We've been around HOW long?!?

[Alaric]

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.

[GrizzlyBearTalon]

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.

[Lunarman]

8 years! Could well be, although I think most people didn't really get into it until the game itself was released 

[Tomato]

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.

[Reepicheep]

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.

[Mr. Hamrick]

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.

[GhostMachine]

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)

[Tortuga]

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. 

[Spam]

Wow... that's a looooong time... but it's awesome! 

[House Quake]

I lurked around for a couple months before the game hit the shelves... Spring 2002... IIRC

Been here since.

[AfghanAnt]

I played the demo my freshman year of college which was 2001. I've been here ever since.

[The Hitman]

2005. But I was on Skindex for The Sims for years before that.

[Glitch Girl]

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 

[The Phantom Eyebrow]

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... 

[daglob]

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.

[GhostMachine]

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.

[laughing paradox]

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.

[KRnut82]

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!? 

As for Mandate. Yeah, just disappeared with no explanation.

[captainspud]

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.

[Figure Fan]

I lurked for about a year (!) and then joined in April 2003.

I'm pretty sure that the community began sometime in late 2001 when the creation tools were released for the original game..

[thalaw2]

We need a worthy keeper of the Annals. 

[kkhohoho]

I lurked for about a year, (maybe two! ) then finally joined on April 13, 2005. (Had to look at my profile. )

[deano_ue]

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

[JeyNyce]

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.

[gengoro]

Since myfreedomforce. 

Y'all got me feeling like an old man.

[captainspud]

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.

I don't recall the specifics of why we kept changing hosts, but it was something related to the hosting company screwing us over.

[Bujin]

I arrived at Skindex when I was a baby, after my parents sent me from Krypton.

[robinka]

feels like another life time. I was in college then.......

[Dreaded Porcupine]

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.

[Gremlin]

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.