When I started this adventure on Remembrance Day in 2010 sitting on a tram heading to the RVBA to inform them how to take barefoot bowls to the next level and whilst travelling down Flinders Street out their Burwood Road Hawthorn offices, at about 11 AM, I wondered if the Toorak Times business name was available again as I had not seen or heard anything of, or from the bloke, to who dad sold the name.
Business Affairs I found through Google, yes I was just savvy enough on my iPhone 3 (I think), and it was two blocks up from the next tram stop so I jumped out. I was early for the RVBA meeting and was wondering how I would fill my time.
It was a quiet day and I was able to approach a counter almost immediately, the clerk did a search and to my joy it was available! I bought it immediately not really knowing what I was going to do with it. I had spent years getting banned from global forums, or be forewarned not to use my real identity…lol…on Yahooo…Facebook destroyed forums, but hey maybe they are back!
I thought the meeting with RVBA chief Peter Hanlon went swimmingly, he seemed to get what I was proposing and I thought I had achieved a major breakthrough for my beloved sport. Unfortunately, he fell ill not long after and retired and the sport got stuck on a wonky bridge per se.
On the tram ride home all I could think about was how I was going to try to express my decades of work in old school newspapers and magazines in an online manner. It was the time when the media was abuzz about wondering how the big ships in print media could turn around against the tide or even mutate into online versions of their multitudinous publications.
The majors had no easy way to do this. It all had to be written in code and was very expensive.
I found Blogger to start http://tooraktimes.blogspot.com/
Then vBulletin 4 which I have upgraded to vBulletin 5 because I think Forums may have a life again after all the paranoia of Social Media www.tooraktimes.com.au where I came across a fellow called Rob Greaves.
Without Rob Greaves, Toorak Times would not be, period. His support and mateship have been my absolute rock. My other rock is Steve Lane whose friendship and mutual support, from employee to seer has also made my journey extra special. Just recently Steve revisioned our logos for the new era.
My other real heroes are AJ, Naveen Sharma, who has had my back in development since vBulletin days and my always forgiving and helpful Megalai, I swear the best support I have ever experienced anywhere, from my hosts www.ezihosting.com.au
I always knew it would be a long row to hoe to recreate a sustainable online presence, still no profits to be seen but it is at least supporting itself now and seems to have a loyal following on which we hope to build.
We now have this site www.tagg.com.au, www.tooraktimes.com.au, with the support of Countess Caroline Jean Leitenmaier www.tooraktimesgeelong.com.au and www.thealexpress.com.au with support from Alex Vass AM and his amazing team at The ALEX Theatre and through their charity to support local businesses and citizen journalism in the City of Port Phillip.
All of these online newspapers are dedicated to supporting local business, local arts and citizen journalism to allow local communities to engage with broader audiences to promote local tourism.
Over the years we have had too many amazing contributors to try and mention all so please recognise how important you are to me and the future of these publications. Dezzy, ‘Animal’, and I were recently talking about his reboot as a movie critic even…loved that man.
So that is it, we turned 11, I hope you all keep reading what we have to offer.
Cheers,
Mick