In 1997, GameFAQs became an independent affiliate of the Imagine Games Network (IGN), leading to the placement of affiliate links on the home page. User contests were introduced during this period; the first monthly contest, which was held in 1998, received 253 entries. GameFAQs went through several design changes, including a pink color scheme, before arriving at the blue-colored layout that was used until 2004. In November 1999, several changes occurred in rapid succession. On November 5, a search box was added to every page, at which time the site was celebrating its fourth anniversary. On November 7, the message boards opened in a beta testing mode. The "Poll of the Day" was introduced at the end of the month. These changes marked Veasey's increased concentration on the site, and it was around this time that GameFAQs became his full-time job. Until this time, he had been working as a programmer. On August 9, 2000, the site received one million hits in a single day for the first time. By 2001, the "GameFAQs Chat" (an IRC chat server) had been launched; however, it was removed in May 2001 due to administrative issues. On January 9, 2001, GameFAQs ended its association with IGN. To continue generating revenue, an advertising banner sold to non-profit organizations was placed on the top of each page. This lasted until CNET Networks became an official affiliate of GameFAQs; CNET ads ran on the top of the page and links to news articles from GameSpot were shown on the home page. In September 2002, the ad was moved from the horizontal header to the vertical sidebar. This led to changes to the links on the side, as well as the creation of navigational links at the top of the screen. Contributions to GameFAQs continued to increase, and Veasey, as sole operator and administrator of the site, dedicated significant portions of his time to ensure that GameFAQs remained updated and successful. On April 1, 2002, Veasey changed GameFAQs to "GameFAX" as an April Fools' joke. The site's colors were changed to green and black to imitate those of the Xbox, with the intention of making users believe that GameFAQs was now dedicated solely to the Xbox, "the only system that matters." After clicking on any link on the main page, users were directed to the real GameFAQs home page. Nevertheless, Veasey reported receiving hate mail from users. On March 2, 2002, Veasey participated in a radio interview with WXBH AM-1190 on their program called "The Gaming Files" During this interview Veasey was drilled with questions from current and former users of GameFAQs as well as discussed his time on GameFAQs and how the site came to be.