History of the phantasy star community!

[Dr_Odin]

SHABANG!

while watching many old school phantasy fans popin up, i thought i should ask if anyone could share the history of the phantasy star community.

where did it all start? (guessin PSDB)
what alternatives were there?
when did fans come here?

I read on a different post about some drama that lead to fans comin here and so on.

i was a member of the PSDB, but spent most of my days lurking there.

[Wing-0]

The PS Community is diverse... I at least started on the PSDB, after a so called "flame war" had occurrec that split the community between the PSDB and Cyborg Central. Me, being the ass that I am, went all curious about the two sides of the story as the PSDB version was well... biased... And so I went to CC looking for their version (I know, I was a nosy fool), encountering bad reactions from CCers (not many, just one fool I won't even name), but the CC community was actually very cool and with no rules that heavily restricted me in terms of language... Which by the way, you might have noticed how vulgar I can sound (or be read) at times. The freedom of topics was even a plus too. Still, I disliked belonging to only one community, so I openly displayed my sitting on the fence policy. I posted on the PSDB and frequented the CC chatroom.

Since my life became very busy, I decided to focus on my stuff and then I fell into oblivion...

[Wing-0]

That and I had some very lenghty, useless and ultimately stupid arguments with some of the PSDB regulars like Mike Ripplinger, Parn and a few more that my brain doesn't spend resources in keeping a record on... Oh... JWL was in hate mode most of the time... I remember he told a girl who announced she was a bisexual on the board she was mentally ill...

I don't quite remember what triggered him to go into that mode... I seem to remember he was robbed at a school dorm...

Then, as I said, I decided to check the community and dropped by. People's fun, and I'm sliiiiightly more mature than I was back then...

I still speak like a sailor, though... But only if you tell me you're all right with it... However, since there are people who don't know me or don't deserve the pain of having me speak like that, I promise to watch my language... a tiny bit at least. =)

[Mono]

I started to visit PS communities about the same time as Wing, somewhere between late 1999 and early 2000. When I first found the PSDB, I remember we had two options for PS oriented DBs, the PSDB itself and the CCDB, at the Cyborg Central. At that time they coexisted, and most people on CCDB were regulars on the PSDB too, and vice versa.

But with time, both communities evolved into different things, mostly oriented according to the community size, and personality of their rulers and most active members. As the PSDB grew more quickly, Maxx chosed to make more restrictions about words, subjects and attitudes that BroWren didn't have to care much about on his side. Then, some people started to feel more confortable posting nonsense stuff on the CCDB than on PSDB - and some who tried to take both boards like the same, were banned from PSDB. It was like a split between conservatives and liberals. Tension was growing.

I remember someday a certain female member that used to hang out on both boards, and happened to be a close friend to BroWren, was violently flamed on the CCDB by several PSDB regulars because of some misunderstood during an online PSO session. This caused the "moral" split between the two communities permanently, as the whole CC community standed on her side (and shot their gun machines against other PSDB members who didn't take part on it, specially the moderator :^P). It was the first time I remember someone being banned from CCDB, besides CompileShooter (who survived for a quite long time there!). But because it all happened outside PSDB, Maxx (who was aware of everything) didn't do anything against CCers. He saved it for later.

Some time later, someone proposed a picture thread on PSDB. The remaining CCers jumped in and took the oportunity to make fun of PSDB with their own pics (Jukor's "birds" is legendary :^P) and comments. In the same week, someone mentioned "Otaku" there somewhere, and Mike Ripplinger replied "What is Otaku?", to which Jukor responded "Baka". Jukor was promptly banned, and every CCer that argumented with Maxx about it got the boot too. Wing, I, and two or three others that used to be regular members of both communities were the only survivors, because we avoided to take sides on the board. It was the final blow in the board wars.

As the Cyborg Central community was very small compared to the PSDB - which remained as the gravity center of the Phantasy Star community on the net - it slowly faded, being reduced to a hosting server and an IRC channel to which only a handful attended.

Between 2005 and 2007 I didn´t follow much. Back in 2005, the PSCave MB was replacing the CCDB's role of an alternative to the PSDB strict rules and mentality. Still posted a little on PSDB and here (and frequented #CC on IRC), when, someday the PSDB was gone. I never knew why it did happen exactly, but as the community grew too old and too deeply rooted on the same habits, and having lost important members (Mike Ripplinger, Naflign, JWL - formerly the Hatless Dezorian, because, believe or not, he was funny one day - and some CCers as well, active fanfic writers and fanartists), the flame seemed to become slowly extinct in the last months anyway. There was too little to discuss there besides political stuff and personal grudges.

