Scioly.org History

Scioly.org started in 1998 and originally had about 10 members subscribed to it. Features included state pages, a question-and-answer panel, a Java chatroom, and even event pages that may have been the forerunners to the present wiki.

Since its formation, many changes have been made to the site in appearance, function, and staffing. This page contains a complete history of the site, complete with pictures and text.

Scioly.org - First Generation
The first edition of the site was launched in 1998. As seen in the pictures, it included event pages for many events as well as chat and question-and-answer panels.



Scioly.org - Second Generation
Around 2000, a new layout of the homepage began, hosted by Charles. There were multiple ways to join: one could subscribe directly by email or email the people in charge to request to be added. That board was extremely successful and had 52 pages of topics, 22935 hits, and a live chat twice a week.



Scioly.org - Third Generation
The homepage of the SOSC (the colloquial name of the forum back then) changed yet again in October of the same year. Even more features were added during the change, including Team of the Week, Editorials, a more organized Event Info, and even Competition by State Info. Team of the Week was written by Linda (who later became a mod in the forums). This board had around 300 topics and almost 22,300 hits. There were five people in charge of the board: They were an enterprising bunch, selling SOSC buttons.
 * Ben: Webmaster, Main Page Design
 * Jim R: Webmaster, Main Page Design
 * Linda: Webmaster, Team of the Week, Editorials, Weekly Sections, News, Photographer
 * Eric: Webmaster, Main Page Design, Logo Design, Trajectory Page
 * Charles: Server and Domain Administrator



Scioly.org - Fourth Generation
Around October 2, 2001, they added a bulletin board similar to the current site. This bulletin board had 175 members and 281 topics; it even reached 1,858 posts. There are very few members still around from that time - they include Jim_R, Uncle Fester, Deltahat, and Matthew. This time, the layout changed to a blue one similar to the current one The admins (Jim_R, Linda, and Charles) received easily identifiable colored nicks. This version became very popular, acquiring 1,230 members, 2,208 topics, 36,163 posts, and 363,781 views. In this period of prosperity the OBB board was implemented; this is now known as the OBB archive.



Scioly.org - Fifth Generation
The fifth generation board was created in June 2008. Dark Sabre added new staff for better moderation of the forums; this is when gh, SiegeLord, bah, and eak227, exemplary members of the OBB forums, were honored. Also added were improved chat engines. The board has been ran very smoothly, accumulating 25,000 members, 3,200 topics, and 245,000 posts (and counting). The new site also features a score tracker made by Tehkubix and an image gallery on which pictures are hosted.

In May 2011, general operation of the site was passed on to starpug and robotman09 (now known as robotman). Over the next three years, several staff joined the team: Eaststroudsburg13, RandomPerson, AlphaTauri, foreverphysics, iwonder, Schrodingerscat, and Paradox21. In addition to moderating the forums and wiki, iwonder managed the image gallery while foreverphysics and mnstrviola organized an annual summer resource exchange known as the Scioly Summer Study Session. Along with the announcement of iwonder's promotion to Gallery Administrator, the site upgraded to a new chat client, Kiwi IRC. In August 2014, a quizzing application was added to the site, allowing users to add and answer questions.

The following season, new staff included John Richardsim, bernard, and Unome. In November 2015, general operation of the site was passed on to bernard. John Richardsim brought back the feature of Team of the Week in January 2016, and teams featured in the feature can be found at the Team of the Week Archive.



Scioly.org - Present Generation
The present generation board was created in December 2016. The site transitioned to a new server on December 4th. Under the new site admin, bernard, the homepage, wiki, and forums were redesigned on December 25th, giving the site a cleaner and simpler appearance. The site also moved its default IRC client from Mibbit to KiwiIRC.



OBB Archive and Original Wiki
Around April 2006, the SOSC was put to rest and the homepage changed to the OBB forum; the name was then changed to Scioly.org. This board reached 10474 members, 177,009 posts, and 9,087 topics. It was then that Dark Sabre was crowned Administrator. This version had tons of great features including a calendar, the present wiki, birthdays, team forums, and collapsible forums.



Wiki Layout
During the summer of 2010 a new wiki skin was created and implemented to give a single look throughout the site. Users who wish to browse the wiki using the old theme (Kindofblue) may adjust themes in preferences tab along the top of the wiki.



Board Information
There are many small nuances of the phpBB3 board. The current board is organized into five sections:


 * The Student Forums hold the event help threads and General Chat. The Student Forums are further split into Study Event forums, Lab Event forums, Building Event forums, and General Chat (with the subforums Posting Games and Polling Place)


 * The Competition Forums hold Regional, State, and Nationals Discussions as well as Competition Advertising and News


 * The Administrative Forums house Announcements and Feedback


 * Team Forums has any and all team private forums, which users may request


 * Archives retires past years' event help threads and Competition Forums

Staffing Additions History
gh, bah, and Siegelord were promoted to Administrator positions.

Zekebud was added as a Moderator on April 6, 2009.

andrewwski was added as an Administrator on April 6, 2009.

jander14indoor was added as a Moderator.

fleet130 was added as a Moderator.

Starpug was added as a WikiMod on April 6, 2009.

Robotman09 was added as a WikiMod on January 23, 2010.

Aia was added as a Gallery Mod around May 1, 2010.

Both Starpug and Robotman09 were promoted to Forum Mods on March 31, 2011.

starpug and robotman09 were promoted to Administrators on May 30, 2011.

EASTstroudsburg13 and zyzzyva98 were added as WikiMods on June 13, 2011.

zyzzyva98 and RandomPerson were promoted to Moderators on April 5, 2012.

EASTstroudsburg13 was promoted to Moderator on August 29, 2012.

AlphaTauri was added as a Moderator on September 19, 2012.

zyzzyva98 was promoted to Administrator on October 24, 2012.

foreverphysics was added as WikiMod on March 15, 2013.

iwonder was added as moderator and mnstrviola as WikiMod on September 16, 2013.

iwonder was promoted to Gallery Administrator on December 2, 2013.

EASTstroudsburg13 was promoted to Administrator on February 6, 2014.

Schrodingerscat was added as Moderator on March 9, 2014.

Paradox21 was added as Moderator on June 23, 2014.

foreverphysics was promoted to Moderator on September 7, 2014.

John Richardsim was added as WikiMod on September 7, 2014.

bernard was added as Moderator on May 13, 2015.

bernard was promoted to Administrator on November 9, 2015.

Unome was promoted to WikiMod on March 26, 2016.

Schrodingerscat was promoted to administrator, Unome was promoted to Moderator, and Person was promoted to WikiMod on September 5th, 2017.

Stars
On the forums, there is a star system based off of "useful" post count. Any posts not made in General Chat and its subforum Posting Games count as "useful."

1 star: any registered member

2 stars: 10 "useful" posts or more

3 stars: 50 "useful" posts or more

4 stars: 150 "useful" posts or more OR Exalted Members

5 stars: Moderators

6 stars: Administrators

Medals
There are a few ways to earn medals: contribution to the forums and wiki, contribution to the Image Gallery, and code contribution to the site. Medalled members are considered Exalted Members.

Links
All info came from the Way Back Machine

First Generation: First Generation Site, First Generation Wiki

Second Generation: Second Generation Site, Second Generation Forum

Third Generation: Third Generation Site

Fourth Generation: Fourth Generation Site

Fifth Generation: Fifth Generation Site