We've Come A Long Way...

[Warlock]

[FONT=Tahoma]So, v7 is now upon us. However, while I'm sure there are many people now discussing this brand new upgrade, I thought this'd be a prime time to look back at the versions before us. The versions that enticed practically all of us to become members of this great community.

So, how did you stumble upon Otaku Boards? And, for that matter, when? What do you remember, what would you prefer to forget? I think I'll get the ball rolling. ^_^

I first came upon Otaku Boards (and theOtaku) at the start of 2001. Seems like a long time ago, too. I passed a friend of sorts using the computer at school, and when I curiously glanced to see what he was doing, I noticed he was on a message board. I'm sure you can all guess which one. Finding what I saw interesting, I mentally branded it onto my brain, and then went on with my day. (Oh, and for all of those wondering, that particular person was Amioc; some of you who have been here a while might remember him.)

Moving on, while I didn't sign up at first, I took a couple of days to slowly look around, before becoming engrossed in theOtaku.com. It wasn't until a tiny bit later that I eventually returned to Otaku Boards, and finally signed up with the username I still use today.

I became a regular user of Adventure Arena (which, back in the day, was called Games and Stories), which soon saw me become its Moderator a few months later. By now, OB had upgraded from v2 to v3, and was well along by the time I got my position... And merely a few days later, disaster struck.

While my memory is still slightly hazy, a disgruntled old staff member 'hacked' the Boards by using an Administrator password. He then procedded to ban or delete any Staff member who could stop him, and generally caused some damage. It wasn't until a member convinced him to let him join in on the fun, and thus get the password, that the trouble makers were in turn booted, and order was restored.

It was at this point I returned home from a drive, only just missing the whole thing.

OB was then upgraded to v4, with all posts from the previous version lost, and everyone having to sign up again. Luckily, though, this has never had to happen again; if you look back to the last pages of most of the forums (Otaku Lounge in particular), you'll find some topics and posts from way back then. How things have changed.

And so, from then, the Boards have prospered and grown. Unfortunately, starting at the very end of 2002, and continuing on and off through 2003, I was beset by many a internet connection problems, and became a much less frequent visitor (as well as loosing my Staff position, as can be expected). It wasn't only until just recently the problems were set right, and I began to settle back in...

So, what about everyone else? What are your stories?

[/FONT]

[Kinetic]

[size=1][color=royalblue]Wow, surprisingly, I remember much of that ^_^'[/color][/size]

[size=1][color=#4169e1]It was when I first started using the internet (10-12 years old, I don't remember). I went to Yahoo! and searched for DBZ (being the mainstream anime fan that I was), thus finding theOtaku.com. I saw the words "Message Board" and was automatically drawn to it out of curiosity. I joined as Chibi Trunks and Miari Trunks (I have no idea why I joined twice), not completely understanding what it was about, but I did get the idea that it was a place to talk. I'm pretty sure it was v2, and it was [i]extremely[/i] busy, in the DBZ forum at least. I remember Will2x losing all of his posts and that entire war, and the main names I remember are H-Bomb, Oz and Trunks (which I'm pretty sure is Zeh, who I'm pretty sure is banned now, correct me if I'm wrong). I remember loosening up and becoming a crazy spammer. I would post messages consisting of only smilies. ^_^'[/color][/size]

[size=1][color=#4169e1]I eventually grew angry at the board's post limit and I was on Will2x's side during the battles, as he was my friend. I found a new forum called Anikey that I joined and I loved it (I would still go there to this day if it hadn't shut down due to bandwidth. Anikey was enormous). I learned a great deal about web design there and created many websites. Eventually, I returned to OtakuBoards, to see that it had turned into something completely different. I now had a greater knowledge of the internet and understood completely was was acceptable and unacceptable on forums. I signed up once more as Aries (often being mistaken for a girl as "Aeris"), and my name was changed to Kinetic. This is where I am now. lol[/color][/size]

[b][size=1][color=#4169e1]E D I T: I was wondering where you had gone Warlock. You don't even know me (unless you secretly stalk me or something), but I immediately realized that you were a respected member on the forums and yeah. . .forgot what I was saying, but yeah, I was wondering where you were :p[/color][/size][/b]

[Boba Fett]

[color=green]I was in early eighth grade, either that or late seventh; I can?t remember. Anyway, this was when Ben introduced me to OtakuBoards. Most of you who?ve been here a while know him, he?s a great guy and rather funny to boot.

