The internet killed my dream.

Back in 1985, with the help of a 300 baud modem and a friend with some phone numbers, I entered the online world. It was a fascinating place filled with hundreds of people I had never met, all computer geeks like me, and all living in the same area as me. It wasn't long before I wanted to run a BBS of my own but my age and lack of funds were against me. As I grew up and moved to new cities I found new people in new online worlds like little islands connected only by email that took days. And still I longed to play the host but it never worked out. Being a young female in the computer world of the '80s and early '90s, I was frequently made co-sysop, but it just wasn't the same.

Finally, by the mid-90s, I had the means to set up my own BBS. But, by then, the BBS was a dying breed. There were some hold outs here and there, and probably still are, but the internet was the New Big Thing. I'd been using it myself since I became mesmerized by the web at school in 1993. As the '90s passed, I had chatted with people from nearly ever continent and the novelty began to wear off. I realized I missed the localness of the BBS and thought back to the dream of running a BBS that I had given up on.

In 1998, I started a group on what is now Yahoo Groups called Lax Online. It was my first attempt to resurrect the BBSs of my youth in this new web medium. Unfortunately, the forum failed miserably. At the time, I had a very "if you build it they will come" mentality. Some did come and participate but not many and only in spurts. I was also guilty of not posting very much myself as I really didn't care for the interface. And so the group died and with it, once again, my dream.

More time passed and I made a few unsuccessful attempts to revive the group and finally came to the conclusion that what I really wanted was my own website. While I had dabbled in web design here and there since about 1997, I was never really serious about it and lacked the skills to make a full featured community website. Then, in 2005, I stumbled on a content management system named Drupal that changed my life. I used it first to do the La Crosse Area Camera Club's website and then to do the MOMS Club of Holmen's website as well as my personal family site. By the fall of 2006, I felt confident enough to tackle the community site that had been brewing in my mind all these years and started work on Coulee Region ONLINE.

I didn't get far before I found out I was pregnant and promptly got horribly sick for some months. By the time I was able to work on it again in February, a new version of Drupal had been released. Since I didn't have much done, I dropped what I had and started over. By March 30 I had enough done that I decided to flip the switch and make the site live. Since then, we've been in sort of a live preview "beta" mode as I continue to work and add new features as well as tweak what we have. It's a slow process since I'm a full time mom and only able to work on this when the kids are asleep or otherwise occupied, but I keep making progress little by little. My hope is to have an official release on January 1, 2008. We'll see when we get there.

In the mean time, the site is quite usable. The forums work and you can add items to the area directory. You can start your own blog or post some images. Don't forget to fill out your user profile and check out your neighbors. Most importantly, have fun! If you have any suggestions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Michelle