Maybe it was something about the recent birthdays of two very important community members, but somehow or other I got to thinking about exactly how old this community is. Of course, to determine that, we'd have to figure out exactly when the community actually started. While someone probably has information on when the first fan-run version of these forums opened, I think most of us would agree that the community started on the old MyFreedomForce boards. That being the case, the opening of the original official Freedom Force message board seems like the most reasonable place to measure our community's existence from, regardless of when any of the current community members may have first joined that message board.
The problem is, I can't find out exactly when that happened. Searching the Web, I found an article about the opening of the MyFreedomForce site which would place said opening in early January of 2001, but the article specifically said that the message board feature hadn't been added to the site yet. The rough impression further research gave me is that the message board was probably added sometime around the middle of 2001, but I can't verify that (personally, I didn't discover it until shortly after the game was released, the following year). Does anyone, by any chance, have more exact information?
At any rate, that would make this community just about 8 years old, scary as that may seem to some of us. If we're still around in a couple of years, and I suspect we will be, maybe we can do some sort of 10-year anniversary celebration- if we can't pin down the exact date, we could at least consider 2011 to be a special anniversary year for this community- and, no, I don't have any idea what that really means, either.
Interesting.
Not really sure what more I can add to that.
It is really weird seeing stuff on the Internet getting older, I mean its gonna be kinda strange if in another 10
years people are still rockin' youtube links & other such trendy internet things.
8 years! Could well be, although I think most people didn't really get into it until the game itself was released
Quote from: Lunarman on April 22, 2009, 05:27:35 AM
8 years! Could well be, although I think most people didn't really get into it until the game itself was released
Actually... If I recall right, the Skindex community had got a goodly number of skins out before the game was actually out, because I remember the name change (Generic_Hero -> Male_basic) caused a few problems. Heck, I know I played that demo of the nuclear winter level like 30 times.
I bought FF on the first day it came out in the UK, I must have been about 12. I know I was part of this community before that, and that I arrived to the scene long after it was founded. That makes us at least 7 years old. 8 is a good guess.
Amazing.
I discovered the original "My Freedom Force" forums in late February of 2001 and I am guessing that it'd been up for several weeks already because there was already a pretty good bit of activity going on.
Though, I've always thought of "Freedom Reborn" as a separate entity (and vast improvement) over the "My Freedom Force" forums.
Quote from: Tomato on April 22, 2009, 07:49:29 AM
Quote from: Lunarman on April 22, 2009, 05:27:35 AM
8 years! Could well be, although I think most people didn't really get into it until the game itself was released
Actually... If I recall right, the Skindex community had got a goodly number of skins out before the game was actually out, because I remember the name change (Generic_Hero -> Male_basic) caused a few problems. Heck, I know I played that demo of the nuclear winter level like 30 times.
Yes, they did. I came here from the Skindex, where I was a poster on their message boards, having joined because of their skins for The Sims. They even had a skinner or two who released some great skins for FF but who disappeared before the game ever came out, or soon after. (Mandate comes to mind)
I found out about Skindex and learned the basics of skinning from DarkJerod (or something like that). I submitted a few skins to Freedom Force Center but they weren't ever posted (they did kinda suck, and they weren't Marvel/DC skins). That was all before the release of the game, in January of 2001 or so. I didn't start showing up on the message boards until a little later once I had a website to plug. :thumbup:
Wow... that's a looooong time... but it's awesome! :lol:
I lurked around for a couple months before the game hit the shelves... Spring 2002... IIRC
Been here since.
I played the demo my freshman year of college which was 2001. I've been here ever since.
2005. But I was on Skindex for The Sims for years before that.
Found the forums shortly after the game came out and have mostly been here ever since... Wow, this rivals my online art time.
Who was it who said that 1 year of online is like 5 in real life? FR is positively veneralble :)
I didn't stumble across this place until the summer of 'aught-three, after I already had the game for a couple of months. I'm a blow-in by comparison to some of you... ^_^
Quote from: GhostMachine on April 22, 2009, 11:20:24 PM
Quote from: Tomato on April 22, 2009, 07:49:29 AM
Quote from: Lunarman on April 22, 2009, 05:27:35 AM
8 years! Could well be, although I think most people didn't really get into it until the game itself was released
Actually... If I recall right, the Skindex community had got a goodly number of skins out before the game was actually out, because I remember the name change (Generic_Hero -> Male_basic) caused a few problems. Heck, I know I played that demo of the nuclear winter level like 30 times.
Yes, they did. I came here from the Skindex, where I was a poster on their message boards, having joined because of their skins for The Sims. They even had a skinner or two who released some great skins for FF but who disappeared before the game ever came out, or soon after. (Mandate comes to mind)
I've been meaning to ask about Mandate.
