For those interested, here’s a summary of the development of Dougiefied over the years.

2004

Dougiefied first arrived as Dougie Online in August 2004 on a free server, and was created to make up for the lack of Dougie Poynter and McFly fansites on the web which provided information other than that from the official site.

Less than a month later, the site was moved onto the Fan-Sites.org network and the domain name, Dougie-Poynter.com, was bought to make the site more accessible.

2005

The site quickly gained attention from fans, and over the next few years, gradually transformed from a small source of information into a huge fanbase – with a thriving community, thousands of pictures and tons of media. There had previously been very little competition, but a large number of new fansites came online in 2005, including the very successful DougiePoynter.net.

With many other sites to contend with, and a hacking attempt which had a large impact on the gallery, Dougiefied almost closed. However, it was the support of the visitors and a new member of staff who saved the day, namely Emmeline.

2006

Dougiefied remained stable and the amount of visitors carried on rising. A new co-webmaster, Andy, was introduced and the site started to have a regularly updated news section and gallery, while the community grew.

As other related fansites started to close one by one, or become inactive, the visitor count literally went through the roof and started to affect the speed of the site, leading to the site’s server crashing a few times.

2007

A new layout started off the new year at Dougiefied. Many changes started taking place to make the site more accessible and faster to run. New features included a calendar, a more organised site system and many more features. The forum was updated and became the most popular area of the site, ahead of the gallery, and the site became the only remaining large fansite dedicated to Dougie Poynter, with thousands of visitors a day.

The site’s first Birthday Project was an immediate success and attracted over 200 messages and pieces of artwork.

2007 threw Dougiefied into the spotlight, as members promoted it at several events. Highlights included: a member’s banner shown on the big screen at Blackpool Illuminations, where McFly were playing, and the site address being mentioned on stage by the band at a concert.

2008

With important exams and university applications going on, Dougiefied did not go through any large changes.

However, several new fanlistings were created to add to the network, and new forum moderators, and a new administrator, Trevor, were introduced, helping keep the community alive and organised.

More signs that McFly were aware of the site appeared, especially when a moderator, Ida, recorded a short greeting from Dougie Poynter especially for Dougiefied members.

2009

Dougiefied continued to develop in its fifth year, and huge changes were made to make it more accessible. The site was completely redesigned, and the forum, gallery and news system were integrated into one, so that members did not need to register several times to view and submit content.

Towards the end of the year, the site was gradually moved to a Wordpress system, making it easier to maintain and giving it a wider variety of new features for users to enjoy.