Ah, a site I joined in 2009, back when I had shameless Mary Sue OCs and shipped Lily/Snape.

I came here, started writing Renegade Cause, pissed off Vash so much I wrote Silence Game / Temptation Game, was responsible for one of the many dunkings on MoR, met a few members in person (sup Gio), wound up in the Hall of Shame a few too many times, and then thanks to the refinement of writing skills and bristling criticism thrown my way, wound up starting a YouTube channel and publishing my first book. If it wasn't for the harrowing I got here, I doubt I would have had the thick skin to take it all.

Maybe someday I'll find the time to finish Criminal Limit... we'll see. I still check in every day to see what sort of mixed batshit falls out in politics or the IRL threads, and DLP remains a net positive in my life. Thanks y'all

 

Seeing some of the posts in this thread has been a trip. For me, I've been here over ten years. I joined as a sixteen year old with few friends in high school, an obsession with fanfiction, and no idea what to do with myself. Now I'm twenty-six, married (somehow), still obsessed with fanfiction, with a slightly better idea of what I'm doing most days.

DLP has been a constant in my life for over ten years now, and one that I'm a bit ashamed to say that I take for granted. It's just always been here. When things got a little too real, I could always log on, click into any number of quality threads, and lose myself for hours.

The amount of feedback I've gotten on my own stories (non-HP as they are) has taught me a ton about writing. Simply being able to read and critique others has taught me even more.

I suppose my two biggest regrets was not joining IRC and getting to know folks better, and never making it to a meetup when I lived closer to a reasonably sized land mass.

My favorite moment is probably when the forum collectively lost its shit over the Volde-babe WbA thread.

More than anything, I hope the feedback I've given to folks over the years has been valuable and helped someone as much as others have helped me. I'm unbelievably grateful to this site for having been here for me, and thank you to every single person who has helped make it what it's been for me.

 

It's cruel of you to give me hope like that.

 

I had no idea I joined that soon after it started. 13 years for me. I've alternated between lurking and being a halfway regular poster for most of those. You guys definitely made me more of a picky reader.

Also I posted a picture in the PYP thread once and @Antivash told me I looked like an unfunny Andy Dick, @Portus called me a ginger John Lennon, @Taure literally made up a disease called Gingevus Freckleavius to describe me, and @Dark Minion drove it home by calling me Percy.

Thanks for inspiring me to start lifting and grow a beard? It only hurt a little bit.

 

I haven't been around nearly as much as the bulk of you. DLP has been around nearly as long as I have.

But I've definitely spent an immeasurable amount of time here, be it on the forums, in IRC, or now Discord. You guys are pretty alright.

It's a Harry Potter fanfiction forum, but most of the time its something else, and that's wonderful. I know I've grown a lot in my time here and I've probably still a bit of a way to go, but I'll stay around.

 

I must be one of the only bastards around here who didn't arrive looking for Harry Potter in any way, shape, or form.

Then I found the Wastelands of Time, so thanks, @Joe

Then I met Joe in person, and my life began a downward spiral from which it has never recovered. (I still think that Hawaiian shirt was the shit, though.)

Anyhoo, I came for the Dresden discussion, because I couldn't find a reasonable one anywhere else back in... JFC, 2009? Fuck me... new friends, new home, new cats, new kid, new job, new marital status... it's been an interesting decade, you crazy nuts. I've been coming here longer than I've had a career. I gave you my 30s, DLP, and it looks like you might get my 40s, too.

Greedy fucks.

 

@LittleChicago and I enjoyed a Roman bath together. And that's all I'll say about that.

 

I think Xiph called me a hobbit for 4 or 5 years after I posted in PYP

 

Somebody told me to "smile, you Eastern European mugger-type" or some such after the one time I posted in PYP lol

 

Holy fucking shit.

15 years.

I think I joined sometime around 2011 once Xiph had mentioned the forum and the origins of GOD when SuperFriends was still a thing back on Cybernations. God, that brings back memories. I've been admittedly more of a lurker but this has been a constant in my life for 9 years. The Politics forum alone is the one I tend to hover more around these days to read the posts and debates, occasionally dipping my toes in the video games and RL forums.

It's been definitely been a wild ride but wouldn't change it for anything.

 

Over the last eleven years, I've matured so much as a writer in every aspect, including the chronic depression and lack of faith in my product that all of the greats suffer from. My cure? Not to be found in the bottom of a bottle. It's a love for life and the greater world that soothes this savage beast, and until I find the right muse again, I'll never write another word. But I have faith that the day will come. The rust will shed. And we'll see a finished masterpiece at long, long last.

