Twenty years of thesession.org!

Twenty years ago, to the day, I posted the first discussion on thesession.org, “What do you think of the new site?”
https://thesession.org/discussions/1

Technically, The Session existed before that, but it was in a much different form. It didn’t have its own domain name. There were no memberships. It was just me posting a new tune every week. The Internet Archive has a copy of that original version (but with images missing):
https://web.archive.org/web/19991012084228/adactio.com/session/session.shtml

But it was twenty years ago today that The Session became what it is now: a community site, where anyone can post a tune, add a comment, or start a discussion.

The Internet Archive has a copy of that too, but again missing some images:
https://web.archive.org/web/20011130124410/https://thesession.org/

It trundled along for a good few years until the next big change in 2012:
https://thesession.org/discussions/30604

That was when multiple settings for tunes were added, as well as lots of location-based features. And the site underwent quite a big redesign. Since then there have been tweaks and changes, but nothing on that scale.

So, twenty years of contributions by you all to this site works out to:

18,416 tunes with 35,883 different tune settings,
6,835 recordings,
4,599 sessions, 2635 of them currently active,
5,662 events,
366 trips, and
41,724 discussions.

And over the course of those twenty years, there have been 76,500 members and there’s been a total of 754,385 comments.

( If anyone wants to dive into the numbers some more, there are weekly data dumps at https://github.com/adactio/thesession-data )

Words cannot express how much I appreciate all of your contributions. You make this site (and this community) what it is today.

On the web, twenty years is a very long time for anything to stick around. But I’m also confident that we’re just getting started.

Here’s to the next twenty years of thesession.org!

This site is the best thing on the internet.

Thanks J

Doesn’t time fly ? Many, many thanks Jeremy for providing the means for all of us here to communicate, share experiences and provide help, support and advice to each other. I am particularly grateful for this website providing the means to for me to arrange to meet and play music with some great musicians over these years, thinking in particular of some of "thesession.org" sessions arranged at past Willie Clancy weeks.
It won’t happen this year, but anyone for 2022 ?
Happy Birthday, "thesession.org".

Kenny, I am *definitely* going to get to Willie Week in 2022! It would be fantastic to meet up with you there!

And I absolutely agree about using this site to meet up with others: some of my favourite experiences in other cities and towns have happened because people here on thesession.org have been so generous and welcoming in real life too.

Felicitations & Happy Birthday to thesession.org Jeremy!

Thanks for all your great work, Jeremy.

Lots of invaluable information and tune discoveries over the years. Also many happy memories.

2o years, and still running ad-free? Great achievement!

I’d definitely echo other folks on how useful this site has been for meeting up with other musicians and finding sessions in other towns and countries over the years. If there’s a ‘thesession.orgy’ at Willie Week 2022 I’ll do my best to be there!

"2o years, and still running ad-free? Great achievement!"

Thanks! I plan to keep thesession.org an ad-free zone in perpetuity. 🙂

Great site, great resource, great craic - go raibh míle maith agat!

excellent resource for trad music - nothing else like it on the web, thanks Jeremy - here’s to the next 20!

Thanks Jeremy!
I open the site every day to look for tunes, read discussions and learn from the many wonderful people who are in the community that The Session has created. It is a great thing you have done on many levels.

Thanks for all your work, Jeremy.

Well done and thanks so much Jeremy!
I may not contribute so much nowadays (thankfully! - some may say…) but I still look in to see what’s going on. I certainly wouldn’t have known about the various sessions both outside of and in London, had it not been for this resource. So useful too as a source of tunes; info about tunes; general tips regarding playing - and buying - instruments; conduct at sessions - so-called "session etiquette"; and so much more. Oh…and great fun.
Thanks again to Jeremy but also to the many great and varied contributors who keep the site alive. Very much alive.

Thank you Jeremy for creating and maintaining this site. My musical journey has been so much easier because of it. As for 2022, I will definitely be in Miltown too. See you there! Paul

Thank you, Jeremy. It has been a short 20 years! I learned so many tunes, and picked up so many little tidbits of learning to play the flute from The Session. Again, thanks.
Lowhistle

Thanks, Jeremy, for such a useful and convenient resource and for your stamina! And thanks also to the wide community that you’ve facilitated.

