TSN.ca has been online for 10 years today. I remember where I was on this day back in 1995, in a Seneca College computer lab registering for the site for the first time. I logged in, looked around, and promptly got frustrated enough to not take another look at the site for about a year. See, there's this thing called “usability” which we just didn't know about in the dark ages, and rather than go right to the NHL page to get NHL info, you had to click on “Playing Field”, and then click on “NHL”.
Wayne, the guy who hired me at TSN used to preach about “the rules of three”, which stated that whatever information you were looking for should be no more than three clicks away. The original site definately didn't live up to the rule of threes.
There was no such thing as “persistant login” back in 1995, you logged in to every gateway you wanted to get into. Tables were a new invention, images were still pretty fresh. In '95 I had a 14.4k connection that got me on Lynx at home, I had to go to school to see images on the internet, but even then, that primative web hooked me.
While I was going to school for Television Production, I taught myself how to build websites and how to manipulate audio so I could get it on the internet. It was that experience which got me the job at TSN.ca in 1997.
I love the internet more than ever today, it's my passion, and I know it's my true calling in life. I rarely get the desire to play in the TV and movie landscapes anymore, but I'm always itching to start another website or build a better product online.
I've been at TSN.ca 8 and a half years now, with an 18 month leave of absence. I learned a ton in that 18 months, but I wanted to come back to the place that it all began for me. The people I work with are fun to be around, and work well under pressure…although that pressure is usually pretty light, after all, if we do everything absolutely wrong, nobody will die.
Congratulations TSN.ca. You've come a long way baby, and I can't imagine a place I'd rather be right now.