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TikiBen
Elite Tiki Central Agent 
Joined: Mar 23, 2002
Posts: 1
From: Redwood City, CA
|  Posted: 2002-03-23 6:42 pm Permalink
Zoiks!
Ben.
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Melintur
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 23, 2002
Posts: 306
From: Portland, OR
| Posted: 2002-03-23 8:21 pm Permalink
Weeee! 
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tulsatv
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 33
From: Tulsa, Oklahoma
| Posted: 2002-03-24 5:28 pm Permalink
Test.
[ This Message was edited by: tulsatv on 2002-03-24 17:30 ]
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hanford_lemoore
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Mar 23, 2002
Posts: 1864
From: Tiki Central
| Posted: 2002-03-26 01:49 am Permalink
By the way, TikiBen is the programming wizard who helped me install MySQL (database engine) and the BB software (the fourms we're posting on)!
THANKS BEN!
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GatorRob
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 20, 2004
Posts: 1766
From: 3 hrs 33 mins to paradise
| Posted: 2006-07-07 07:47 am Permalink
With all this talk of tiki (and TC) going underground again and quality posts being fewer and farther between, I thought I'd crawl around in the dusty, cobwebby TC basement and dredge up a quality post to hold as a high standard for what we should all strive for when posting. With more threads like this, noone in their right mind would move on to other things.
EDIT: Uh, oops. It seems that Monkeyman had the same idea two days ago by bumping an old post. (Note to self: read before posting.) Well, just goes to show that great minds think alike.
[ This Message was edited by: GatorRob 2006-07-07 08:41 ]
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Benzart
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 09, 2004
Posts: 10306
From: Port Saint Lucie, Florida
| Posted: 2006-07-07 09:29 am Permalink
Welcome to TC Tikiben, we're sure glad to have you hangin around. With a name like yours, you gotta be a great guy!!
_________________
FACEBOOK
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tikigreg
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 1090
From: ClubTiki
| Posted: 2006-07-07 09:37 am Permalink
Quote:
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On 2002-03-23 18:42, TikiBen wrote:
Zoiks!
Ben.
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I believe TikiBen has left the building! 
_________________
When life hands you limes... make Mai Tais!
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hanford_lemoore
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Mar 23, 2002
Posts: 1864
From: Tiki Central
| Posted: 2006-07-07 3:09 pm Permalink
There's a touching story about TikiBen ...
TikiBen is the user name of Ben Fuller, a longtime friend of mine and computer super genius who was my mentor for all things technological. Ben was simply a brilliant computer programmer who worked on a variety of cool projects, most notably the very first versions of Macromedia Dreamweaver, and the ReplayTV DVR (both of which I worked on with him). In 1998 he was a huge Wiki supporter and was programming with XML -- at least five years before these noww-common technologies came into vogue.
Back before Tiki Central was located here on tikiroom.com, it was part of Yahoo Clubs. It was a booming community with just shy of 700 members, but then Yahoo changed all the "clubs" into "groups" and in the process gave us a simply horrible user experience. Missing posts, wacky word-wrapping, annoying ads, bugs, glitches, and slowness.
TC members were not happy.
I was complaining about this to TikiBen and telling him I didn't know what to do, and he encouraged me to check out phpBB, which was a relatively unknown open-source Web Forum program. I was worried because I didn't know what I was doing and had ZERO web programming experience. After all, if Yahoo can't run a forum without glitches, how was I going to? I didn't think I could do it.
TikiBen was incredibly supportive and told me that I could do it. He walked me through the installation of phpBB, and answered all my PHP programming questions. Thanks to his help I got Tiki Central up and running over a weekend. Before I announced it to the Yahoo group, I invited him to check it out, which is when he created his TikiBen user-name and posted this thread.
Shortly after launching this site, Tiki Central had new legs. There were new members and a lot of great information unlike anything that ever happened on Yahoo. To say that Yahoo Groups was holding us back is an understatement. Thanks to the encouragement of TikiBen and to his unending help, I had started on a new quest -- learning PHP programming and running a forum that today I'm quite proud of. Shortly after that I programmed my own Paypal automated payment notification and tracking system, completely from scratch. TikiBen had set me on a path that changed my life.
On September 11th, 2002, just six months after launching the new Tiki Central, I recieved the shocking news that Ben Fuller had unexpectedly passed away. He was a brilliant individual whose life was cut way too short. He was in his mid 30s. I felt depressed and lost for quite some time, because I really didn't know how I was going to continue without his guidence. But I have managed to do so. While I still miss him dearly, I can always look back to the amazing things in my life like Tiki Central that TikiBen had a huge influence in. I would not be the same person I am today without him. He was a great friend.
Ben's Father purchased the Grand Membership for the TikiBen account in 2006, and I'm going to continue to keep it up to date. I am sure that if Ben can see what I've been able to accomplish here and great friendships people have made beause of it, he is extremely proud.
~Hanford
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midnite
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 1230
From: 37? 47' N, 122? 26' W
| Posted: 2006-07-07 3:23 pm Permalink
Thanks for sharing that, HL. So, in a significant way, we have Ben to thank for salvaging TC. Never knew that, it is appreciated. Cheers to Ben, eh?
midnite
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Monkeyman
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 04, 2003
Posts: 2301
From: Vista, CA
| Posted: 2006-07-07 3:44 pm Permalink
Wow Hanford,
Thats a very interesting but unfortunately sad story. Those are the kind of posts that have real meat to them and are enriching to read.
Thanks for sharing.
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GatorRob
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 20, 2004
Posts: 1766
From: 3 hrs 33 mins to paradise
| Posted: 2006-07-07 6:41 pm Permalink
Hanford - Wow. It seems my half-hearted attempt at humor by bumping up this thread triggered a very emotional memory for you. Obviously, I had no idea. Thanks for sharing that story with us.
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Tikiwahine
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 09, 2003
Posts: 3288
From: Ontario, Canada
| Posted: 2006-07-07 10:00 pm Permalink
Thanks Hanford, for letting us know a little inside history.
What a touching story
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hanford_lemoore
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Mar 23, 2002
Posts: 1864
From: Tiki Central
| Posted: 2006-07-08 01:15 am Permalink
Thanks everyone for your thoughts. It's been a while now and I have only happy memories of Ben, I thought the ressurection of this thread was a great way to let everyone know who he was, since a lot of people have probably seen his name at the top of the Memberlist!
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hewey
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 14, 2004
Posts: 4270
From: Sydney, Australia
| Posted: 2006-07-08 04:32 am Permalink
Hanford I am sure he would be proud of what has been created here. And that is the best way to remember and honour a friend.
_________________
www.kustomkultureaustralia.com
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tikigreg
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 1090
From: ClubTiki
| Posted: 2006-07-09 11:32 am Permalink
Wow, I had no idea! I merely meant that he no longer was a part of TC when I made that reference. 
My condolences.
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