What were the forums like when you joined them?

[Leo656]

Haha, I remember seeing familiar names in the Vol. 4 letter columns. Good times.

[Voltron]

I remember exactly how I got here.

I was in high school. Instead of doing work in computer class, I'd just surf the internet. Being a fan of the TMNT, I googled them and this forum (along with info on the 03 toon) popped up. So I signed up.

And was immediately trounced for being an ass. People were immediately sick of my crap and told me that I should leave. That was 15 years ago. It's amazing how little that aspect has changed.

As for the Drome itself, I was always pretty impressed with how leveled and calm this place was. Every other forum I've been on has been crap in comparison, and that's mostly because of the users. The people here tend to be WAY more civil and WAY more forgiving, and that's a nice change of pace from what's usually found on the internet.

There was the Great Flame War, which burned the place to the ground for a bit. Anarky opened his own forums for about a year, and then Krang brought this place back new and improved.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Voltron

There was the Great Flame War, which burned the place to the ground for a bit. Anarky opened his own forums for about a year, and then Krang brought this place back new and improved.

What was this all about?

[Jester]

Was it General Discussion related?

[Voltron]

Yeah, it was. Because the Anarky reopened the GD only, if I remember correctly.

It was kind of weird for awhile, since we then had a second forum that was sometimes used in conjunction with this board. So people would have an argument here, get a temp ban, go over THERE and continue the argument.

There was some confusion on whether or not the rules and decisions HERE applied over THERE. I mean, almost everything else was exactly the same: same mods, same sub forums in the GD, same general set up.

It was interesting, to say the least.

As for WHY this happened, everyone got into a giant argument about. . . something? I can't remember exactly what, or if it was anything specific, but there was some tension between a lot of members.

I remember one point of contention was the naming of new mods, which a few people were not happy about. Because of the tensions and tenure of certain members, there was a bit of protest about who should be promoted and why.

This lead to a lot of different "factions" splitting up, some supporting the decisions, others protesting, still others jokingly indifferent. The factions opened their own offshoots from the Drome, including chatrooms and in at least one case a THIRD competing board that died within a couple weeks.

Lots of drama. And is usually the case with drama, it ended up being all hollow and meaningless. People fought battles and won absolutely nothing.

But there was a lot of fun then, too. Outside of the friendships made and the weird memes that were tossed around (there's a reason we have mango emojis) we also had contests and collaborations that were pretty killer.

The Dromies were always fun. Around the time of the Oscars each year, Jo Dawn (usually) and some other members would put together an awards show where we'd all vote to see who was the most popular, most interesting, best artist, etc.

There was also some really sweet fan comics going on with some absolutely stellar artistic talent. One was a complete overhaul of the original issue of the TMNT, with different amateur artist taking a page. Another was from Tony Day, who was doing Turtle Turn Coat. And then there was one by Obscure Zodiac which was fun to look at, too.

I really only know about the GD and the fan art sections, though.

The Turtle Forums were filled to the BRIM with rabid fan girls. I'm not exaggerating, either. I didn't go in there for years because saying the wrong thing would get you trounced by furries.


EDIT: I found the old board! Kind of. Seems they were deleted in 2018 due to lack of use. Just as well, since a couple of members went kind of hog wild in there with some REALLY weird hentai after the place was largely abandoned. It lead to one of the more interesting and lesser known scandals of the Drome.

http://z7.invisionfree.com/thetechno...hp?showforum=5

[FredWolfLeonardo]

I remember how all the hype was around "Trans-Dimensional Turtles" when I joined

I have fond memories of reading through the episode discussion thread as well as "1987 and 2012 crossover" thread, a few months prior to being a registered member.

[snake]

That's unironically hilarious.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

When I joined, the Nick toon had just started, and the IDW comic was still new. This place was a lot more active, and yes, there were a lot more fangirls then. More trolls, too.

[Prowler]

I shouldn't be surprised that Laird has lurked here at some point... but I still kinda am.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Roseangelo

Here's his account:
http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/member.php?u=84

He only had one post, but he was active until 2009.

Wow, thanks for this.

I guess I can't blame him for mostly lurking. Tbh I wonder how he has felt reading certain things here at times.

[Leo656]

Man, I missed that whole Flame War thing. I literally had no internet for most of 2005-2008, so I had no idea what was going on.

