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

Spookdaddy said:
Don't worry about it - I'm not beside myself with concern.

Thinking about it - I have a vague memory of some sort of major upheaval during which I had to change my name, from the original Spook.

I think it was something to do with several unrelated forums coming under some sort of administrative umbrella, and duplicated names being wiped, even if on entirely unconnected sites...if that rings a bell. I wonder if it was to do with this event.
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I think that’s your answer there, the name change may have been as a result having to totally reregister? Having said that I know there was one upheaval which didn’t require people to reregister but forced a large number of people to change their name, hence those with a 2 after their name for example. For some reason I came through that with my name intact.
 
EnolaGaia said:
The ones who could still be posting are those who still have active member accounts.

Among our surviving active member accounts:

- Gordon (gordonrutter) is #4 among the "longest surviving active accounts" with a registration date of 3 August 2001.

- JamesWhitehead is #3 with a registration date of 2 August 2001.

Moving on to the top two active members of longest tenure (whom I'd bet no one can identify, hence the spoiler tags) ...

- Our first runner-up (i.e., #2 in tenure; 1 August 2001) hasn't visited or posted since last September (2019).
Ravenstone

- The active registrant of longest tenure (30 July 2001) visited circa 2 months ago but hasn't posted since September 2019.
sudi5
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So the number 1 and 2 have not visited for nearly a year so I guess we can forget them putting me and James in 2 and 1 and let’s be honest James hasn’t been on the board since 1.42am today whereas I’m here now so that puts me in number 1 doesn’t it? :)
 
Spookdaddy said:
I've just noticed that the Joined date on my profile is May 24, 2006 - but my first post was actually made August 8, 2001 (see here).
What's going on there, then?
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The most likely explanation is that two or more accounts you established over the years were merged at some point. This could have been a literal merger (in the sense recognized by the current software platform).

It might also represent a virtual merger in which two or more accounts were administratively frankensteined (stitched together) for some reason.

Finally, it's also possible one or more account records were shredded during one of the forum's multiple migrations from one to another software platform.

Your allusion to changing your username suggests there was a clash among membership records involved, so anything's possible.

This mismatch(es) between your current membership and content database records could be attributed to any of these possibilities.

The one thing I'm certain about is that at least one such major account modification / migration / merger / whatever occurred prior to the forum adopting XenForo as its operating platform.
 
I think I rememebr when that nuttiness went down, and there were two competing groups, the Wunderkabinet which was mostly more serious, and the one that the Virgin Queen was on which had a wild reputation and was like endless chat. Eventually both of those shut down, but I too seem to recall a flurry of name changing involved, either voluntarily or at the insistence of the board.
 
MrRING said:
I think I rememebr when that nuttiness went down, and there were two competing groups, the Wunderkabinet which was mostly more serious, and the one that the Virgin Queen was on which had a wild reputation and was like endless chat. Eventually both of those shut down, but I too seem to recall a flurry of name changing involved, either voluntarily or at the insistence of the board.
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There is still an offshoot board full of FTMB veterans. Some still also post on'ere.
 
escargot said:
There is still an offshoot board full of FTMB veterans. Some still also post on'ere.
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Interesting! Since I was a Wunderkabinet "drawer", I know it is deader than a doornail. Unless they reconvened and didn't tell me! Is it the old Virgin Queen-led offshoot, or a different one?
 
EnolaGaia said:
...Your allusion to changing your username suggests there was a clash among membership records involved, so anything's possible...
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My memory - which has now warmed up somewhat - suggests that, although I had originally registered as Spook when I signed up way back in 2001, there was some sort of later technical reshuffle a few years later which affected membership names across several unrelated forums. I seem to recall tracking it down at the time, and finding that the other Spook that my name conflicted with was on the forum of a motor magazine, of all places.
 
