Who made Jref?

Haruto Uzumaki · 21 May 2022

I hope it's okay to post here, but I feel like other people might wanna know as well. I'm interested in learning who made jref, how the site is hosted, who brings updates to the interface and the cost of it all. I think I'm gonna donate soon too, cause this place has been really helpful. I'm just interested in how it all came to be, and even things like the growth of the member count would be nice to know about any competitors with Japanese forums catering to Americans, and also if donations typically cover the bills or not!

Strawberryzaaria · 21 May 2022

I really don't know but I sure like your profile pic

Haruto Uzumaki · 21 May 2022

Jhopesstrawberry said:
I really don't know but I sure like your profile pic

Thanks I like yours too

thomas · 21 May 2022

Ages ago, we had an About page; not sure when and how it vanished.

The page was founded in 1999 as a curated link directory for all Things Japanese. Back then, we used a subdomain on another domain I don't own anymore, sadly. In 2000, we changed to japanreference.com and installed our first forum (a Perl-based software storing data in flat files). First PHP-based forum in 2001, switch to vBulletin (vB2) and jref.com in 2002. From then on, the forum became the heart of the website. To me, the directory is still the core, but I'm the only one ever using it.

There are two decades of history about camaraderie, friendship, and drama. @Uncle Frank is not only our security juggernaut but doubles as our chronicler. He knows all the stories and befriended legions of people, many of which no longer frequent the site (or joined the dark side). Perhaps he can share in this thread.

Sadly, online fora have been on the decline for the past decade. Social media and giants like Reddit and Quora have taken over and reduced many fora to ghost towns with only a trickle of daily visitors. I have decided to hold out and focus on the things I'm personally interested in. Not a month goes by whithout me declining purchase offers. However, the main reason I want the forum to prevail is the small but fabulous community of Japanophiles we are privileged to host. We won't sell out.

@Haruto Uzumaki, thank you for your interest in our site. I am happy you have found us.

I shall be glad to answer any other questions about JREF. Thanks again!

Majestic · 21 May 2022

JREF is still one of my daily reads, even with the explosion in other social media sites. I can't quite figure out Discord yet. I mean, I'm on it, but I can't quite find the hook for me to go their daily or hourly to check it out. I got into an NFT online game for a hot minute earlier this year and used Discord for tips on that game, but other than that, Discord doesn't really appeal to me.

But now I'm intrigued about these offers to buy out JREF! I just checked out one of those "what is my website worth?" calculators, and it said JREF was worth over $100,000! Damn!

Thomas if you are turning down that sort of cash...well then, tip o' the hat to you old son.

Haruto Uzumaki · 22 May 2022

thomas said:
Ages ago, we had an About page; not sure when and how it vanished.

The page was founded in 1999 as a curated link directory for all Things Japanese. Back then, we used a subdomain on another domain I don't own anymore, sadly. In 2000, we changed to japanreference.com and installed our first forum (a Perl-based software storing data in flat files). First PHP-based forum in 2001, switch to vBulletin (vB2) and jref.com in 2002. From then on, the forum became the heart of the website. To me, the directory is still the core, but I'm the only one ever using it.

There are two decades of history about camaraderie, friendship, and drama. @Uncle Frank is not only our security juggernaut but doubles as our chronicler. He knows all the stories and befriended legions of people, many of which no longer frequent the site (or joined the dark side). Perhaps he can share in this thread.

Sadly, online fora have been on the decline for the past decade. Social media and giants like Reddit and Quora have taken over and reduced many fora to ghost towns with only a trickle of daily visitors. I have decided to hold out and focus on the things I'm personally interested in. Not a month goes by when I do not decline purchase offers. However, the main reason I want the forum to prevail is the small but fabulous community of Japanophiles we are privileged to host. We won't sell out.

@Haruto Uzumaki, thank you for your interest in our site. I am happy you have found us.

I shall be glad to answer any other questions about JREF. Thanks again!

