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DBO was never actually intented to be the website that you see today. It was started as strictly a support page for Dannielle. I am quite a big fan of Abs Breen of the now defunct band Five. It all began when I went online to look up information about him I discovered that he had a girlfriend. Naturally I wanted to know somethings about her, mostly who she was and what she looked like - sizing up the competition ya know what I mean? Unfortunately all I could find about her were posts from Five/Abs fans putting her down and saying really bad things about her. My original thought was "What's with this girl?" but I soon realised that there was nothing wrong with Dannielle, there was something seriously wrong with the Abs/Five fans. They were only saying things about her because they were jealous of her. I kept searching for things on her because I was truly interested in finding out the truth about her, what she was like, how she met Abs, how long they had been together, etc. I knew deep down that there must be other Abs fans out there who wanted to know the same thing. After a few weeks of finding nothing but negative comments and lies I started posting my own thoughts on some of these Five boards and began fighting with pretty much everyone - there were some epic battles waged on some of these boards and I certainly wasnt going to back down from what I knew was right. Someone needed to stand up for Dannielle and so I elected myself to do it. Unfortunately in doing so I became the outcast of the Five Fan world and sadly wasn't ever able to make many very good friends with people who loved my all time favorite band and that made me very upset.
So in order to prove that I had been wronged by not being allowed onto the boards I threw all my effort into DBO to prove to them that I was the one who was right and they were all wrong. That Dannielle wasnt a bad person, that she wasnt cheating on Abs, that she wasnt all the cruel things that people said she was. Maya - my savior was the webmaster of Its The Things They Do (at the time) she then became the wonderful webmaster of 5iveweb.com. She did have a page dedicated to the girlfriends of Five - called Let's Support Them - and that was the light for me. Maya and I became quick friends and she felt the same way I did about the way the girlfriends were treated. We combined efforts on Let's Support Them, but the idea fell through as Dannielle and Abs split up as well as Ritchie and Billie.
At this point I had spent a lot of time and effort on my website and had actually become a big fan of Dannielle and wanted to keep the site going. Since there was no reason left for Dannielle to need support after her split with Abs, Don't Dis Dan became a website dedicated to just Dannielle and her career as opposed to just her relationship with Abs.
From that point on the website just basically grew, one picture, one news article at a time. At this point Hollyoaks really hadn't caught on with the web and it was very difficult to get anything for the site. Living in the USA doesnt help when trying to make a website for a UK television actress who is just starting out.
But I struggled on with the site adding absolutely anything and everything that I could. Sometimes the site went without updates for months and there was nothing I could do and no resources available to help me out. Come to find out, Dannielle had actually gone to LA for 9 months to be with friend Kelly Brook and thats why she had disappeared from sight. I kept the site online basically because I cared too much about it and Dannielle, and was still holding out a hope that Dannielle would come back and the site would blossom into something amazing.
In 2003, she did! She got her job on Dream Team and came back into my life. So I picked up with regular updates again and then... as I had become used to she disappeared, but not for long. In the wake of 2004 Dannielle landed Bad Girls and well... the rest is history. DBO boomed in popularity gaining hundreds and at points thousands of hits everyday. I could barely keep up with the demand and the amount of new things I was gathering for the site. It was absolutely a dream come true for me and I am so pleased I held on for the first four years and was here when Dannielle fully became the respected actress and person I always knew her to be.
DBO is my one true passion in life. I eat, breathe, sleep, and dream this website. It is the one thing that I can honestly say I am so very proud of and honored to show off to people and say "Yeah, I did that!" I am truly thankful to Dannielle for allowing me to do this, for being so inspiring, and being the reason I have this in my life. I love this website for everything it has done for me - from the way it makes me feel good about myself, to the people whom it's brought into my life, to being able to say that I wished it, I dreampt it, and I did it. I thank each and every one of you who has been apart of this journey with me and know I deeply and honestly do appreciate each and every one of you who continue to support me, this site and Dannielle. It's my dream come true!
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