Today’s our anniversary. And last Saturday we got the best gift we could have imagined.
Walking into Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, we fell in behind a group of four. All of them – two adults and two kids – were wearing personalized gameday t-shirts bearing a nickname borne on this blog; Battle of the Beards.
THAT ….. was cool. Whoever that was, if you ever read this, we thank you for making our day.
This blog started as an outlet for friends who loved App State and loved the App State football team. It has always been a labor of love.
Back in those heady ATU days of 2007, there wasn’t much App State randomness on the internets. This blog was started to share stuff we found, like this, and this, and this, and wow … we’d forgotten about this.
We’ve always tried to have some laughs, even on those bad days.
It was never meant to be a money maker. We did once have this really cool merchandising idea but, well, …. bygones. We briefly had a store, but the labor of love became waaaay too much labor (and overstock).
The google ads we run generate just enough to keep the servers on, and maybe fund a beverage or two a month (Wal-Mart vending machines are just 50 cents!).
Several months ago we quietly added a donate button (bottom left of screen). We’ve been surprised at the occasional, random submissions. We thank those who did so.
We bring this up now for a specific reason. We’d like to have a party. Nothing too fancy, but similar to the occasional AppFan tailgates we’ve had in the past.
The deal is, we’d need some funding. So we’re asking for a donation.
If our little corner of the interwebs has ever made your day, feel free to send what you want. We get enough, we’ll schedule an AppFan tailgate for later in the season.
In five years, this $5 website ($3.78 adj for inflation) has attracted .. /glances at google stats … more than 5.4 million pages views, and 400,000-plus unique visitors.
We’ve published 3,707 posts, which averages to .. /counts on toes … about 2.03 posts a day! Which .. wow … kinda shocks us. (We have got to learn to restrain ourselves)
Even bigger? Those ramblings have attracted – to date – 99,563 comments. And that’s aaaaaaall you. You humble us by caring to respond.
This has all been done on less than a shoestring. (Actually, there is no shoestring. Just lots and lots of duct tape).
We thank you all for coming our way, and for always making our day. We’ll always be proud to be Mountaineers.
I encourage people to register and become active members on the new App message board, http://www.yosefscabin.com
Thanks Jim for taking this opporunity to rather unnecesarily and disrespectfully plug another site. All class on that move. All class.
Thanks to Appfan for being a trendsetter in providing ASU information and often beating goasu.com on many of the stories that matter to the Appalachian nation.
I made the $5 blog joke. That was me.
Thanks for that turd in the punchbowl, Jimbo. AppFan reads like posts from real App State fans, the cabin site reads like Noam Chomsky wrote every post under various screen names.
AppFan, thanks for giving us a forum to celebrate our successes, gripe about stuff and speculate wildly about things that did (Chris Moore getting canned) and did not (App State's move up to FBS) happen. Not to mention all of the tidbits of news I picked up to dazzle my friends.
congratulations and thanks for keep me connected down here in lizardland…
congrats yall. keep it up
+1 Jamey
And congrats, AppFan, for five successful years. There is no other website I have deliberately followed as much as this. I'm in Chapel Hill now, proudly rocking my app stickers and flags, btw, so I raise a long distance toast to another five years!
Jamey, you are way confused.. this place has never had news on time.. 95% of the time the "news" here comes from the MMB (now over at yosefscabin.com), AppStateNation.com, or AppStateCentral.com..
Joe, you are the worst.
Hogan, I apologize for bringing the truth…
Not saying its a bad site (I'm here, aren't I).. just saying the news reported here is old news by the time its posted..
Shout out from AppStateNation.com! Happy anniversary! Reading AppFan and MMB were my 2 biggest influences in starting my own site. Congrats! Here's to 5 more years!
No thank you! I have been through some dark times over the years and believe it or not this site has been a blessed distraction that has saved my sanity at times. I hope to make it to the party.
But we beat Michigan
This party we should have name tags to put faces to these post, but it might cause some people to get punched in the face. I for one know more about what is going on in the Black and Gold Nation. One thing that AppFan does better is you don't have to look through a lot of BS to find something you want to read. One of the greatest things about the All Time Upset effect is the affect it has had on everything Appalachian State. AppFan.com is one of the best things, and there are many, about the All Time Upset.
Love your work.
Congrats on the first 5, may there be many more.
Congrats Appfan! A great venue for opinion and discussion that has strengthened the fan base a great deal. Appfan's strength is their ability to timely and constantly post every relevant piece of news all year long. You can't compare this format to MMB or even ASC or ASN. Those are or include forums/message boards with tons of people breaking news. Appfan has one or two writers. Even still, people (including myself) drop news in the comment sections here because it's such a popular venue.
I've gotten into some pretty in-depth discussions on here and spent countless hours over the past three years. You guys do great work and I'll keep coming back as long as the site is running.
Appfan, thank you for a job well done.
Thanks APPFAN!!!!
Keep up the good work!
Good job. Much less ridicule on this site than on the other one. Much of what I read on here tends to be good info. Good luck going forward.
Congrats AppFan. I appreciate all you do!
Thanks for a great site Appfan.
Congrats, Appfan! I'll be coming to this page daily until the day it closes down. I'm more interested every time I open the page. Cheers to 5 years, and here's to 5 more! I'll gladly donate and see you guys at the party.
Congrats to Appfan! Part of my daily routine is reading these great post. Here is to another 5 years. I think Jim and Joe may be the same person, but -2.
I may not post on here often, but i religiously jump on this site at least 2 or 3 times a day to keep up with App St news. Great site. Been a fan since the get go. Keep it up!
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