Quote from: daglob on April 24, 2009, 08:19:48 PM
Quote from: GhostMachine on April 22, 2009, 11:20:24 PM
Quote from: Tomato on April 22, 2009, 07:49:29 AM
Quote from: Lunarman on April 22, 2009, 05:27:35 AM
8 years! Could well be, although I think most people didn't really get into it until the game itself was released
Actually... If I recall right, the Skindex community had got a goodly number of skins out before the game was actually out, because I remember the name change (Generic_Hero -> Male_basic) caused a few problems. Heck, I know I played that demo of the nuclear winter level like 30 times.
Yes, they did. I came here from the Skindex, where I was a poster on their message boards, having joined because of their skins for The Sims. They even had a skinner or two who released some great skins for FF but who disappeared before the game ever came out, or soon after. (Mandate comes to mind)
I've been meaning to ask about Mandate.
If I remember right, Mandate just disappeared with no explanation. Don't know if something bad happened to him, he changed his name and didn't want to be recognized and has never revealed himself, or he just walked away without a goodbye.
I remember learning about the Freedom Force game, but I thought it was going to be a monthly-charged game, which was not appealing to me. I was a frequenter of Skindex and remember all the cool skins they had there.. lots of Legion of Super-Hero stuff. Then I found this site and lurked for a very long time. Then I started requesting things, and handling as many requests as I could, before I jumped into skinning last year. That was back in 2003, when TaTu was flirting with their Russian faux-lesbianism and Beyonce was Crazy In Love.
Like GhostMachine I came over from the Skindex.
Back before the Skindex had a seperate Freedom Force forum and Freedom Force site back then one of the developers of Freedom Force posted a message on the Skindex forums about what (I think) eventually bacame the Character Tool asking for our input and I was the first to respond giving them all the ideas I could think of to make it as user friendly as possible.
Argh!! Why didn't I save a copy of that thread!? :banghead:
As for Mandate. Yeah, just disappeared with no explanation.
I lurked for about a few months (3 to 5? maybe?), and then made my first post the day the game came out. The forums were up before I arrived there.
If anybody knows how to contact Plasma Wisp, I believe we identified at one point that he was MyFF's earliest registrant who actually stuck around. He could give you a better estimate of the community's age.
I lurked for about a year (!) and then joined in April 2003. :cool:
I'm pretty sure that the community began sometime in late 2001 when the creation tools were released for the original game..
We need a worthy keeper of the Annals.
I lurked for about a year, (maybe two! :ph34r:) then finally joined on April 13, 2005. ^_^ (Had to look at my profile. :ph34r:)
I posted as flesheater back on the myfreedomforce boards but didn't really post my work until the first ezboard
why did we create our own boards and can anyone remember why we kept changing hosts
I've been here since the beginning. I remember seeing GG and other on the Freedom Force boards. I also remember doing a Bat-Brick (lego skin) on the skindex.
Since myfreedomforce.
Y'all got me feeling like an old man. :P
Quote from: the_ultimate_evil on April 25, 2009, 04:58:11 PM
I posted as flesheater back on the myfreedomforce boards but didn't really post my work until the first ezboard
why did we create our own boards and can anyone remember why we kept changing hosts
We left MyFF because the servers always ran like crap, but one week they just utterly collapsed. I suggested in Dr. Manbot's chat room that Volt start a new board, and he did, because he's far more motivated than me. :P
I don't recall the specifics of why we kept changing hosts, but it was something related to the hosting company screwing us over.
I arrived at Skindex when I was a baby, after my parents sent me from Krypton.
feels like another life time. I was in college then.......
Wow! I had to look at my profile to see when I joined. It will be 5 years in July. I still play the game every now and then. Mostly the rumble room. Glad to see the community is still going strong. Any plans for a Freedom Reborn get together somewhere? I'll show up in my home made Porcupine suit.
Quote from: Dreaded Porcupine on May 11, 2009, 01:33:09 AM
Wow! I had to look at my profile to see when I joined. It will be 5 years in July. I still play the game every now and then. Mostly the rumble room. Glad to see the community is still going strong. Any plans for a Freedom Reborn get together somewhere? I'll show up in my home made Porcupine suit.
We should plan it just for that.
Actually, that would be kind of cool...like, a ten-year anniversary meeting. Maybe its own thing, maybe part of some large convention somewhere. I'd go.
Quote from: kkhohoho on April 25, 2009, 01:46:57 PM
I lurked for about a year, (maybe two! :ph34r:) then finally joined on April 13, 2005. ^_^ (Had to look at my profile. :ph34r:)
Sounds like me, except I was about a year earlier. I had to look at my profile too!
Quote from: Gremlin on May 11, 2009, 02:07:07 AMQuote from: Dreaded Porcupine on May 11, 2009, 01:33:09 AMWow! I had to look at my profile to see when I joined. It will be 5 years in July. I still play the game every now and then. Mostly the rumble room. Glad to see the community is still going strong. Any plans for a Freedom Reborn get together somewhere? I'll show up in my home made Porcupine suit.
