It's hard to believe today marks 14 years since the birth of kingsnake.com.

In 1993, I was a hobbyist gray-banded kingsnake collector and breeder, working for a small computer networking company and learning about a new technology called "the internet." Designed initially as a way for researchers to share data sets, the internet was just becoming available, slowly, to the general public. I was looking for a way to learn more about the technology, and sociology, behind what was termed a fad by many, a whole new form of media by others.

Using Mark Miller's Philadelphia-based dial-up BBS Herp Net as inspiration, and with lots of help from gray-band friends, in 1994 I launched a web page for the small number of gray-banded kingsnake hobbyists online called "The Alterna Page" (pictured right). One of the first reptile-oriented web pages on the internet, it was designed to be a living and evolving compendium of knowledge on the gray-banded kingsnake. However it soon became the gathering spot for reptile and amphibian hobbyists of all interests, with its forums and classifieds providing the seed for what was to follow.

By the end of 1996, traffic on The Alterna Page had grown to the point that my hosting company demanded I purchase my own server and domain name. A $50 a month hosting account was no longer adequate, and my traffic was making their other clients' sites unavailable. It was at that point that hard decisions had to be made. Circumstance rather than design had turned my interesting hobby into a business, one in a new and untried medium, and given very little prospect of success by my family, co-workers, and most of my non-reptile friends.

It was after consulting with a few reptile friends like Joe Forks, John Cherry, Dave and Tracy Barker, and Ron Tremper -- as well as dozens of others -- that I borrowed some money for a server and signed the hosting contract.

On February 8, 1997 -- fourteen years ago today -- kingsnake.com was launched. The "powered by kingsnake.com" button (pictured right) is one of the original files from that web site, and it's still in use today on virtually every page on the site. (To see what kingsnake.com has looked like throughout the years, click on the link below.)

I want to thank the many users, advertisers, sponsors, volunteers, and staffers who have made kingsnake.com what it is today: the largest, most vibrant, and most popular reptile community on the internet.