Spookdaddy said:
My memory - which has now warmed up somewhat - suggests that, although I had originally registered as Spook when I signed up way back in 2001, there was some sort of later technical reshuffle a few years later which affected membership names across several unrelated forums. I seem to recall tracking it down at the time, and finding that the other Spook that my name conflicted with was on the forum of a motor magazine, of all places.
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Yes, whichever publisher it was had the bloody stupid inspired idea of unifying the fora for all of the magazines they owned under one system, and we had to change our usernames because the genius in charge of implementation couldn't figure out how to copy the content from one account to another with the same name. As a result, we mostly received irritating underscores and postpositional '1s'. There was also, I think, a two-stage log-in, which was very frustrating.

I don't recall which magazines were involved apart from Bizarre and, I think, Auto Trader.

Edit: this was Dennis in August 2005. They then had another 'situation' in 2009(?) when they tried to move everything back from WideArea, the company that had been running the whole show badly.
 
Yep. I was on here and had to change my name. I’ve changed it again since then but the avatar remains the same.
 
Yithian said:
I don't recall which magazines were involved apart from Bizarre and, I think, Auto Trader.
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Yup, I ended up as 'escargot1' because my original name of 'escargot' was now available to me on the Bizarre messageboard.

I did have a look but it wasn't my scene, to put it mildly. The magazine was every bit the publication which could include 'a sealed section featuring censored pornography, in which images of anuses, genitalia, semen and sex acts were obscured.' I can see all that at'ome.
 
Min Bannister said:
If they did, they didn't tell me either! :bored:
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Never mind Wunderkabinet, what about Habbo?

We had several computers and laptops at the time and I made 4/5 identities on there to troll with. At one point I had electric antlers to shock other members with.

When you logged in you had to go to a turnstile and ask to be admitted to the Inner Sanctum. I was such a nuisance that I'd be booted as soon as I turned up. Techy heard me laugh so hard I was gasping for breath and he thought I'd been taken ill.
 
Min Bannister said:
Ooft, yes it used to censor pretty much everything and replaced it with "bobba" so that no bobba made any bobbaing sense.
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I'd forgotten that! It was for kids really. I don't think anything very adult went on. Well, not from me, anyway.
 
I can't remember in which reorganization I transitioned from Timble to Timble2, I know the date I joined. It was 1st of February 2003, posting about the Columbia space shuttle disaster (It was nearly predicted in Stephen Baxter's novel Titan). I'd read the forum for several years before that. Was a member of of Wunderkabinnet (but lost contact), still a member of the Pandemonium Carnival spin off.
 
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My earliest form has been lost to history, as have several incarnations since then. It would have been summer 2001 I think; I remember those days well, largely as I hadn't worked out not to have email notifications turned on for every single new post. So, we're about to hit 19 years? I've lived several lifetimes since then, but one of my threads is still alive and turns up every now and then, which pleases me. So odd to feel nostalgia for what seemed so current and space-age at the time...
 
Dare you mention your earliest incarnation?
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It's a deadname, in the LGBT sense, so I tend not to acknowledge it (just a little self-image thing), but I started the "Dog that turned to Green Mist" thread. Just found the oldest reference to me in a thread dated August 2001, so I was there in the very early days!
 
MissViolet said:
It's a deadname, in the LGBT sense, so I tend not to acknowledge it (just a little self-image thing), but I started the "Dog that turned to Green Mist" thread. Just found the oldest reference to me in a thread dated August 2001, so I was there in the very early days!
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I can't quite figure out who you could have been (not that it matters), but looking at that thread reminded me of Augustverango, whose username and avatar I used to greatly admire.

Sadly, the avatar has been lost and the account is tagged 'gone but not forgotten'.
 
Heh! Well, seeing as you've also been here since forever, my initials were DH, and still are, just with different names attached now.
Evilsprout is one that I often wonder about. Anyone recall the time that we got trolled apocalyptically (it seemed) and they set up a website with all our names on and personalised insults?
 
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