3 Years of toonpool.com

Three years ago, on November 15, 2007 this site went online. A lot of things have changed since – most important of all, there are a lot more great cartoons and users. Just imagine that we were desperately longing to reach that magical number of a hundred cartoons. Today there are over 89,000. But, actually, things started to get serious pretty early on. We were really surprised how fast people from other countries joined the site. One of the earliest “international” cartoons was this one by Shahid Atiqullah (Afghancartoon).

Memories

People tend to remember what they did on historical dates – here is what each of us did on that fateful day three years ago:

Bernd couldn’t bear the tension of staring at the computer screen all day. Instead, he spent the afternoon at a local bar called “Pillhuhn”. He had to walk there on crutches because he had broken his ankle. The doctors used seven screws to fix it. Theyshould have been removed in 2008 but they are still in there – there’s just too much to do.

Max took a day off after working hard for weeks. He had been coding HTML until the very last minute.

Becci / Battlestar only joined toonpool.com in April 2008. In November she was still writing her BA thesis. She also dreamt that she was Dieter Bohlen’s girlfriend and wet his bed.

Paul was staying in the United States. He had not heard of  toonpool.com yet. On November 15 he held a presentation on Disney World, wrote an exam on Southern Literature and went to bed early. He joined toonpool.com in August 2009.

Lars / Ches wrote an email at 1:47 AM. It said: “toonpool.com – now awailable”. He also provided the very first cartoon. You probably need to know a German browser game called “Space Pioneer” to really get the joke.

Some History

We would like to offer you a glimpse into the evolution of toonpool.com:

Click here to see an early layout, dated May 2007 – only four weeks after the initial meeting.
Click here to see three stages in the development of our logo.
Click here to see a later design for the page (please note that the logo is already in place)
Click here to see the last stage in designing the layout (June 14, 2007)
Click here to see a very early (and very small) design for the toonpool guy (September 8, 2007)
Click here to see what the site looked like in October 2008 before the first relaunch – it’s pretty close to the 2007 design. Ah, the lamella.

Outlook

Over the years we introduced several new features to toonpool.com and did some stuff that was only remotely related to the site. Some of these things probably need some more thought (toonBattle, anyone?), others went great – take the toonpool.com exhibition in Izmir, for example. That’s probably how life works. We have quite a lot of stuff planned for 2011 – new exhibitions, new features and a major relaunch. Maybe we will even change that rating system. Maybe.

And finally…

We are  glad to have such a great community – and obviously none of this would have been possible without you. We hope that you will stay with us in the years to come. And we would like to give an extra shout-out to everyone who sent in their version of the toonpool guy. They are awesome – just look at them:

A toonpool girl by Ronald Slabbers

A toonpool djinn by Menekse Cam

A toonpool cowboy by Otilia Bors

A new toonpool mobile by Perugino (we really need one of those)

A colorful toonpool thing by Afroditi

the toonpool guy about to save the day by Creative Jones

A middle-aged toonpool guy by Til Mette

A toonpool gnome by Meikel Neid

Temperaments of the toonpool guy by Nicoleta Ionescu

If there should ever be a toonpool feature film we want Danny DeVito to play the guy

Fighting toonpool guy by Mailto

the toonpool.com team

© toonpool.com
 

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8 Responses to “3 Years of toonpool.com”

  1. Happy Birthday and Congratulations!!!
    I’m very happy to be a member of this great community.Thanks to Toonpool,I got the chance to promote my art and communicate other artists-amateurs like me,professionals and masters.I learned many things here and improved myself.I wish I had found Toonpool previously.

    Thanks to all,

    Happy Birthday again :)

  2. badham says:

    Congratulations!!!

    Eine super Sache das!

    :)

  3. Otilia Bors says:

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOONPOOL!
    Toonpool it is a beautiful site!

  4. [...] toonNews the latest stuff about toonpool.com Overview Events Interviews Reviews toonpool.com « 3 Years of toonpool.com [...]

  5. [...] toonNews the latest stuff about toonpool.com Overview Events Interviews Reviews toonpool.com « 3 Years of toonpool.com [...]

  6. mailto says:

    happy bday!

  7. menekse says:

    toonpool.com really has come a long way in a very short time. I can imagine after a three years of it. :) I wish just thing for it: Way to get open, toonpool!!!!
    Was very nice to know some special details about short but fast history of it. THANKS… and once more HAPPY BIRTHDAY, toonpool.com!!

  8. Jani The Rock says:

    Yee, congrats to toonpool.com! Is it really three years already? I hopped aboard exactly a month after the first launch and it has been a blast.

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