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What was the first forum you ever signed up to?
- Thread starter Dangerblade
- Start date
Not really a forum, but I posted religiously on a guestbook for a fanfic called Pokemon Master by "Acey" when I was 11 years old in 99. We liked to collaboratively write our own stories and at some point one of the guests did make us a message board for our little group, though I definitely don't remember what it was called. Kind of a weird time in my life, but I do keep in touch with one of the people I met on there too this day.
Metal Gear.net in 1998, or 99, and Final Fantasy Online in 1999. FFO was crazy because of the fan site and how many members and threads there were. The amount of sub-boards was honestly overwhelming.
MGN though is where I started and spent most of my time. Leo didn't update the actual site for shit and would usually only push out site redesigns, all the news and stuff happened on the boards. Myself and others broke some awesome discoveries too that spread to news sites and GAF like the infamous MGS3 casting call sheets and I remember personally finding the Entertainment Earth listing for Raiden, Solidus and Fortune that first revealed them. Good times.
Once I joined GAF tho in 2002 and MGS3 released I drifted from MGN.
MGN though is where I started and spent most of my time. Leo didn't update the actual site for shit and would usually only push out site redesigns, all the news and stuff happened on the boards. Myself and others broke some awesome discoveries too that spread to news sites and GAF like the infamous MGS3 casting call sheets and I remember personally finding the Entertainment Earth listing for Raiden, Solidus and Fortune that first revealed them. Good times.
Once I joined GAF tho in 2002 and MGS3 released I drifted from MGN.
Forgot which was first but it was between a forum dedicated to fan subbing early to mid 90s anime or a wrestling site where you would fight real people by going back and forth with descriptions of what moves your wrestler did.
Go-Gaia in 2001 ish I think. Was like 6 months after the site started. Friend told me about this "game" you could play on a computer where you talk to people and earn gold to customize your character. Had no idea what a forum was back then and when I saw it I was super disappointed. Still stuck with it and made some cool ass friends. Kinda wish I knew I was depressed so I would have known to keep up with them when a bout hit and not completely ghost them. Still hate myself for that. Also looking back I was super cringy and awkward which amazes me I met anyone at all lol. My Avatar now is from a commission someone made of my Avatar back then so I guess I still kinda keep it with me
I left for the same reason.
Joined IGN in 04 for Paper Mario TTYD (papercuts was kinda to tie into the paper theme), ended up mostly on the vestibule and had one of the highest post counts at the time because I pretty much posted garbage in every thread.
After they did sudden massive changes to the forums and totally changed the look I just bailed and went to neogaf.
There were a few forums I used back in around 2004 when I used to be in a Counter-Strike Source clan, but I didn't really properly start using forums until late 2005 when I joined IGN around the time the Xbox 360 launched.
RPGA on AOL if you count that. It used AOL screen names though so I didn't really sign up for it. That was 2000 I think.
Otherwise it would be ENworld - a D&D board, which I signed up for in 2001.
Otherwise it would be ENworld - a D&D board, which I signed up for in 2001.
Voodoo Extreme aka VE3d
Not a forum but the comment section of their news page. Originally it was anonymous but I'd tag my posts with a username of sorts and then eventually they had registration.
Then eventually was bought by IGN and I hated their software.
Was probably 1997?
After that was at GameGossip which is kinda obscure then eventually TeamXbox.
Not a forum but the comment section of their news page. Originally it was anonymous but I'd tag my posts with a username of sorts and then eventually they had registration.
Then eventually was bought by IGN and I hated their software.
Was probably 1997?
After that was at GameGossip which is kinda obscure then eventually TeamXbox.
FreestyleSessions.com forum.
Back in 7th or 8th grade I joined thinking it was about freestyle rapping, but it was actually about break dancing.
Oddly enough, they had a sub forum where you could post raps and battle people, so I hung out there lol.
A lot of the users were asian, and they exposed me to the AznRaps.com forums, which was the second forum I joined.
They're both long gone as far as I know.
Back in 7th or 8th grade I joined thinking it was about freestyle rapping, but it was actually about break dancing.
