this place turns 25 soon

[mikey22]

Wow what an accomplishment! Met a lot of my turtle friends here. I learned about rare toys- the german release of the original movie with deleted scenes-and so much more!

Happy to be here and cowabunga!

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Other communities and website fade away, in favour of social media, but the Technodrome still remains. Not surprising, when it is covered with foot-thick titanium armour...

During 25 years, the community has survived at lot. Let's check out Earth in October 1999, and then compare it today.

*We had one TMNT cartoon (Fred Wolf), and two major comic runs (Mirage–Image and Archie). The Turtles had appeared on the big cinema screen three times. But now, their popularity was fading away.

*Video games were played on a Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation or home computer. Nintendo dominated the handheld market with its Gameboy Line.

*The Internet we know today had only been around for less than 5 years, and most people didn't have broadband, just dial-up.

*Radio and television operated on a scheudle, and home-taping was the only way of skipping commercial breaks on such channels. DVD had just been introduced, but VHS still dominated. Recorded music was released to CD or cassette tapes.

*Pop music was dominated by Britney Spears, Cherilyn Sarkisian (Cher), A-Teens and Ricky Martin.

*Team France dominated international men's soccer, winning the FIFA World Cup in mid 1998 and the UEFA European Championship in mid 2000. The Czech Republic dominated international men's ice hockey, winning the World Championship in 1996, 1999, 2000 and 2001, and the 1998 Olympic Gold medal.

*Bill Clinton was the President of the United States of America.

*Elizabeth II was the Queen of the United Kingdom, while Tony Blair acted as Prime Minister.

*NATO consisted of 19 member states, after expanding into including the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in March. 10 years had passed since the end of the Cold War. NATO dominated the world.

*Russia was ran by Boris Yeltsin, and while political freedom peaked, its economy was on its way of collapsing.

*John Paul II was Roman Catholic Pope (correct title: Bishop of Rome).

[IndigoErth]

So you're saying the forum started with a lot of annoying kids and has seen them though (or would have it many were still here) to becoming cranky middle agers.

[CyberCubed]

The very earliest posters here in 1999 were mostly 12-13 year olds at the time. Makes sense, all the kids from the original cartoon era were basically becoming teens by the end of the 90's.

[The Deadman]

This thread is right up Cubed's alley. He gets to talk about age.

[IMJ]

It's hard to run a website and a forum for that long - this place even outlasted Advanced Iron (which began before the Drome).

If this place has earned any respect along the way then let it be for being carried on the back of Krang as a passion-project all of this time.

I would toast to that....

[CyberCubed]

Does anyone know how much Krang the owner pays a year to keep these forums running?

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by IMJ

It's hard to run a website and a forum for that long - this place even outlasted Advanced Iron (which began before the Drome).

If this place has earned any respect along the way then let it be for being carried on the back of Krang as a passion-project all of this time.

I would toast to that....

It outlasted both Planet Namek and the He-Man Org forums. Those three are the forums of my internet childhood and helped me keep tabs on those shows from Mexico.

[ZariusTwo]

This is one of only two forums that I've spent 20 years on, the other is Rangerboard.

[CyberCubed]

IGN and gamefaqs forums are still very active. Toonzone somehow came back after being dead for awhile.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

IGN and gamefaqs forums are still very active. Toonzone somehow came back after being dead for awhile.

Jesus, IGN forums are still alive?

[Barkworm]

Wow, I've been here for more than half of my life...

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

IGN and gamefaqs forums are still very active. Toonzone somehow came back after being dead for awhile.

I forgot all about Gamefaqs, despite the fact I check in every week during wrestling.

CBR Forums are still up too.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Does anyone know how much Krang the owner pays a year to keep these forums running?

Probably about a $10 a month hosting fee, like I do for my own vBulletin sites. Plus something like a yearly $12-15 fee to renew the domain name every year.

He never renewed the vBulletin software itself (it is now an expired license) years ago so he isn't paying anything for the board itself.

[The Deadman]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Jesus, IGN forums are still alive?

The IGN forums are hilarious, especially the Vestibule.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Jesus, IGN forums are still alive?

The Vesti is still as active as ever, most people still there are aging 30-40+ year olds who have been there since their teens.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

CBR Forums are still up too.

CBR went through a phase where you could only be allowed to register on the first day of every month. Then they changed their host software and that rule went away.

[sdp]

90% of forum users today are basically forum users from the 2000s who refused to change to social media or discord. This is why forums became so bad, no new blood, just the same jaded individuals.

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Probably about a $10 a month hosting fee, like I do for my own vBulletin sites. Plus something like a yearly $12-15 fee to renew the domain name every year.

He never renewed the vBulletin software itself (it is now an expired license) years ago so he isn't paying anything for the board itself.

Does your site get as much traffic as this one? I doubt a $10 cheap shared hosting tier would work for the drome, it'd be down half the time. Krang pays more than $10 a month, in fact I'm guessing he hasn't cared to update hosting packages in years so he likely pays more than he should.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by sdp

Does your site get as much traffic as this one?

Not even close, at least not anymore.

I doubt a $10 cheap shared hosting tier would work for the drome, it'd be down half the time.

Of course it would. A vBulletin board isn't, like, streaming videos or anything. It doesn't cost much bandwidth at all, even if there was 10,000 active posters on all at the same time.

Krang pays more than $10 a month, in fact I'm guessing he hasn't cared to update hosting packages in years so he likely pays more than he should.

It's a remote possibility. Though if he is he's being ripped off.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by sdp

90% of forum users today are basically forum users from the 2000s who refused to change to social media or discord. This is why forums became so bad, no new blood, just the same jaded individuals.

While true, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Some of the would-be new blood that exists elsewhere online can be irritating as hell. There's some I see on the TMNT Reddit that I think would be good candidates as forum members... but there's too many others who I'm glad aren't.

Granted some are prob just young and would be better in, say, 10 years, but will the forum be around and will they still be in interested in this franchise.