June 2002. That marked the first time I came to Neoseeker. I was searching for something regarding Pokémon Snap on the N64. I can't remember the exact thing I was looking for, but
based on the first thread I posted it was probably something to do with Metapod. I posted a few times as a guest, abusing the markup where I could, and registered shortly afterwards. MasterDan had arrived.
I didn't restrict myself to the Snap forum for long. I soon discovered a whole wealth of forums. It would be a while before I discovered forums outside the N64 section, but until then I sat content in other 64 forums like Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart. Out of them all these are perhaps the most important ones.
Ocarina of Time is really where I 'got my feet wet'. Snap was too low in activity to really get a feel for forum life. OOT was a lot busier and provided a lot of fun discussions. The place was also home to Celcius, the first moderator I had come across. I was such a n00b back then, as most are when they join, but it was fun times. I still hang around the OOT forum these days, although the activity is a lot lower as expected.
I also floated around some of the Mario forums and it was in these locations that I would gather my first set of neofriends (as well as finding out what the neofriends feature was). There was Luigi Number 1, mandos (yes, the same one), nb05 and spencerruhgugu that stick out in my mind specifically, although I know there were a few other regulars there as well. After a while some of us applied to be the moderator there and I was given the position. My first moderating job, although really it wasn't as if the forum needed it. I admit that then I just wanted the position. Not the tag - I didn't really care for the tag - but I wanted to see behind the scenes. It was cool.
However, the N64 area was dying off in favour of the newer generations. I demoted from MK64 due to lack of activity in the forum. When I finally got a Gamecube I headed to the GCN forums. The main one I hit upon was Super Mario Sunshine. Here I met more people and made a few new valuable friends, like koopabrat and Princess Peach. Fun times were had once again.
At some point koopbrat tried dragging people into the SMS role play. I'd never done anything like it before but what the heck, I figured on giving it a try. It was a good blast, although despite Mario's kiddie-friendly approach we often delved into more mature themes. XD Alas we never did finish it and most of the participating members have left Neo, but
here's the thread should you wish to look through it.
The SMS RP was not the only role playing I delved into. I joined others RPS and made a few, with varying success but generally none of them managed to make it to an ending (some barely gained a few pages, often due to the horribly ill-conceived concepts involved). I gained some worthwhile writing experience here. I even tried my hand at writing stories in the Writer's Lounge.
I wasn't that bad, honest.
During this time I had gotten bored with my current username so I started hunting for a new one. The name I use now is derived from a scene in the GCN game Eternal Darkness. I thought it fit me quite well, so I made a new account and have been IP ever since.
Nothing else of major importance happened during this time. I continued to chat in the forums, played games and RPed some more. Later on my activity would nosedive. I was still around but not as much, as life took hold and kept me busy. In fact, it wouldn't be until early 2006 that I would regain full activity levels. I hit up all the old locations in force and checked out some new ones. I even looked into the portals, which was something that had passed me back previously, but I didn't give the level of commitment required for it.
After checking out the OOT forum again for a while some of us from there decided to revive the General Legend of Zelda forum after it was suggested by one of us (it may have been Ecto5 but I'm not too sure). We had some success with that and the chance of a mod spot appeared again - many years after my first spot. Some of us applied and I once again gained the position. At least General LoZ had more of a need than MK64 ever did, though it was still quiet in Neo terms.
A few months passed and activity was dying down. Some attempts were made to breathe in new life but alas that was it. The forum had basically died. I demoted in November and left the forum to return to famaliar grounds.
At this time the moderator role had left my mind entirely. Shortly after my attention turned to contributing to Neoseeker. Why? I was just bored enough to do it. I wasn't working at the time so I had the time for it. I mostly worked with the easier types like box shots and release dates. My pace increased and I spread out in types. I wanted to hit so many points, then I wanted to submit so many different types, then I wanted certain ranks in different types, then I wanted to hit a certain position on the top contributor's table. Every time I hit a goal I would make a new one.
