnt dried up one bit.

[Rajiv]

I think its time predator shows his face again, kahin yeh asli predator to nahin ban gaya?

[Gambit]

Let's not forget kabira too who helped us in developing ICFans. Actually, the idea for a new place came after one crazy afternoon when shwetabh, dhondy, bumper and I had a tiff with a chowkidaar.

[Chandan]

Ah, it's that day again! What wonderful memories. Time to sum up and do my/our annual introspection. The friendships that Shwetabh mentioned still draw me to the forum almost every day, like a moth to the flame. It's not just the three years that we have populated this place, but the years on the old place that ultimately spawned this site....how many of you can boast of watching Thal (our Salil) grow up from a naughty teenager into a superbly articulate, strapping young man (OK, that's an exaggeration, he's still only 5-6), or chronicle Gambit's professional de-pupation into a supremely confident telecom man, a transition that found him returning home from the UK? What about Bumper's unceasing quest for self-betterment, taking on a full-fledged MBA in the middle of employment, having to fly weekly to keep up wth his flinty hard, burning ambition? Nor would many of you know about Shwetabh's brilliant background in Theoretical Physics, the man who had the answer to almost every metaphysical brainmangler I could throw at him, ultimately becoming disillusioned with academia and joining the ranks of mere mortals as some kind of financial analyst, lured by the lucre of NY and Wall Street.

Wow! Really great to see even your virtual world friends grow in their life and achieving things they desired. But this bond should not be broken so easily Dhondy.

Too much hard work put into this place, too many moments of laughter, of joy, of fury to give the place up in a trice. But things have changed, Chandan, and that's why I struggle to post these days. I won't moan and ***** and pull a Robert Redford about the way things were, but there are two almost insuperable hurdles I face in continuing my MB existence. Both, you could say, are personal and nothing to do with the board. Firstly, my almost complete loss of interest in cricket, except for the odd Test match that still sparks the old flame. IPL, and the subsequent crass commercialisation that follwed, the mortification of seeing young players, fresh from the womb almost, chasing IPL contracts rather than striving to play for the country, the sight of greats retiring from the game to maximise gains at these circus versions, killed my love for the once great game as surely as night follows day. I know I am an old fuddy-duddy, but this is not the game I adored...the sport has changed forever.

I agree with you. I'm on the verge of losing all my interest in the limited overs format because of excess of T20s and ODIs and also because of alarmingly low standards of journalisms where you read either incredibly insipid pieces or just whinings--nothing more than that. Looks like T20s have divided the journalists world too. But do you really think that greats of the game have retired just to play more IPLs? (Perhaps it should be our topic of next discussion, you really need to remove this whim. :--D)

The second, and even more important reason is the effect the forum had on me. I found myself becoming addicted to it. Posting, and then waiting for a reply, more posts, more waiting...it was easy to spend several hours on the forum on certain days. How do you reconcile that with a young family and a profession that requires you to be on the cutting edge all the time? Choose professional mediocrity and losing out on your kid's growing up years over an internet forum, Chandan? Unfortunately, there are no shades of gray with me, everything's always in black & white. What price are you prepared to pay for addiction?...For, make no mistake, an addiction this is, the worst kind there is. It just amazes me when people like Desi deny that they can longer pull apart. The forum owns and controls its posters, not the reverse. I wasn't the only one to divine what was going on. People with not inconsiderable intellect, like Vroom and Bumps saw what was going on, and pulled the switch. Vroom, I know, was greatly disturbed by his inability to dedicate every single ounce of focus to his chosen path of Physics, and found the forum a distraction in that pursuit. Bumps, pretty much the same. If I know Shwetabh at all, I know it bothers him that he spends too much time on the forum, he fights it, but his loyalties to this place are far deeply ingrained than ours. He is a guy who doesn't know how to give up, even if it inconveniences him. To my tiny credit, I figured out pretty early that the only way I could justify posting was to grow from participating here. Hence, the Nerd forum, and previously the Blog, hence the numerous threads on science, math and sometimes medicine, hence the exercise to learn quantum from Graphic, Calculus from PK...Unfortunately, the youngsters can't be expected to see things that way and more often than not, I feel reduced to a beggar waiting for morsels, glorying in the occasional nugget from people like P_K, Varun or Seedhi. All the best to the rest of you though.

I agree with you here 100%. You just can't compromise on the professional and family front and I understand that posting on forums is a big big addiction. These days I too have many distractions in the personal life and my attention is more on my son. But still, I just keep this site open even to read it occasionally, read few other sites but you need to give full attention to write a post and that I can't find. And I can understand your case here. But Dhondy, please do find some time to unwind here even for just half an hour in a week. That will satisfy your virtual world friends who crave for your posts.

[Sooda]

Ah' date=' what memories! What the hell I'll post that *first* email (that Sooda refers to) that went to fellow ICFers. Mods if you dont think this is appropriate feel free to remove it.[/quote'] sniff sniff. Aww man.. Heady days. :hatsoff: to all you guys again. Some of the names on that list no longer around here... NewsJunkie for eg really nice guy, wonder how he is these days.

[The Outsider]

NewsJunkie for eg really nice guy, wonder how he is these days.

NJ still posts occasionally as sandeep.

[Dinx - the Jinx]

I first stumbled on a cricket message board back in 2004 looking for cricket videos. This was post 2003 world cup & the 2003-04 Ind-Aus series, when Indian cricket was on the ascendancy at the world stage. This was the time India began playing Pakistan & Veeru had just hammered a stunning 309 to deliver Pakistan its first defeat on its home soil vs its arch rivals. I was craving for more test cricket back then. Never before had i loved watching our openers bat in test cricket. Such was the "veeru" effect on me. India suddenly was a powerhouse in either forms of cricket back then. Having endured subpar performances from this team all my youth, I craved for that recognition from fans of other countries. I found that recognition in message boards. In the ensuing months/years I kept getting sucked into this MB like an iron nail to a magnet. There are so many memories, where do i start ? We had our wins, losses, our "over the moon" moments, humiliations, our fist fights, MB wars, laugh riots etc. There was hardly a dull moment. In the process we made a bunch of friends, some enemies, shared a lot of "humous", had heated debates. And then we parted from the old board & started a new one with Ravi & Varun's help. Here we are at a point, where we have no idea what we have started. This place has more people i dont know than i do. Perhaps a whole lot of you dont even know who Ravi or Dhondy is. Thats the power of the internet. It humbles you. Recently I have quietly slipped into my own world of work & studies & make epehemeral comebacks to this board (moments such as these offer me that inspiration to be part of this exclusive club again!). Its hardly surprising that my mates of yore have done the same succumbing to the 'bigger' responsibilities life has thrown at them. This place now has gotten to a point where it will run on its own. There is so much talent among the posters, i cannot even begin to describe. Long live "Indian cricket fans". Jai Hind!

Very touching... Since many of us joined late and dont know much about who is who.. can you guys create a Hall of Fame... The hall of fame should have the prominent people, a small write up about them by another, say Bumper writes about Shwetabh, Shewtabh writes about Dhondy and so on... and below the write up, a bunch of links to their most famous posts... this way, it will be easy for us guys to know about you guys and also get inspired... is that a good idea??? :nervous: