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NoHomers.net
NoHomers.net is a large community website for the television show, The Simpsons. It was launched 27 August, 2001. Although the site contains many features typical to Simpsons sites, including an episode guide and images, its primary draw is the No Homers Club message board. It has over 10,500 members and over 1,250,000 posts.
History[edit]
NoHomers.net was created by Eric Wirtanen (aka thecapecoddah) in 2001 along with help from Jonah Flynn (aka Tomacco) and Tino Persico (aka Datoupee). It was originally meant to be a part of the Evergreen Terrace fan site (1998 - 2002), which first held the nohomers.net domain. Although the Internet has dozens of Simpsons discussion websites, NoHomers.net quickly gained the support of other fan sites and their webmasters.
After Wirtanen shut down his Evergreen Terrace website in 2002 the forums became largely independent and developed a large community. The forum's address was originally club.nohomers.net but the board moved to simpsonsforum.com soon after its creation. In October of 2002 it took its current domain, http://www.nohomers.net. You can also reach the site by using http://www.nohomers.com.
The website took its title from an episode of The Simpsons, Homer the Great, written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Jim Reardon. In the episode, Homer laments that in the past, his peers started a "No Homers Club" and excluded him from the group, even though they let in a boy by the name of Homer Glumplich. (This is explained by the fact that it's the No Homers (plural) Club, and they're "allowed to have one.")
Forum software[edit]
When the forums were first created, it ran the YaBB forum software. However, after a few months the site started using vBulletin forum software. It is currently running on the vBulletin 3 platform.
Episode reviews[edit]
One of the things that site is most famous for (perhaps especially by the staff of the Simpsons) is of its thread devoted to the reviewing of individual episodes. Users rate an episode 1-5 and write their personal opinions about the shows. Some users give very harsh criticism while others remain optimistic. There is always a debate about the quality of newer episodes.
Show involvement[edit]
The staff of The Simpsons, including creator Matt Groening, has acknowledged the community several times on some of the DVD audio commentaries. They go into detail in the episode commentary for Homer the Great. The producers of The Simpsons do read the website often. On this commentary, David Mirkin, a former showrunner joked that it should be renamed "the worst show ever weekly" forum. In response, the tagline appeared in the forum banner.The staff of the show has also been in direct contact with some site administrators. Al Jean, former and current showrunner, once posted a message to fans about some comments voice actor Harry Shearer had made about the show.
The website has hosted question-and-answer sessions with three former executive producers. In early 2002, Al Jean (who had just become the showrunner) answered questions for fans, and in late 2005, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein answered questions in the first of two moderated sessions, coinciding with the release of the seventh season on DVD. They also took questions in January 2006 for the commentaries for the eighth season on DVD, which they would be soon recording.
In addition, other staff such as show animators Jen Kammerman and Sarge Morton; Bongo Comics writers/artists Bill Morrison, Ian Boothby, Chris Unger, and Gail Simone have dropped by the site to interact with users and answer any questions about some of the less-frequently addressed aspects of the show. Most notably, voice actor Nancy Cartwright's attorney Gerald Gottesman has known to frequent the board to answer questions and provide invaluable information about the behind the scenes happenings and upcoming episodes to members.
In a recent episode, Sleeping With The Enemy, director Lauren Macmullan confirmed that they added a sign in the bowling alley to pay homage to the website. The sign said "N.H.C. Champs! 15 Seasons" and can be seen for about a second.
External links[edit]
- NoHomers.net main page
- No Homers Club forum index
- Kammerman & Morton Q&A (Mar-May. 2003)
- Oakley & Weinstein Q&A (Oct-Nov. 2005)
- Oakley & Weinstein Q&A (Jan. 2006)
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