Jim

Hurrah! Here’s to the next 20+. So grateful and happy to know you and J. Hope to be in Clare in van next year.
Will.

20 years… That’s incredible! Thanks for creating TSO Jeremy. It’s a vital link to the ITM world for us musicians living far away from places with strong trad music communities. Hope to meet in Miltown next year.

Jeremy: I am a little taken aback to realise that I have been hanging around here, off and on, for almost a third of my life. Yikes! No doubt more than half of yours…

A fantastic amount of thought and effort has clearly gone, and continues to go, into producing and maintaining the site. And improving it: many features have been added and many shortcomings have progressively been plugged. 👍 Keep up the good work.

Felicidades! Jeremy.

Thanks, Jeremy!

Thesession.org came along right when I needed it! Things have changed a lot since then, but the site has been a good companion for the last 20 years! Kudos to you!

It was also twenty years ago today Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play, but Mr Pepper had nothing on our Mr Keith.
Here’s to the next twenty.

Congratulations to you Jeremy, and happy birthday to thesession.org.
Many happy returns!

Well done, Jeremy! Just checked my profile to see when I joined, but can’t find it. Wasn’t one of the earlier members.
However, I did find that I had posted 199 times so here is post no 200!!!!
Congratulations to Jeremy and all who have supplied informative and interesting posts!

Trish, you’ve been here for at least nine years!

When the site launched 20 years ago, I wasn’t storing the date that members signed up in the database. That only started after the 2012 redesign I mentioned. Your membership doesn’t have a sign-up date stored so it must be before that 2012 redesign.

So you joined sometime between 2001 and 2012. 🙂 And congratulations on your 200th post!

Woo-hoo! Thanks Jeremy! What an auspicious occasion! I could go back through all my posts to find out, but don’t think I’ll bother!

Good man Jeremy! Many thanks for providing us with a wonderful resource. I’m still living in hopes of meeting up for a coffee though Covid has disrupted our trips to Rottingdean for two years now. Maybe next year!
Alex.

Trish, I’m confused re the 200 posts?

I thought you’ve posted a lot more often than that and, indeed, it actually seems to be 1,972.
Am I missing something?

Congratulations Jeremy, and thank you for all your hard work. It’s a valuable resource.

Jeremy, when did you begin sharing tunes online? I just looked up an old member who I began a session with in 1998. She was using ABC2Win to print tunes; back then. I know by 2001 people I played with were talking about thesession.org though I didn’t come here until a couple of years after that.

Congratulations!

Johnny, perhaps Trish saw the "1 of 198" at the bottom of the page of her most recent ten comments.

Just another BIG thank-you!

Trish,
I’d say you joined towards the end of 2005

AB asked "Jeremy, when did you begin sharing tunes online?"

That original incarnation of The Session when it was just me? I think it was 1998.

A wonderful achievement in so many ways; thank you !

Thanks so much Jeremy. This site is so much more than a tune base. It’s meant a lot to me personally. Hope to be able to buy you a pint at Willy Week 2020.

Thanks so much for your work and dedication, Jeremy!

I had nearly a full head of fully-pigmented hair when I joined this site. See what it’s done to me?

On the plus side, it has also been an important part of my education in Traditional Music – not that every word written on this site is to be taken as the objective truth (especially those written by me), but it opened me up to a wide range of perspectives on it. One of the greatest virtues of The Session (in particular, the discussion board), in my opinion, is that it provides an open forum for people of diverse musical backgrounds to discuss traditional music from their own perspective, giving the ‘incomer’ insight into how a ‘native’ (or long-time immersee) thinks of, understands and feels the music – and (presumably – I cannot speak from personal experience) vice versa.

Thanks, Jeremy, for making it possible.

Crack open the champagne! 20 years in internet time is QUITE the feat.

Congratulations and thankyou Jeremy, it’s a huge achievement! Here’s to 20 more!

Thank you, Jeremy - Congratulations!

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you (x a million), Jeremy.

Live long and prosper!

Yes, seems some of you good folk know more about me than I know myself! You are right, Johnny Jay; I have submitted 1972 posts (or with this one 1973), and yes, Donald, I am now up to 200 pages of comments! Can anyone tell me how many hours or years of my life that represents 😉 ?

