SQLServerCentral

My boss gave me an assignment, asking for 200 words on the history of SQLServerCentral. This is what I came up with:

Nine years.

It's been nearly nine years since SQLServerCentral was started with a poor business decision on the part of Database Journal, for whom I still could be writing. I remember walking around my basement, talking on the phone with the other founders, looking for a quiet spot with toddlers upstairs that seemed to find the exact spot over my head before jumping up and down. I made it through the call and SQLServerCentral was born.

The early days consisted of a lot of coding, constant writing and answering questions. It seemed that each of us was working two jobs, working long hours, and often feeling the pressure to get an article done for a newsletter.

A few months into the job I felt it was a grind, and I tried something creative. Instead of putting an announcement in the middle of the newsletter, I wrote a short piece on some aspect of SQL Server. There wasn't much to it, but it became the daily editorial. I was never sure if anyone was reading it since I had no place for feedback. Needless to say I was stunned at the PASS Summit when quite a few people mentioned it to me. Since then I've grown to enjoy it as my favorite part of my job.