When did you join your first forum and why?

[Jan]

I wasn't sure where to post this, but "In The Beginning" seems appropriate as it is regarding the first forum you ever joined. Believe it or not, there are still a gazillion people connected to the internet who don't know what a forum is (apart from an offline meeting place".

I thought it would make an interesting discussion as to what motivated you to join your first ever forum? How did you feel when you first joined? How many forums do you now participate at on a regular basis and as a lurker?

For myself, it was searching for answers on the demise of an advertising company and how to get the money that was owed to me.

As I had never seen a forum prior to my search, I found it confusing, wondering how all those people could post on a website :blush:

I am probably a member of around 15 forums now, but only active in five, semi-active in two and rarely visit the remainder.

So how about you? :spiderloo

[TheDPQ]

The first forum i joined was at guistuff.com. Horrible website but the forum was for users who wanted to learn to do graphics and programming themselves. It was my first forum and the first forum i modded (i still have nightmares. 300 active users, no admin, and i was the only mod) and i'd say because of that i got into forums in a big way which lead to me finally becoming the admin of one.

I'd seen forums before that but just never signed up. I'd been on some forum-like sites before like Bolt but thats just delayed general chat for the most part haha.

I'd say the only forums i check on a regular basis now are Yaxay, TheAdminZone, VB.org, VB.com and this one.

Just really don't have the time now.

[Scott]

If you count MSN groups, it was probably about 2000 that I first joined, although maybe a year later for a proper one.

At first I found them quite a mess, with nothing really making sense - although some forums are still like that. There are maybe 5 forums which I regularly post in, another 3 that I'm a member in but rarely post, and probably another half dozen I've forgotten altogether.

To be honest, when I come upon a largeish forum, I'd try not to register if possible, simply because I know I'll never come back. I've found that jumping into a big forum and trying to take part in the community is hard to do, especially when people know each other quite well and like to reminisce about the "good old days". If I stumble across a newer forum on a topic I quite like (such as this one was when I joined) I'm much more likely to stick around and become active. (Then a few years down the line I can complain to some newbie about the good old days :D)

[Jan]

If you count MSN groups, it was probably about 2000 that I first joined, although maybe a year later for a proper one.
I have no idea what MSN groups are, I was mainly asking about forums such as this one and how you adapted to the "community" when you hadn't been a member of such a *technological* resource before and how you found it.

[Scott]

I have no idea what MSN groups are.Basically a bit of software which allows people to use their MSN logins to join a community. You can add message boards, pages, etc without having to worry about all the technical stuff.

It is very limiting (you can't close topics on the message boards, for example), and I haven't used them for a long time since I quite like all that technical stuff :D

[sandrodz]

I believe it was forum.ge - local forum in my country :) and I was among first 100 users :) now it has more million users :P

[TheDPQ]

I have no idea what MSN groups are, I was mainly asking about forums such as this one and how you adapted to the "community" when you hadn't been a member of such a *technological* resource before and how you found it
Well before i got into forums i was into chatrooms, and before i was on the Internet i was into BBSing which was what you did with a modem a terminal program and some sort of software installed on the person's computer so you can interact with it. It starts for Bulletin Board Software which is something people call forums now a days. It had games, chat, and message centers, so yah the technology was around! Its just more people didn't even get online until 2000 so they just didn't know about it.

I'm 24 now, but when i was BBSing and just getting online i was 10/11 so it was easy for me to adapt.

Yah I've always been a huge nerd, woo.

[Odd Fact]

I did the BBS thing as well. I can't remember the first forum I think it was a guitar or animal forum. Then I found Web Hosting Talk!

[adb22791]

Well I've joined a ton of forums. The first forum I ever joined was a forum that a group of my friends had for a gaming clan. I then branched off to joining the forum of our server provider, then went on to WHT... and the rest is history.

[pp.havoc]

I joined when I clicked the link in SWR signature over at WHT... and I joined because I was bored and saw a lot of people from WHT over here as well. :D

[KimmiKat]

I first mboard was the old BBS systems as someone mentioned. For the www, it was the Geocities boards during the hight of the "Watermark" era. Shortly after that it was the boards at XOOM when they were a free host.

[TheDPQ]

WooHoo go old-school BBSing.

I actually had my own BBS but i never got beyond the setup. I bought PCBOARD but when it came time to config the menus to look cool i gave up!! ;) I only had one line into my house anyways.

Online forum software sure has come a long way, it should be interesting to see what happens. Its hard to have JUST a forum anymore.

[lpstong]

I was into chatting, online games and groups - like yahoo. Than after reading through some posts and suggestion from others. I was told about Sitepoint. I was told if I wanted to find out about how to progam or to learn the basics or where to go to find help. This would be the place.

I still am not experience enough in programming. But lead me to other forums for help in diffent topics.