Anyway, I joined under a rather silly username (Which shall not be mentioned) before finally registering as Boba Fett. The reason for this change was simple; I moved and lost my password. Now lacking both identifying factors required to use my account, I was forced to make a new one. Being the newbie that I was, I didn?t think to ask an administrator to help. Thus, I became Boba Fett.

I was a fairly abysmal newbie, who should have been banned. I still regard it as a miracle that I wasn?t. Heck, if I were a moderator I?d have banned me. I interuppted other people?s RPGs and even was stupid enough to start someone?s for them (Ryan's revelation that he was /☼~NoodleZ~☼\ is a pleasant, but embarrassing surprise. As I recall, it was one of his Harry Potter RPGs that I started. It was the first of two RPGs I?ve been booted from. At the time, I sent him both an apology PM and an e-mail. I got no response from either and assumed he didn?t want to talk to me. So that?s one of the more embarrassing chapters in my OtakuBoards history.). Devil smilies framed all my posts and there are multiple instances where I double posted or worse. Don?t you dare go looking for them?

As time went by, I matured. I found a niche and stuck in it. I became fast friends with Juuthena, Duo God of Death (Now Lalaith Ril) and Mist. It was with these three companions that I participated in my first RPGs that went to completion. Two were Lord of the Rings and another was Episode III. During that time, I despised Scratn9 (Now Scrat). He doesn?t post much anymore, but at that time he was always tagging along with us. We were so mean to him and despised him because of his low post quality. Kind of ironic, since none of us were much better.

Time passed and they drifted away. Today, I?m the most active to all of them by leaps and bounds. This loss of my friends made me realize that I really didn?t know the vast majority of the people on the boards. I knew Matt fairly well, along with BabyGirl, but that was it. I felt alone. I became a much less frequent poster and completely abandoned OtakuBoards this past summer.

I came back when I began to crave more social interaction that I was no longer getting from school. I?m new here and most social circles were closed to me. It?s still very difficult to make friends. The people I?ve met here have evolved from fallback friends to real people that I feel more attached to than any of my real life friends. Due to the frequency of my family?s moves, I?ve known most people here longer than anyone in real life.

So that?s my history on the boards. Recently, I?ve found a cadre of new friends that is much wider than my old one. I still have great memories of the people I hung out with in the ?good old days? don?t get me wrong. I just feel that the group I?m hanging out with now is much larger and therefore more stable than my old one.

So yeah, that?s about it.[/color]

[AnonymousSource]

Actually... I came across theotaku when I was looking for episode guides for Gundam Wing (yea... I'm a cheater...).

I was looking through the Gundam Wing part for some time thinking that's all it was... then I realized it was only a section of it, and the rest was quite cool!

I most loved the otaku arena part... but when they stopped adding stuff to it I got bored and wanted more, so when I found out the otakuboards was there and had a whole forum to read... I bookmarked it.

I then got motivated to try it for myself, so I got a username... and Anonymous Source was an idea I had recently gotten for a tv show I was going to write.

I chickened out right away, so I spent some time just watching the battle arena. About 3 months later (no joke) I finally got the courage to start a battle (which ended undecisively... mind you). From there, I evolved into the mediocre poster you know today as... well me!

That's my story. I was actually thinking about starting a thread like this for some time... thanks for beating me to it:D

[Ryan]

[font=Franklin Gothic Medium]Ok, lemme think for a second...[/font]

