The Story of GeniusMaestro.com, a Dilbert Forum

3/17/2007 by Elliot Lee | Filed in Entertainment, Geek Stuff, Jokes | 2 comments

On April 12, 2003, I read this comic in my Daily Dilbert email. This was back in the days when I still used gengar56 as my handle, instead of present-day intelliot. This was also back in the golden age of GizmoBytes. My, how things have changed :)

geniusmaestro540.gif

Being the geek I am, I went and tried the domain name spelled correctly. Quite a few interesting things happened after that, so I felt I should log it here while it still exists. Otherwise, it’ll pass into the depths of time, never to be seen again.

The domain was available. So I went to DotRegistrar, the domain registrar I was using at the time, and snapped it up for a mere $7.99/year or so. I setup an account for it on whatever web hosting account I had at the time, and put up a simple webpage with the slogan: We spelled it correctly, and it wasn’t already taken.

I asked: “Any idea what I should do with this domain now?” and posted an email address. Fan mail started pouring in almost immediately.

On April 14, 2003, I posted the first of this fan mail on the website.

Nice work with geniusmaestro.com. I was just wondering if you could slap a web counter on it so I can see how many other cube dwelling engineers had nothing better to do than check up on marketing’s claims (even if it isn’t a real marketing dept, you can’t shake the need).
Here’s to wasting time and money.
S. Kerr

I have the stats on it, since you’re interested:
241 Unique visitors
529 Hits
I’ve done no advertising myself.

That was too funny, you grabbing up that domain name and pasting
something up there. How much lead time did you have? Did Scott Adams
tip you off, or did you swing into motion the instant you got the daily
Dilbert E-mail?
This should go down in the Annuals of the History of the Web.
LMAO.
M. P. Cosentino

Thanks, I thought the same thing. Scott Adams didn’t tip me off, though as a fan I wish I knew him. I got this domain after getting the daily Dilbert. Wonder if any more people happen to be stopping by and reading this? Drop me an email.

On April 22, I posted some more.

A bit delayed but I got there!
Catching up on Dilbert’s this morning I wavered a bit as I was half
expecting it to be a porn site by now :)
Keep the counter up to date.
Iain (from his work computer)

Sure thing:
332 Unique visitors
737 Hits
It’s slowing down. Not bad, though, considering I’ve never advertised this site. Any ideas what I should do with this? (See next item.)

 

Me: Any ideas what I should do with this domain now?

Don’t know. I’ll put my best men on it. Thinking out of the box, maybe you could turn the domain into a hat? It’s never been done. Could be a real money maker.
S. Kerr

 

I posted my last update on June 6, at which time I also posted uploaded a new miniBB forum, my first time really trying that forum software on a live site.

Me: Any ideas what I should do with this domain now?

dedicate it to musicians ! ;)
G. Nossek

Make it into a marketing page for anything that a marketing department, engineer, garbage man, or megalomaniac dog can develop.
T. Ward

So, are you ever going to actually do anything with the site? I just had to
look and see, and still nothing. Come on, think of something! Maybe a list
of all WMD’s found in Iraq or something?
Oh well. I can’t think of anything either.
Maybe now you know why the domain was available!
D. Estes

I’ve decided to turn it into a Dilbert forum so fans of this site can talk to each other and with me. Thanks for the emails.

I like statistics, so here’s what the forum looked like at the time of shutdown (today). These are the forum names and descriptions I made up back in 2003.

  Forum Topics Posts
  Dilbert
General discussion about your favorite comic.		 13 17033
  Today’s comic
Discuss the Dilbert strip of the day, whether you see it in your newspaper or http://dilbert.com/ .		 5 1595
  I don’t get it
Ask about Dilbert comic strips that you don’t find funny, and tell others about hidden messages you find in other strips.		 1 2
  Off-topic
Anything goes.		 2 20

These numbers look high, but it’s at least 60% spam.

:: Total Amount of Registered Users » 874 :: Total Amount of Topics » 21 :: Total Amount of Posts » 18671
:: Most Popular Topics
 
Genius Maestro 11084
Forum 2610
Profit Margin 1581
Forum 1238
Dilbert Episodes 917
 
:: Most Viewed Topics
 
Genius Maestro 7330
Profit Margin 2446
Dilbert Episodes 883
gift 821
looking for a strip 650
 
:: Most Active Registered Users
 
pwnage 12
MG McAnick 2
Olorin 1
Labtecker 1
smurf 1

Weeding the good stuff out of the spam, I have a handful of posts in the forums I’d like to preserve here for memory’s sake.

