Post by David Caulfield on May 18, 2011 21:33:00 GMT -5
I don't know if this is necessary or even welcome, but it's happening anyway. I've the desire to type this out once and for all, setting down a definite history of things before it becomes any cloudier than it already is. The fact of the matter is, there's a story that needs to be told and I'm already misty-eyed from hearing 'Kentucky Avenue' again, so now's as good a time as any to tell it.
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Ever wondered why this very website is referred to as 'v2'? Here's your answer.
It all started in 2007. I know it was 2007 because I remember precisely what position in school I was in at the time - the second semester of a specific grade. It was slow, it was dull, the Internet to me held nothing more than RuneScape and pictures of cats that weren't funny in the slightest. I played a game called 'Guild Wars' at time. This is very important. In 'Guild Wars', players form into guilds and play together to achieve common goals. The guild I was active in (the name shall remain strictly classified) began an out-of-game message board in order to organize events since the in-game announcements were... less than ideal. The website was built on a very easy-to-use template through the now-defunct MSN Groups service.
Yes, 'now-defunct'. I do feel old.
One day, while cruising around the guild board, I happened upon a search feature and began looking for groups catered to my interests. I found one, a Poke'mon site called 'Poke'mon: Crystal Revived' or some kind of bullshit like that. There I met the founder of the original Poke'mon Acadamy (yes, she fucking spelled the name incorrectly), Jasmine Something. Jasmine was a newer member at the website as well whom soon advertised a brand new site of her own: Poke'mon Acadamy. Yeah... I jumped on board.
Eventually, there were a trio of admins (called Managers at MSN): Jasmine, Tom, and Steven. They ran the show, kept things in order and hailed new members into the ranks. I worked around a bit and soon became their first lackey (called Assistant Managers at MSN). After a while, newcomer numbers stagnated and the four of us met and decided to do something to excite current members and entice new ones. A certain young and, if I recall, incredibly handsome Assistant Manager suggested a site-wide event. The Council of Idiots agreed and thus, Poke'mon Academy's (I can't spell the other way anymore) first event was born!
Taking ideas from pop culture (see: Harry Potter, Arthurian legend, etc.) and putting them squarely into an island-school setting proved to be fortuitous. The Grey Mage, later named 'Magus', burned down Luscious Forest and got away. Almost every single member around at the time participated, and eventually, the high number of posts attracted new people to our little Group. So another event came, and another, and another. And they kept coming until they all weaved together like a blanket of poorly written dialogue and self-hatred. Eventually, we finished the story up, called it a Saga, and moved on.
Along the way, many more Assistant Managers joined the ranks (including, if I am not mistaken, our very own Victoria and Roxanne). They pulled the weight and did the dirty work whilst the Managers sat back and made decisions via voting. Eventually, I joined those Managers and became just as lazy in both method and storytelling. Naturally, the four of us had our disagreements, with most votes ending up 3-1 and I'm sure you can figure out who Uno was the whole time, every time. So it goes.
After a while, things stagnated again, but we were active enough to be okay with that (a few months before 'The Closing', we were among the top ten role-playing groups). Times were good. Only, that whole Poke'mon bit took a total backseat for magic and Sailors from planets and talking animals and all KINDS of wacky Roger Rabbit-esque shit. Sorry. My bad.
Membership declined and then it happened. The Closing. MSN Groups was bought out by some Flickr-Facebook-hybrid whose name I've forgotten (so I guess we know who won in the end, eh?) and shut down permanently.
Poke'mon Academy made the leap to proboards, becoming Starfall Academy, after the actual name of the island we'd all come up with a while before. It never did pick up again, and what's left of the website now is nothing more than a ghost town with the occasional passerby that notice the emptiness (case in point, yours truly getting here via an ad).
That's essentially it, folks. A textbook rundown of this website's history, put down because it needed to be. Admittedly, this is a significantly shortened version that barely touches the amount of flaming, debating, and for the sakes of various gods, political intrigue (Jasmine didn't like homosexuals, and a later 'Head Administrator' hated them AND atheists, which made it personal) that plagued the place. Still, despite all of that, it was a home away from home that really did seem to exist, despite its fictional status. People had fun there, and people had friends there, and that made all the trouble worth it.
Power down. Reminiscing drives over-capacity. I, madams and gentlebeings, am leaving it there.