Not every forum has the same topics or good at every topic. I find that Sitepoint is good for graphics/programming and selling of sites. And that Namepros and DNForum are great places to buy and sell domains. And I could list 2 or 3 major forums that discuss web hosting as well.

[telegraph.hill]

My first experience of forums was when I started studying with the Open University in the UK - they have their own internal forum system. As well as covering all the Open Uni courses, they also have sub-forums for everything under the sun.

So I started out joining the sub-forum for my topic, and ended up going on all sorts of specific interest forums, such as travel and so on.

After that someone told me about a public forum run from a server in someone's house in London. It's kinda alternative, and covers all topics.

Then I started googling for forums and have found several that are useful and interesting.

[Webmaster7]

The first webmasters forum I joined was webmasterworld, almost 5 years ago. I was a reader much before that, and someday I decided I should give something back, and share what I knew.

[Frets]

My first forum was Flashkit. I'm approaching my Seventh year with them 5 as a super moderator. The swish forum was something amazing at that time. Hundreds of posts back then. It was a happy positive experience. Trying to get into a mod spot was tough. Each of the mods would bow out once a year to give someone else a chance and the wannabe mods were lined up. Outside of the swish forums flashkit was a pretty hard nosed place. It was easy to see why a moderator could turn bitter.

Once I'd become a mod at fk I expanded my knowledge and realm. Taking on other forums such as fonts, sound & music, the lounge and others. I can't say I tamed flashkit by myself but I did put my best foot foreward and several other moderators stepped up to the plate. My ability to manage situations as a mod working with other mods and with members got me into a supermod posistion.

Along the way I took on other mod/supermod/admin positions for other sites including swishtalk, swishspot, loopers lounge. And I was the first non employee to moderate swishzone's forums (now I work for them)

[bear]

I started out on Usenet in the late 90's back when it was mostly archived by Dejanews, though I connected from elsewhere. After getting pretty discouraged by the unmoderated wildness of places like alt.html and the photoshop groups (talk about trolls!), I saw some references to various "forums". Followed a few, signed up, and mostly lurked for a long time. Hung around WHT for a while, finally signing up in October 2002, eventually joining staff.
I'm a member of probably 20 forums or so, (super)moderate at 3, admin at 4 more.

[BOLT]

forum.bodybuilding.com was my first. I was really into weight training and it was after I read a bunch of articles from their site. Then I finally joined. I was 12 years old (I'm 14 now).

[n4tec]

the forum is joined was a free host forum. since i badly needed to get some hosting and the forum had great support staff. i then later signup to become a vip member at the forum which was certainly a great experience.
I'm probably a member of 60+ forums. i have been an admin at 2, super mod at 1 and also a mod at one.

[mikey1090]

i joined a forum of the game i played.

major forums i post in are here, my own forum, sitepoint, digital point, daniweb and devshed sometimes and WHT lots of course:)

[Kaizen]

I joined my first forum way back in 2001. I joined it because i was going through some issues in my life and they seemed to have a nice community to help and support me through my hard time.

[PinkFloyd]

From memory (and boy how it isn't good) I the first forum I ever joined was the PinkFloyd-co.com forum back in 1998. It was hosted with some other 3rd party website, but it was pretty cool. It grew pretty quickly and does quite well since.

I remember joining the Echoes Hub Forum (not sure if that is even up anymore) in 2000. That rapidly grew and became to much like a Newsgroup, so I left that forum.

[rozha]

i don't really remember my genuinely first forum. my first expirience was icq in 1998. and the first forum i remember (it sounds like remembering childhood - the first thing i remember, huh?) was about guns - at that time (2000-2001 i presume) i wanted to buy a gun and was looking desperately for any information about how do i do this. the funny thing - the gun is gone, my desire for it is gone (i was really young back then and also after army service, so weapons still gave the chill) but surprisingly the community still stands. :)

[telegraph.hill]

After that someone told me about a public forum run from a server in someone's house in London. It's kinda alternative, and covers all topics.



Actually it's urban75:

http://www.urban75.com/

It's an ezine, based in Brixton, London, but now with a very international flavour. Their forums are general, and v good.

[D'Godown]

Well mine was WHT, and i found it when i was searching for a web host, I never knew this much web hosts are existing :O

When i first saw WHT, it was my first time to see such a thing like forum and Once i saw advertising category, for the next week it took me almost a week to find that category again, For that week i almost lost inside the threads.

Apparantly i started thinking that the software used in this forum maybe costs in million $$$$$$$ :D

[telegraph.hill]

Yes, WHT is excellent, and very active. I have just discovered it via this forum. When you ask a question over on WHT you get an answer within minutes!

Still like this forum though! :)

[beamup]

Well I think its just been 5 months or so that I have been into the forom stuff ........ but I dont remembver the first forum that I signed upto.....

[Martyn]

was the legendofmir.net forum. because during school, i used to play it. :) like 4 years ago that was. lol