We should plan it just for that.
Actually, that would be kind of cool...like, a ten-year anniversary meeting. Maybe its own thing, maybe part of some large convention somewhere. I'd go.
For a few years running, several FR people managed a meet-up at Wizard World Chicago. I think this year it is in August, same weekend as Lollapalooza...
Quote from: stumpy on May 11, 2009, 03:30:13 AM
Quote from: Gremlin on May 11, 2009, 02:07:07 AMQuote from: Dreaded Porcupine on May 11, 2009, 01:33:09 AMWow! I had to look at my profile to see when I joined. It will be 5 years in July. I still play the game every now and then. Mostly the rumble room. Glad to see the community is still going strong. Any plans for a Freedom Reborn get together somewhere? I'll show up in my home made Porcupine suit.
We should plan it just for that.
Actually, that would be kind of cool...like, a ten-year anniversary meeting. Maybe its own thing, maybe part of some large convention somewhere. I'd go.
For a few years running, several FR people managed a meet-up at Wizard World Chicago. I think this year it is in August, same weekend as Lollapalooza...
That's ongoing? I thought that happened just once or twice...who usually goes?
I found the demo while visiting my sister in Toronto back in 2001. I must have played that frozen aircraft carrier level 1000 times...installing every skin I could find from the skindex and the original freedom force center. I tried my hand at skinning a few months later and uploaded my first skin (Canadian Shield) to FFC and the rest is history. :cool:
I met a few members in real life during my first trip to Chicago. Zapow, Glitch Girl, BAD, stumpy, JKCarrier, and Protomorph. All very cool people! :D
A 10 year anniversary meeting would be pretty cool too...
Quote from: Courtnall6 on May 11, 2009, 04:44:58 AMI met a few members in real life during my first trip to Chicago. Zapow, Glitch Girl, BAD, stumpy, JKCarrier, and Protomorph. All very cool people! :D
A 10 year anniversary meeting would be pretty cool too...
How do you address people you know online? There are a couple people here who know my real name, and it always weirds me out whenever they refer to me as anything other than Gremlin. But does that stigma dissolve when you're meeting in person? And what about afterwards, when you're back online again, if you got familiar with their civilian name? </overthinking>
Quote from: Gremlin on May 11, 2009, 08:06:59 AM
How do you address people you know online? There are a couple people here who know my real name, and it always weirds me out whenever they refer to me as anything other than Gremlin. But does that stigma dissolve when you're meeting in person? And what about afterwards, when you're back online again, if you got familiar with their civilian name? </overthinking>
At one time or another, I've met a few members face to face (three, all together- almost met a few more, on a few occasions, but we couldn't get things together in time...). It feels more natural to use people's real names in that context (although, when talking about other forum members, you use their online names, of course). The funny thing is, you don't feel as if you just met these people- talking with forum members face to face doesn't feel that different from communicating with them in the forums. I mean, it's different, of course, but it's surprisingly easy to accept them as the same people you know online, even when you know them by a different name, with a different face. Of course, it probably helped that all three were people I've interacted with a fair amount here.
I envy any of you who have met face to face. I've been around since the beginning. I only made myself present when, like many, I needed a way to beat Shadow. I didn't say it out right but finding the answer and reading some other posts made me stick around. Eventually there was a call for Titans and I decided to answer it, because this was the first online community I ever felt like I really had a connection with....I feel closer to this community than I do to the people on my Facebook and I've met most of them. I suppose my connection here is strong because I really love comics and sci-fi and I don't feel like a geek or misfit here for expressing my interest in these things.
Quote from: thalaw2 on May 11, 2009, 03:07:01 PM
...I feel closer to this community than I do to the people on my Facebook and I've met most of them. I suppose my connection here is strong because I really love comics and sci-fi and I don't feel like a geek or misfit here for expressing my interest in these things.
Ditto. Big ditto.
I've only met one member in the 'Real World' (Zapow at MidOhioCon back when he was touring with Honor Brigade). Always thought it'd be cool to get a big group of us together.
I made it to a couple of the WW Chicago meet-ups and it was great fun meeting Zapow, Randy, Glitch Girl, JKCarrier, BAD, Courtnall6, Mowgli, Protomorph, bredon7777, and several significant others and some munchkins. People were smart, interesting, and funny, just as I'd come to think of them online.
And, I agree with Alaric that, for friends you've known for a while online, you don't feel like you've "just met" them the first time you see them in person. I mean, the faces might be new to you, but doesn't really make it like meeting a stranger. It's almost like someone you already know who dyed their hair or grew a beard or something; you may not know what they are going to look like, but you already kind of know the kind of person they are.
Quote from: Gremlin on May 11, 2009, 08:06:59 AMHow do you address people you know online?
I don't have any problem going by whatever name people first heard when they met me and it's usually easier for me when people go by whatever names I first learned for them. Not that it's a big deal either way.
It's interesting, because some people have names that are odd to say to their faces because the names are funny or long or have numbers or whatever. And, I think a couple people who met me in Chicago laughed because this tall person walks up and says, "Hi, I'm stumpy." (The name was a semi-capricious choice that doesn't describe me physically or anything.)
Online, I still refer to people I've met in real life by their online names. I figure they've decided that's how they want to be addressed in that venue, unless they say something else in their sig or something.
Quote from: The Hitman on May 11, 2009, 03:39:53 PMI've only met one member in the 'Real World' (Zapow at MidOhioCon back when he was touring with Honor Brigade). Always thought it'd be cool to get a big group of us together.
We should do it. A massive meeting at some big comic convention. We could set up a big LAN party and play FF multiplayer. Haha.
Quote from: stumpy on May 11, 2009, 06:37:17 PMAnd, I agree with Alaric that, for friends you've known for a while online, you don't feel like you've "just met" them the first time you see them in person. I mean, the faces might be new to you, but doesn't really make it like meeting a stranger. It's almost like someone you already know who dyed their hair or grew a beard or something; you may not know what they are going to look like, but you already kind of know the kind of person they are.
That's a good way to think about it. Huh.
Zap, GG, nightdragon, and some others met in Chicago a few years ago and took some pictures. Maybe if you asks them nicely they will post the pics up again.
If I still have them, I'll post 'em, but that was a computer or two ago, so I'm not sure they survived the transfers. Will check though, if for nothing else that great shot of NightDragon wearing camo fairy wings. :D
I know I'm not the longest-running member or the most consistent, but I do remember the old FF boards Irrational put up.
I can even remember butting heads with Captain Spud back then, though I no longer remember why. ;)
I remember Dr. ManBot dispensing advice. (And believe me, it wasn't "Dear Abby"...) I remember the general silliness in General. I remember folks racking up post counts even back then.
8 years is probably about right. I got into FF sometime during the delightful chaos years when my two oldest boys were little. My oldest is 9 and the second is about to turn 8.
I'm pretty sure I got into the community in the summer of 2002, this was the MyFF days for sure, I remember posting there in my less enlightened days.
Quote from: captainspud on April 28, 2009, 03:21:44 AM
Quote from: the_ultimate_evil on April 25, 2009, 04:58:11 PM
I posted as flesheater back on the myfreedomforce boards but didn't really post my work until the first ezboard
why did we create our own boards and can anyone remember why we kept changing hosts
We left MyFF because the servers always ran like crap, but one week they just utterly collapsed. I suggested in Dr. Manbot's chat room that Volt start a new board, and he did, because he's far more motivated than me. :P
I don't recall the specifics of why we kept changing hosts, but it was something related to the hosting company screwing us over.
I think there was a little more to it than that:
-On MyFF (possibly after some of the more well-known members were made mods) there was a villains forum, which was a kind of easter egg, I seem to recall at some point it was hidden or something; can't remember the exact details.
-Eventually someone (Hellscorp, Randyrippoff or Deadhead I think, not sure) made a EZboard forum called Villains Reborn (named after the 90's Marvel event Heroes Reborn) which more or less served as another place for the forum "villains" to hang around.
-Then a little later when MYFF got a little two troll-infested (or when the boards crashed, I can't remember which happened first) an EZ board called Freedom Reborn was made. I think it was around this point that both this and MYFF existed simultaneously, with a lot of the community migrating to the FR board because of how poorly the MYFF was faring. (it was at this point that I retired my SS identity to temporarily go by Goldenbolt)
-The EZBoard later was replaced by Freedomreborn.com (I think) which got replaced by Freedom Reborn.net (the current place). the .com (if it did exist) was when the titans group was first formed, I seem to recall there was 30 of them and they all donated money to get the board started.
-Somewhere around the time FR was made, possibly when the second game came out, a new official forum called FreedomFans was made. like MYFF, some of the long time members from FR hung around there too. It also had problems and eventually it went down. Freedomfans.com still exists, but the forums link now leads to a blank screen with this message:
QuoteFreedomFans Forums Down
So, as you all know, we've been acquired by Take2. Now that we have the support of a much larger company, one of our goals is to have a web site that doesn't, you know, completely suck. To that end, we're going to take down our lackluster forums until we come up with a decent plan to bring them back on line and support them properly.
-Thanks for your patience
Ken Levine
It has been years, so I am a little fuzzy on the details, and it's very likely I got a few things wrong, but that was more or less how it went.
I've been around since early 2002, during the waning days of MyFF. I started wandering off more and more frequently around autumn 2005, but I'm still here, sorta.