In March 2008 I received a message asking me if I wanted to join CRS. This was quite a surprise. I had inquired about CRS quite some time before (
beginning of 2006 to be more accurate) but the idea had gone out of my head and by 2008 I hadn't even considered it. I didn't even post in the open call thread. Funny thing is that my first thought was that he was joking, but the message looked serious so I responded as such. Later on I gained my CRS powers and I continue to work in the team. Initially I had profile info, box shots and user reviews, but later on I gained resources (after many discussions with Chad, who was practically soloing resources then) and videos (since when videos were added to Neo all CRS staff were given the permissions). I've never actually processed a video yet but I've done a fair bit of work in other areas.
Two months later and another surprise would appear. A message asking if I wanted the N64 sections to moderate. No doubt my CRS position had some influence on this, given that my previous moderating experience was low. I accepted and got the spots a week before my birthday, so that was a nice treat. I had some fun in there until real life started piling up. I had initially wanted to simply request a co-mod, but it soom became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to handle both moderating and CRS at all. I wanted CRS more than the sections, so in October I demoted from all the sections, allowing Dragon to take up the role.
Although real life was hitting hard (I had just started my new job so I was trying to get things settled) I continued working at CRS. When I noticed that I was approaching 100 user reviews I decided to set a new goal for myself. I aimed to hit the hundred mark before the year end. Prolific user reviewers on the site may recall the review blitz I unleashed. I called upon memories of many older games that I had played and not yet reviewed, and produced many writeups. Sometimes I was doing one a day, and partway through December I submitted my 100th review, for a book no less. That was a cool moment, but I've already got my next user review goal set up.
In January this year I was offered the position of moderator of RFS. This would be the first and currently only site related spot I'd been offered. Life was returning to a sense of calm so I accepted and was promoted alongside Chad. Three months later and things change. I stepped down from the position in RFS so someone else more commited could take over.
For a while I just carried on as normal, working away in crs while staying away from other positions. In October though I got another shot at moderating, with the generous offer to take on the Site Contribs and User Reviews forums. It was pleasing that I was able to manage more site related forums so I took up the challenge. The main goal was naturally to ensure Articles of Excellence carried on running, but doing various things like a new imagemap header for site contribs was a blast too. Of course, low PPD meant I had very little to do.
When May of 2010 rolled around I got another promotion. Finally I had entered the ranks of the pokemods by taking on the Black and White forums alongside Tf916. Together we laid down an iron fist rule... well, not really. In fact, aside from one spot of reoccurring trouble things went rather peacefully. Most of the time was spent organising threads such as those providing information and some games we had running. The Hurt and Heal was an interesting challenge but I must admit I'm not sure if I'd tackle that particular thing differently now. Despite all these moderating jobs I was still learning as I went.
In June I stepped down from the site related forums and took a short break from crs. Things started to pick up so I wanted to dedicate my Neoseeker work time solely to the Pokemon forums. Dark Arcanine was kind enough to pick up Articles of Excellence for me, and the event is still running as I type this which is amazing.
It didn't really take too long before I picked crs work back up. I guess when it comes to it I really can't stay away from the site contribution areas of the site for long. Even though I didn't take up the site related forums again I worked to make sure stuff got approved or rejected as needed.
Several more site positions opened up for me later down the road. The first was that of a beta tester, where I was approached asking if I wanted to help put beta changes through their paces. This seemed like a cool idea in order to try iron out possible issues on the site before they went live so I naturally agreed.
The second position is one I actively applied for, which is that of the Doujin wiki staff. I've had some on and off moments with these ever since they were portals. I moved between different projects but never really been able to commit enough to take on an actual staff role. When wikis went live I helped contribute to several of them. Starfox was a notable one as I helped build character, planet, vehicles and game pages.
Yet it would be many years after my first involvement that I would actually get a shot at staff. My deep interest in doujin titles led me to start work building pages on the wiki. I did most of Eternal Fighter Zero before a spell of inactivity. Eventually I got back at it and have since created several game hubs such as Magical Battle Arena and Lillian Fourhand. I eventually applied for staff, satisfied with myself that I would stick with it for the long term. It was great to see the acceptance in my inbox.
That's it so far. It's been a rollercoaster ride and it'll be interesting to see where I go from here.
Last updated: 10th April 2011.