[font=Franklin Gothic Medium]ah yes...[/font]
[font=Franklin Gothic Medium]I don't have a good memory so I'm sorry but anyway. I think I was at my friend's house and we were looking for cool Dragonball/Z pictures to use as wallpaper for his desktop. We typed in something along the lines of "Dragonball Z pictures" or something like that and we somehow came to theotaku.com. There were a few pictures, if I can recall right, but we searched around and found some cool information about the show. I remembered the website address and went to it the next day. From there on I continually went to theotaku.com for my DBZ information and some other cool shows at that time. It wasn't until maybe a little bit less than a year I noticed the link for the boards. I curiously clicked it and found the board. It was one of the earlier versions, I think it was v2, I'm pretty sure it was v2. Anyway, I ended up signing up with some name like UltraChibiGoten, or maybe there was a "Super" in there too? Anyway, I think I got somewhere around 60 posts and then we went to v3. I think I may have registered again under another name, but I'm not certain. Anyway, everything went fine and I think it was v4, pretty sure, was when I registered yet again and went under /☼~NoodleZ~☼\. Don't ask on how I got the name, I am not sure myself, it just sounded like a cool name one day so I went for it and I was under that name for a long time, until I got James to change my name to Ryan and viola! Here I am, at the beginning of v7. I've been here since v2. It hasn't seemed like it has been that long, but now that I think about it, 5 versions, it has been quite awhile...[/font]

[font=Franklin Gothic Medium]So, there it is. Now my facts about the versions on when I got new names and stuff like that maybe be off, I certainly don't have the best memory, but I did the best that I could.:D [/font]

[Shinmaru]

I first came upon The Otaku.com about last March. I was in a Computer class and for every project we had to turn in, we needed to make a cover sheet with a picture on it. My sister showed me The Otaku.com, so I went there to fulfill my need for cool pictures. I never really noticed the link to the boards until a couple months later. However, on May 20th, 2003, a day that shall live in infamy, I joined OtakuBoards under the extremely horrendous name of mirai_torankusu (commence with the laughing - you know you want to).

I was a decent newbie...I had my share of good times (I had tons of fun in the Nintendo forum) and bad times (a couple bad threads and some god-awful RPG posts). I slowly improved and around the time myOtaku debuted (August, I think), I officially changed my name to Shinmaru.

I continued to post a ton in the Nintendo forum and, in September, I was asked to become a mod. Being the cool guy I am (read: OMG JAMEZ WANTZ MEH AZ A MOD!!!!111), I gladly accepted James's offer and became the Moderator of the Nintendo section of the boards. Becoming a mod didn't really change me all too much: I started as a power-hungry tyrant and ruled the Nintendo forum as a power-hungry tyrant. I continued posting a lot in Nintendo, but my thread creating went lower and lower as the months passed by, which is truly a sad thing. I'm hoping to rectify that as of now ^_^

Somehow, I became a pretty popular member for whatever reason. I wasn't even aware that people actually knew who I was but apparently people actually remember me as mirai_torankusu (which is good or bad depending on how you look at it). I've gotten to know a lot of great people on the boards and I've developed some really great friendships that I wouldn't trade for the world - OB has definitely been a very, very positive experience for me, without a doubt.

[Kanariya]

[COLOR=DarkSlateBlue]Oh, this sure does bring back stuff. Although I haven't been here long.

I was on a message board, and everyone was talking about some InuYasha quiz thing, and since I was a big InuYasha fanatic then, anything that had InuYasha on it would surely be something I would like.
The person gave me the link, which happened to be theotaku.com. I searched around for the quiz, then found it, then took more quizzes, checked out fan art, then realized there were message boards. I chose the username of course as Inuluvr1, until I decided to change it, to my dead cat's name, Wasabi. Inuluvr1 didn't seem right for me anymore, since I wasn't into InuYasha really much then back then.
I got here when I was in the fifth grade actually, 2003. Registered during the summer in July. I can't believe of remembered that.

I really regret nothing, although I do admit I improved a little in my writing and stuff from being here on the boards.[/COLOR]

[Bio]

[font=tahoma][color=sienna]I remember I found otakuboards directly while looking for lyrics to a .hack song. There was a thread about .hack music going on, so wanting to comment, I signed up as Arch. I suppose I wasn't a [i]horrible[/i] newbie, but I'm pretty sure that a few of my posts had absolutely no punctuation whatsoever.

Also, I joined [i]Lost Hearts[/i] in the Adventure Arena. While that was going on, Annie (then animangademon) straightened me out. (though I would still run off-topic)

A few months later, (when I had improved considerably) I bought FFXI, and forgot about otakuboards for around a month. I then came back, and requested that my name be changed to Bio.

And here I am, exploring the extremely convenient and sleek v7.[/font][/color]

[Guest cloricus]

o0o0o I thinks I like OBV7...

