About us

A Brief History of GS Fanatic

GS Fanatic (abbreviated GS) was, at the beginning of 2023, Hungary’s largest musician community website, with more than 45,000 musicians joining over the years. The site was founded by Kálmán Kiss, with the technical background provided by StartAdmin. The primary goal of the site is to provide a space for musician communities where, in addition to selling instruments, they can also discuss questions related to music creation. GS Fanatic’s profile includes instrument classifieds, a forum, articles for musicians, and a Q&A section on instrument-related topics.

Unlike other general-purpose classified ad sites, GS Fanatic operates with a strict ad‑reviewing system that helps protect members from online scams. The site operators, together with the community, work daily to filter out malicious, misleading, or clearly fraudulent listings.

Early Years

In 2005, the development of the GitárShop website began at the suggestion of Kálmán Kiss. At that time, Hungarian websites dealing with musical instruments either did not exist or were in a very early stage. GitárShop was a pioneer in its field. In the early period, the site’s administration was handled by two friends. Later, internal tensions led to a split, and Kálmán Kiss continued running the site alone. In the first version of the site, users could freely upload listings without restrictions, and the forum also launched during this period.

2010–2014

The unrestricted period led to chaos, so in 2010 the site—still operating under the name GitárShop—began moving in a new direction and started guiding its listings more carefully. The biggest changes were:

• each user could have only one profile on the site
• each user could upload only three listings (with a small contribution, uploading 10 or unlimited ads became possible)
• the same instrument could only be uploaded once at a time
• a Report function was added to listings, allowing users to flag problematic ads

The GS Magazine was launched, where independent authors, invited separately, were also given space. The magazine’s articles and user comments became open for discussion, and these content elements could be rated using a Like and Dislike system.

Ad administrators began operating. Their task was to filter out listings that violated the site’s internal rules or were simply misleading. The system was based on user reports.

The internal messaging system launched, allowing visitors to avoid relying on email providers’ spam filters—messages always reached users inside the GS platform.

2014–2022

The biggest transformation of GitárShop arrived. The site changed its name and continued as GS Fanatic, and instead of the .hu domain, the new address became a .com.

English and later German versions of the site were completed.

The appearance and logo of the site were redesigned. The News section launched, where any user could publish interesting articles for the community. The Quicktest section was created, where users could share their experiences with instruments, books, or concerts.

The Wanted section was introduced, allowing users to report stolen instruments.

User profiles were expanded, allowing the creation of Musician, Band, and Music Teacher profiles, enriching the available information.

The message wall (Üzenőfal) launched—not replacing but complementing the forum.

All users became free to start forum topics.

The site complied with GDPR regulations.

The admin system was opened up, allowing more administrators to check listings. This led to the first major conflict between the platform and its audience. Many criticized the administrators’ style and attitude toward visitors, and some even left the site. Although there were issues with the admins' tone in the early days, the listing‑filtering system itself became a strong quality guarantee, eventually strengthening GS’s position in the Hungarian instrument‑classifieds market. Thanks to this system, GS listings became much higher quality and generally more trustworthy than ads on other platforms without such moderation.

2022

A major technical overhaul of the site took place, invisible from the outside but resulting in a much more stable and faster platform.

During this period, the much‑debated admin system in its previous form was discontinued. It was replaced with a semi‑automated administration system where there was no room for “mutual shouting matches,” and the entire process became more transparent and user‑friendly—allowing users to experience admin work as actual assistance.

Categories were introduced on the message wall, creating separate sections for questions where users can ask and receive answers about problems related to making music. Previously, message wall posts “disappeared into nowhere,” but with this development, the feature received a search function and pagination, making past questions and answers traceable.