I've seen friends follow along the same journey. I've seen titans rise from the ashes, and fall away into history(looking at you, @Grinning Lizard). I've seen our community grow out of its worst behaviors and develop into the proper bastion of good fanfiction we have always striven to be. We've all grown up, by inches or by miles.

DLP saw my first forays into love and the resultant tragedy that arose. I hope, as I have seen with several others(most recently @Arthellion and his sweetheart), that you will all witness the day when I marry. But maybe not. Rushing headlong into my next relationship may just sink a proper ship. As always, only time will tell.

Congratulations to the site for reaching such a milestone of 15 years. May we celebrate another in the middle of our lives.

And @ScottPress? I still beat you to Prestigious. Better luck next time, champ!

 

Fear and Loathing in Wherever the Fuck That Was.

 

It's really weird to me that a Harry Potter fanfiction forum is one of the few sites I check almost daily. I was a latecomer to HP, and, whilst I did (eventually) read all the books, they've never mattered that much to me.

I found this site after someone at my old site linked HPMOR (lol), and I was googling to find discussion of one of the first fanfics I found after - probably Prince of the Dark Kingdom in mid-2014. I made an account, but didn't stick around. Stumbled back a little while later, used the library to consume a lot over the next year. I never really obsessed over any world, fanfic was more of an easy way to get good and interesting things to read with low-effort.

Looking at my first posting history, it looks like I got properly sucked in by @Xandrel's posts in Plot Bunny threads - I remember I used to devour those - and then DLP solidified its old with Batmafia. For a while this was just a mafia site and library for me, but in mid-late 2015 I began reading the politics section, which I've never really left. If not for that I might be a Bernie stan today - I still have a post saved from here about how HRC led the charge to redefine rape as a war crime.

Five years and nearly a thousand posts later (though double that if Little Italy counted), this is still where I go to for discussion on politics, world events, and the occasional injection of free purple prose from @Sesc or @Lamora.

There's some truly embarrassing stuff in my history here - including a serious mistake on my part that I still regret deeply - but this is one of only three places where I have ever established a online presence, and the only one I still care enough to maintain. It's changed me a lot, mostly in unimportant ways - I can write a treatise on what I hate about the first fanfic I ever read, I write a lot better (if still poorly), I have reluctantly learned to enjoy some romance, I have thoughts on an entire genre of fiction that most people never touch - but in some fundamental ways as well. My politics and worldview have been shaped here, especially a belief in listening to experts and those you disagree with. I take far less shit then I once did, though more in-person than online.

Perhaps most fundamentally, lurking here has given me insight into how a heavily biased segment of the global population live their lives, your struggles and triumphs sometimes picking me up, sometimes bringing me down. But in my dark times it told me that it wasn't always like that, and when times were good it let me see that that isn't so for everyone.

So thanks and ka pai DLP - for helping me to learn and grow for five years of my life, may you be a part of me for many more.

 

I don't have many stories, none really, but I'll fondly remember developing the 100% officially Bro/Cancelled list for The Witcher with @Lamora and @Microwave on discord during the week of TV series premiere. That was a good time.

 

Came here from Reading Shezza's "Life in Konoha's Anbu"(RIP). I think, I had ALOT of shit going down. Seen some funny stuff, seen some stuff I would call BS on every day of the week. Mostly lurked in fanfiction sections. Stayed away from General stuff. Learned from watching when to keep an opinion to myself. It's been an interesting watch, and reading about this "VIP club" that developed over the years has been somewhat fascinating.

Happy 15 years DLPers. As some nobody looking in, hope you have another good 5 years. Cause another 15 years of this will cause a Time Paradox...

 

Happy birthday!

I was probably lurking a long time before I even made a post or probably even registered, not sure anymore how I arrived, but it was probably through one of the in hindsight super cringy edgelord fics. The library was an eye opener and guide in a world without Scryer where you had to live with FF.net native search functions. Back then, it took me quite a while to discover the WbA section & that was a very happy day!

DLP always fostered a mindset of 'if there is an issue, it's okay to address it, even sometimes harshly, as long as it is constructive' which I think is good to take into RL with you. Early DLP overdid it a lot in tone (and honestly back then I really liked that), and it's very heartening to see how this forum evolved. Looking forward to the next 15!

 

I started reading fanfiction on mugglenet.com back in middle school or freshman year of high school around 03-04. I eventually found fanfiction.net which led me to DLP through Nonjon in 07. