GateWorld Celebrates 12th Birthday!

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!)

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.