The lost internet communities thread

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Hashi
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The lost internet communities thread

Post by Hashi »

So yeah a random thread about lost internet communities

Have you been part of a community that has vapourised for whatever reason? Is it a diminished version of its former self? Are there 5 people posting now where there were 500 posting before? Are there any usernames that stayed with you, even past the ashes of those past forums? Any idiosyncrecies about the forum/s you remember?

So I shall tell of my forum journey

Phase 1 (2005?)I started because I had some issue with HL1, can't remember what it was, but I googled it, and halflifesource forums came up as one of the first results. I had never signed up before, but read some of the threads for a few days, and signed up to my first forum with the silliest name I could think of: Giftfromme

The one big thing about the forums was about the "flames" and how you burnt someone. The biggest insult on those forums was to be labelled as someone who had "weak flames" or was "shit at flaming" etc. So a number of threads degenerated into people saying flames were shit etc. and some users backing the more popular users etc. It basically came down to the most "popular" users having the "best" flames by virtue of votes and popular agreement lol, not actual content. The forum would not have been complete without its own lore and imagined glory, which was the "masters of flaming" who had stopped posting about 2 years prior to when I signed up. Every flame was compared to the old glorious past and how flames "these days" were shit. Anyway, HL2 came out and the forum started to slowly die, as the forums had mostly been kept alive by news (real or otherwise) about HL2. Then the admin along with another mod (skybert I still remember the name lol) started to ban people, close threads, etc. The forum became shit basically.

Phase 2. A user made a forum called thebetrayed and everyone who was still active went over there almost immediately. The forum was going pretty well with more relaxed rules etc. until it came to one point where a particular member who had many aliases, became a bit of an issue. The main admin (Raptrojo) made (Humanoid) a co-admin. That would turn out to be a mistake. Raptrojo would continually ban the member who was being annoying, and Humanoid would unban him. This went on for a while but it could not continue. Something had to implode, and well it did. Humanoid decided he had enough, and deleted (yes deleted) the ENTIRE forum lol. So that was over and we enter phase 3.

Phase 3. Another user (n00bster) makes the next forum lameshout (halflifesource had become gameshout now) and now there were fewer users on the board. It continued for a while until he realised the community was dying and he didn't want to pay the forum bills anymore. Another user (Dave) archived the forum on his own server for a while, but at this point there were almost no posts and no point in keeping it alive. I think it finally ended in 2010. It was closed forever.

So yeah those are my fun times with the forums. I can't even find the gameshout site anymore, but it looked really shit, and all activity died when they decided they wanted a more "mature" forum.

The funniest moment in all of the forums was when one of the members, a very angry person, had made a forum for his own clan. A member of the betrayed decided to hack it and open it for anyone to use, with whatever name they wanted. Queue one of the funniest moments in my life, as I was in a computer lab at the time surrounded by people, and it was getting increasingly difficult not to laugh and the pressure to hold it in was mounting. Basically for a few hours I, along with a number of others, decimated threads with the dumbest shit imaginable, and the longest names, etc. I can't really convey how funny that was really. All manner of images were being posted in threads. I guess if I was at home at the time it wouldn't have been as funny, but since I had to hold it in at the lab, it became funnier.

So yeah any of you guys got any forum tales?
EER
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by EER »

Not as epic as yours, clearly. My forum career started out in 2001 I think, when I was bored for a bit and decided to sign up for a Dutch gaming community (GameZ), this all went well until the site was bought by a corporation and merged with the already existing PC Zone forums.

Losing all posts, registration dates, getting a [gz] prefix to our user names and losing all other signs of e-respect, GameZ regulars were obviously not happy. Most regulars dropped out, and so did I. I occasionally visited the forums, but the new kids had taken over.

A couple years this went on and the corporation decided that forum.gamez.nl was actually a pretty cool domain anyway, and moved the forums back there. I haven't visited the forums since.

In fact, I just did, and they moved again. It looks like the gaming community is all but dead. A typical example of how communities cannot be herded around and joined with other communities like sheep.
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nerdenstein
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by nerdenstein »

This forum is pretty much the first and only forum I've ever used (bar a few others where I've only posted a couple of times).
The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music.
bobby 55
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by bobby 55 »

nerdenstein wrote:This forum is pretty much the first and only forum I've ever used (bar a few others where I've only posted a couple of times).
Yeah, pretty much the same here. It was after EER, out of the blue, offered to help get Thief 3 running that I realized this was a place with some pretty cool people. Christ, that was nearly 3 years ago?
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EER
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by EER »

I totally forgot all about that, but apparently I did:
viewtopic.php?p=51805#p51805

I am so friendly 8)
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bobby 55
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by bobby 55 »

Erk! My grammar and *cough* spacing has improved since then. There's lots of friendly people here. :)

Sorry Hashi. I've seemed to have gone off topic again. Though it is kinda related to the subject.
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DDL
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by DDL »

I can't believe EER forced you to play thief 3. You monster, EER.

;)
EER
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by EER »

DDL wrote:I can't believe EER forced you to play thief 3. You monster, EER.
In the end I didn't do anything, bobby fixed it himself. In fact, I have never played thief 3 (unless you count the demo).

Perhaps wanting to help someone to play a game that I did not verify myself was good is monstrous! Oh my god! I'm a MONSTER!
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Jetsetlemming
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by Jetsetlemming »

My very first forum was a 9/11 truther's forum, which I trolled the shit out of when I was 16. The owner himself was banned from Howard Stern's forums (I had no idea Stern had forums), prompting the creation of his, and so he refused to ban me, viewing that as censorship. Good times, good times.
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kdawg88
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by kdawg88 »

The Aus/NZ Quake 3/Live community has seen some pretty hardcore trolling/flaming. Here's a taste: http://forums.premiumgamer.com/read/4SG ... _the_Downs
Hashi
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by Hashi »

kdawg88 wrote:The Aus/NZ Quake 3/Live community has seen some pretty hardcore trolling/flaming. Here's a taste: http://forums.premiumgamer.com/read/4SG ... _the_Downs
I guess those forums have seen better times? That was some hilarious shit too.
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by sanchezrobert321 »

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Alyssalauren
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Re: The lost internet communities thread

Post by Alyssalauren »

As a digital sociologist, the lost internet communities thread is a poignant exploration of online directv reviews spaces that once thrived. Nostalgic and reflective, it highlights the transient nature of virtual communities, emphasizing the importance of preserving and documenting these ephemeral yet impactful slices of internet history for future generations.
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