The dbis went online in August of 1997. Here are the pages where it all started. The pages are all here – but some of the links may be dead.
The first DBinfosource. Nothing but a lone page of information – which was later joined by the cool Jeff Wells illustration. This page was uploaded to the web on August 30th, 1997.
The second edition of the infosource added multiple pages with sound clips and a discography with pictures. The biggest improvement, though, was the introduction of the message board (actually a list at the time). It was on this list that AFM was officially announced (thanks Dave’s mom).
The third edition came about just as AFM was released. It added a much improved message board (similar to the current one). This is my least favorite design.
Hard to believe the 4th edition of the site lived that long. It was cobbled together piece by piece over that time. It was also the home of (likely) one of the last working versions of the ASP Forums v2.1 on the internet. But really, it was time to upgrade. As you can see though on the thumbnail – the DBIS is dead, long live the DBIS. If you want to read a little more about the why’s and how’s of the upgrade – there’s this post.
In October of 2025 - just a few months after re-writing the entire site from scratch - the direction of the DBIS changed. I spelled it out in this post. For those who find their way here looking for the music. Let me know.
