The ten year anniversary thingy.

[MistaPotta]

My name is Tony David Potter, and I'm the editor of this site.

I was a competitor in high school (back before you competitors were born) and love what math team (and all of academic competition in general and UIL in particular) provides to students. I competed in the first year MathCounts was around. I love math competitions. And, due to the support of several influential teachers, I decided to enter the teaching profession as well. I knew when I got to teaching, I'd do what I could to support UIL.

So I got my bachelor's degree, then my master's degree. I taught at Texas Tech for a few years, then moved on to Lubbock High. They hired me as a teacher, not a coach (they had a full coaching staff anyway) but I volunteered my time to do what I could to help out the team. And they did well.

That winter, in 1998, I was wondering what math materials were #. I was familiar with the internet in particular (I have an e-mail address older than most visitors to the site) and the web in general, and had written web pages for the classes I taught at Texas Tech. This, of course, was before most people had heard of America # or WebTV.

I wanted there to be a resource for teachers and students. There was none. So I started one.

In February of 1998 I started TCM out of a web folder in my Texas Tech account. Mr. Friesen from Plains, Mrs. Parish from Bridge City, Mr. Zapata from Azle, and Mrs. Edmonds and Mrs. Mallery from Klein helped out with several things (like my horrendous original color scheme -- teal on black.) They also helped me get a more Texas-wide feel to the site, as opposed to the West Texas connections I'd developed my first year out. We started out with a calendar and results (always, the results) and added features. Articles from the Leaguer (which reminds me, I should update that sometime soon), a chat room, forums, downloads, and many other things you've come to expect from us.

The key tenet in all of this was that information was meant to be free. That no benefit was given by secrets, and the world doesn't operate in a vacuum. And, that all things being equal, the better student will win. If you have the same materials at hand that I have, and your kid beats mine, then great!

After all, as long as students learn and have fun, it really doesn't matter what place you get. And if you're not having fun, you shouldn't be doing it anymore.

Originally, during this past Christmas break, I was getting ready some things to celebrate this ten year anniversary. Few things on the internet last a year, much less ten. Real life, however, had different plans (aside from having a charming two-year-old son, I do coach my own math team.)

My original plans were:
February - Show the (in all it's horrendous and gory glory)
March - Show off the (but still 1998.)
April - Show off the (1999)

and go from there.

I want to thank all of you that have supported this site over the past ten years. It's a labor of love, not for profit (and as long as I'm in charge, it won't be for profit.) I do thank those of you that to help offset the ~$600/year hosting this site costs. I appreciate all the results, tests, and friendly banter this site receives, and is able to provide to its users.

Much love and luck for the rest of the year (and beyond!)

Tony David Potter

[Michael T]

Firstly: wow, ten years. That's...a really long time. I might have learned division ten years ago.

Secondly: My eyes burn from looking at the old site. Seriously, that hurt. Thank you for changing it (though I still contend you need to change the forum skin so it's different from xkcd...)

[Quelloquialism]

Thirdly, $600/yr? How much bandwidth does this thing eat monthly? I guess the forum is a big eater? Well, come to think of it, test downloads probably eat a nice amount, too.

Fourthly, /me throws a birthday party for TCM.

[StephenWong]

Thanks so much for all you've done, I dunno where I would be without this website. I would have no UIL version practice tests, no one to compare my scores to, no motivation to out score kids from other schools, and no where to go. This resource was essential to the success of me, my team, and the future of the math team at crowley high school. thanks again

[lethalwire]

Thank you for the great website.
I'd say the pdf files eat up a big portion of the bandwidth :P

[collegebookworm]

Speaking of big bandwidth...this may help a bit (and also remove the very fuzzy old version):

http://newtonmusic4.googlepages.com/UILCSD12005.pdf (121 kb)

current TexasMath version (very fuzzy):

http://texasmath.org/DL/CS/CS05D1.pdf (607 kb)

[Englandude]

I just wanted to say thank you very much Mr. Potter. TCM has helped me so much. Before I found this site, I never had any resources, and i didn't even have anyone that i could go to for help. Now all i have to do is ask my question on the forum and someone will help me and give me the solution. I owe all my success to TCM. Thanks again.

[slanders09]

yeah, same here. TCM has been nothing short of a life saver for me. There's no one else at my school who cares, but I enjoy being able to learn new math and talk with other people who are just as passionate about it as I am. Three Cheers for the grand MistaPotter! Hip-hip, hooray!!! Hip-hip, hooray!!! Hip-hip, hooray!!! *mad applause for TCM*

[DullesMiddleSchool]

Congratulations on the 10 years!

[ZachB]

TCM is pretty much the shiznit.

[StephenWong]

[FabensMath]

Reading this makes me want to cry.
I love this forum, and like all people here, I thank Mr. Potter very much, because with out it, i wouldn't be were i'm at, and i would be alone, with nobody to share my passion for UIL and math, and nobody to ask for help and advise. Even though this topic is old, i felt I needed to comment in appreciation.

[StephenWong]

[nsguy1350]

Yes, I hadn't seen this topic, or at least not for a long time, and I do want to thank Mr.Potter for maintaining this site and giving me and many others a resource and motivation to do UIL.
I can tell you that although I haven't been here for long, I'd be nowhere close to where I am now, without this site. I was one of the lucky ones who found it :)
I've tried to spread the word about the site, and I've gotten a couple people to join, with a few, although not as many as I'd hoped, from my school. I use this site pretty heavily. I also get my tests, along with my coach as well, from this site (well, there are TMSCA tests and Numsen tests too, but these are the best.)
So all in all, thanks Mr.Potter, for all you've done. I can't say much else, but I hope maybe I could contribute to your goal of providing a resource to students. I can say that you've definitely provided one for me, at least, and for that, thank you.

[nsguy1350]

Oh, and on a side note, something I found funny.
I went to the original site, to see what the site looked like. It's definitely a strain on the eyes.
Anyways, I wanted to see what the HTML code for the source looked like, since it was made in 1998.
Upon viewing the source code, I saw no html tag, which was strange, because I didn't know that you didn't need one. After the head tag, and then a link tag, I stumbled upon a "MEAT" tag, and was confused as to what that could possibly be. Why would a computer programmer want to use a tag called "MEAT"?
Then, it hit me that that was just a meta tag. Haha, I was actually wondering what a MEAT tag was, and it was just a typo.
Most people won't find this funny, especially if you've never seen HTML before.

[BlasianAsian]

I don't get it, but I like meat. Tastes good.

[007math]

I hate meat. /me vegetarian.

To make this pertinent, Chrome didn't render one of those old HTML pages nicely.