What were the forums like when you joined them?

[Prowler]

Thought this would be fun, especially for veteran users.

I joined these forums in early 2009. I was only 18 years old, and felt quite young here. I remember the TMNT sections being rather dead because 2k3 was ending and the Nick/Viacom buying the property had not happened yet. The most active sections were in the General Discussion. Therefore, not much was going on here at the time until, suddenly, one day in that same year, the news of Viacom/Nick buying TMNT from Peter Laird blew up and most people had their hopes and dreams high again.

Hard to believe that in early 2009 it seemed like TMNT was gonna either die for good or have another long dormant period like it did after the FW series and TNM ended. I even remember CyberCubed in particular being severely concerned about TMNT dying and his "a world without TMNT is not a world I want to live in" quote. And speaking of him, believe it or not, but CyberCubed stuck to the TMNT sections back then, pretty much. He was mostly known as the guy who kept insisting on a couple of missing episodes needing to be put on DVD.

Other than that, some veteran users were more active back then, but that's life. KROW seems to have come back recently. Last time I recall him being active was back then. Same for Spitfire.

What about you? What were the forums like when you joined them?

[Powder]

Way more active, way more focused on the actual TMNT, & there was a thriving fan-work/collector community. I miss all that.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Powder

Way more active, way more focused on the actual TMNT, & there was a thriving fan-work/collector community. I miss all that.

Eh really? Odd, you joined shortly after me and I remember the TMNT sections being kind of dead. But maybe the art and fanfic section were more active back then. I've never been to those sections much.

[sdp]

Everyone had VHS recorded screenshots of their favorite scenes since only the first season had a dvd release.

[Leo656]

Extremely active. For one thing, there was a huge buzz about the 2003 relaunch and the Mirage Vol. 4 stuff. But there were a lot more users in general and everyone was a lot more friendly and open. Most of the people I talked to were already very familiar with each other from the mailing lists and/or other forums, so it was a bit more welcoming to say the least.

You still had some crazy folks but they didn't do a lot of damage and were run off rather quickly. A few of us were given a rather long leash in order to weed out the more undesirable elements, who were then promptly banned. Krang was extremely active and approachable back then, and was also swift to take action against those who were pissing in the cesspool. People still went off-topic more often than not in many threads, and there was still a lot of teasing and poking going on, but it was all in good fun. Actual arguments were rare since everyone knew Krang would come around the following day and pass righteous judgment on anyone deemed unworthy. There weren't a lot of two-week temp bans, either; those who were deemed worthy of being Banned had usually stepped pretty far out of line, so they only got one strike before getting heaved.

It wasn't uncommon to see every section seeing tons of action in multiple threads, every single day. One thing I remember fondly was the Fanfic Awards that were presented every year; people put a lot of work into that, and it was a fun thing to be part of (I managed to earn a few one year, I think the year I joined). It was just one example of how everyone got along much better.

After like 2005 I was away for a long while, and in the interim apparently the forum was down for a bit, and since it came back everything gradually went to sh*t. Krang's hardly been around since, and I think every single person except Andrew who was here when I joined has long since moved on. I still keep in touch with a couple of the "old guard", from time to time, and they're all generally of the "Oh, f*ck THAT place" mentality. Which is kind of sad because, once more, they more or less introduced me to the place since they were around before I was. Some time around 2008 seems to be the breaking point; that's when a lot of the people I knew abandoned ship and the whole place started taking a sour turn.

In brief, when I joined the place was a billion times more active and fun. People were generally more respectful and the level of discourse was higher. It didn't take forever for any malcontents to be weeded out. It was a better time, one we'll never see again.

I've noticed the forum's decline has gone hand-in-hand with the rise in how much time people spend communicating on the internet, with all its "F*ck you, only my opinion is valid" stuff that goes along with it. Everything's gotten much more combative and impersonal, but it wasn't always this way. But it is what it is.

Originally Posted by Prowler

Eh really? Odd, you joined shortly after me and I remember the TMNT sections being kind of dead. But maybe the art and fanfic section were more active back then. I've never been to those sections much.

I would swear that Powder's been around a lot longer than his Join Date. I could be wrong but I was "absent" from like 2005-2008 but I swear I remember him being around before that.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Extremely active. For one thing, there was a huge buzz about the 2003 relaunch and the Mirage Vol. 4 stuff. But there were a lot more users in general and everyone was a lot more friendly and open. Most of the people I talked to were already very familiar with each other from the mailing lists and/or other forums, so it was a bit more welcoming to say the least.

You still had some crazy folks but they didn't do a lot of damage and were run off rather quickly. A few of us were given a rather long leash in order to weed out the more undesirable elements, who were then promptly banned. Krang was extremely active and approachable back then, and was also swift to take action against those who were pissing in the cesspool. People still went off-topic more often than not in many threads, and there was still a lot of teasing and poking going on, but it was all in good fun. Actual arguments were rare since everyone knew Krang would come around the following day and pass righteous judgment on anyone deemed unworthy. There weren't a lot of two-week temp bans, either; those who were deemed worthy of being Banned had usually stepped pretty far out of line, so they only got one strike before getting heaved.

