Snapshot Gallery · 1996 to 2026

Thirty postcards from The Spring

One curated Wayback Machine capture per year, per domain. Each card quotes what was actually on the page. Click through to walk the frozen halls.

1996
→ The Spring begins. First capture: November 23.
spring.com1996-11-23
The Spring — signup or login, conferences, telnet
"Apps conference tops 300 topics! … What would you like to talk about today? If we don't have a subject that interests you, get in touch with us and we'll create it … Some of our newest conferences are austin, radio, sports, cultures, fitness, music, tv, movies, sex, the web, and the internet."
View capture →Founded
1997
first full year
spring.com1997-01-05
The BBS becomes routine
Homepage stabilizes around the conference list. Telnet + web access. The first users form a steady daily rhythm. The apps and drool conferences grow fastest.
View capture →BBS era
1998
spring.net registered
spring.com1998-01-18
BBS steady
Still the primary address. More conferences per month. Austen.com and firth.com fansites born inside the austen and drool conferences.
View →BBS era
spring.net1998-12-12
First Wayback capture of the .net
The second domain appears. Same community. Runs in parallel with .com for the next decade and a half.
View →.net launch
1999
both domains active
spring.com1999-04-17
Austin's community, online
Banner ads and link exchanges arrive. The BBS content doesn't change — yapp-bin URLs are unchanged since '96.
View →BBS era
spring.net1999-01-25
.net catches up
Both URLs serve the same yapp BBS. The .net begins to win the canonical link game. Terry's presence grows on the welcome page.
View →BBS era
2000
the capture we rebuilt the archive from
spring.com2000-03-01
Transition year
The .com still serves the BBS, but links increasingly redirect to .net. Paul asks users to post "to the new boards."
View →transition
spring.net2000-03-01
Austin's Spring Virtual Community
"I'd like to talk about: Watch Terry in Wimberly, Wailers, and more Austin stuff … apps art austin books cars cultures drool food garden health internet media movies music news poetry politics radio bistros spirit sports travel tv unix vc web windows … What's Cool Shops Austen.com Firth.com Repeaters roommates … Our Webs bioregion tvreviewer The Farm capzeyez help poetry contributor."
View →peak BBS
2001
dot-com bust, The Spring keeps running
spring.com2001-01-18
Still here
The web shrinks. Ad networks collapse. The Spring, member-supported, just keeps running on the same Unix box.
View →BBS era
spring.net2001-01-18
The .net is now the canonical address
Most user-facing links now point to spring.net. spring.com becomes a soft redirect for older users.
View →BBS era
2002
spring.net2002-03-26
The conference list expands
New conferences appear: bronte, peacemaker, parent, phinished, history. The Austen archive reaches its own critical mass and spins out.
View →BBS era
2003
spring.net2003-01-28
Heavy BBS use, still growing
The page grows — more conferences, more external links to member websites. The phinished conference (PhD writing support) is especially active.
View →BBS era
2004
spring.net2004-03-29
10KB becomes 10+
Heavier homepage — Paul starts featuring hot topics, guest conferences, and paid e-commerce hosting for members.
View →BBS era
2005
→ "over 80 conferences" — peak BBS population
spring.net2005-01-17
A community like no other
"This pioneering online community and discussion site is member supported, with over 80 conferences populated by artists, fans, programmers, system administrators, experts, authors and other interesting people. Compelling, interesting and captivating since 1989. Refreshing, reliable, zippy — Email, Web Site Hosting, Online Salon, and E-Commerce."
View →peak BBS
2006
spring.net2006-01-01
New Year's day capture
27KB homepage. The drool conference (Colin Firth) and the austen conference cross-feed into firth.com and austen.com, both still running off The Spring.
View →BBS era
2007
→ SXSW 2007: Paul becomes the King of Twitter

⭐ March 2007 · Austin, SXSW

At the festival that launched Twitter, Paul Walhus becomes its most-followed user. BuzzFeed later calls him "the original King of Twitter." See the press page for coverage.

spring.net2007-01-01
BBS still primary
Two months before SXSW. The BBS is the daily homepage for hundreds of Austin users. No one has heard of Twitter yet.
View →pre-Twitter
2008
spring.net2008-01-10
Co-existing with Twitter
The BBS doesn't shut down when Twitter arrives — it just becomes one thread among many. Paul tweets; members still post to drool.
View →BBS era
2009
spring.com2009-08-03
The .com is mostly redirects now
A tiny 3KB page. The .com exists as a legacy pointer — the action has fully moved to .net.
View →legacy
spring.net2009-01-05
WordPress theme gets wrapped around the BBS
24KB — the homepage now has a WordPress chrome. yapp-bin URLs still unchanged underneath. 13 years of zero URL drift.
View →WP chrome
2010
spring.com2010-01-04
Tiny legacy page
3KB. The .com is barely there. Redirects in.
View →legacy
spring.net2010-01-07
"The Spring, Austin, Texas"
40KB. WordPress + widgets + syndicated topics. The Atahualpa theme. But the beating heart is still yapp-bin.
View →WP era
2011
spring.com2011-02-10
Still a 3KB legacy
The same tiny redirect page. Nobody's updating it. Nobody needs to.
View →legacy
spring.net2011-06-05
Biggest WP homepage yet — 71KB
The homepage is its busiest ever: featured topics, sidebar widgets, member feeds. The 2011 homepage is a snapshot of peak WordPress-era ambition.
View →WP peak
2012
last yapp capture on spring.com
spring.com2012-04-30
The final yapp-bin on .com
After this, yapp-bin URLs on spring.com stop resolving. The austen archive images linger; the BBS has fully consolidated to .net.
View →last yapp on .com
spring.net2012-01-26
WP steady state
61KB homepage. The main BBS is still daily-active; the community hasn't left.
View →WP era
2013
spring.net2013-01-14
The last full year of the original BBS
61KB. A steady year. None of the 1,259 members yet know the domain will be sold in 19 months.
View →last full year
2014
→ August 22: spring.net sold. austinspring.com registered.
spring.net2014-01-01
The last pre-sale capture
28KB. Wayback crawls the BBS one more time before the sale closes. Ten conferences still captured in this window. This is the last time spring.net belongs to Paul.
View →last as Paul's
austinspring.com2014-05-16
Just another WordPress site
"Hills cafe has these personalized booths and a real Texas feel … The Lamar runners bridge is a wonderful spot … BookPeople in Austin may just be the best bookstore in the world. I cross in to a certain comfort zone whenever I go there." — Google+ reposts, pre-sale.
View →new domain

