About
Rant Fever began in 2004 out of a desire for me, Abinadi, to learn PHP. The first version of Rant Fever was ugly, both visually and programatically. It was fun to build, however, and it was how I fell in love with PHP and all it can do. I learned a lot about programming and very little about design, but I am grateful for the experience.
I brought in some friends to help me bring quality content to the site. That is how the first two ranters, besides myself, came on board: Dubya and Hoodwinked. Later on, when I had some more experience with PHP under my belt, I redid the whole site.
The three of us began putting out some great rants. It was fun. Slowly, others began to be added to our group of ranters. 30dozen joined our ranks, as did Giullieta, and, eventually, Trooper. Each new ranter brought a new and interesting perspective to our online discussion.
Giullieta was a surprise, because she just started commenting on our posts out of the blue. For months, I didn't know who she really was or how she found us. Turns out, she was an old friend I hadn't seen in years.
Eventually, we had a Rant Fever Reunion in 2006 and we took the opportunity to plan out the next version of Rant Fever... 2.0. For those technically inclined, Rant Fever 2.0 had the basics of Model-View-Controller before I knew what MVC programming was all about. Unfortunately, it was also buggy. I eventually abandoned the code base and began anew. Meanwhile, ArizonaBoy, Janeheiress, and Green joined the ranks of ranters.
First, I tried coding it in Kohana, but the framework was not friendly. I settled on Codeigniter, and haven't looked back. Rant Fever 3.0 is built on a full fledged content management system that I developed with PHP and Codeigniter. I have migrated all our old rants from the very beginning and all the accompanying comments.
All told, Rant Fever is a constant work in progress and an online forum for kindred spirits to rant and rave together. As long as I can afford the domain and hosting costs, it will remain so.
