Golden Age of EoFF Forum: When Was It?

[Loony BoB]

Most of the older members have said my thoughts, so I'll repeat those points, as is the way on message boards.

I think EoFF has been consistently great from when I joined (2002) up until the present day. People may come and go, but there's always been great people to be found here, and good times.

Yeah, just change 2002 to 2000.

I still enjoy the place 5+ years later. If I didn't then I wouldn't be coming back. Although there was something different in the air between '01-'02. Everything felt new. Now this place feels like an old companion.

Yeah, just change '01-'02 to '00-'01.

Back in the day I was a lot softer and trusted everyone. Now I have to watch my back.

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.

There are tangible reasons why I consider the beginning to be the golden age of EoFF. People like Dan Walkie and Nino Brown who don't come around anymore, for example. The fact that it was a closely knit community and anybody could say anything without being attacked for it was a major bonus too. In today's EoFF, you can't say you like cheese without somebody crawling up your gonch about it. Back then, there was no need to lock EoEO so that inappropriate elements couldn't access it -- there were no inappropriate elements.

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.

I think it's pretty easy to find a board like EoFF used to be though. What's hard to find is a board like EoFF is now, so that's good about it.

Amen to that.

What was so special for about 2003-2004?

This is what I'm interested in. The History of EoFF.

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.

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.

Two fantastically accurate similes.

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".

Yes. =/

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.