Almost exactly 10 years ago, on June 24, 2003, the very first news was published on p-u-n-k.de, titled "Beta test started", marking the site’s release for public testing. Last Sunday, June 16, 2013, a new chapter for the site was opened, which has been known by several names since its inception. It started in the mid-90s on my first personal homepage, though I can't say exactly when, as I never imagined this project would survive for so long. At that time, it was an experiment to see what could be done with this new "Internet". Reports about collecting ballpoint pens and caring for Bellis perennis were not really enticing, so I quickly contacted a few bands to see if they would be interested in publishing some information and maybe even MP3s of their tracks on the still small worldwide web. At that time, it was extremely unusual for a band to have its own homepage, and the emergence of MySpace, Facebook, and the like was still far in the future. The reactions were overwhelmingly positive.
Positive enough to soon spin off this section from the personal homepage into its own project. Titled Punkmusik, we needed web space, preferably for free, as astronomical sums were charged for a few megabytes back then. As punkmusik.cjb.net, several hosts were tested, only to find that the common advertising pop-ups were just too annoying. It was also decided at that time to allow no commercial advertising on the site for as long as possible. Ultimately, "Punkmusik" found a home on the server of Scram e.V., a computer youth club that actively supported the site with unlimited storage and promotion. The project ran under the subdomain musik.scram.de.
At some point, however, things went downhill with Scram; active members were scarce, and the technology could no longer meet the growing demands. After much consideration, we registered our own web space and the domain http://www.p-u-n-k.de/. Along with this, the then-current semi-automatic site, where bands could register via a CGI form but the values had to be manually converted into static HTML pages, was replaced by a custom-developed software based on PHP and MySQL. So here we are now, 10 years from today, back at the beginning of this article. p-u-n-k.de has largely been a one-person project all this time. A forum introduced later was well received and brought some momentum to the site. Unfortunately, those times are over; people prefer to post photos of their roast pork on Facebook and Instagram rather than participate on smaller websites.
Then, in 2008, I believe, contact was made with Det., who wanted to emigrate to Norway. This circumstance made it impossible for him to continue managing his internet fanzine RamTatTa. After exhausting, sleepless negotiations, the database with all entries, including the involved reporters, was handed over. A quick software was cobbled together to bring this data back online. It lacked many features, but that was bearable since the site was only meant to exist for a short time. From the very beginning, it was intended to merge both sites together. Since p-u-n-k.de was getting old, a completely new codebase was needed. That was about five years ago now; it was never supposed to take that long. However, the work for two sites plus the development of the new portal consumed much more of the limited free time than ever anticipated.
Now it is online, the new, fresh RamTatTa. p-u-n-k.de redirects to www.ramtatta.de, and the original content of both sites has been adopted. In numbers, this currently amounts to 150 concert reports, 684 interviews, 1,226 reviews, and 3,268 news items. At this point, I would like to thank all the helpers over the years who have filled the site with content through their contributions. This thanks goes, among others, to Knox, who has contributed news from the beginning, Mini from Kamikaze Radio, who has archived his weekly audio interviews here for years, and Frank, who kept the old RamTatTa alive during the years of redevelopment. But we must not forget the many other reporters and everyone who has contributed content here.
Unfortunately, we are now unable to keep up with the numerous requests regarding reviews and reports. Therefore, we are urgently looking for committed collaborators who would like to contribute to RamTatTa. You can read how this works under Become a Reporter. In principle, anyone can make their entries here, whether a reporter or not; not even registration is necessary. However, it offers advantages such as the ability to edit your own contributions later. As a reporter, you will also be informed about interesting review and concert offers from us and will officially be part of the team.
Lastly, a thank you to the labels and bands that provided us with their material for review and will continue to do so. Unfortunately, we cannot consider everything for the aforementioned reason. Perhaps some labels might even be interested in a real partnership? I’m not even necessarily thinking of financial support, but rather some promotion for us. In exchange, we would be happy to feature your concerts or releases on our site. Just get in contact with us.
I would like to call on all other visitors, whether bands or music enthusiasts, to spread the word about RamTatTa. Talk to friends, acquaintances, or even enemies, participate with your own entries, or let us know if something here isn’t working as expected. In the bug tracker, you can also express wishes if you are missing a feature urgently.
