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How Old Is The Forum & Who Were The Earliest Members?

I feel like I've been here forever.
 
He's not still on here is he?

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maximus otter
 
Since you asked ...

You're the 9th "oldest" (as in "earliest registered") member of the original FTMB actively registered on the current Forteana Forums.

Here are the 18 "surviving" (still actively registered) members among the first 100 FTMB registrants, listed in ascending order of their registration dates in 2001:

Ravenstone 1 August
JamesWhitehead 2 August
gordonrutter 3 August
bagins_X 6 August
FelixAntonius 7 August
maximus otter 9 August
Bilderberger 9 August (Merger with newly re-registered account pending)
KerryDF 13 August
drjbrennan 14 August
Founder 15 August
escargot 24 August
GNC 25 August
Hospitaller 29 August
ginoide 7 September
Electric_Monk 12 September
SimonBurchell 15 September
Mythopoeika 18 September
Beakmoo 20 September

Hmmm. My first post was made (I'm more than a little shocked to state) on August 8 2001 - but I didn't make the list, for some reason.

That said, the profile bit of that same post indicates that I joined five years after the post was made - so I'm clearly an unwitting time traveller (I wondered why people keep looking at my codpiece funny).

Predictably possibly, the post was about a book - and one which I still re-read and recommend to this day.
 
Hmmm. My first post was made (I'm more than a little shocked to state) on August 8 2001 - but I didn't make the list, for some reason.

That said, the profile bit of that same post indicates that I joined five years after the post was made - so I'm clearly an unwitting time traveller (I wondered why people keep looking at my codpiece funny).

Predictably possibly, the post was about a book - and one which I still re-read and recommend to this day.
One of the oldest and also wisest, Spook?
 

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That said, the profile bit of that same post indicates that I joined five years after the post was made - so I'm clearly an unwitting time traveller (I wondered why people keep looking at my codpiece funny).
2006-ish is when we had one of our troublesome migrations, and lots of people had to re-register. We probably merged your current nick with your old one, but that often kept the registration date as that of the new one (if that makes sense).

I know you've been here since genesis.
 
Drat! I had hoped I might have time traveled like Spookdaddy and had an earlier start date, but my baby-new start date of Aug. 7 2002 still stands as simultaneous with the date of my first post. Woe!!!
 
2006-ish is when we had one of our troublesome migrations, and lots of people had to re-register. We probably merged your current nick with your old one, but that often kept the registration date as that of the new one (if that makes sense). ...
This is the most likely - and AFAIK the only technically feasible - explanation.

To the best of my knowledge, none of the FTMB platforms (forum apps) ever allowed reassignment of individual posts from one member account to another. The incorporation of Spookdaddy's earlier posts under a later username could only have resulted from a merger of two member accounts.

The second clue concerns the fact the earlier posts were identifiable as his in the first place. If his original account had been deleted or damaged beyond recognition the orphaned posts would have been reassigned to the default pool attributed to the catch-all pseudo-member Anonymous. There would have been no way to identify, much less salvage, his earlier posts from the Anonymous pool and incorporate them in the newer member account.

Bottom Line: This could only have resulted from a merger of two member accounts, and in accordance with either someone's preference or system limitations the older account was merged into the later one rather than the other way 'round.
 
To the best of my knowledge, none of the FTMB platforms (forum apps) ever allowed reassignment of individual posts from one member account to another.
Correct. One of them also created doppelgangers of a number of members (I think those who had been logged in) which is why you see a little tilde after some legacy accounts. Oh, such fun we used to have.
 
2006-ish is when we had one of our troublesome migrations, and lots of people had to re-register. We probably merged your current nick with your old one, but that often kept the registration date as that of the new one (if that makes sense)...

I now seem to recall that I wasn't allowed to re register under my previous name because someone was using it, but - confusingly - on another forum entirely (I think some place where people went to talk about cars). Does that make sense?
 
I now seem to recall that I wasn't allowed to re register under my previous name because someone was using it, but - confusingly - on another forum entirely (I think some place where people went to talk about cars). Does that make sense?

I thought it was weirder than that.

I thought they cloned the database to transfer the board and something went wrong and we had to re-register using variations on our old names because, although we couldn't access them, the original names were flagged as already taken—by us. Or Evil USs. Or something.

I don't recall fully.

Hence one user (Carole?) electing to register as Dennis Debacle.
 
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Yith has it right. Took literally years to sort it out.
But, in some bizarre weird way I was able to reregister as myself, I could see people adding a number after their name and so forth but I kept mine as was, I have never been anything but gordonrutter on the Board / Forum.
 
But, in some bizarre weird way I was able to reregister as myself, I could see people adding a number after their name and so forth but I kept mine as was, I have never been anything but gordonrutter on the Board / Forum.

Perhaps your account was bizarrely omitted from the cloning of the original accounts.

I know some others were.
 
FT staff and affiliates were, so Gordon and I were unaffected (although, I did lose the space between my names, which I later reinstated) - weren't you originally 'gordon rutter'?
My recollection is there was never a space as that is how I generally write it for a forum. Obviously I have no way of checking, so you could be correct.
 
Possible you were completely untouched, then. Some were.

I do remember your mushroom avatar, though. Apt :)
 
I used to post under the username skinny from 2004. Then the board asked me to adend that due to horrible incantations of a digital nature, so as I was 46 at the time it became skinny46. I'm still 46.


I mean I'm still skinny. And I'm 46 and 60 months.
 
I joined in 2003, but something went wrong at some point, and my join date is now shown as 2005, for what it's worth.
 
I think I first discovered the forum around 2006 and remained a reader only for a good while. I think I also had an earlier account that wasn't used much, 'ademordna' or something similar. I will have subsequently lost my log in details and wandered off again.

Anyway, what is an uncon?
Did someone mention photo's of you all on facebook? I don't have an account there but would love to see them! I am aways curious about what people look like in real life, to see if my mental image of them has any similarities. I have, almost, a fairly descriptive impression of you all to some extent, for example: I had imagined Escargot to be very tall, average build, with tumbling dark blonde bushy hair. She also had rosy cheeks, a rogue smile and very pale blue eyes. I have since seen a photo she posted of herself, quite different and much younger than in my mind's eye, and very lovely she is too.

I could offer more but this might be the wrong thread :D
 
I think I first discovered the forum around 2006 and remained a reader only for a good while. I think I also had an earlier account that wasn't used much, 'ademordna' or something similar. I will have subsequently lost my log in details and wandered off again.

Anyway, what is an uncon?
Did someone mention photo's of you all on facebook? I don't have an account there but would love to see them! I am aways curious about what people look like in real life, to see if my mental image of them has any similarities. I have, almost, a fairly descriptive impression of you all to some extent, for example: I had imagined Escargot to be very tall, average build, with tumbling dark blonde bushy hair. She also had rosy cheeks, a rogue smile and very pale blue eyes. I have since seen a photo she posted of herself, quite different and much younger than in my mind's eye, and very lovely she is too.

I could offer more but this might be the wrong thread :D
UnCon was the Fortean Times convention. Held in London it was a weekend of talks af a Fortean theme.

There is a thread with pictures of some posters...
 
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