GateWorld Celebrates 12th Birthday!

We look back on the last year of Stargate, and what makes GateWorld keep spinnin'.

It’s tough to believe that another year has gone by, and our little Web site is growing up! This weekend GateWorld celebrates its twelfth year online.

The site was founded all the way back in 1999 — the week that the Stargate SG-1 episode “Jolinar’s Memories” first aired on Showtime.  (Old-timey GateWorlders remember that the site was called STARGUIDE for its first year or so.)  It’s appropriate, then, that this month we’re watching SG-1 Season Three as part of the Stargate Rewatch, and “Jolinar’s Memories” was just nominated by fans as one of the season’s best. (Vote here!)

It’s obviously been a huge year for Stargate and for the Web site.  Stargate Universe aired its outstanding second season, which included favorite episodes like “Epilogue,” “Twin Destinies,” and “Trial and Error.” But it would prove to be the show’s last, with Syfy bringing down the hammer and cancelling the show in December.  (A network rep even came on GateWorld to explain the decision.) After a few more months of hoping that the Powers That Be could bring together another DVD movie, the producers announced that MGM had passed on the idea — and that the Stargate franchise would go into long-term cold storage.

This year the GateWorld Podcast has made it through our extended coverage of SGU and into the “void between galaxies.” Chad Colvin continues to deliver those cast and crew interviews that helped make GateWorld what it is — upcoming interviews include the likes of Christopher Judge, Ben Browder, Corin Nemec, and more. We’ve started releasing Fan Commentaries for our favorite episodes from years gone by.  And the biggest new project this year is the Stargate Rewatch — a massive, 17-month long project revisiting all 17 seasons of Stargate. (We’ll still be going a year from now, on our next birthday!)

GateWorld's Chad Colvin meets up with SGU's Alaina Huffman.

It takes a lot of work to maintain the site each week and keep it fresh with new content, and to moderate the GateWorld Forum community (44,000-strong and still growing).  After the news broke that Stargate was done for now, a lot of folks wrote in asking what would become of GateWorld … if we would suffer the same fate.

While quitting the site sounds remarkably relaxing after 12 years, it’s not something we ever considered. The site means too much — not only to us, but to the thousands of people from all over the world who have made friends here and call it home.  The end of Stargate doesn’t change that.  And besides, there are plenty of other sci-fi and fantasy shows to enjoy and talk about together while we wait for the return of the Gate!

As we cross the 12-year mark, I’m realizing that that’s the benefit of GateWorld having always been an independent fan site. If we’d been bought up by the studio or other interested parties, or if we only did it for the money, the end of Stargate on television would have likely spelled the end of GateWorld, too.  But we do it because we love it, and we don’t have higher-ups calling the shots for what happens to the site.

What makes GateWorld keep spinnin’?  We have an incredible team of volunteers who keep the lights on, the content flowing, and the Forum citizens law-abiding!  While David and I run the site and podcast (and get more than our fair share of the glory), Chad represents GateWorld at conventions and with the cast and crew. Greg maintains the server and its software — the site literally would not exist without his care over the years.  Denise and Baggie lead the charge for a team of forum moderators that continue to amaze me with their patience and day-in, day-out devotion to our community. And Gilles, Russell, Callie, Sharon, and other contributors have helped us crank out content and keep up with the new season of SGU. Our weekly coverage of new episodes simply wouldn’t have happened without women and men like these.

Last and most certainly not least, there’s you — thousands of readers out there who keep coming back to the site again and again. We’ve gotten to know some of your names quite well — even met up at cons and built friendships. Some of you have made your voices mainstays in the voicemail segment of the podcast. Others, we just know your username (oh-so-well).  And still others are silent, not posting much at all but still visiting, still reading, still keeping GateWorld online by coming back … even after Stargate has ended.

So, friends, grab some cake and raise your glass: Here’s to Year 13.  Another year of forum chatting, podcasting, news reporting, episode commenting, cast interviewing, convention-going, Omnipedia updating, and more!  We’ll see you out there.

Read more about GateWorld’s site history.

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Alan
Alan
12 years ago

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GATEWORLD!!!!

My time here has and continues to be an absolute joy!!! Apart from making sci-fi connections with my fellow forum members I’ve made friends here and that to me has been the most important thing about being a member of GateWorld!!!

Thanks to everyone involved in the creation and continual running of GateWorld!!! Your work is so very, very much highly appreciated and I dare say will continue to be appreciated in year 13 and hopefully beyond that for many, many more years to come!!!

Browncoat1984
Browncoat1984
12 years ago

Thank you Darren and David and the entire Gateworld crew and community for making what in my opinion is the best and most professionally-run fan site on the Internet, with Trekmovie being the only one I’ve visted that comes close to this one. I discovered it years ago and it has always been a favorite of mine to visit and whenever I have friends who want to know anything about Stargate, I point them here! Here’s to another 12 years and hopefully sometime in those 12 years we’ll have some sort of new Stargate project to discuss, be it a… Read more »

zack
zack
12 years ago

Many thanks for all the ongoing stuff and info and all the rest. And may Stargate return sooner than long term storage. SGU’s fate was particularly painful when it had found its way and was so excellent in its second season. And, so was SG1’s departure, even though on for 10 years – as its new members had also found their way and the next years promised to be just as excellent. Nevertheless, thanks for keeping Gateworld going with always excellent news.

jonah1956
jonah1956
12 years ago

Happy birthday gateworld! Your site is the best stargate fan site ever! :D

Sylvia
Sylvia
12 years ago

Happy Birthday GateWorld!

zainea13
zainea13
12 years ago

Happy Birthday, I’m glad to be a part of it. To add to everything you said above, it gives people just discovering the show, or just really getting into it (like me 2 years ago) a place to come learn, discuss, and fall in love more! Thanks for all your hard work, I complain about the small projects I take on, but what you do here could literally be a full time job!

Pioneering
12 years ago

To the entire GateWorld Crew: Congratulations on your very successful 12 years. This site always seems like home to me and it is both comforting and exciting to know there are so many of you out there who love Stargate as much as I do.

Here’s to many, many dozens of years more in the future.

— Joe

daxmaryrussel
daxmaryrussel
12 years ago

Happy Birthday, Gateworld!
Let’s hope for many more. Great site.

Jim
Jim
12 years ago

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GATEWORLD!! Congrats to Darren & David and Chad and all the people envolved! Everything has already been said and I second it all.You guys continuously do a great job both;with passion of true fans and professionalism.Thank you for it.You are our Stargate Command and HQ for all the fans,all over the world.

Best wishes for this birthday and hopefully many more to come!!

StarSancFar
StarSancFar
12 years ago

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GATEWORLD! *pops party popper*
What would I do without this website, coming here near enough everyday to check up on news and chat away in the forums. Without this website I’d honestly be lost. So thanks to everyone who helps keep this website afloat!

Katie x :D

bluewater1
bluewater1
12 years ago

Happy Birthday Gateworld! I enjoy your website and hope it continues for many more years.

medegno51
medegno51
12 years ago

The beard may have a few bits of gray stuff in it… and these military-honed six-pack abs may be more akin to six 2-LT bottles of syrup nowadays, but I feel that time has been ultimately good for both of us, Darren!

[still trying in vain to suck in that ‘done-lap’]

Jeez, I remember coming to this SG site called Star*something*- just to see if it would be worth the effort to come back to it the following week…

Methinks it was worth it. May we all continue to age well, my friend.

Bevarne
Bevarne
12 years ago

Happy Birthday gateworld! thanks for the info over the years! xox