Originally Posted by
Spatvark
Hey, only two attempts needed to remember my password!
EoFF was important, no doubt about it, just like FFO or FFWA were, or any of the hundreds, hell, thousands of online communities that sprang up between 1995-2005, as were the BBS systems from the mid-70's to the mid-90's, because they were an integral part of geek culture's pubescence. They were places where people who were outcasts IRL could find others of like mind, talk about the shared love for whatever fandom it was that they had, and along the way, discover all the the other things they had in common. Where we struggled to connect to people in "the real world" (and man, has that phrase proved to be completely inaccurate or what?), we could always connect online. Unless our crappy 33.6k dial-up modems flaked on us. Stupid bastard things.
In many ways, EoFF isn't that remarkable when compared to many of the communities of yesteryear in their heyday; the thing that I believe lifts it above most others though, is that it is still here, it is still strong, and even in today's Facebook/Twitter/YouTube-dominated world, it's still relevant.
One of the things I liked the most, looking back, was the incestuousness of the FF forum community, and the sideways movement into other arenas of interest: FFWA, FFO, EoFF, FFL, Legardinia, Fool's Gold, tGA, FFRepublic, Advent Children.net, and the various other spinoffs that all had commonalities, and also great differences, where if you were in the mood for something different, you could head to a place that'd cater for that, but still be around familiar faces. It's kinda like having Cheers next to Central Perk next to The Bronze next to MacLaren's, and so on and so on. One day you might want beer, the next coffee, the next a rave, but everywhere you went, your friends would always be there too. Online, it was virtually (hah!) impossible to ever be alone, unless you actually tried at it, whereas it's all too easy to entirely bounce off people and communities and activities IRL.
Really, when I think about it, it just comes down to the simple fact that the internet is a wonderful place, and I'm glad to have had it in my life at an important time when I was growing up.
Now to disappear for another good few years...
...oh, and what do you mean I'm late? Not my fault Towns didn't send a stupid email until to--*gets shot by a sniper*