Turns 25 Years!
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Assyrian Voice was launched on April 15, 1999. Today, a quarter of a century later, the website proudly celebrates its 25th anniversary! In internet terms, that is not only a long time, but also an eternity. Much has transpired since then; entire new technologies have emerged and faded, and a new generation of individuals has come into existence who were not present when we initially began. However, most significantly, akin to the resilient Assyrian nation, this website has persevered through numerous challenges since its humble inception.
To mark this extremely special and unique occasion, and instead of going over the history , facts and timeline of the website which we have done more than once in the past 25 years, we came up with a different idea: create an Assyrian Voice Museum, showcasing Assyrian Voice throughout the years and decades since it was started and the various changes it has undergone since. Note that while some or most of these are still active, some are no longer with us as they were discontinued years ago.
Assyrian Voice Museum
Documenting Assyrian Voice's journey through the years and decades
| This is what the first Assyrian Voice home page looked like when we first launched. In fact, a little known fact that many may not know, when the website first launched, it was known "Assyrian Voice in Canada" website. It was only a few weeks later that the name officially became "Assyrian Voice Network" |  |
| Home page started in 2001 |  |
| Home page starting in 2002 through 2005 |  |
| New home page starting in 2005 |
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| New home page design that started around 2006 and through 2012 |  |
| ICQ Assyria: in the late 1990s and through early 20002, ICQ was a very popular product, used as an instant messenger to communicate. To built on this popularity and as part of Assyrian Voice's mission to connect Assyrians with one another, we introduced this section where people can add their ICQ number to a list, where others can see and add them. The list had hundreds of members. In fact, you can check it for yourself: were you one of those people who had their name on here? if so, tell us on Facebook! |
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MSN Assyria, similar to ICQ Assyria, served as a platform to facilitate connections among Assyrians, leveraging the immense popularity of Microsoft's instant messenger during the early to mid-2000s. MSN Messenger quickly surpassed ICQ as the preferred application during this period. The list had well over 2000 members at one point and in fact you can still see the list here (1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5, 6. Check if your name on it and tell us on Facebook! |
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| Assyrian Chatters Union: as Assyrian Voice became the default go-to place for people wanting to connect and chat with one another, this section was created to get chatters together, plan meetings, post funny and interesting content form our various communication platforms, interview with chatters from around the world and more. |  |
| Assyrian Music: this is what the original music on our website was, pioneering a way for people to listen to Assyrian music and helping promoting it. Years before the advent of Youtube and later the various streaming services that have come to now define how people listen to music. |  |
| Assyrian Music section starting in 2008 and though present |  |
| Assyrian Music Board: in addition to the music section, we also had a music board, to discuss and talk about Assyrian music and songs. |  |
| Homework Help: little known fact, but in the first year we started, we offered a comprehensive home help section, which helped students with such topics like math, sciences, English, computer science and more. |
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| Assyrian Yellow Pages was a free service allowing Assyrian businesses in North America and around the world to list and promote their services to other Assyrians. With this |
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| Vote389 in the 2005 Iraqi elections: in 2005, Iraq held its first major election after the toppling of the Saddam regime. In an effort to unite our voice, Assyrian Voice promoted list 389, headed by Zowaa and other affiliate parties. Assyrian Voice further helped by creating a special section for the voting block, and providing details about the platform, candidates bio and more. The effort helped give the list crucial victories in the election. |  |
| Voice Chat: While the name Assyrian Voice predates the introduction of voice chat services, it eventually became synonymous with this feature. This association sometimes led to confusion, with some assuming the website was primarily a voice chat platform. In truth, 'Assyrian Voice' was chosen to symbolize the website's mission of representing the Assyrian voice globally. Throughout all of this, the website had to transition through various voice chat platforms, including the original HearMe and later Popcorn and various others in between. |
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Links: in the beginning days of the internet, almost every website had some form of links or directory, as a way to link to other websites and expand the boundaries of the then small world wide web. Assyrian Voice was no exception, as we had a comprehensive section of close to 100 websites, mostly Assyrian and middle eastern related. The second screenshot is a list of banners for other websites to link back to us. |