What an awesome history! So I'm assuming you started it, right? That's pretty awesome to make an entire community like this
Also, I agree about forums being on the decline, but there will always be a few forums that will always maintain a share of the pie. Forums that cater to specific needs which regular social media can't. This forum is in a specific niche, where no matter what happens, a giant forum like Reddit can't take over, because we have a real community that beats all the tiny communities in reddit that are oriented around Japan. They have their uses, but I feel like this site is special in a way that you can't just r/ to recreate.
Another type of forum that can't die is something like Image-Line's FL Studio forum. Because the users rely on it for everything FL studio, and nothing beats direct contact with other customers and developers of FL Studio, that forum will exist for at least as long as the program does and this forum will last at least as long as Japan does, I'm sure

Grandpa Frank · 22 May 2022

One of the "old days" stories that sticks in my mind is a crazy guy that made threats of death to Thomas and a couple other members. He said he was an "ex" Marine with skills to hunt down and kill people. I think it had to do with what he thought were anti-US posts. One of our long-time members "kirei-na-me" was terrified he was going to kill her. If I remember rightly , he posted Thomas's personal info for all to see , among other things. Thankfully no one was hurt and he finally went away. I always wondered if he ended up in jail or the insane asylum.

Haruto Uzumaki · 22 May 2022

Uncle Frank said:
One of the "old days" stories that sticks in my mind is a crazy guy that made threats of death to Thomas and a couple other members. He said he was an "ex" Marine with skills to hunt down and kill people. I think it had to do with what he thought were anti-US posts. One of our long-time members "kirei-na-me" was terrified he was going to kill her. If I remember rightly , he posted Thomas's personal info for all to see , among other things. Thankfully no one was hurt and he finally went away. I always wondered if he ended up in jail or the insane asylum.

Oh mannn, that's quite insane even back in the day people were doxxing huh

Grandpa Frank · 22 May 2022

Another old story of how I met a Wonder Woman here on JREF. Her member name was "yimija" and she was from South Korea but lived in Switzerland. I got to know her around 2004. She was a trouble shooter for the UN and also worked with the Red Cross. We E-Mailed back and forth for almost 2 years. The adventures her job got her into could have made a very interesting movie. She shared an apartment with 2 other very close friend girls. Sadly they were killed in a car crash and she was devastated by their deaths. It seemed almost karma when she went to join them in death in a plane crash just a few months later. Like many members , I would probably never have known what happened to her. A few weeks after her death , the lawyer handling her estate E-Mailed me with the bad news. He was looking for any relatives he could contact. It just happened I had her sister's address in South Korea and gave it to him. He contacted me a few weeks later and said he was in contact with yimija's family and was able to settle her estate. To this day , she is one of my JREF family I miss the most.

mdchachi · 22 May 2022

thomas said:
The page was founded in 1999 as a curated link directory for all Things Japanese.

That was the model back then. I edited dmoz.org now and then back in the day.

thomas · 22 May 2022

Majestic said:
But now I'm intrigued about these offers to buy out JREF! I just checked out one of those "what is my website worth?" calculators, and it said JREF was worth over $100,000! Damn!

Wouldn't that be lovely?

The rule of thumb is 24 to 36 times the monthly revenue. Apart from Google Ads, JREF is barely monetised, so 100k it would never be. Considering the time, effort (and love) invested I'd rather delete than sell it.

mdchachi said:
That was the model back then. I edited dmoz.org now and then back in the day.

We were listed in DMOZ! Was it perhaps you who approved our listing?

We first copied Altavista, then Yahoo Directory (screen shots from Wayback Archive):

Haruto Uzumaki · 23 May 2022

Uncle Frank said:
Another old story of how I met a Wonder Woman here on JREF. Her member name was "yimija" and she was from South Korea but lived in Switzerland. I got to know her around 2004. She was a trouble shooter for the UN and also worked with the Red Cross. We E-Mailed back and forth for almost 2 years. The adventures her job got her into could have made a very interesting movie. She shared an apartment with 2 other very close friend girls. Sadly they were killed in a car crash and she was devastated by their deaths. It seemed almost karma when she went to join them in death in a plane crash just a few months later. Like many members , I would probably never have known what happened to her. A few weeks after her death , the lawyer handling her estate E-Mailed me with the bad news. He was looking for any relatives he could contact. It just happened I had her sister's address in South Korea and gave it to him. He contacted me a few weeks later and said he was in contact with yimija's family and was able to settle her estate. To this day , she is one of my JREF family I miss the most.

