I'll hit 14 in April. Next year, when I hit my 15th year, I will officially have been member for half of my life.
There are probably precious few of us left from the first year of the board's existence (1999), but some.
Also back in the old days we actually had new Trek on TV to discuss. Though it seems as if a lot of us joined in 2001, I wonder why?
It was the year Enterprise premiered, maybe? We always get a big influx of members whenever a big, new Trek thing happens.
2001 had multiple milestones for Trek: 1. Voyager's final season and episodes. 2. Enterprise ("Series V") premiering. 3. The announcement of Movie X (which became Nemesis). The Trek forums were as active as I've ever seen them.
I remember that I joined was to post about trek. Seems now I don't do that much here. It happens elsewhere with the convention stuff I do.
I would assume that most of us joined to talk about Trek, ya know, because it's a Trek board. I just don't have the patience for Trek discussions anymore. Too many people with too many opinions, most of which I don't care enough to argue about. And in the older Trek TV forums, every single topic has pretty much been discussed 100 times already, so there's little reason to venture there anymore.
I've learned to tread lightly in the Movie forums. Some of the STID threads and content were just weirder and wilder than I wanted to deal with most of the time, and I just don't have the energy for most prolonged Trek-related debates anymore, especially when dealing with the opinion that Abrams Trek is the end of the franchise but we just don't realize it yet. I never thought I'd say it when I joined up all those years ago, but the politics threads are less chaotic and divisive most of the time.
Wasn't that the year the internet got faster? No more dial up analogue modem connections? I joined back then, too, because I got specifically invited by a friend. Had had a look at the board before but frankly didn't like it. At a first glance because of the military rank system and at a closer look because of the gazillions of unbalanced teens and twens hanging out there and venting their problems by bullying others. The board has changed a lot since. Now it's quite ok but still doesn't feel comfortable. Much of that discomfort is owed to the ads, though. My fellow posters are mostly very nice . And I liked the old blue/gold template better. The new one is too dark and doesn't offer enough contrast to display my favourite smilies.
There is. I've encountered it quite often in the Lounges. It's admittedly less common in Misc, TNZ or in PMs.