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| Assyrian Voice Interview: the idea started in the summer of 2000, where we started interviewing different members of our website, asking questions about their lives, Assyrian related, school, and general. The section became so popular, that we had a long list of people waiting to get interviewed. |  |
| Assyrian Voice Contest: while this service is no longer active, it was very popular and exciting at the time. Not only did it challenge contestants to research and think - at a time when googling things wasn't very common - it also rewarded them with real prizes. |
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| Shrara Paltalk Voice Chat: in an effort to create a web destination for the most popular Assyrian Voice chat room on Paltalk, we worked with the room admins to create a section on our website, including a photo album, links and more. |  |
| Assyrian Voice E-Magazine and News |
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| Assyrian Voice Shopping: at a time when Amazon was only known to a few and as a book store, our website had a shopping section, mostly to showcase and promote Assyrian music and books. In addition to that, we also created a section whereby Assyrian businesses could offer a discount to people to buy their products and services, making it a win-win proposition for both the business and customer. |
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| Assyrian Voice Forums: while we take them for granted now, the forums had a modest beginnings, going through various changes in the last 20-22 years since they were first introduced around 2003 |
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| Assyrian Voice Message Board: similar to a discussion forum, we also had a message board section, which served as a simplified alternative to traditional discussion forums, offering a platform for members and visitors to engage in discussions and exchange ideas on various topics. Unlike more complex forum systems, the message board provided a quick and straightforward format for interaction. In the first screenshot, it shows how we had the two side by side, allowing the user to select the one that best fits their needs or browsing style. |
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| Various other random screenshots from other sections throughout the years |
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| Assyrian Voice team: in 2008, at the height of Assyrian Voice's dominance as one of the most visited Assyrian Voice websites, we had a full team to help manage the various sections, be it the voice chat, text chat, discussion forums and message board. We owe it to these people for their great effort to help us manage things at the time. |  |
| Funny Jokes section from the text chat and voice chat (1999-2007) |
-The guy from New York to me and another guy who were the only people in NOL at that time(7:30 am) : "Why did you guys wake up so early"? The first guy said "I had a headache so I woke up". And I said "It is not that I haven woken up early, but I haven't slept from yesterday"!!!!!!!! -Chepea: "My problem is that I love the Lord so much". Then Sarkis replied: "But bro that is not a problem that is a bless". -X-pac in the ICQ to me when he wasn't able to go to NOL because it was full"Please ASHOOR go out I wanna go in and it is full".Lucky X-pac the phone rang so I had to go out of there to take the call and therefore give him the space. -"Hey why is your name Clinton", and the other one replies" Because I know you hate it so I came with it, but no worries I will change it". When the guy came back his name was changed to something else to make the other person happier. The new name was WilliamBellClinton!!!!!!!. Maybe he did that to hide the name Clinton in the end. -The guy from Chicago to another guy" Hey bro, be careful, I can disconnect your computer right now okkkkkk". The other guy replies "And how can you do that". So he replies "It is very easy man, just remember who else in the house has a Computer". "ooooops", the other guy replied because that was his real brother using his notebook in the other room, and had the telephone line for his brother's computer beside him. -"Shit, someone else is using my name". Then I told the guy "So what man, let him use it", the guy then replied angriely"What do you mean, is that you?", "Nooo it is not me" I said "And you can verify that". After a while the guy spoke up like this "oooooops, sorry man it is me using the same name without I disconnect the other name". -"Guys, I am new here and I need help please". Assyrianbrave replied " What do you need to know". The guy replied " I need to know how to go out of here"!!!!! Juat came and wants to leave. I am not sure if this guy ever came back after that because he would be afraid of how to go out again. -"This place is booooooooooooring", another one replied "And you are mooooore boring brother". Then the guy replied" So if I am boring for you and this place is boring for me, then let us both get out". -"Guys what does LOL means?". Another guy said "what you don't know yet, it means -litien oupkha lakha- and can't you see nobody is here only me you and this guy". -For all of us brb means"be right back", but according to the following people it means something else:- -LOL means "Laughing out loud" all the time, but there is always the odd: -A/S/L means age/sex/location? but as always people have something else to say, and here we can't blame them because a/s/l? is sometimes tricky even for experienced chatters. Final jokes For those who speak Greek |
