Mindat.org - 10 years online today

Today, 10th October 2010, is the 10th anniversary of the public launch of the mindat.org website. Although the mindat project dates back to late 1993, it was on October 10th 2000 that I first announced the website to the world.

The first announcement was made on Usenet (which was the way things were done back in those days), in the group sci.geo.mineralogy. Here is that first announcement:



And here was my very first reply - quite negative! Luckily I didn't decide to try something less ambitious, and the poster of this message replied a few days later to say he had reconsidered and now agreed it was a worthy project. He's now a valued contributor on mindat.org.



If you want to view the whole thread, it's available here.

1993 to 2000

Before mindat.org was a website, it was a personal computer database project I'd written from scratch using the C++ programming language. It ran as a DOS application (but I also compiled a version for my Amiga computer). The only person who ever used this was me. But with this program, the basic concepts of the mindat.org database, localities and minerals, were in place, and the data that I entered in this program became the core of the database when it was launched in 2000 as a website.



When Windows 95 came out in 1995, I rewrote mindat into a Win32 application, and for the first time the information within my database could be searched and viewed in a more structured visual way. A few copies of this were given out online, but probably no more than about 50 people worldwide ever used a copy.




But the big problem was still that all data had to be entered by me, by hand, the other users of the software could not contribute. For several years I looked at different solutions to this problem, but it was only in 2000 that I came up with the plan to convert it into a website and program that so that others could edit. This was, by the way, a year before Wikipedia was launched.

2001

By 2001, the website was well established and popular, with photos and data being uploaded by members and the familiar mindat.org menu bar which we still have today.

In the early days I was helped significantly by the generosity of both John Betts and John Veevaert in allowing me to use their photographs on mindat.org.

During these early days I received lots of emails. Many of them were highly complimentary, but others were not - several people emailed me to say that I was doing everything wrong, that I didn't understand the science, that my database was full of errors. I wrote back, politely, and asked if they would be prepared to help

2002

By 2002 the page is evolving and we have our first news section online.

For those interested in the technical information, at this point mindat.org is running from a server we (My friend Jon Westgate and myself) built from spare parts - a 333Mhz Pentium II processor, 256Mb of RAM and a 10Gb hard disk!

2003

As the site develops I experiment with the home page. Note at this point there are still no adverts on mindat.org. During all this time the mindat.org server had been hosted by a local company (one of my clients) as a favour. I did accept donations at this time, but that never reached more than a hundred dollars or so a year.

2004

During 2004 the web page design becomes closer to what we have today.

In late 2004 we are asked to plan towards moving our server out of my clients office as they are closing down the office and selling off the company! We have some time to plan towards this, so at this point we start accepting mineral dealer adverts on mindat.org.



We start promoting mindat.org at mineral shows in the UK - here is Ida wearing a mindat T-shirt at the Haywards Heath mineral show in 2004.

2005

In early 2005 disaster strikes - the hard disk in the mindat.org server fails, and we find out that additionally our backups have failed for two weeks without us being alerted.

I buy a new server, for the first time a dedicated server with dual processors, dual hard disks, and 2Gb of ram. More reliable but also very expensive!



In a most important development, October 2005 is the first time I travel to an overseas mineral show, I go to Munich to report on the mineral show there for mindat.org.



While I'm busy walking and chatting with Bryan Lees (who is taking me, to introduce me to the first time to Rob Lavinsky), I saw someone walk past in the opposite direction wearing a mindat T-Shirt! I do a double-take, but he's gone, vanished into the crowds at Munich. Now, the mindat T-Shirts were one-of-a-kind creations made by hand and posted as gifts to mindat managers for their hard work in helping to run the site. Later on, I catch up with the wearer of the shirt, none other than Alfredo Petrov.

2006

During 2006, the layout we now recognise takes shape, and features such as "Photo of the Day" are launched.



The first Photo of the Day was shown on the 1st of February 2006, and is this photo:



A very important development for both mindat.org and me personally, in 2006 I visit the Tucson gem and mineral shows for the first time.