Oddly enough, they had a sub forum where you could post raps and battle people, so I hung out there lol.
A lot of the users were asian, and they exposed me to the AznRaps.com forums, which was the second forum I joined.
They're both long gone as far as I know.
I seriously can't remember the name, all I know it was an anime forum and it was in 2003.
2005 was when the internet really started to consume my life with WoW, Youtube, and Maplestory all launching and getting mega popular at the same time, so it's really hard to remember specifics of anything before hand.
2005 was when the internet really started to consume my life with WoW, Youtube, and Maplestory all launching and getting mega popular at the same time, so it's really hard to remember specifics of anything before hand.
The official The Simpsons messageboard that was hosted on TheSimpsons.com. I lied about my age to get access.
Serebii.net Forums in 2006. I was in the 6th grade and I made a new friend that I can talk to about Pokémon and other Nintendo games, and he introduced me to online forums such as Serebii.net. I remember getting a lot of warnings and infractions because I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and they're all still there! A bit embarrassing to go back to my old posts, lol.
I feel the same
B.next killed the community. And the influx of the new users from Destiny made it even worse.
GameFAQs, if that counts. Mega Man Outpost is the one I remember most fondly, though. I was FreezeMan there. I still have friends from then who call me Freeze.
Gaming-wise, my e-career started on the official Xbox forums back in line 2002 or 2003 when I was at FSU.
I had just bought the OG Xbox and was studying in my room when I looked at the Xbox box and it has a link to their forums.
And the rest is history.
I had just bought the OG Xbox and was studying in my room when I looked at the Xbox box and it has a link to their forums.
And the rest is history.
The forum was called perefectlydark and that must have been near perfectdarks release. It may have had another name or name afrer it ..
Anyone know it ? Was ran by an asian guy in California i think. Name was hero i think
Anyone know it ? Was ran by an asian guy in California i think. Name was hero i think
Nintendojo in '99? PlanetGamecube in 2000?
But I signed up for IGN Insider in maybe 2001 and that wa the first forum I posted on a whole bunch and checked regularly
But I signed up for IGN Insider in maybe 2001 and that wa the first forum I posted on a whole bunch and checked regularly
Yeah the reformat was awful. I get the place was too large and stuff needed to be consolidated but they really did a shit job rolling that out.
They also had weird rules for Mods. When someone was asking for help or links to something, like a walkthrough or codes etc..., I could only link to the IGN walkthroughs. But IGN didn't have every game, especially retro RPGs which were the forums I moderated (retro and RPG forums), so I got some shit. That was close to when I left. It just felt so small why knock me for it?
I never understood how people do this. 15 years on forums and what not, never made a friend.
For me, it was the AdventureQuest forums. It was a pretty decent first forum, all things considered. There were some unusual but understandable rules (like no one being allowed to upload personal avatars, signatures are allowed but there are heavy restrictions like file size and you couldn't post your signature more than once per page) and the moderation was fairly good (not even swearing was allowed there). It was pretty great for a while, I especially loved the creative community (they got me into doing graphic design for a bit). Though it got way less interesting when people started to realize that Twitter existed and all the creatives started to flock there.
Then the team started releasing all these very samey MMO's (cannibalizing / splitting the player base) while neglecting their other games (like my main game, MechQuest) and I eventually I just lost interest. I think I left right before mobile gaming got really big and basically killed Flash (I can't imagine the AQ team handled that well).
I'm kinda thankful those forums were my first, and that I was also able to find GAF not long afterwards. I'm not sure I could stand using any forums that aren't heavily moderated tbh
Then the team started releasing all these very samey MMO's (cannibalizing / splitting the player base) while neglecting their other games (like my main game, MechQuest) and I eventually I just lost interest. I think I left right before mobile gaming got really big and basically killed Flash (I can't imagine the AQ team handled that well).
I'm kinda thankful those forums were my first, and that I was also able to find GAF not long afterwards. I'm not sure I could stand using any forums that aren't heavily moderated tbh