I came here late V3 under a different nick name but soon started coming a lot more in v4 under this nickname, from the early days logging in from the graphic blocks computers trying to remember how to spell otaku I liked it. LiamC2 dragged me here just to note. :D

[Juu]

[COLOR=deeppink][SIZE=1][FONT=Tahoma]When I first joined, I had come from this really, really spammy Dragonball Z forum, which was pretty near not moderated at all. So when I first joined, I made a kinda... sarcastic thread in the Dragonball forum. ^_^;;; (*gets frying pan and sits on search button* (wherever it is))

And I told TN it was my brother, ehheh. ^-^;;

Anywho, my first bestest friend was Mist, when she PM'ed me and asked to be my buddy, who then introduced me to RPG'ing. That's where I met Boba, Lalaith, Kinetic, D_A, Krillen, and.... well, Scrat.

After mucho technical difficulties, I got Yahoo Messenger downloaded on my compy so I could finally TALK to Mist/Evie!...and her iron rod. @.@ And from there I started talking to Phantom, Boba, Lalaith, and a few others. I joined the ES-Clan, though I was totally clueless on what I was supposed to do! xx; Then a little while after that, I got the guts to post my picture (ugh, that horrible, horrible picture xx), and TONS more following.

A little while after that, I was 'married' to Lalaith, (*throws cookies at Tori and Piro for starting that evil trend not-purposely* >>)

I started talking to Ken (DeathKnight) once I installed AIM. Since then, Kenna invited me to OB chats, and that's when I started to get to know more members from OB! Like a few of my best friends. (They know who they are xx) ...and that year, I won a few Otaku awards which I totally wasn't worthy of. xx;;;

And right after meeting my first friend from online, Shy (Joshness), I was 'banned' from OB by family, for various reasons. But I'm still allowed to keep a myOtaku, and visit-not post on OB, and I'm totally loving the new skin! The features have been uber-fun to mess around with, too!

(Keep up the moss-some work! ^-^)

*ish such a dork*[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[JCBaggee]

[color=red][size=1]*Sigh*

This just prompted me to go back and re-read some of my first posts on OB.

I just want to say....0_0

Yes, I was a total spammer, typing up pointless questions in this huge SIZE=4 font because I was worried no one would read my posts...boy, was I wrong. And I knew all of...no one. In fact, felt a lil' left out. (Still do, but...not as much >_>)

First person I met on OB that I kept in touch with would probably be Kevin. In fact, I still keep in touch with him and did some work with him on his own site/board. I know quite a few people here, and I consider every member a friend now.

Yeah, I don't post that much anymore...mainly because I'm jaded and have nothing new to say, but I'm getting back in the swing of things. And the new layout is just delicious, so keep your eyes open. JCBaggee is back ^_~

--Chris[/color][/size]

[Guest Crimson Spider]

I can't remember how years ago that I first came here. 4 or 5 years ago, about It's a long story, and unless you have a minute interest in Pokémon, then I suggest you skip this post.





Still reading? You can say it all started when I first got a book that listed each pokes elements, strengths, weaknesses, attacks, levels... stuff like that. I fell in love with it and read it over and over and over. I had often dreamed about being a "Master". I earned myself the title of "Pokédex" at school because of my vast knowledge.

Well, I was sitting in 6th grade when I heard the guys talking about pokemon. Aside from the usual untrue propaganda of the mysterious made-up pokes that appeared time to time, these people were talking about movesets. They were bragging about having strong pokes such as the three spanish birds, Mewtwo, and Gyrados. While the other sets escaped me, I remember about how the kid (This school was so Ghetto that it didn't have a resident idiot. It had a resident smart-guy, who happened to be me.) was bragging about how weak the move Dragon Rage was, and how he put Hyperbeam over it. He praised the moves power along with his buddies, and then mentioned that you were paralyzed a turn after you would use the move. This is when I*first learned that the game was turn-based, and then came up with my first strategic point. One that I still use to this day... But then he went and said the rest of it's set.
Gyrados
Surf
Hydropump
Hyperbeam
water gun

atleast I think that's what it was. Anywho, I turned around to him and said something like this: "Hey. If you have 3 water moves there... isn't that kinda like wasting spots... you know... so you could put something else there to make it more versitile?"

