# TUG celebrates 26th birthday!



## TUGBrian (Oct 12, 2019)

26 years ago this month my father and a group of other Timeshare Owners began to organize what was originally a Prodigy Bulletin Board System (where TUGBBS came from) composed of a handful of Timeshare owners discussion resorts and Timesharing, into what we now call TUG.

TUG was/is actually one of the very first commercial sites on the Internet and the very first website period relating to Timeshares! not sure how many of you remember back to 1993, but the internet wasnt nearly as popular as it is now. The TUG website is older than any other Timeshare related website (and the vast majority of all websites period!)


Over the last Twenty Six years, TUG has helped tens of thousands of timeshare owners, many to this day remain to pass on the gift of knowledge they likely received themselves many moons ago through the various websites and TUGBBS forum installations we have had over the years.

With Millions of dollars worth of Timeshares sold and rented by TUGGERS. With over 44 million in the past few years alone!

On top of that, literally millions of dollars worth of money saved just from folks finding TUG in time to discover the resale market....with over 13 million recorded in just this version of the forum!

More than that though is the unimaginable value of information passed on and learned year after year through nothing more than Timeshare owners helping each other understand and best use this product that comes with no instruction manual. I have even heard in the past TUG is the "handbook" for Timeshares, and believe it to be true to this day.

This community is truly one of a Kind, providing Timeshare owners a place they can truly get help and advice without having to worry about being scammed or ripped off!


other minor historical events that ALSO happened in 1993!


Politics: Apartheid finally ended in South Africa.
The Top Song was _Dreamlover_ by Mariah Carey
The Big Movies included _Jurassic Park, Mrs. Doubtfire_ and _The Fugitive_
Price of Bayer Aspirin in 1993: $3.84/100
Sony (radio) Walkman: $29.98
The World Population was ~ 5,477,000,000
US Life Expectancy: Males: 72.2 years, Females: 78.8 years
The Pentium Processer was invented in 1993.
The 1993 VHS release of Aladdin sold 10.6 million copies in its first week.
Toronto won the world series
Dallas won the Superbowl
Florida State won the National Title in Football beating nebraska
Pete Sampras / Steffie Graf won wimbleton
In 1993, total Internet traffic amounted to approximately 100 TB for the year. As of June 2008, Cisco Systems estimated Internet traffic at 160 TB/s. In other words, the amount of Internet used per second in 2008 exceeded all of the Internet used in 1993.


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## pedro47 (Oct 12, 2019)

Happy Birthday TUG and I pray you can see many and have many more Birthday’s..
All Thanks goes to your Father and the others Brave  Pioneers.


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## lockewong (Oct 12, 2019)

Happy Birthday!  Thank you TUG for a generous, helpful community.  I have learned so much.  I am very grateful for all the members who answered my private questions in addition to the weekly posts on the website.


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## jbeachlvr (Oct 12, 2019)

Congratulations, and HBD!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## rickandcindy23 (Oct 12, 2019)

Wow!  That is amazing.  Congrats to TUG and Brian's dad. How is he, anyway? 

I barely knew about computers and connecting to the internet via phone lines until about 1995.  I would never have found TUG that way.  

Didn't join until 2005.  A salesperson at Wyndham on Maui told me about TUG (no Wyndham timeshares on Maui, so very odd that they had a sales' center).  Our daughter and son-in-law were with us that trip, and our daughter got us out of there quickly by saying I was an expert at timeshare.  He said, "You probably know about TUG?"  Of course I didn't.  He realized I wasn't a timeshare expert after telling me about TUG.  I wasn't all that knowledgeable back then, like our daughter thought, but I am somewhat expertish now.


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## Karen G (Oct 12, 2019)

Congratulations, Brian, and happy birthday TUG! It's a fun place to be.


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## Passepartout (Oct 12, 2019)

Happy Birthday, TUG! And many, many more! It's fun helping people make the best of a GOOD THING (timesharing) I missed the beginning, but was a paid member back on Prodigy. My, how time flies!

Jim


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## LisaH (Oct 12, 2019)

Congrats! How is your dad Bill doing? How old is he now? Wish you and your family the best!


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## slip (Oct 12, 2019)

Awesome post, Congratulations TUG!!


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## DaveNV (Oct 12, 2019)

All well-deserved Congratulatory kudos aside, I want to personally thank Tug and its keepers for enriching my life.  I've been hanging around since before Tug was a Tween, and my life has been greatly improved for the experience.  You guys have collectively rocked my world, and I owe you bigly.  

Thanks for the memories, Brian.  

Dave 

P.S.  Not to pick nits, but I'm pretty sure the 1993 Women's Wimbledon winner was Steffi Graf, not Debbie Graf.


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## jackio (Oct 12, 2019)

Congratulations and happy birthday TUG!  This BBS is a part of my daily routine.  I joined in 1996 or 1997, after the Prodigy days but with the former format.  I consider myself fortunate to have found TUG and the generous TUGGERs who so freely share their knowledge with others.


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## amycurl (Oct 12, 2019)

Thanks for pointing that out, Dave. As a huge tennis nut in the 90s, that was driving me crazy, LOL!

Congrats! I am only-college-students-had-email years old, so I well remember those early days of the web.


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## TUGBrian (Oct 13, 2019)

LisaH said:


> Congrats! How is your dad Bill doing? How old is he now? Wish you and your family the best!



He turned 73 this year and is still enjoying the retired life in the villages!


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## TUGBrian (Oct 13, 2019)

I have also corrected the Wimbledon winner =D


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## T-Dot-Traveller (Oct 13, 2019)

TUGBrian said:


> 26 years ago this month my father and a group of other .... began to organize.....
> 
> .... is the unimaginable value of information passed on and learned year after year through nothing more than Timeshare owners helping each other understand and best use this product that comes with no instruction manual. I have even heard in the past TUG is the "handbook" for Timeshares, and believe it to be true to this day.
> 
> ...



Thank your Dad for creating a true “ pay it forward “community where sharing information
is the continuous norm .

Does he know any baseball scouts ?
- the Blue Jays need some of that pitching they had in 93.


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## AnnaS (Oct 13, 2019)

Congratulations and Happy Birthday TUG.  Thank you to your dad and now you for keeping this site going!


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## cerralee (Oct 13, 2019)

Happy Birthday TUG!  Thanks for providing me with the knowledge of how to successfully vacation!  I remember dial up and rescinding my first timeshare purchase because of TUG!


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