Approximately 26 days, Trish.. I based that on reading your 1,973rd comment , timed how long it took to read w/stopwatch and did the math for all the comments But that’s not factoring in the lengthier comments or the very short ones. It also leaves out editing, if you do that. Nor does it consider you may be writing replies faster than I can read them. Anywhere between 18 days to several months depending. All based on pure speculation.

Trish, we don’t count the 7+ years it took you to write your first comment on February 24th, 2013, 5:39am, but once you got going there was no stopping ya ………

Bravo Jeremy! quite impressive story!! This site grew to something wonderful!

BIG THANKS FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE

Love it, AB and Theirlandais, except that 5.39.am could never be me, at least not on GMT time zone! Thanks for giving me a big laugh!

Jeremy,

Thanks for having the vision to set up and maintain such a wonderful site. It’s the first thing I check every day.

Jim

♩♪ it was 20 years ago today ♫ ♬ Jeremy gave tunes a place ♪ ♫

Excellent job, Jeremy! As with many other participants, my day wouldn’t be complete without at least a quick glance over the latest tune additions, informative comments, and discussion threads. Always something of interest!

Thank you all so much for the kind words, but really, it is I who must thank you for twenty years of thesession.org—it literally wouldn’t exist without you!

Jeremy,

This site is incredible. Can’t really say anything new, but thanks a million for everything here.

Thanks for your vision and perseverance Jeremy in creating and maintaining this site. I really appreciate it.

Thanks for your contributions to the world, and many happy returns!

Thanks for everything, Jeremy! A great resource.

Well, congratulations Jeremy! I can say that this is my favorite site on the www!

Thank you, Jeremy - your imagination and hard work have led to a wonderful musical resource and a global community of musicians. John (The Pianist) and I appreciate your achievement so much, and it has been the mainstay of our musical journey.
Love & Best Wishes,
Mollie

Congratulations and thanks as well Jeremy.

I’m an extremely sporadic poster but frequent reader of this site you have created. It’s an invaluable resource both for tunes and conversations and I check in on almost a daily basis to get my Session fix.

Thanks, Jeremy, for making this great resource available to begin with, and for all of the years of tireless work to improve and keep it afloat.

Thank you, Jeremy, for your dedication and scholarship, and congratulations for twenty years of an essential ITM site.

Hey everybody: donate, donate, donate! Thanks are good, money is gooder!

Just adding my thanks for this amazing resource - thank you for all the hard work, Jeremy! I’ve had so much pleasure and gone down so many rabbit holes following threads - long may it continue.

Trad is chill. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the tunes. Thank you!

Wow, you must be proud. Thank you for all you have done for so many people, including me. Would be lovely to meet you one day and say thanks in person (and buy you a wee dram!).

Excellent resource and an excellent site, Jeremy. I’ve been curious about the backend and wondered if you’d ever done any write ups in the tech stack and how it’s evolved over the years? I’m sure I’m not the only trad loving software nerd on here!

I sometimes blog about the technical side of The Session over on my website. I recently created a subdomain here on The Session that pulls out any blog posts from there that are tagged with "thesession":

https://blog.thesession.org

Most of the posts are about front-end development. As for the back end, it’s a classic LAMP stack: Linux (Ubuntu), Apache, MySQL, and PHP.

Awesome Jeremy, that’s my weekend reading sorted! Here’s to another 20 years

Fantastic, congrats Jeremy. Thanks for all the work you have put into this amazing resource over the years!

I only just started following Shannon Heaton’s weekend online sessions, and I’ve never failed to find a tune here. This place is super-impressive and an invaluable resource for Irish music and history.

If I could send Jeremy a virtual pint, then I’d keep him sozzled for a month.

If you’re as Net-wary as I am, you’ll also know that you won’t be tracked while visiting The Session - an extra boon on top of the ad-free environment.

Tradconnect is about to close. That reinforces the value of this wonderful site.

As almost every way to thank Jeremy has been expressed already (to thank -a lot, a million, very much…-, to congratulate, to felicitate, etc.; well done, great work, terrific job, wonderful achievement, amazing stuff, and so forth), the only idiom I think of is :
"Hats off, Gentlemen" !

Happy Birthday, thesession!