To
adequately answer that question, I had to reflect on my early
involvement with the internet, which led to the brief history
of our site, as follows:
In
1999, I was new to the internet. Businesswise, other than
my long-standing mainstay of engraving, I was involved with
monochrome laser sublimation and a novice to full color ink
jet sublimation.
I
wasn't aware of search engines at the time and found myself
throwing darts, trying to find engraving-related sites.
After
some digging, I came across a defunct incarnation of the Awards
& Engraving (A&E) Magazine forum, where, after fumbling
around for a while, I came across a message pertaining to
a sublimation survey.
A
link to Delphi Forums, led to my discovery of the Dye Sublimation
& Specialty Imprinting Forum (DSSI, now our sister forum).
Unlike
the dormant A&E forum, DSSI was absolutely on fire!
The
rampant activity disguised the fact that DSSI was a newly-formed
site and only in existence for a few months.
Through
reading archived posts, I learned that before I came along,
DSSI's founder, Michael Knight (no relation to Geo. Knight
Co.) had passed away from cancer. Cherie Derrick and Marianne
Becktel, picked up the torch and ran with it, creating the
internet's premier meeting place for the dye sublimation community.
Being
a natural-born introvert, and not inclined to actually post
a question, I scoured DSSI messages, looking for information
pertaining to my full-color sublimation questions.
I
didn't find the answers.
As
with any online forum, there was an obvious "core group"
and although I was on the brink of posting a question, I was
nervous about doing so, because I felt I would be intruding
on their conversations.
Necessity
became the Mother of my first-ever post; I had questions and
knew these people would have the answers.
I
don't remember what that first question was, but the answer
came quickly, with a hearty "Welcome to The Forum!"
With
a life-long interest in creative writing, and the ability
to express myself, much better in print, than the spoken-word,
I'd found my platform.
From
that point on, they couldn't shut me up! :-)
Inspired
by the popularity and success of DSSI, with the encouragement
and assistance of Cherie and Marianne, I kicked off Engraving
Etc., in November of 2000, on Delphi Forums.
Engraving
Etc. wasn't an instant success. Being a new forum, with very
few members, I began writing editorials and posts designed
to evoke responses, just in case anybody came by.
Harvey
Lentchner, was one of the early members. I came to find he
was the inventor of LogoStar, which was a ground-breaking
(engravers) logo conversion program in its day. I was duly
impressed!
Harvey's
enthusiasm for EE and his willingness to share technical information
about our industry, made him invaluable to the site. At that
time, there weren't enough members to warrant an assistant
moderator, but Harvey and I had bonded.
As
we began to grow, there were times when I'd be away. On those
occasions, I'd turn the reigns over to Harvey and Dave Loda,
a friend I'd made through DSSI.
By
2003, Delphi Forums was going through some changes and with
a limit of 16 folders, for various topics, we'd outgrown their
format.
With
a fondness for the frame-based Delphi forum software, Cherie
and her husband Terry, through research, discovered Beehive
forum software and decided to move the DSSI forum to Beehive
Forums.
Since
DSSI and EE had always been closely-linked, with many cross-over
members, I was invited to come along.
To
be free of Delphi Forums' rules, with a familiar forum software
and an unlimited number of discussion folders, made my decision
a no-brainer.
Of
course, leaving Delphi, after generating valuable content,
wasn't going over well with the EE forum members.
When
I made the announcement of our upcoming move, David Takes
saw the logic in the decision and was the first to "Rally
The Troops" in developing enthusiasm for the move. He
encouraged people to get behind the move to an even better
forum.
Then,
as now, David Takes was an EE "Star Performer."
Having
to start over again was difficult, but we weren't starting
from scratch. We had attracted a healthy number of EE fans
and I began importing what I felt were interesting topics
from the Delphi forum to our Beehive forum.
Interestingly
enough, even though the lead-in posts were identical, the
ensuing responses were much different than the original responses.
Knowing
I would need Harvey and some enthusiastic key people at my
side, I approached David Takes with an invitation to become
a co-moderator. It wasn't a hard-sell. David accepted the
offer immediately.
David
has since become too busy to be a full-time moderator, leaving
Harvey and I as the site's moderators, although David remains
one of our active MVP's.
Since
its humble beginnings, Engraving Etc. has taken on a life
of its own, in attracting well known people in the industry
and garnering the attention of industry suppliers.
Through
the generous contributions of time, talent and knowledge,
on the part of our standout members and all who actively participate,
Engraving Etc. is sure to enjoy a vibrant future as the internet's
premier meeting place for the awards and engraving industry.

David Lavaneri
Engraving Etc. Founder and Host