It wasn't uncommon to see every section seeing tons of action in multiple threads, every single day. One thing I remember fondly was the Fanfic Awards that were presented every year; people put a lot of work into that, and it was a fun thing to be part of (I managed to earn a few one year, I think the year I joined). It was just one example of how everyone got along much better.

After like 2005 I was away for a long while, and in the interim apparently the forum was down for a bit, and since it came back everything gradually went to sh*t. Krang's hardly been around since, and I think every single person except Andrew who was here when I joined has long since moved on. I still keep in touch with a couple of the "old guard", from time to time, and they're all generally of the "Oh, f*ck THAT place" mentality. Which is kind of sad because, once more, they more or less introduced me to the place since they were around before I was. Some time around 2008 seems to be the breaking point; that's when a lot of the people I knew abandoned ship and the whole place started taking a sour turn.

In brief, when I joined the place was a billion times more active and fun. People were generally more respectful and the level of discourse was higher. It didn't take forever for any malcontents to be weeded out. It was a better time, one we'll never see again.

I've noticed the forum's decline has gone hand-in-hand with the rise in how often people spend communicating on the internet, with all its "F*ck you, only my opinion is valid" stuff that goes along with it. Everything's gotten much more combative and impersonal, but it wasn't always this way. But it is what it is.



I would swear that Powder's been around a lot longer than his Join Date. I could be wrong but I was "absent" from like 2005-2008 but I swear I remember him being around before that.

Guess I missed the golden age of the forums

I can't believe I didn't discover these forums sooner. I remember being 12-14 years and searching for a lot of TMNT related stuff on google. How come I've never ended up here back in 2003-2005? But oh well, better late than ever.

[Ninjinister]

I don't remember what they're like now.

[Cure]

When I joined one could freely make jokes about someone like Doom having sex with underage girls like Hannah and everyone would just laugh it off; now I'm sure someone like Papenbrook would have a conniption about jokes like that.

[snake]

Well, they certainly were a lot more active from 2013-2016 than they are now. The Platinum Dunes fiasco was probably the most memorable time to be active from that time period.

[Leo656]

I'm trying to remember how exactly I got here. It's vague, but what I remember is when I first got a computer in 2000, I spent most of my time on the internet doing Searches on things I liked, most of which - TMNT, Ghostbusters, He-Man, etc. - were no longer fashionable. It was pretty amazing to me to find out that anyone else besides me even still gave a sh*t about those things, since in real life I'd gotten no small amount of sh*t from people for still liking things that weren't "popular" anymore. So at first, it was pretty cool, finding fan websites and message boards and seeing people's fanfics and fan art and such.

I forget what I found first, the online mailing lists or the undermanhattan.com forum, but it was around the same time. By sheer coincidence, I'd started writing a long TMNT story to amuse myself and my girlfriend (not having the internet at the time I originally started writing it, I wasn't at all aware that "fanfic" was a thing people did), and that started conversations with some other TMNT fans who had similar hobbies, and that's how I started getting to know people. A few people wanted to read the thing I was working on, then they asked me to expand on it, and then someone offered to host it on their website, and then I met more people through that, and so on.

Shortly after, the Under Manhattan website went down, and the girl who was hosting my fanfic online at the time told me that most people who used to post there were already on this forum, anyway, so I just moved over here and things kind of snowballed after that.

That's more or less how it started for me.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by snake

Well, they certainly were a lot more active from 2013-2016 than they are now. The Platinum Dunes fiasco was probably the most memorable time to be active from that time period.

Oh man, what a time that was to be here. Especially in the 8 months or so before the first movie.

Originally Posted by Leo656

I'm trying to remember how exactly I got here. It's vague, but what I remember is when I first got a computer in 2000, I spent most of my time on the internet doing Searches on things I liked, most of which - TMNT, Ghostbusters, He-Man, etc. - were no longer fashionable. It was pretty amazing to me to find out that anyone else besides me even still gave a sh*t about those things, since in real life I'd gotten no small amount of sh*t from people for still liking things that weren't "popular" anymore. So at first, it was pretty cool, finding fan websites and message boards and seeing people's fanfics and fan art and such.

I forget what I found first, the online mailing lists or the undermanhattan.com forum, but it was around the same time. By sheer coincidence, I'd started writing a long TMNT story to amuse myself and my girlfriend (not having the internet at the time I originally started writing it, I wasn't at all aware that "fanfic" was a thing people did), and that started conversations with some other TMNT fans who had similar hobbies, and that's how I started getting to know people. A few people wanted to read the thing I was working on, then they asked me to expand on it, and then someone offered to host it on their website, and then I met more people through that, and so on.

Shortly after, the Under Manhattan website went down, and the girl who was hosting my fanfic online at the time told me that most people who used to post there were already on this forum, anyway, so I just moved over here and things kind of snowballed after that.

That's more or less how it started for me.

Haha I miss all of those old fansites people made on geocities and angelfire for their favourite anime and cartoons. That and learning how to do fatalities in MK and cheat codes for games.