Wow, what an amazing but unfortunate story at least she lived life to the fullest with adventure and excitement, so hopefully nothing to regret

Haruto Uzumaki · 23 May 2022

thomas said:
Wouldn't that be lovely?

The rule of thumb is 24 to 36 times the monthly revenue. Apart from Google Ads, JREF is barely monetised, so 100k it would never be. Considering the time, effort (and love) invested I'd rather delete than sell it.

We were listed in DMOZ! Was it perhaps you who approved our listing?

We first copied Altavista, then Yahoo Directory (screen shots from Wayback Archive):

View attachment 87443

View attachment 87444

View attachment 87445

Truly an early 2000s vibe I remember the old days with my dad scrolling through craigslist, me just discovering the behavior of the web, seeing how most links turned purple instead of blue after he clicked them and went back... Those were the days although I experienced this in the 2010s (I'm a 2003 baby )

Grandpa Frank · 23 May 2022

Another tale from the crypt. Years back a friend here on JREF "epigene" told me her daughter was at the Boston college for music (about 3 hours by train from Maine.) Her daughter's band was going to be playing at a club and my wife and I decided to go meet her. She was the singer and I figured a rock & roll or Japanese type music. We waited outside to meet her when she arrived. She was dressed on the wild side with a cig dangling from her mouth. I told her I was a friend of her mother and she was like...ya great glad to see ya , bye. So...by now it was about 9PM , our usual bed time and we go into this so called club that was a dive able to hold about 20 people. The audience consisted of about 12 of her college friends , all under 25 and this very old looking couple in their 60's (my wife and I). Turns out is was heavy punk rock which in a small building was enough to make us deaf for a few days after. At the end of the "night out" , the band proceeded to smash all their equipment on stage , leaving everything in small pieces. After an hour long subway ride , we got back to our motel , totally exhausted just after midnight. We fell into bed and were just getting into a deep sleep when the hotel fire alarm went off and we thought we might die. By about 1AM , they said false alarm and we got back to bed about 2:30AM. About 3AM , we were awakened by a tremendously loud thunder & lighting storm. We gave up on sleep and headed for the train station to go home. Naturally , we told epigene it was wonderful meeting her daughter and what a great trip we had.

Haruto Uzumaki · 23 May 2022

Uncle Frank said:
Another tale from the crypt. Years back a friend here on JREF "epigene" told me her daughter was at the Boston college for music (about 3 hours by train from Maine.) Her daughter's band was going to be playing at a club and my wife and I decided to go meet her. She was the singer and I figured a rock & roll or Japanese type music. We waited outside to meet her when she arrived. She was dressed on the wild side with a cig dangling from her mouth. I told her I was a friend of her mother and she was like...ya great glad to see ya , bye. So...by now it was about 9PM , our usual bed time and we go into this so called club that was a dive able to hold about 20 people. The audience consisted of about 12 of her college friends , all under 25 and this very old looking couple in their 60's (my wife and I). Turns out is was heavy punk rock which in a small building was enough to make us deaf for a few days after. At the end of the "night out" , the band proceeded to smash all their equipment on stage , leaving everything in small pieces. After an hour long subway ride , we got back to our motel , totally exhausted just after midnight. We fell into bed and were just getting into a deep sleep when the hotel fire alarm went off and we thought we might die. By about 1AM , they said false alarm and we got back to bed about 2:30AM. About 3AM , we were awakened by a tremendously loud thunder & lighting storm. We gave up on sleep and headed for the train station to go home. Naturally , we told epigene it was wonderful meeting her daughter and what a great trip we had.

