This place has been around for nearly two decades. We all know why I came back, what brought you here as a reader?
Niners Nation has been through a lot changes since its inception in 2006. December 22, 2006 if you are keeping track. Back then I was in my fourth year of college, the PlayStation 2 was going strong, and Mike Nolan was doing his second season as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
There was also young Fooch. He built and ran this place. Back then, this place got 30 or 40 visitors, then grew to 600-700 visitors and that was a milestone in year one. Nowadays, it’s common to see 100k visitors when football is in season and a few people on this staff have managed to write some articles helping the site achieve that feat in the slow part of the offseason.
Once in awhile we ask this and it seems like as good of a time as ever to ask with the new fans in tow, what brought you to Niners Nation. Since I’ve returned I’ve made friends with a large amount of new readers that have joined the site and also seen the equally large amount of familiar faces. What’s your story? Was there any specific article, series, or author(s) that convinced you Niners Nation was the place to come?
For me, it was going to be five years from NN’s inception before I entered the picture as a casual reader and another four before I started writing for the site. For the first stint.
Most of you know the career story, but my actual readership of NN came in 2011 when Jim Harbaugh was getting courted by the 49ers for a head coaching gig. Shortly thereafter I was getting a dopamine fix by the sheer amount of content this site had. A post about the Dolphins getting in the way, a post about Harbaugh leaving the 49ers, a post about other stuff. At the end of the day I felt like I had learned a lot and was just enjoying reading what everyone said.
I loved reading the content the site had. I was also downright scared to post a comment. When I finally got the courage, I wrote some comedic fictional dialogue between Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh resulting in a gazillion recs. From there I started doing video game gifs and as time went on I started working on the staff.
Contrary to popular belief, I didn’t join the staff on my first try. About a year after I started coming to the site, Fooch put out a call for writers to do the Golden Nuggets. I responded to the post and was quietly rejected.
It wasn’t until I wrote a fanpost in 2014 that I got put on the front page. After the 2014 season, Fooch put out a call for writers and I was officially brought onboard. You know what happened from there.
But that’s my story. What’s yours? Tell us below. For those of you who have been silent, don’t be shy. Commenting isn’t that bad. 49ers fans are a strange lot sometimes, but this place is pretty tame.
About the Author: Insidethe49