Now the PSCave takes the PSDB role as the main board for old and new school PS loons. It shows how vigorous it is now when you think how long it was off, and how many people were back with it, like they were just waiting it to reopen, and how many new and old guys joined in.

There is still much about how things were before I first got online. It seems there were some terrible flame wars back then, but I never knew the details.

[Wing-0]

Hahahahah, that post brought both a laugh and a tear of nostalgia.

I miss old members that I took a liking to. Duma is especially important to me, as we have maintained sporadic contact over the years (BUT SHE RARELY CONNECTS ON MSN!!!) and several others.

I think that we old farts unknowingly earned a certain responsibility... I just realized that... Since we are old as krap (meant to use the other word but I dunno how strict Missagh is with vocabulary), we should try to keep the community free of our old habits... Well, I'm more guilty than Mono... I clashed frequently with some members as time went on... Mono was the more civil of the two...

DAMN, I wonder who keeps communication with old members that aren't here...

*enters nostalgia-depression mode*

Oh well... I'll watch porn... or anime... or better yet... study...

[Mono]

I was involved in the board wars on the PSO defending the girl and accusing PSDBers of everything on the CCDB :^P

An amusing moment I can remember was Wing, I, Lord Khyron, and someone else, I don't remember anymore, playing real silly on the PSDB one night. It was an enormous, off topic, no-text thread. We were expecting to be banned whenever Maxx would see it, but he spared us :^P

[Wing-0]

I don't remember that!

Care to narrate what we were doing? Because I don't remember ever doing that... But hey... My mind's a real haze, forgetting old events and stuff.

I do remember that one time, while it was new year, several PSDB members were literally using the board as a real time chatroom... Of course, I was included in that. Another time, on CC during the oscars, at the very moment Halle Berry was holding her oscar and going crazy on stage we were all making fun of her because of how funny she looked while doing it.

[Dorrinal]

CompileShooter

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Sange Mahlay]

I joined sometime in 2001-2002. In general, I felt that the board was much better than a lot of places, there was a lot less flaming and only the occasional troll. There was an air of civility, er... most of the time. Arguments over canon and theory were rampant. I contributed little to those discussions mainly because I never really felt the urge to put a lot of "research" into my arguments.

Though the tendency to go off-topic was high, those were pretty fun. I remember one thread where each poster posted some of the lyrics to the Barenaked Ladies "One Week". I think it was because of threads like that and the political and culture war discussions that erupted that it was split into an on-topic and off-topic board.

Anyway, the way I remember things going down was sort of a flurry of activity during the run-up to Iraq. It consumed the board for a while, and then things quieted down again. Mike drifted off (may have had something to do with his brother's passing), but it stopped getting crazy. It stayed pretty quiet until the board was shut down. Boards are like that, I'm told.

As for the shut down, all I remember was that the board was down for maintenance (adding new features! ) and then, nothing. No message or anything. Maxx still updates the site occasionally but nothing major. The last new section created was for PSO: Episodes I and II

[Wing-0]

CompileShooter

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

He had other names... Compy comes to mind... CompileShitter was coined by someone, man, did that crack me up...

[Semix]

Wow i feel like a real nuwbie. I joined in 09 after finding pscaves psiv section. Then signed up and got into. Ive done well i think, im 11th top poster in a way shorter time than others. Hopfuly my commens arnt smam...

[thriwren]

I guees I came in for PSDB after the big heat.I think I minght of been there at 2001-2002 at the earliest. But Known about the Maxx's site for a few years before that.

[Wing-0]

Because I can't quite remember a Thriwren... but then again... My memory IS hazy...

[Wing-0]

In the same week, someone mentioned "Otaku" there somewhere, and Mike Ripplinger replied "What is Otaku?", to which Jukor responded "Baka". Jukor was promptly banned, and every CCer that argumented with Maxx about it got the boot too. Wing, I, and two or three others that used to be regular members of both communities were the only survivors, because we avoided to take sides on the board. It was the final blow in the board wars.

It's not that I didn't take sides... I just didn't understand WTF was going on. I was like "Eh!? Eh!? Why'd he get banned? Huh!? Now another one! WHA!?"

I asked around later what happened on #CC (which is back! WOOHOO!!) and someone explained to me the incident.

Suffice to say, my confusion was still there, and surprise, surprise, still is!! =P