I tried, but it's more of a 'Zell's Resources' type thing. People get what they want and leave, few comment.

No, because I like SZ.

But I know what you mean. Everyone and their mother used to have a design forum. It was even funnier when half of them were using templates from other forums or were horribly designed.

Personally, I miss ZD. Hell, I even kind of miss old SSD. And by old, I mean circa...2003? 2004? It was actually a pretty cool place. I mean, it had it's problems, but it's nostalgic to think about it. It was just very clean, fresh, and professional. And then ZD was all like "Fuck that, let's look as impressive as we possibly can," and they did. And then SZ was somewhere in the middle.

Oh, and then G101. I never cared for their designs a whole lot, but I LOVED the community. Crestfallen (or nrich), Spektral, Anachronism, Sky...I miss some of my internet friends.

But you make new Internet friends like that guy; Zell...

S/he's pretty cool!

Haha, this is very true.

And then there was all that internet drama: mAsDesigns, SZ closing (from which we still haven't recovered fully), SSD, ZD and G101 closing, Cody's death... it seemed that the straw had broken the camel's back.

The design community disentegrated, more RP forums sprung up (honestly, they're like invasive weeds) and time slowed a little. I wish that there was a new design forum out, one with an amazing skin and a great community, so that I could excitedly check it every day, get hyped about the upcoming skin, mini-mod, argue, smite, argue and have fun like the nostalgic days I miss.

Sigh.

Yeah, I know what you mean. And, stupid question (but my memory is hazy), but Cody was california, correct? I remember that. That hit a lot of people hard. And SoCal Designs was one of my favorite design forums. It was one of a kind and cali was a great fucking guy.

SSD didn't close until recently, right? I know ZD closed in like '05 or '06. It was shortly after SZ came about. And G101 closed sometime in between the two, I believe. I wasn't around for SSD or G101's closure, I don't believe. I might've been there for G101. It's just a giant blur now.

cody = california, yes

SZ and PBS are the only real design-ish forums left. Sad, really.

Oh, yes, them... but somehow they feel detached... just me, I guess.

That's because, from what I could tell, there was a lot of overlap between SSD, ZD, G101, SoCal, and SZ. All of the members of SZ came from one of those forums, essentially (okay, not all, but a large chunk). For example, Josh came from SSD. I came from ZD. Chris from SoCal, and so on. A lot of the members now, not so much, but a lot of past members did come from those sites. Point being, SI was like...an outcast forum. Not to say they're bad, but it's like where everyone went because they hated the staff at SSD and hated the members at G101 or whatever. I don't know. I just always could tell the members of SI from the rest (actually, back when most of the major design forums were active, I could somewhat tell where any member was from). I'm somewhat contradicting myself, but my point is that, as you said, SI is just sort of detached. Like...who goes there? I don't know anyone there? Hell, even SZ has James, Josh, Combo, Kay, Chris, me--people who were fairly well known around the design forums (or at least very popular on at least a couple of them). At SI, I don't know anyone.

Of course, I haven't been there recently. And it's late, so I'm rambling a LOT. Sorry.

Stop your shit. Now.

And if you would read my post just before this, I think that would explain exactly what he meant. Because I, too, feel like they're detached. Because they are. It's not a bad thing. They just never seemed to be in the loop of major design forums. You're 15. You haven't been around long enough to know what we mean (not an insult, just a fact).

(Having read my post AFTER typing it, this is directed more at Luci than anyone)


We're the old guard. We're what remains of a dying breed. Because of our age, most of us have move on from forums by now. Those of us that remain, are either here or at TalkPark, with a few scattered between SI, ProVision, and some smaller design forums. This isn't gonna change or anything. What's left of our little group will die, and it doubt I will be long from now.

And, I always forget about that huge overlap. Back in the day (again, like 2003/2004), every design forum you went to on Proboards had most of their userbase made up of the same people as the last forum you went to.

And, damnit, I miss F5 Designs.

EDIT: And, yeah. I agree with Lucifer, Xuzi. You're too young to know this. Half of the people Lucifer and Corrupt are talking about were younger than you are now when this all started and that was... 5? 6 years ago? Hell, most of us joined Proboards before it was even legal to do so (I was 13, but I know one of my oldest and closest online friends, LPF/Adam/elpeef, was only 12 when he started)

And, really, what do you know about making a community? SSD was the biggest community on Proboards. Kay, Lucifer, James, and I helped build that community. James and I were both Gmods there during its heyday when there would be 5-10 posts a minute in Chillout. Show me any forum on Proboards today (other than PBS) which does that, and I would be shocked.


Last Edit: Oct 31, 2009 11:35:03 GMT by Josh

I agree in that SI are 'outcast' but not due to who they are. But what they are. They're active on SI and thus become accustomed to being known, and to an extent spammed.

If they join a forum much like SZ then they will attempt to act the same way, and fail - due to the fact that many of the more well known forums aren't that welcoming to newbie spammers.

However, as SI it's accepted.

I'm not going to even attempt to know many of the old folk 'cause when I started on PB about 6 or so years ago, I was more of a lurker.
I then took 2 years off, and returned, more to the forefront than I ever was. I'm not saying that I know everything, but I know that design forums are dying, and that SI cannot be compared to SZ in anyway. Except, I guess, for the fact they are a design forum.

Oh my God, you've sparked an actual discussion. =o People love their ProBoards drama, eh?

Maybe time has skewed my memory a bit, but looking back, G101, F5, ZD, SSD, yada yada weren't all that special. Community-wise they only really thrived for half a year. The rest was just general discussion boards (a factor independent of the type of forum), resource submissions, and requests. Oh, there was some contest hype here and there, too. Y'know, like 12 of 6000 people entering SotW. =p


Last Edit: Oct 31, 2009 12:41:30 GMT by Aaron