The story of the KOE commenced in 1998 when a couple of netheads came up with the idea of forming Mardi Gras' first "cyber krewe". They already knew a core of people who were big fans of the city of New Orleans and the celebration which is Mardi Gras. And even before the advent of MySpace and Facebook, they were also well aware of the awesome power of the internet. They decided to make use of a personal Mardi Gras-related website and regular posts on NOLA.com's heavily-frequented Mardi Gras Forum (sponsored by the New Orleans Times Picayune) to spur interest and spread the word about their new walking Krewe and social network.