BeBits began as yet another crazy idea...

We (that is, Greg Nichols and Sean Heber, the protagonists in this little tale), were not strangers to big database-driven websites; previous efforts had included Hamfest-Online, Legions, and a few others that slip my mind at the moment. Hamfest-Online and Legions were both really cool sites that somehow, on their way to being fabulously successful, managed to flop badly.

So, our story picks up in early-June 1999. Nary a month had passed since Legions had bitten the dust (due in part, we suspect, to sabotage from a few of the bigger fish in the pond; this, however, is another story). We were sitting in Greg's basement attempting to do something productive, and failing. Out of nowhere, Sean mentioned how he had been inspired with a really cool idea, which caused Greg to immediately go into defensive mode (Sean's really cool ideas usually were fairly cool, but rarely practical). Sean described a fully-database driven site for BeOS applications, with liberal use of the word "cool". Greg's choice of words ran more towards those necessary for questioning Sean's sanity. Why embark on yet another huge, massively complex website so soon after the failure of Legions? (At this point in time, any mention of the name Legions still evoked a sniff and a moment of silence.)

Sean persisted, and in the end, of course, he talked Greg into it.

Of course, to get a site like BeBits to work, we realized that we would need the support of the BeOS developer community. Greg whipped up a quick e-mail message asking for suggestions and comments about a "new BeOS files site" and fired it off to BeDevTalk. The results ranged from neutral to discouraging. Greg got a bit depressed. Sean, however, had already registered bebits.com and coded quite a bit of the site at that point, so we decided to go ahead with it anyway. We truly believed we could make it work, and make it useful.

For the next week or two, Sean coded like a madman, and Greg whipped up a site design. A few days later, the two had been merged, and BeBits 1.0 was born. We tested the system by adding a few non-existent applications; one of them was Sci-Fi Silly Putty, complete with a Star Trek icon. (As a test, we added a new version: Sci-Fi Silly Putty version 2001: A Putty Odessy.) BeBits 1.0 was now complete; however, it was empty. We needed applications.

On June 19, 1999, we offically launched BeBits 1.0. Greg and Sean were once again in Greg's basement, typing up another message to BeDevTalk, announcing BeBits and begging all BeOS developers to give it a chance and submit their applications. Sean had rigged the BeBits system to send us e-mail when new developers signed up or applications got submitted, and now both of us sat there, waiting for these automated e-mails to arrive.

Nothing happened.

Greg was checking his mail every 15 seconds, and nothing kept right on happening. Rather than sit there and watch the empty inbox, we decided to go get pizza. The instant we turned our backs, however, the computer beeped - new mail! Sure enough, a new developer had signed up, and developer ID number five went to Hutchings Software (we had reserved the first four for ourselves). We left quickly and when we returned with the pizza, 15 new developers had signed up and there were 5 new applications! It was a good day.

That, of course, was only the beginning. Since then, BeBits has gone through several redesigns and gotten tons of new features, switched servers several times, and the backend (the part that makes it work) has been completely rewritten. As BeOS continues to take its rightful place in the new world of technology, we intend to keep improving BeBits to make it the best site it can be. Many, many thanks to all of the users and developers who have stuck with us and helped us succeed!

And as we've said all along, just wait until you see what we've got planned...