RatDog.org is our fan site this month. Here is what Dave Rosenberg has to say about his creation…
In summer of 1998, The Other Ones hit the road for their first tour. I saw the first two shows—in Atlanta and Charlotte—and was blown away the second night. I returned home full of energy and, after finding that there were no Other Ones websites out there, put up a few pages on my University of Georgia account with setlists and some other info on the band. After starting out with just 25 hits per day, the site grew steadily and it seemed appropriate to get the site its own domain name. OtherOnes.Net was established in February of 1999 and remains the only fan site dedicated to The Other Ones (a/k/a The Dead).

While The Other Ones sat on the sidelines as Phil had his liver transplant and subsequent blowup at his band mates, the site continued to attract visitors hungry for another tour and setlists and reviews from Furthur 1998. After flying out to San Francisco in April 1999 for Phil’s shows with Trey et al, I began posting Phil & Friends setlists on the site, as there were no large Phil & Friends-dedicated sites at the time. RatDog was not touring at the time, but when they hit the road again, I began posting their setlists as well.

The RatDog Tabernacle show in November of 1999 was a life-changing experience for me; that night I discovered the enormous power of RatDog, late in the game compared to so many others, and began concentrating more on RatDog content. At the time there was only one RatDog website—Neal Smith and Dave Baum’s Rat Trap, which concentrated on setlists. The RatDog info on OtherOnes.Net became extensive enough that it belonged on its own domain, and RatDog.Org came to be in February 2000.

Since that time, RatDog.Org has developed and become a site packed with tons of information. In addition to setlists, fan reviews, tour dates, and info on CD releases and band members, the site has added a range of features, mostly stemming from my growing knowledge of PHP and MySQL. The site now includes a searchable database of RatDog’s 501 shows, the band’s repetoire and frequency of play, more than 2100 photos of RatDog and side projects taken by fans, guitar chords, and a custom-made message board.

Like the band it exists for, RatDog.Org is still reaching its peak and figures to be around for a long time.