Haha, yeah, I remember Laird once took a shot at something I said in one of the Vol. 4 letter columns. True story, I once had a conversation online with someone who penciled comics, and somehow Jim Lawson came up, and we each shared the opinion that his stuff wasn't exactly "professional grade" by most people's standards, and this person doubled-down saying it flat-out looked like a child's drawings. I shared that anecdote here as part of an ongoing discussion about Lawson's artistic talents. Not long after, in an issue of Vol. 4, Laird referenced that specific anecdote in one of his rants defending his pal Jim (which is entirely his prerogative, of course, and I totally understand sticking up for your friends and all that).

He called it "ridiculous", as I recall, but I'm over here like "I just observe and report, fella." Anyways, I just thought it was really funny that I'd apparently struck such a nerve.

Fast forward to a year ago, and "Certain People" at Nickelodeon insisted on a Temp Ban for me when I said some not-too-nice things about "Rise" and the people making it. All tongue-in-cheek of course, but eh; people tend not to focus on when I'm clearly being "colorful" and simply note that I'm being "mean". I wish people in the wrestling business paid half as much attention to me and the ridiculous things I say as the people who handle goddamn Ninja Turtles apparently do. Although I'm "friends" with Eric Bischoff on FB; I'll take that and call it a win, I guess.

I never wrote to the Vol. 4 letters page. It was pretty neat seeing people I talked to in there on a semi-regular basis, but I personally never felt the inclination. Some folks got kind of gushy, and I was so the opposite of that, it seemed pointless to write in. What was I gonna say? "Hi Pete, I appreciate the effort but your book is kind of boring and I'm not a big fan of the art." Didn't seem necessary. Plus, once it became obvious he was lurking here, I figured he was already familiar with my opinions so I may as well save the stamp.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Plus, once it became obvious he was lurking here, I figured he was already familiar with my opinions so I may as well save the stamp.

Peter has never been deceptive about that. He's openly said on his blog (or was it the Vol. 4 lettercol? one of the two) that he Googles his name often and, well, often times that leads him here.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Man, I missed that whole Flame War thing. I literally had no internet for most of 2005-2008, so I had no idea what was going on.

Haha, yeah, I remember Laird once took a shot at something I said in one of the Vol. 4 letter columns. True story, I once had a conversation online with someone who penciled comics, and somehow Jim Lawson came up, and we each shared the opinion that his stuff wasn't exactly "professional grade" by most people's standards, and this person doubled-down saying it flat-out looked like a child's drawings. I shared that anecdote here as part of an ongoing discussion about Lawson's artistic talents. Not long after, in an issue of Vol. 4, Laird referenced that specific anecdote in one of his rants defending his pal Jim (which is entirely his prerogative, of course, and I totally understand sticking up for your friends and all that).

He called it "ridiculous", as I recall, but I'm over here like "I just observe and report, fella." Anyways, I just thought it was really funny that I'd apparently struck such a nerve.

Fast forward to a year ago, and "Certain People" at Nickelodeon insisted on a Temp Ban for me when I said some not-too-nice things about "Rise" and the people making it. All tongue-in-cheek of course, but eh; people tend not to focus on when I'm clearly being "colorful" and simply note that I'm being "mean". I wish people in the wrestling business paid half as much attention to me and the ridiculous things I say as the people who handle goddamn Ninja Turtles apparently do. Although I'm "friends" with Eric Bischoff on FB; I'll take that and call it a win, I guess.

I never wrote to the Vol. 4 letters page. It was pretty neat seeing people I talked to in there on a semi-regular basis, but I personally never felt the inclination. Some folks got kind of gushy, and I was so the opposite of that, it seemed pointless to write in. What was I gonna say? "Hi Pete, I appreciate the effort but your book is kind of boring and I'm not a big fan of the art." Didn't seem necessary. Plus, once it became obvious he was lurking here, I figured he was already familiar with my opinions so I may as well save the stamp.

Well, I guess it's at least got to be flattering that they all take your opinions so seriously?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Prowler

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

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

Mutantooze have tried to republish as much as possible

http://mutantooze.org/ninjaturtles/

But I miss when websites, not social media, dominated.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Mutantooze have tried to republish as much as possible

http://mutantooze.org/ninjaturtles/

But I miss when websites, not social media, dominated.

Wow thanks for this!

