what are your earliest memories of forums?

[Syko Nachoman]

I was in fifth or sixth grade and discovered some video game forum (a stand-alone site, not on ProBoards). I annoyed everyone with my stupid jokes and spam. This experience was so fulfilling to me that I began seeking out other video game forums on which to also be annoying. One of them was a ProBoards forum, and I liked the design and features and decided to create my own forum on which I could reign supreme. That was 21 years ago, or 2/3 of my life. Good times.

[PAGAN WOLF]

I was a member of a Tarot forum which was shut down after 20 years.

This forum was ideal for people learning divination.

I decided to build my own forum, so people can learn spirituality from my personal experiences.

[Bob]

Sept 22, 2022 7:19:58 GMT -8 emilyd said:

what are your earliest memories of forums.

were they on proboards or somewhere else?

first forum I ever joined was a kids forum for news and current events.

it was only open in the evening after school between 4  and 8 PM. enjoyed it a lot.
(I was around 9 or 10, and used it for a good few years) 

what about you?     

For me it's the GameFAQs forums.  I was pretty active there once upon a time (2000-2002ish), and it's actually what lead me to ProBoards around 2002.  One of the members on GameFAQs was advertising his forum RPG, which was a PB forum.  I followed the link at the bottom to create my own, to see what this was all about. And that introduced me to the support forums.  I don't think I actually signed up here for support, but because I saw how active this place was and it was centered around a product I was getting into (my own forum).  Ended up being pretty active, for better or for worse, here for quite a long time before stepping back.

Incredible to realize we're talking 20 years already.

[coolcoolcool]

I forgot my password to coolcoolcoolcool and had to create a new account.

[Zenlethic]

Back around late 2001, I discovered that AOL had video game discussions where people posted a message, and others could respond to it. Topics could be made as well, which are the same thing as threads on these forums. That was the first thing I ever posted on that resembled a message board. But I didn't have to sign up to post on it, since I already had my AOL account to post with.

The first forum I had to sign up for was in 2004, when I started posting on separate boards from the AOL communities.

[ukschalke]

schalke forum (football)

[dinoson2]

GameFaqs, 1999 was my earlier interaction with forums perse, but for communities as a whole, that would be Yahoo GeoCities in 1997,

[James [a_leon]]

We had a lot of really talented people come through the coding area of SSD. WebworldX, Peter, Hechizero, Nadim, California (such a tragic story), Cheater, Infinite, Mouser, Cheater. I mean, there was me too, but I never thought I was nearly as talented as any of those folks. I can't remember if Uchiha Sasuke was ever a mod.

There was also Chris. I can't remember his username from the day (cdude or something like that), but he had SZ (studio zero, maybe?) and was and still is an incredibly talented coder. It's what he made his career and he did well in college with computer science and playing football in....Kansas I think. Somewhere in the heartland of America.

Oct 5, 2022 5:39:59 GMT -8 Combo said:

My friends and I back in about 03 wanted to start a "club" that wasn't on MSN messenger. This somehow lead me to Proboards where I signed up for our first forum. Once I set the forum up, I had no idea how to customize it which led me to PBS, and eventually to Solid Snake Designs. After getting lost in the coding databases there I befriended Thom who was known as Nadim in those days, and began frequenting his forum Zanmato Design. A good 5 years of my life was spent daily on Proboards, and I made a lot of friends, most of whom we've all lost contact over the years, but every once in a while I pop in here to stroke my nostalgia a bit.

For me, it was the GameWinners forums. Making signature ASCII art and all things pokemon, before somehow getting linked to ProBoards. Was definitely 2002 for me and didn't really join here until 2003.

Dec 23, 2022 9:56:05 GMT -8 Bob said:

Sept 22, 2022 7:19:58 GMT -8 emilyd said:

what are your earliest memories of forums.

were they on proboards or somewhere else?

first forum I ever joined was a kids forum for news and current events.

it was only open in the evening after school between 4  and 8 PM. enjoyed it a lot.
(I was around 9 or 10, and used it for a good few years)

what about you?     

For me it's the GameFAQs forums.  I was pretty active there once upon a time (2000-2002ish), and it's actually what lead me to ProBoards around 2002.  One of the members on GameFAQs was advertising his forum RPG, which was a PB forum.  I followed the link at the bottom to create my own, to see what this was all about. And that introduced me to the support forums.  I don't think I actually signed up here for support, but because I saw how active this place was and it was centered around a product I was getting into (my own forum).  Ended up being pretty active, for better or for worse, here for quite a long time before stepping back.

Incredible to realize we're talking 20 years already.

[Wesley2005]

Sept 22, 2022 7:19:58 GMT -8 emilyd said:

what are your earliest memories of forums.

were they on proboards or somewhere else?

first forum I ever joined was a kids forum for news and current events.

it was only open in the evening after school between 4  and 8 PM. enjoyed it a lot.
(I was around 9 or 10, and used it for a good few years) 

what about you?     

My earliest memory is when I stumbled on the new v3 of ProBoards and was completely fascinated! I loved the feeling of belonging and still do to this day. I don't post as much, but I remember it as the "social media" of the time.