Today the internet is very centralised. Everyone is on the same websites, pretty much, and nearly no one makes their own fansites anymore.

[Andrew NDB]

It was a hive of activity in 2007. I'm sure I visited before then but I never joined, just busy on the mailing list stuff I guess and somewhat at Mikey's TMNT board. And yeah, the fan stuff was way more active... really talented people (yes, and a lot of people interested in writing/drawing the Turtles impregnating Mary Sues) were creating a lot of cool stuff.

I joined in 2007 and the first thing that happened was everybody hated me with passion because I didn't like the fourth movie. Then a few months later people seemed to come back down from the clouds and realize that it wasn't the best thing ever and calmed down.

Basically.

[CyberCubed]

The internet itself was still in its relative infancy in the early 2000's. It didn't feel like that for me who first came online in 1997 to mostly visit IGN and ninjaturtles.com, but in retrospect 2000-2005 even pre-dates youtube of all things. SO most people came to forums.

At the time people were also redisovering TMNT due to the 2k3 series coming out and people having fond memories of their childhood. Back in the early 2000's most original TMNT fans were in their teen years or early 20's, (I was only 16 when I lurked here in 2002), so it was a strange time.

It's hard to believe I was only 16 years old when the 4kids cartoon started, it doesn't feel that long ago. Now I'm a middle age man. Time flies. Life at best, is bittersweet.

[Wesley]

Originally Posted by snake

Well, they certainly were a lot more active from 2013-2016 than they are now. The Platinum Dunes fiasco was probably the most memorable time to be active from that time period.

Agreed. I only joined after that fiasco, though I was a lurker since 2002. Didn’t know there were so many different subsections until then lol. I used to just stick with the TMNT sections.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

I joined on 11 January 2006, after lurking for almost two years. At this time, the 4 Kids series still aired. Season 4 was on, but I had only seen one season or so I think. I didn't have Youtube access until November 2007.

[Zulithe]

For some background, I'm a fan from the 80's so I've been following the turtles since being a kid back then. I remember buying the first wave of figures, following the Fred Wolf show, going to see TMNT 1990 and 1991 in theaters. I had the paperback novelization of Secret of the Ooze that I would read to re-experience the movie. Played the Arcade, NES, Genesis, SNES games... it dominated my childhood above any other entertainment franchise.

I dropped out of following things around the time Next Mutation hit and started perusing other interests. I was too busy with other things to get into the 2003 show, it was a really busy period of my life. It wasn't until 2010 or 2011 I started checking back in on things.

I was aware of the forums and dropped in to read a discussion here and there for a few years before joining, but I won't count that period. When the 2012 Nick series was entering release is when I joined. It was a great period for the fandom, we had a really exciting new show to explore, and news for upcoming movies was starting to hit (even if they turned out fairly disappointing for many of us -- but hey! it generated a lot of discussion, there's no doubts about that)

Feels very different now. Rise hasn't captured the fandom in the same way. There's some debate as to how much of a success it is among younger kids (who are clearly the main audience), but to me it's clear that teen and adult fans by and large aren't as interested... and you need only look at the type of forum activity and discussion (or lack of discussion) going on here at the Drome for evidence supporting that.

I'm hanging in there hoping for another renaissance. The comics are keeping things going in the meantime. It's not that I've written off Rise or actively dislike it, just that, as I said, the fandom is a huge part of what drives the community, and if the show isn't drawing those people in... then in my personal opinion, it's not much of a success.

Right now what I'm most looking forward to is Ciro's TMNT 2012 art book, hoping that the next live action TMNT movie is a lot better than the last two, and hoping Nick is working on some more TMNT projects other than Rise that can hopefully have a broader appeal. Oh, and collecting TMNT stuff... as NECA and others are keeping that area of our fandom thriving.

[Jester]

i remember i used 2 post like this...all those years ago...

Gah, it's embarrassing looking back on Baby Jester posts.

Miss some of the older members like Jo Dawn, Ryona, and even the previously mentioned Doom and Hannah. I wonder where they are sometimes.

[Icebot]

I joined in October 2009, I think everyone was talking about Turtles Forever and how Nickelodeon bought the franchise.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

The internet itself was still in its relative infancy in the early 2000's. It didn't feel like that for me who first came online in 1997 to mostly visit IGN and ninjaturtles.com, but in retrospect 2000-2005 even pre-dates youtube of all things. SO most people came to forums.

At the time people were also redisovering TMNT due to the 2k3 series coming out and people having fond memories of their childhood. Back in the early 2000's most original TMNT fans were in their teen years or early 20's, (I was only 16 when I lurked here in 2002), so it was a strange time.

It's hard to believe I was only 16 years old when the 4kids cartoon started, it doesn't feel that long ago. Now I'm a middle age man. Time flies. Life at best, is bittersweet.

IGN in 1997? Wasn't it called N64.com at the time, still?

I miss the old ninjaturtles.com website. Such a great place.

[ZariusTwo]

Joined in 2003, I remember defending volume four of the Mirage comic a lot, and got many letters published in the issues (and boy was I in dire need of a proof-reader)