[Shinigami]

I’ve been lurking since maybe 2010 or 2011 and I remember them being more exciting, WAY less racist and transphobic. People argued a lot (as is to be expected), but they didn’t spew the most intentionally offensive garbage and call everyone liberal and SJW. I doubt this forum is the only one plagued by alt right and meninist, but it sucks that I waited till now to join. Maybe we can go back someday. #maketechnodromeforumsgreatagain

My favorite was when the 2012 show dropped and the discussions were great and it was cool seeing other people excited.

[CyberCubed]

The early 2000's were the best time, and all the oldest users were 10-15 years younger back then so we all had more free time on our hands. Now the oldest users are gone besides a few, and those of us who were young back then are now the "old ones."

I remember back in 2002-2003 I saw people here who were like 30-45 years old, and I was like, "Wow, there's people THAT old on a message board? Aren't they busy with full-time jobs or families?"

Little did I know that would become the norm for the future, or rather nowadays they're all on social media since that wasn't a thing back then. Forums everywhere were highly active from like 1998-2010 or so...then twitter/tumblr/facebook/youtube, etc. all took over and forums all died up. All the young teens of today don't post on forums much anymore, so it's to be expected.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

The early 2000's were the best time, and all the oldest users were 10-15 years younger back then so we all had more free time on our hands. Now the oldest users are gone besides a few, and those of us who were young back then are now the "old ones."

I remember back in 2002-2003 I saw people here who were like 30-45 years old, and I was like, "Wow, there's people THAT old on a message board? Aren't they busy with full-time jobs or families?"

Little did I know that would become the norm for the future, or rather nowadays they're all on social media since that wasn't a thing back then. Forums everywhere were highly active from like 1998-2010 or so...then twitter/tumblr/facebook/youtube, etc. all took over and forums all died up. All the young teens of today don't post on forums much anymore, so it's to be expected.

I've been going on the English speaking internet since 2001 or so. Since I was 10-11 years old, basically. I still remember being 11-12 in an English speaking video game forum and being insulted by American kids/teens for my still not so great English skills at the time. I bet most of them never became bi-lingual or tri-lingual so joke's on them.

I miss the times where most arguments I saw online were about games, wrestling, cartoons and music WITHOUT resorting to political agendas. Ofc politics were discussed already but most people were either too young to care about that kind of stuff or just weren't exposed to a lot of the vocal political voices you see on youtube and social media nowadays, since none of that stuff existed back then. Hell, companies and news channel did not start making their own youtube channels until this decade. And social media in the previous decade was for teenagers and young adults who tried to use such websites as dating apps, basically.

I wish I could go back to the days where the biggest online drama was AVGN vs. Irate Gamer and the "leave Britney alone!" guy.

[ProactiveMan]

I was lurking for a while before joining, but I remember the forum being pretty active around 2012/2013. There was a fair bit of fan-art stuff going on, but I got the feeling that I had missed the boat somewhat.

A couple of people were posting cool toy retrospectives in the merchandise sub, and others were posting pictures of pretty rare and interesting stuff from their incredible collections. I used to spend hours in the merch sub, reading old threads and poring over scans of toy packaging and booklets etc.

The Nic show had just started and there was a lot of buzz around that; I stayed out of the discussion threads however, as I was perpetually months behind in watching new episodes.

I don't know about anybody else, but around the PD era I engaged in TMNT topics as long as I could stand it and then retreated into the General Discussion sub, where there was less PD activity. Spending your time in the GD sub is like trying to live on bread and water. You can do it for a while, but you will eventually wither away.

[KROW]

Ninja Turtles was the first thing I looked up on the internet when I went online. This place was the second thing I visited. The home page was pretty cool with its stark black page and white text. I remember always selecting music tracks from the show and video games to listen to while reading through the news articles.

When I decided to join the forums, I had no idea what I was doing; had no clue how things worked. I made dumb remarks and stupid assumptions but a few other members were gracious enough not to treat me like an ass. The Forum Games was where I made the most friends, then I got invited to Anarky's GD board and bothered everybody there. Everything was pleasant for the most part and I managed to keep in touch with a few folks outside of here. To those of you who have, much love from your Yellow Bastard -- thanks for being a friend; you're my golden grams.

Originally Posted by Jester

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.

I know what you mean. I never look back; always forward. Too cringey.

I also miss Jo and Ryona.