It was awesome. And still is to some degree!

[Combo]

Jan 16, 2023 17:29:02 GMT -8 James [a_leon] said:

We had a lot of really talented people come through the coding area of SSD. WebworldX, Peter, Hechizero, Nadim, California (such a tragic story), Cheater, Infinite, Mouser, Cheater. I mean, there was me too, but I never thought I was nearly as talented as any of those folks. I can't remember if Uchiha Sasuke was ever a mod.

There was also Chris. I can't remember his username from the day (cdude or something like that), but he had SZ (studio zero, maybe?) and was and still is an incredibly talented coder. It's what he made his career and he did well in college with computer science and playing football in....Kansas I think. Somewhere in the heartland of America.

Oct 5, 2022 5:39:59 GMT -8 Combo said:

My friends and I back in about 03 wanted to start a "club" that wasn't on MSN messenger. This somehow lead me to Proboards where I signed up for our first forum. Once I set the forum up, I had no idea how to customize it which led me to PBS, and eventually to Solid Snake Designs. After getting lost in the coding databases there I befriended Thom who was known as Nadim in those days, and began frequenting his forum Zanmato Design. A good 5 years of my life was spent daily on Proboards, and I made a lot of friends, most of whom we've all lost contact over the years, but every once in a while I pop in here to stroke my nostalgia a bit.

For me, it was the GameWinners forums. Making signature ASCII art and all things pokemon, before somehow getting linked to ProBoards. Was definitely 2002 for me and didn't really join here until 2003.

Dec 23, 2022 9:56:05 GMT -8 Bob said:

For me it's the GameFAQs forums.  I was pretty active there once upon a time (2000-2002ish), and it's actually what lead me to ProBoards around 2002.  One of the members on GameFAQs was advertising his forum RPG, which was a PB forum.  I followed the link at the bottom to create my own, to see what this was all about. And that introduced me to the support forums.  I don't think I actually signed up here for support, but because I saw how active this place was and it was centered around a product I was getting into (my own forum).  Ended up being pretty active, for better or for worse, here for quite a long time before stepping back.

Incredible to realize we're talking 20 years already.

Chris yeah, CD, wow.  Hard to believe it was that long ago. Cali was such a great fellow as well, such a shame.  You were (are) more talented than you give yourself credit for as well.

[Bob]

I got my first modem for my Amiga 500 computer back in 1992. I'd already had the computer for about four years, as well as a Commodore 64 before that.

Aside from perusing a small number of local "Bulletin Board" sites, by 1993 I was on the GEnie online service. GEnie was the poor cousin of Compuserve and America Online. I'm not sure how much it cost per month, but I think it was only $15, which was far cheaper than the others.

GEnie was text only. Everything was forums. You could not embed or attach pictures.

I was most active in the political forums, specifically the JFK assassination discussions. Like, I was there every night.
I also dabbled in some gaming forums.
My screen name was "MCMLX", which is "1960" in Roman numerals*. I haven't used that since then, so if anyone comes across anyone using that name nowadays, it's not me.

Fast forward 30 years.
There was an extremely obnoxious individual who used to post in the JFK assassination forums on GEnie. I still remembered the handle he used, which at the time appeared to be his real last name, and not least of all because it aptly described his demeanor - I won't give the name.
A couple of years ago, the oddest thing happened. I see this guy again, using the same handle that he had on GEnie (his last name) 30 years ago, on a gaming forum where I lurk on a daily basis but that I'm not a member of. And he still has the same, irritating, slow-witted demeanor.
This guy is one of those types who hasn't a clue as to how dumb he is. I looked him up, since he still uses his full real name, and he's in Detroit and I zoomed right down to the street level pic outside his house.
Before anyone says that I'm creepy for "spying" on the guy, I want to emphasize that I live far from Detroit and have absolutely no intention of interacting with this guy. Sometimes it's interesting to see where people come from, their surroundings and so forth. It perhaps gives you a little more insight into their personalities.

Yeah, so there. The GEnie online service, 1992-93, was my earliest interaction in forums, or pretty much anywhere else on the internet. At that time, it wasn't even called the internet.

*  I, for one, like Roman numerals

[Caajscot (John)]

Memories...sigh  

[Kokoro]

The first forum I joined was the TV Tome forums in July 2001. At the time, I was just 13 years old. We only just got internet a few months prior. TV Tome was a precursor to TV.com, which was, in my opinion, inferior to TV Tome.

[Darkmage4]

My first and earliest was Team Game Talk. I think it was just a bulletin board. But someone recommended me ProBoards in 2002, and here I am! LOL.

EDIT: I didn't realize I had already posted in this thread. I posted that in 2022. LOL.

[Joshua Farrell]

The very first forum I remember joining, was on the game support forum for "Utopia: A World Unlike Any Other" when it was still owned by Swirve.com before it was bought out by Jolt Gaming. It was my first introduction to a forum using threads like we see now. Whenever I joined a forum after that, that had a reply as a comment for the post you wanted to reply to, I thought it was weird. Joined the forum sometime in 1998.

A few years later, I landed at ProBoards and hosted my first forum here on the day I turned 13.