It's an opportunity to meet US collectors, dealers and mindat managers for the first time. Here I am with Chet Lemanski (Mindat manager) on the left and Jesse Fisher (UK Mining Ventures) on the right.



And the travel didn't stop there. Wayne and Dona Leicht invited us to go to the Tokyo mineral show in the summer of 2006.



Here I am at the Tokyo show with a mindat.org banner promoting the site.



2006 was also my first visit to the Denver mineral show. Here I met more people, firstly David von Bargen, who is now
helping to co-develop the mindat.org program code



And here I am with Rock Currier, who is now of course a mindat manager, and is responsible for the "Best Minerals" project on mindat.



Mindat Books, offering free download PDF versions of mineral books, was also launched in 2006



Munich 2006 was an opportunity for mindat.org to have a promotional booth for the first time. Here I am sat in the booth showing off the site.

2007

2007 was a more difficult year for me personally, my internet business Mysterious Ways closed down in early 2007, which meant I was unable to go to Tucson that year. The advertising money meant that mindat.org was unaffected, and continued to operate without interruption despite the problems I was having.

The page layout of mindat.org has changed little since 2007!



But I don't let things get me down, I try not to forget that at heart I am a mineral collector. I've been a member of the Sussex Mineral and Lapidary Society for many years, and in September 2007 I went on a field trip with them to the Isle of Mull - here I am with (from left to right) Peter Hay, Mark Oddy and to the right of me Peter Nancarrow on an exposure of sapphires in matrix on the shore of Mull.



2007 also saw the launch of the Mindat Articles section, this article being a good example of what it was designed to do.

Finally, the year ends with mindat.org being invited to the launch of the new gallery "The Vault" at the Natural History Museum. It's an opportunity to dress up, mingle with celebrities and talk with friends. Here I am with Mike Rumsey, curator at the Natural History Museum.

2008

2008 started with my return to Tucson, just in time for the best Tucson display of a generation, the "American Mineral Treasures" exhibits. Here's a quick video I made at the show just before the doors opened:



Another trip to the US in June, this time to Dallas, where I am invited by the Mineralogical Association of Dallas to speak about mindat.org.

2008 also saw the launch of a special version of mindat.org for the iPhone/iPod Touch - which can be found by visiting http://www.mindat.org/i.html and adding it as a bookmark on your phone/pod.

2009

2009 meant another visit to Tucson. This time, we had the first flight of "Air Mindat", a collecting trip to two exciting local localities by helicopter. This was arranged by the late Roy 'Digger' Lee. Here's the helicopter with us waiting to board.



When I wasn't up in the air, I was promoting mindat.org in a booth in the main hall at the TGMS, kindly sponsored by Kristalle and Crystal Classics. Here I am in the booth. We were also displaying the mineral art of Sophia Shultz, who paints minerals based on photographs uploaded to mindat.org.



The Tucson trip was followed soon after by another trip to the US for the Rochester Symposium, where I gave a talk about mindat.org. One of the things I showed at the symposium was my very first specimen, a rather poor quartz crystal in matrix from Tintagel, Cornwall. I found it when I was five years old, and it sparked my whole interest in minerals



I was able to give another presentation about mindat.org in September 2009, at the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow, mostly to professional mineralogists from the various museums, institutes and universities in Moscow.

2010

2010 starts, of course, with another trip to Tucson. This year the display was Gem minerals, such as this wonderful display of Tanzanite crystals:



Mindat.org has a booth at Tucson again this year, again sponsored by Crystal Classics and Kristalle, and we give out a sticker book for kids and stickers for them to stick into it, each sticker is one of the Mohs hardness minerals.



Two trips to Poland later in the year to help towards the planning of the start of our next 10 years of mindat.org, with July 2011 being the date for the first international Mindat conference, to be held in Lwówek Śląski, Lower Silesia, Poland. Three days of field trips followed by three and a half days of conferences and workshops, watch mindat.org for details, which will be posted online very soon!

---

In order to leave comments to this article, you must be registered