In 1995, a trio of FSU fans co-branded their separate websites, calling the conglomeration “Seminole Territory.” There was some historical stuff, some recruiting news and notes, and a message board. Shortly afterward, JD took over the operation. A little later, Lynn came on board to help consolidate the site onto one server and edit a recruiting rumor mill. While things have changed over the years — new software, new design, a name change to “The Territory” so that the trademark police wouldn’t care if we sold t-shirts, etc. — things stayed pretty much the same until April 2002, when The Territory was signed up by TheInsiders.com (now Scout.com).
To make a long story short, the network experience was less than fulfilling, and JD submitted his termination notice. While he was waiting out his non-compete period, Lynn opened a blog-and-forums site modeled on the old TT called Porchville, to give expatriate TTers a place to hang out. When JD was finally free to take the TT name and domain with him, Porchville was quickly re-branded as The Territory in June 2005.
Fast forward to 8 years to July of 2013. LilburnNole, known in the real world as Jonathan, expressed a desire to begin his own blog after steadily increasing the amount of posting and content he did on The Territory, as well as writing a few articles for Chant Rant. JD and Lynn, after hearing this, had the same epiphany – why not offer him The Territory? Neither had the time to run The Territory anymore so it would be a win-win for all parties. In August of 2013 Lilburn added a “front page” in addition to the message boards that would feature articles, commentary, a twitter feed, and content pages to give The Territory more of a one-stop-shop approach.
The Territory chugs along 18 years strong!