I was laughed at, called some un-repeatable names, and then went on our ways. I easily saw their flaw in refusing to listen to someone already denoted for knowledge, and had further gave reason to why I saw myself as superior to them. I didn't realize just how far below me they were at that time... atleast game-wise.

Then came a game with a name that I claim... O.K. I'll stop rhyming. PKMN STDM was what it was called. I rented it, and through many hours of playing that game, I gathered even more information. I learned effectiveness, stat ratios, strengths, weaknessess, different strategies. I learned the cheap, and the good. But my sources were limited. I was only able to use what was givin to me in the rentals, and could not experoment with the other options.

My mother was wise, and saw my interest in the game. She then got me a strategic guide. This not only listed information about strategic battle, but it also listed every single attack that was in the game, along with each TM each poke learned. With this, I had the knowledge to begin constructing movesets for my favorites, then soon all the pokes.

While at school, this "Phase" everyone went through died, I lived on. The more-or-less fanboys had eventually learned my knowledge, and had asked for moveset information. I begin to see that I was, in fact, better than the men around me. But something was lacking: the ability to test these sets. What you see on paper isn't what's real. So I sought out to get the game.

PKMN Yellow. I got it, played it, made sets, created teams of extream power, and got better. Then a source of almost limitless knowledge came to me: the internet. As soon as it was hooked up to my house, I went abrousing. First I went to your average sites. They told me nothing of my desire for strength. From multiple sources, I came to see what I did was called Movesetting and Team Rating. I begin to do a search for these words. They brought me here.

And the rest is history.

But why I didn't sign up, you ask? Multiple reasons.
*I was computer-illiterate. (In 8th grade I was givin an award for best in the compy department. Imagine that.)
*I thought that chat rooms were the devil.
*I had no E-mail
*My parents thought that chat rooms were the devil.

While the first 3 passed, the third still remains to this day. That's why I'm always on at night, or in the moring. That, and those are the times of day I'm most awake.

[Guest Heezay]

I first came to TheOtaku a looooong, looong time before OtakuBoards. Back when theOtaku was still V3 and Ginny made Digimon Episode guides.(which was almost all I came for, except the DBZ section.) Anyways I joined OtakuBoards when I saw a post on it on the main site(theOtaku). I signed on as Crusader, but later I regarded it as a dumb name and changed my ego to Heezay, which I now realize ain't that much better. :(

This place is a great message board with a friendly atmosphere, and I hope to continue see it grow and expand.

[Baron Samedi]

Lessee. I have probably told people about this at some time or other.

Ok. Way back in 01 I was a massive Pokemon freak. I loved them to death. So, I found OB. Sadly, I was at school and had no home computer. I visisted here for a few weeks, but then left over the holidays. On a long afternoon one day in May of 2003 I thought about OB. And came back to see if it even existed. After a few weeks of horrible, newbie-esque posting I recovered and became bettter.

Until I reached the fabulous pinnacle I am at now.

[size=1]This fascinating glimpse into the history of [url=http://www.myotaku.com/users/baron_samedi/]Baron Samedi[/url] was brought to you by myself, Baron Samedi.[/size]

[Red]

[color=#002E55]Well, I first stumbled upon theOtaku when I was looking for pictures and episode guides for Dragonball Z, since over here the episodes hadn't progressed very far. I kept visiting, especially as I started to watch other animes that were on theOtaku, but I hadn't noticed the little message board logo in the corner.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was a little Vegeta picture with a link, but for some reason it didn't entice me until I was working in an office and decided to see what it was all about; probably out of pure boredom. ^_^;[/color]

[Shinken]

Well, it's official. OtakuBoards has become the greatest forum in history!

I remember when I found theOtaku. It was waaaaay back in the day. The reason was simple: I was looking for DBZ images. So, I found the DBZ Image Gallery, and then I just went on from there. Soon I was part of the forums, and then myOtaku came along. I think I joined around v4, maybe. I can't remember.

It's amazing how far this has gone. I hope it keeps going for a long time, because this place rocks!