GeniusMaestro.com Dilbert Forums —› I don’t get it —› Dec. 27, 2003 strip. What is Alice wearing?

 
Last poster Message
MG McAnick
Member		 Posted: Jan 5, 2004 06:14:05
Quote


In the 12/27/03 strip Alice is returnig to work after being laid off for a SHORT period of time. (That’s not funny to many folks who have been out of work for months or even years.) Her triangular hair has two points, and she is wearing something unidentifyable. It does not look like a straight jacket to me, but then I’ve have not needed one (yet). What is she wearing, and why is this strip funny? Is that what MAY dull her engineering abilities?
pwnage
Member		 Posted: Jan 5, 2004 09:14:23
Quote


it appears to be her normal clothes, worn upside down

yo
MG McAnick
Member		 Posted: Jan 5, 2004 17:59:22
Quote


Yeah, that might be, but it would have to be an awfully long skirt to come UP to her neck.

GeniusMaestro.com Dilbert Forums —› Today’s comic —› Thursday April 13 2006

 
Last poster Message
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 01:47:21
Quote


Just seen this strip on the Dilbert desk calendar in the UK, had to try it… LOL! Anyone else found this from there?

The cartoon is actually our of sequence with the current leaving early theme, so must have been placed intentionally.
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 02:24:08
Quote


Oh yes – todays strip – me too! Nearly wet myself when I found this site! I love opportunists…

I half expected to find a site dedicated to bolt-on boys ‘soupig-up’ old Austin Maestro cars, a really naff UK model from the 1980s.

Shame Scott Adams hasn’t dropped in to comment. I think he’d laugh a lot!
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 04:02:57
Quote


Dilbert Desk Calender for me too. nice to know I’m not the only one that decided to check if it existed.

The geeks will inherit the earth.
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 05:06:33
Quote


Too funny… I was also inspired to follow the trail of bread crumbs by “today’s” Dilbert calendar strip. Oh well; better 3 years late than never!

I keep hoping the geeks will inherit the earth; so far I’ve only inherited a bowl of marbles.

Keep those ironic spellings coming, lol!

Out of curiosity… any CMKX shareholders in here?

PW
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 05:10:09
Quote


Bummer, I came to buy the product.
Olorin
Member		 Posted: Apr 13, 2006 05:15:58
Quote


Apple’s GarageBand comes pretty close to what I imagine GeniusMaestro would do.

http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 05:47:52
Quote


Ha! I just found it today too. Love the irony of the guy who took geneousmistro.com
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 05:50:24
Quote


One more sad engineer reporting in on the UK version of the calendar
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 06:14:59
Quote


Yep, desk calendar. Too bad it took me a couple tries to spell it right! ha ha (I’m not in marketing, I swear!)
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 07:31:59
Quote


Pointy Haired boss saw it on my desk calender and told me to go look at the product that conducts an orchestra of data
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 08:23:38
Quote


It’s amazing how many of us are doing the same thing simultaneously. Scott Adams (and other writers) obviously have some degree of power if he can make 20+ people around the world (I’m in Seattle) visit a website they had never heard of yesterday. And that’s just counting the visitors who actually posted something by 8AM my time; I’m sure more visitors will come today, and several won’t post anything. All this without even telling readers to visit the site or even how to spell it!
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 09:30:56
Quote


45 minutes into my morning and I tore off yesterday’s calendar page. After a moment of reflection, I decided to try the “misspelled” URL (boring.) So I said “to Heck with it” and tried the correct spelling. Regarding the body-double from the last few days’ calendar pages – can I have one of those too?
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 13:08:24
Quote


Took me HOURS to try, though. Wish I could claim I’m THAT busy.

Did the misspelling first, as well.

Remember, it’s delayed control; took a whole year between the original and the calendar.

