Petal, thanks for starting the thread 
.
First off this forum would not have existed had it not being for Safraz Ishamel
Safraz created GNI (Guyana.org) back in 1995 as way to promote his Dad's writing and work (Amb. Odeen Ishmael).
Back then there were very few websites on Guyana. It was around that time I had my first computer and was exposed to the internet. It was just by chance that I saw GNI .
Back then this was what the site looked like
https://web.archive.org/web/19...tp://www.guyana.org/
He had a guestbook instead of a Discussion Forum. Soon after though he started the forum. (I know at one time before all this he was having some sort of message board, but I was never part of it)
Nevertheless when I first saw GNI I was impressed and wanted to also create a webpage. I remember, buying a book on learning HTML it was the best 30 dollars I spent on a book. I soon launched my own website on Guyana (guyanaca.com) which still exists. And I was also posting news and articles out of Guyana, courtesy of the Chronicle and Stabroek. I contacted Odeen to also send me articles which he readily sent.
We were also rebroadcasting audio news out of Guyana with the help of Tony, Nishal, and Spy. Got radio ads playing on Chin radio Caribbean Connections and Dhantal Radio CIUT radio, promoting the website.
Not sure if these will play
http://www.guyana.org/chin_guyanacaad.wav
http://www.guyana.org/guyanaca.mp3
http://www.guyana.org/oct31_interview.mp3
Eventually we were asked to stop rebroadcasting the news out of Guyana because it was copyright.
Soon afterwards Odeen contacted me and asked me if I was interested in managing GNI since Safraz was much too busy now with his job. I agreed and decided that I will close down my own website (since materials were getting duplicated). But my cousin asked to retain the domain and he will use it for his Church stuff.
So by 1998 or there about I was now managing GNI and the Forum.
The Forum kept crashing because the software had bugs in the early days and the server was getting problems. So I had to create a separate domain for the Forum, hence Guyanafriends.com was created and the Forum was then hosted on that separate platform. The rest is history.
Friends, many said the Forum will die, that was about 10 years ago. We were here before, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and all of the others.
But the few stalwart members here were determined to hang in here and continue the discussions. Many came and many left. But the forum has survived now for almost 25 years.
I am sure Django will carry on the good work. Change is good and we must learn to embrace it.
I was told that Sunil and Ray have agreed to stay on as Admins to assist Django.
So once again fellow members, I take my hat off to you. You were all great and I will miss the daily banter. My membership will remain active, but I cannot promise to be posting or visiting often. If you need to reach out to me, I can always be contacted via http://www.guyana.org/ I still hold control of the official website GNI, But this Forum is now no longer part of GNI, though there will still be a link to it from GNI mainpage.
Petal, and Bibi, hang in there girls don't let the boys give you a hard time.
Guyanese born and will always remain a Guyanese.
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