📄 August 22, 2014 · spring.net Sold

Escrow.com transaction #719341-506013. Broker: Larry Erlich. Buyer: Mentor Partners / Box Group, 500 Park Avenue, NYC. After 16 years, the second domain leaves Paul's hands. The community moves to austinspring.com.

2015
austinspring.com becomes the main address
spring.com2015-01-07
Small page, small footprint
The .com continues as a minimal landing page. No yapp underneath anymore.
View →legacy
austinspring.com2015-02-25
WordPress, the long middle
28KB. The WordPress site continues, slower. Google+ source content thins out.
View →WP era
2016
spring.com repurposed
spring.com2016-01-10
End of an era — the .com goes commercial
The page content shifts to a new owner's use. What was Austin's BBS for 20 years becomes something else entirely. Paul has no Gmail record of the sale.
View →repurposed
austinspring.com2016-01-15
WP, quieter
29KB. The same WordPress blog, slower updates.
View →WP era
2017
spring.com becomes a shopping site
spring.com2017-03-31
Spring Inc. — e-commerce
9.9KB. The domain now serves an e-commerce shopping site unrelated to the BBS community. A generation of new users will never know the name's first life.
View →new owner
austinspring.com2017-01-09
WP, steady
29KB. Still Paul's.
View →WP era
2018
spring.com2018-01-30
Spring e-commerce grows
12.5KB. The new-owner site expands into a full storefront.
View →new owner
austinspring.com2018-01-22
Unchanged
29KB. Same WordPress posts.
View →WP era
2019
spring.com2019-06-26
Shopping platform matures
13.3KB. The domain is fully repurposed.
View →new owner
austinspring.com2019-01-02
Thinner
14.7KB. Posting slows to a trickle. The dormant phase begins.
View →slowing
2020
pandemic · austinspring.com goes dormant
spring.com2020-01-12
Shopping.com
13.4KB. Still a shopping domain.
View →new owner
austinspring.com2020-01-21
The same WordPress pages from 2018
30KB — but nothing new added. The site is a frozen WordPress.
View →dormant
2021
spring.com2021-01-03
Shopping.com
15.4KB.
View →new owner
spring.net2021-12-13
The first post-sale capture we have
20KB. spring.net now belongs to a different operator. The BBS is a memory.
View →post-sale
austinspring.com2021-05-07
Still frozen
Digest-identical to 2020. No one has touched WordPress in a year.
View →dormant
2022
spring.com2022-01-10
Spring e-commerce
19KB.
View →new owner
austinspring.com2022-01-21
Still frozen
Same page as 2020 and 2021.
View →dormant
2023
spring.com2023-02-02
Shrinking shopping site
8.3KB. The e-commerce business behind spring.com is contracting.
View →shrinking
spring.net2023-02-12
Reduced to almost nothing
2.1KB. The .net has almost no content now.
View →post-sale
austinspring.com2023-04-22
Still the 2018 WP page
27KB. No new posts.
View →dormant
2024
spring.com2024-02-08
A modest shopping page
9.4KB.
View →new owner
spring.net2024-01-12
14.4KB — an unrelated landing
The .net is now an unrelated landing page.
View →post-sale
austinspring.com2024-02-21
Minimal
1.7KB. The site is at its thinnest just before the 2026 relaunch.
View →pre-relaunch
2025
spring.com2025-01-11
9.7KB shopping
Unchanged — unrelated to the BBS.
View →new owner
spring.net2025-01-15
Still somebody else's
23.8KB. Unrelated to Paul.
View →post-sale
2026
→ April 17: austinspring.com relaunches as The Spring BBS

🌱 April 17, 2026 · Reborn

30 years after Paul founded spring.com, austinspring.com is rebuilt from the Wayback Machine's October 2000 snapshot. A new Flask BBS with signup, posting, and threaded comments lives side-by-side with a full static archive of every surviving topic. 1,259 members in the first wave. The live stats on the homepage are real.

spring.net2026-01-01
Still not Paul's
26.5KB. The .net remains with its 2014 buyer.
View →post-sale
austinspring.comlive
The phosphor CRT returns
Green on black. 33 conferences live, 44 more discovered. Every 2000 thread accepts modern replies. Sign up, pick a topic, add the first 2026 comment.
→ austinspring.comlive now