QTH
Back in that time 01 - 02, EoFF was like a newly wed. She had many delightful and unexplored surprises... now the novelty is old and warn lust and love have eased into dedicated friendship.
And yeah, in the beginning there were fewer members so everyone necessarily knew everyone else. Now it seems the turnover rate is like a McDonald's employment track.
Boldly go.
I remember 2003 - 2004 fondly as well. I don't know if it's just because I was new then and the novelty hadn't worn off, but I remember everyone was always in a good mood (for the most part), could take a joke and everyone got along pretty well. Also, it seems like the staff has to play babysitter and policeman more now than it had to back then, so they could afford to have more fun with the board "back in the day".
2000 through 2001. Maybe even the first half of 2002. Since then, though, it's been comparatively sad times.
Before my time here I would think.
Most of the older members have said my thoughts, so I'll repeat those points, as is the way on message boards.
Yeah, just change 2002 to 2000.Originally Posted by Psy
Yeah, just change '01-'02 to '00-'01.Originally Posted by Yams
Have to say, although I'm not "watching my back", I'm definitely much more serious - this is completely to do with me being on staff, I think.Originally Posted by Bleys
Definitely right there. Not only with casual threads, but with forums policy etc. Back then when the staff made a decision, everyone went with it. These days people act like they're being taxed so the staff can buy new computers or something. But yeah, we've grown to the size that we now attract trolls, and we also have a history long enough to have picked up a lot of banned members over the years and some of them are sort of like a bad itch that won't go away.Originally Posted by Bleys again
Amen to that.Originally Posted by Squeak
Check out the Wiki, there's a little history there, although the nostalgia can't really be passed on accurately as it's something you can only gain through experience.Originally Posted by Devil Man
Two fantastically accurate similes.Originally Posted by Umi *shot*
Yes. =/Originally Posted by Mulley
There are more things to take into account, though.
A large amount of people who joined in EoFF's early years were still discovering the internet in general. It wasn't so much EoFF so much as the web on a whole. I know that if I go to another message board now, I don't get the rush of being a newbie anymore. Not at all. To be honest, I feel more new at EoFF even now than I do elsewhere. I feel like I've grown up in this place, while if I go to a new forum, I'm an already-experienced member of the internet and people see me as new, because they, in their own internet experience, haven't met me before. So they see me as new while I feel older than that. I hope that makes sense.
There's also the fact that when you first join EoFF, you discover a lot of personal sides to it - or at least, I did. I could talk about all my issues with family and friends, the ladies in my life, etc. Now, my family and friends are EoFFers too, as are the ladies in my life. This place has become home to a larger degree with myself than most of you, I suppose, in that way. Since I joined, I have brought my offline life (Mum, Calliope, Loony JosH, Tweety ch1ck, Raven1073, ms_devli...) into EoFF and EoFFers (smittenkitten, Miriamel, Etienne, Rinoabella, Jewels, Sakura Yume, etc.) into my real life. This place is where most of my friendships are based. The two things have merged. Five years ago, a relationship starting up online was weird. In today's Britain, 33% of people surveyed recently had started a relationship with a girlfriend or boyfriend on the 'net.
Sorry, went off a bit too far there - anyway, what I'm getting at is that EoFF isn't my hideaway anymore. I can't talk about how I'm having trouble with my girlfriend - she's registered here, as are all her friends! If I want to discuss what to buy my Mum for Christmas, well, I can't do it here - she'll see it! If I have a problem with a close friend, chances are there's someone registered here who has their number or IM name and can pass it on as gossip. So I can never, ever get that back. If anything, I can only do that sort of thing in the staff forum now. But it's obviously not the same - I'm no longer anonymous here. This is part of my life now, and I treat my friends here as family. But with a family, well, that's something special in it's own right, and I wouldn't trade my friends and the changes in my life that have come about because of EoFF to be anonymous again, not at all.
PS. LiveJournal killed the message board stars.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
Mainly because from 2001/2002 onwards I've been an EoFF binger. That is I've left and come back and left and come back and now that I'm here again may the Golden Age commence!
A lot of what you're drawing attention to also coincides with the fact that a lot of people from the beginning are all growing/grown up.Originally Posted by b00b (You SOB)
Hell!
Cid is married (anyone remember that time we had a fundraiser to buy him a *cough*?),
Shlup is married,
We're all in College,
Or living Alone and Working FT jobs
Back in the day we were still kids so the world had a little glimmer and charm left in it... then suddenly like Little Jackie Paper we left the land of make believe and started seeing the world as the grotesquely realistic place it is.
Our emotional changes from young angsty, ambitious, energetic teenagers to mature, considerate adults has altered our perceptions of EoFF and perhaps its not the board that we're nostalgic about but rather our innocence we relate to that time.
The Golden Age is merely a figment of our imagination.
Boldly go.
All the happiness ended when I arrived.
Anything that was before my time. Simply by having me here, the quality of forum drops by 100%.