Althought this site first went online on 5 January 1996, I started the first forum on the site (WWWBoard) in September 1997. Do any of you 'old timers' know what other quality focused forums existed back then?

Not very sure...may be misc.industry.quality ?

Not very sure...may be misc.industry.quality ?That was an open public news group. I was thinking more of a forum or bulletin board type of place.

I think there was 1 for sure - the one that spiraled out of control and finally went offline a few years back.

Marc, the one that you talked about...can't even remember its name anymore and the Cove were the only forums/discussion boards that I was able to find back in my early days of ISO implementation.

Anyone know when the ASQ first put their forums online? Or the isixsigma and iso 1 stop?

On iSixSigma, the earliest message is dated 25 May, 2000.
http://www.isixsigma.com/forum/showmessage.asp?messageID=18

I remember the one that got out of control. A constant feud between Allen Cottrell and the "C". Can not remember its name, but after it went to craziness, I came across the Cove. Does anyone remember its name? It is on the tip of my tongue, but will bug me until I think of it.

Looking on my old computer I see a "favorite" listed for an address of tqm.com. Was that forum the Total Quality Management forum? I stopped going there in 2000 because of the trash going on in the threads. There was no social redeeming valve on that site.

I remember the one that got out of control. A constant feud between Allen Cottrell and the "C". Can not remember its name, but after it went to craziness, I came across the Cove. Does anyone remember its name? It is on the tip of my tongue, but will bug me until I think of it.
I can't remember either and I don't have any old bookmarks to it or anything. I do remember "C" was the 'conscience' poster who disagreed with everyone. As I remember Allen preached Risk Analysis or some such and has some posts here.

Those were the 'Wild West' days on the internet, were they not?

Do you mean http://www.isogroup.iserv.net/board/ ? I don't think its on-line anymore.
Did we discuss it here? Other Quality Related Forums on the Internet (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=3296)

Yes - That was it! I remember a few years back when they were still online this forum was almost as roudy as that one was. This forum has changed dramatically from what it was. Some for the good - it's more 'controlled'. Some for the bad - there was a smaller core group of regulars and we seemed to have more 'philosophical' discussions.