Now, I think the website, and my local paper is a week delayed. If you took some info from an up-to-date source…

a beastly one
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 19:56:21
Quote


I too am one of the countless nerds who visited this site in the hopes of finding a dilbert site.
Anonymous Posted: May 2, 2006 05:58:51
Quote


Anonymous Man you guys are geeks. So you read a Dilbert comic and they mention website so you have to go try it to see if it really exists. Then you see it does exist and to top it off you actually post something here. Oh wait, that’s me also too.

Man I’m a geek.
smurf
Member		 Posted: May 17, 2005 14:56:06
Quote


Yes there is somebody here! Hi I’m smurf.
Anonymous Posted: Oct 26, 2005 05:15:36
Quote


fags
Anonymous Posted: Oct 26, 2005 05:16:08
Quote


find sumthing better to do
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 01:44:46
Quote


The cartoon referring to this page just appeared on the Dilbert April 13 2006 calendar… expect some more hits!
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 09:48:48
Quote


The cartoon referring to this page just appeared on the Dilbert April 13 2006 calendar… expect some more hits!

Yep, that’s why I’m here. I just tore off April 12 and had to check out the correctly spelled domain name.

Funny stuff.
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 10:58:36
Quote


Only us IT folk would actually take the time to check both the misspelled domain name, and the correct spelling of the domain name. I need a life.
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 11:33:37
Quote


Here’s another IT guy that needs a life, it’s on my calendar today :-)
Anonymous Posted: Apr 14, 2006 06:47:09
Quote


Hi!
I couldn’t tear the page off my calendar without checking out the geniusmaestro domain.
So it is.
Anonymous Posted: Apr 14, 2006 10:02:29
Quote


Another IT guy who’s a day late, as well.

GeniusMaestro.com Dilbert Forums —› Dilbert —› looking for a strip

 
Last poster Message
Anonymous Posted: Oct 31, 2003 12:52:46
Quote


Hey all – I was looking for the past strip (from maybe 2 years ago?) that has one of the characters giving a presentation on the company’s emergency plan, which turns out to consist of them running around screaming “Help! Help!” and so… I think it was Dilbert doing the talk, but the memory is a little hazy now. Anyone remember any details or know where I can find it?
Thanks
~j~
Anonymous Posted: Dec 10, 2003 17:30:47
Quote


Oh yes, I have seen that. I think I have it from the 2003 Dilbert calendar. E-mail me and I’ll look for it. [email protected]
pwnage
Member		 Posted: Dec 11, 2003 09:17:16
Quote


hey, it’s a person!
Anonymous Posted: Dec 23, 2003 12:42:07
Quote


Oh yes, I have seen that. I think I have it from the 2003 Dilbert calendar. E-mail me and I’ll look for it. [email protected]
you fool. you have posted your real e-mail address! you shall now suffer in the pits of spam hell!!BUWAHAHAA
Anonymous Posted: Dec 23, 2003 12:43:36
Quote


hey, it’s a person!
thats right little member. you will never track me. i love forums. and guestbooks, those are fun too!
posting funny messages are fun. spread the word!

GeniusMaestro.com Dilbert Forums —› Dilbert —› Genius Maestro

. 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 … 49 . 50 . >>
Last poster Message
Anonymous Posted: Apr 13, 2006 12:58:18
Quote


This strip just came up on my desk calendar today. I must have missed it in the paper – back in ’03, was it? And like a true nerd, I had to try the correctly spelled domain name. (Now I’m going to try the one in the strip, of course.)

Romulan

And there you have it! Everything about GeniusMaestro.com that’s worth saving.

The forum is overrun by spam now, as you can tell from the statistics, so I’m shutting it down permanently. I’ll likely redirect the domain right over to this post on my blog.

So why did the domain come up today? Because it’s due for renewal and I don’t want to pay the $7.99. Do you want it? Speak now!

2 Responses to “The Story of GeniusMaestro.com, a Dilbert Forum”

  1. Robert says:
    3/4/2008 at 12:25 am

    Does anyone know what the title is to the Dilbert cartoon episode that features a woman with large breasts that are in a wheelbarrow. She and other odd ball characters are sitting in a talent search waiting room.

    Thanks

    Reply
  2. Nate says:
    12/10/2009 at 5:01 pm

    I saw an old strip, maybe 3 years ago. It involved Dilbert visiting online forums. He mentioned something about the IQ of people on forums, and it ended with him saying something like “Im in” anyone know where I can find this?

    Reply

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