Htown.co.nz
Located on the interweb at www.htown.co.nz, 'Htown' (as it is known to its members) is Hamilton's place to go on the net if you want to talk about gigs, organise events, find band members, or just generally be a nuisance to all the music nerds, and cause trouble.
History
Launched in mid-late 2003, by drift and Dan Duran. In short, Dan Duran provided the local knowledge and a fledgling zine (Buzz) to tie in with, and drift provided the technical expertise and desire to see his new town be something more interesting than it was at the time.
Initially the two were happy if the forums had more posts in a day than those on the Generator's website; within a few months, the site had gained enough momentum to keep growing in its own, and needed little if any help from drift or Dan Duran to keep running.
As of 2006, the site has hundreds of members, and has in some ways it could be said changed the way Hamilton bands organise gigs and interact. Perhaps the first multi-band gig to be organised purely through use of the forums at Htown was the Wailing Burger Deluxe, in 2004, held in what used to be the McDonalds at Waikato University (so named in honour of the long lost student bar the Wailing Bongo.
One recurring feature of the site, which is something common to many internet forums, is members occasionally getting a little too wound up/overzealous/precious/serious, or just plain drunk at the controls of their keyboard. Just ask in the forums for an example, and the residents will link you to some hilarious (in hindsight) stuff people have said on the forums in the past.