やれやれ！That sounds quite near traumatic But, I bet it was still at least somewhat fun in the sense that you got a hint of a connection with a jref friend through their daughter, even though she turned out to be much different than her mother, I'm guessing I've only met one person in real life that I met online first, so if it were me I'd still view it as a good day!

thomas · 23 May 2022

Uncle Frank said:
Another tale from the crypt. Years back a friend here on JREF "epigene" told me her daughter was at the Boston college for music (about 3 hours by train from Maine.) Her daughter's band was going to be playing at a club and my wife and I decided to go meet her. She was the singer and I figured a rock & roll or Japanese type music.

Frank, you should air your crypt more often. I never knew @epigene 's daughter was in a punk band.

Please keep them coming!

Grandpa Frank · 23 May 2022

And on a lighter note , a trip that did go well. A member called "Arrowyn" heard my wife and I were going to Washington D.C. and offered to meet up with us. Turns out she worked at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. She spent a couple hours giving us an amazing tour of behind the scene of what goes on there. We offered to take her to lunch and she took us to a cool restaurant right next to the White House where the balcony gave us a great view of W.H. As we were eating a bout 10 Secret Service agents appeared on the roof with shoulder launched rockets and automatic weapons. We wondered what the heck was up and it turned out to be the President returning in his helicopter. Got to see him hop out and wave and head inside. One of those great JREF memories I will always cherish.

Haruto Uzumaki · 23 May 2022

Uncle Frank said:
And on a lighter note , a trip that did go well. A member called "Arrowyn" heard my wife and I were going to Washington D.C. and offered to meet up with us. Turns out she worked at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. She spent a couple hours giving us an amazing tour of behind the scene of what goes on there. We offered to take her to lunch and she took us to a cool restaurant right next to the White House where the balcony gave us a great view of W.H. As we were eating a bout 10 Secret Service agents appeared on the roof with shoulder launched rockets and automatic weapons. We wondered what the heck was up and it turned out to be the President returning in his helicopter. Got to see him hop out and wave and head inside. One of those great JREF memories I will always cherish.

すごいいい now that's what I call a good memory crazy that the secret service uses rocket launchers though, imagine the collateral damage if they had a reason to use them

MarieCherry · 30 Apr 2024

Grandpa Frank said:
One of the "old days" stories that sticks in my mind is a crazy guy that made threats of death to Thomas and a couple other members. He said he was an "ex" Marine with skills to hunt down and kill people. I think it had to do with what he thought were anti-US posts. One of our long-time members "kirei-na-me" was terrified he was going to kill her. If I remember rightly , he posted Thomas's personal info for all to see , among other things. Thankfully no one was hurt and he finally went away. I always wondered if he ended up in jail or the insane asylum.

oh dear...

MarieCherry · 30 Apr 2024

Grandpa Frank said:
Another old story of how I met a Wonder Woman here on JREF. Her member name was "yimija" and she was from South Korea but lived in Switzerland. I got to know her around 2004. She was a trouble shooter for the UN and also worked with the Red Cross. We E-Mailed back and forth for almost 2 years. The adventures her job got her into could have made a very interesting movie. She shared an apartment with 2 other very close friend girls. Sadly they were killed in a car crash and she was devastated by their deaths. It seemed almost karma when she went to join them in death in a plane crash just a few months later. Like many members , I would probably never have known what happened to her. A few weeks after her death , the lawyer handling her estate E-Mailed me with the bad news. He was looking for any relatives he could contact. It just happened I had her sister's address in South Korea and gave it to him. He contacted me a few weeks later and said he was in contact with yimija's family and was able to settle her estate. To this day , she is one of my JREF family I miss the most.

that's sad may she rest in peace I bet was a lovely lady : (

Achilles 1-1 · 27 Aug 2024

Wow! What am amazing history!

MarieCherry · 27 Aug 2024

Who made Jref?

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