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Pretty straight forward. Who initially started the website? When (yr) was it's inception? If anyone inthe know can provide a little history, I would greatly appreciate it!
This is the link to the About Us tab on the main page
Who started VI Now?
It was started by whom???
Why, Islander, of course! 😉
A group of friends back in 1999 were talking over dinner about the lack of a USVI Tourism Department website (they launched one in 2001). A few beers later the idea was "let's build a USVI travel website". And that wasn't just the beer talking, lol, at the table were people with the skills to actually put it together.
The group brainstormed on domain names and Virgin Islands Now or VInow.com was selected. All the friends worked full time jobs but on free time the site was started with general information and a guide to St. Thomas. Shortly thereafter features like a photo album, newsletter, wallpaper downloads, e-cards and the message board were added.
During 2001 a guide for Water Island, St. John and St. Croix were added. Also created was the store at VItraders.com.
Inquiries about relocation information were common and a special section was added to cover some of the frequently asked questions. This was in early 2003. Soon after, relocation topics started taking over the message board and the site was being called the ‘moving site’. This was good and not good at the same time; the decision was to remove the relocation information and create a new site - VIMovingCenter.com. It was launched in early 2004, and VInow.com remained just for travel planning.
Several updates and site revisions took place over the years. A section for cruise ship passengers was added. In 2006 the Podcast from Paradise was added in collaboration with its host Alex. It was the first and is the only daily USVI podcast of its kind.
In 2007 VInow released a DVD called Living in De VI – An Introduction for Newcomers. The monthly newsletter was brought back in 2008, it had been discontinued a few years earlier. Also there was a major site revision at the end of the year.
2009… updates, revisions, new stuff in the works. It is still owned by some members of the group of friends that started it.
And my part, well I beat out a pirate to get the gig of site ‘mascot’ and board moderator! The site's original mascot was a Pirate, but some folks didn’t like that, they would email about it. Early on there was a feature on the site called Ask the Islander where people could email with travel questions. Ask the Islander was later incorporated in with the message board. Anyway about two years after the site was started the Pirate was dropped in favor of Islander.
That was probably more than you wanted to know, but it was nice reminiscing about it all so thank you for asking. And a big Thank You to everyone that has used VInow, VIMovingCenter and VItraders over the years; the websites would not have grown and developed if it wasn't for your participation and continued support.
--Islander
