Due to a nostalgia overload and my inability to fall asleep, I have decided to write this topic. If there ever is a book like I just described, then this is only a very small part of it, so don't expect too much. My memory is also failing me a bit. I must have suppressed some stuff regarding UESP haha.
This forum started, if I remember correctly, somewhere around 2006. Or at least when I joined this forum, the oldest guys were from 2006. You might notice some people on this forum, especially members who have been here for some years and have a few thousand posts, talking about the "good old times" or the "golden ages". Well, back in 2009 people said that when they talked about 2006-2007. And I always said 2009-2010 was the golden age. I see now what an utter fool I was so don't worry, I won't fall into the same trap again. I'm nostalgic, sure, but I make myself no illusions that the forums were perfect back then. People who say things like that should really just quit the forums and move on with their lives because they're only spreading negativity around.
So, where were we? One thing you should know, is that Vivec's Tears was the most awesome person on this forum. And no I'm not saying that just on the offchance that she'll read this. Okay, she probably will, because I might just send her the link to this topic for lulz hehe.
Random fact. UESP was once using phpBB version 2. I see the forums are still using phpBB 3 and a version 4 doesn't even exist. Some things never change.
Anyway, for a good while we prepared to make the transition to version 3, which changed quite a lot. Most of the features could only be seen by us, the administrators, but there was also a shiny new lay-out. One change that a lot of people didn't like is that we decided to not let posts from the non-game forums (such as General) count towards your post count. This was actually pretty funny. You see, there were a lot of guys that ONLY posted in the General forums. So they suddenly went down from their very prestigious, ego-stroking 2000+ post count to something around 200-300. I also dropped a few thousand posts.
The reason why we did this was simple. We wanted to encourage people from helping others in the game forums, back then that was mostly Oblivion. So we only wanted those posts to count. It still amazes me a bit how people care so much about their post count, but it worked. People became a lot more active in the game forums while before that, all the cool guys were hanging around in General and some questions would be left unanswered for hours/days in the game forums. Maybe some people will argue that the forums died that day when we made this decision but I would probably still stand by it. The size of your post count doesn't matter, what matters is what you do with it ^.^
So yeah I was an admin once. I won't talk about any of the personal stuff with the other admins/mods out of respect for them, but there was a time when I was the only admin left. For a few months I was literally the only moderator on this forum. My luck would have it that at the same time, I had to face the most epic invasion of spambots that made Thermopylae seem like a cakewalk. Visiting these forums a few times a day just to remove dozens of threads, kick all those spambots and also reply to posts and messages even started to affect my high school grades (don't worry! I ended up pretty well, if I say so myself). Fun times.
All that happened between February and July. I think it was 2010 but I'm not sure. Cannot really be bothered to check my post history, sorry.
It was around August, let's assume 2010 then, that I assembled
So we got a big new team and when everything was running I left at some point, don't really remember why. I think I just missed the old guys/mods too much.
I'm getting tired now so let's put an end to this for now (who knows, if I get some responses and you guys like it, I might write a part 2). Let's end with some random facts, did you know that:
- UESP once had no subforums for the category General? There was just one General forum, which was a total mess.
- No one ever reads the forum rules (okay some people do). I never did, until I had to rewrite them. Hell I enforced rules in my first weeks as a mod that I had never read haha. Maybe I'll go to hell for that.
- Apart from the Elder Scrolls Online and Skyrim forums, UESP looks EXACTLY the same as when I left it. Except that I don't see my name so often anymore next to the stickies. There goes my ego haha.
- The Competition of the Month was started back when I was a mod. Along with the upgrade to phpBB3, the general subforums, the new post count etc. all these changes were meant to a) create a stronger connection between users and the forums, so they stick around and b) encourage people to be more active (especially in the game forums). Anyway, I'm really glad to see that the competition of the month is still pretty active.
Anyway. I'm not back, I just have some extra free time this summer but after that I'll probably move on. And I would like to end by saying that I'm happily surprised that these forums are still so active and to the current admins/mods: keep up the good work. You might not get the recognition for your work that you deserve but secretly everyone here is damn happy with you. The forums couldn't exist without you.
