10 years ago this month, in November 2007, BisManCafe launched under the BismarckPride.com moniker. The site’s original intent and purpose was a hyperlocal blog emphasizing news, information, and pictures.
By 2010, the site had evolved into the region’s leading community hub, adding an interactive social network, free classified listings, a business directory, and member blog posts. The site had also grown to become the region’s most comprehensive historical database, featuring hundreds of articles.
This change in focus also lead to a change in branding, to the more appropriate BisManCafe. The name “cafe” was chosen to symbolize the site’s newly found purpose as a gathering place for the community to “connect, learn, and share.”
10 years is a long time. For comparison sake, when the site launched in 2007… YouTube was barely two years old and Facebook had only been a open to the general public for a year. Oh, and the first iPhone had just been launched. 100% of the site’s traffic came from a desktop or laptop. Today, more than half come from a mobile device.
Thank you to all of the visitors and other supporters throughout the past decade.
Timeline Since 2011
New layout debuts: 2013
2011: Business directory launches.
2012: Improved social networking features debut.
2013: First major redesign since 2010, featuring a responsive layout optimized for mobile. As of December 2016, this still forms the foundation of BisManCafe’s design.
2014: Classifieds section re-launches with numerous enhancements. Improved Image Gallery also debuts, featuring searchable picture archives, category filtering, commenting, and embedded maps. Lastly, a new logo debuts, based on the original.
2015-Present: Ongoing enhancements to all sections, mostly targeted at improving user experiences.
-
- Pre-Launch Test
-
- August 2008
-
- October 2008
-
- Early 2009
-
- Short-lived 2009 dark version
-
- September 2009
-
- October 2009
-
- August 2010
-
- Late-2010
-
- August 2012
-
- November 2012
-
- 2013
-
- 2015
-
- 2016