Sincerely, an OB Fanboy ^^x

[Nate]

[font=Comic Sans MS][size=2][color=red]Man....I've been here for a short time. You guys are kinda scary..but hey, maybe i'll be like that eventually.^-^[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Comic Sans MS][size=2][color=#ff0000]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Comic Sans MS][size=2][color=#ff0000]Anyway, i found The0 when a friend of mine wanted some pics. Ok, i get them. Never notice the boards part, but i notice the DBZ. HUGE DBZ fan at the time. Well, i was on some DBZ forums, but i wanted more. I was on google, lookin for some forums to join, but all of them were crappy. Then i see the driscription on one of them, and it went something like this: 'Well, theOtakus' forums wanted to join this forum, but we didn't, so oh well' or something like that. So i was like "Oh snap, The0 got a forum. let me check this out" so, i went to the0 and i couldn't find the link (i was lookin on the left bar instead of the top one-i'm dumb sometimes and when i'm not dumb i'm stupid). I gave up about 5 minutes later, and went out to bike, or somethin like that.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Comic Sans MS][size=2][color=#ff0000] Anyway, i got on the next day and went to the0. What do you know, i see it. Look through the adventure forum, and i saw two pokemon rpgs i would like to be in. So i joined it later in this name:"The Trainer". I was used to the forums where you could change it any time you want, so it didn't bother me. Until i noticed i couldn't. So, when the nmae changing came open i changed it to Shinobi1827, after my rpg character that i always used (shinobi). After a while, and a few people IMing me thinkin it was the real Shinobi and clicked the wrong name, i changed it to Nate. And here I am.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Comic Sans MS][size=2][color=#ff0000]I was a spamy n00b back then, until i became a spammy junior member. But i cleaned up and became better. If i was a mod, i would have been gone on my third post. I never quite understood how two posts that were four days apart could be double posting..all the forums i saw had it so you couldn't post back to back in like 5 minutes, but it was ok if a few days past. Come to think of it, i still don't quite get it, but oh well. I know not to do it ^-^[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Comic Sans MS][size=2][color=#ff0000]_-Nate-_[/color][/size][/font]

[Sere Tuscumbia]

[font=Times New Roman]Hmmm, this might take a little while because my hands are tied together by embroidery floss, but we'll do as best as we can. ^_^[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]Lettsee, I came to OB 2001, my 8th grade year. Just a little bit before the Sept. 11th attacks, methinks . . . (whoo, got our hands to where we can use all of our fingers. Good.)[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]I was first introduced to OB through one of my close friends (she doesn't come here now, but she was called Stacy Tramer back in the day) when we both were real big Digimon fans. After a little stalling, I decided to join, (using the name I have now) and whoo, let's just say I pretty much followed everyone else's trend: I SUCKED. O_o;; I was a bad newbie. I mean, I was so bad, I was a n00b. I'm surprised that everyone else didn't burn me at the stake.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]Mainly I just posted exclusively in the Digimon forum, and then out of mere curiosity, I wandered into the G&S (Adventure Arena, although Games & Stories sounds cooler) forum, and was immediately smitten. Although, let me tell you, I still sucked. And any of you who are bored enough to try to search out some of those posts, you will either end up sitting in a corner trying to claw your eyes out, or I'll be going after you with the Sharp Pointy Chopsticks of Justice. You honestly don't want to wander into the archives.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]But, with Metro City 3 (Hybrid Vigor 4), and even a little bit of the Shipwrecked RPG (with Kool, Squashed Snail, Ryan, Liam, Raiha, Rico, and me, haha, good times.), I slowly learned how to post (and how to RP, haha.) and how to interact without being such a horrible newbie.[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]And then I just primarily stayed in the Adventure Arena, and rolled with the new versions (with a few interruptions in which I went completely crazy and left) until whoop, here I am! And loving it. ^_^[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]And that's all. (Yeah, I'm so glad I'm not the scary newbie anymore. I should have been roasted on a spit for how bad I posted. o_o;;)[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]--Sere[/font]

[Genkai]

Uh, I came here back whenever, I think it was july 2002. I made a few friends (most of which no longer come 'round to OB) and then there was the big down that occurred in august, and I've been posting on and off since.

Boring story, eh?

[James P. Galvatron]

I also like the new O.B. but where in gods green earth did my signature and avatar go nooo! This bites and know I have to redo my anime girl lovers club siggy again.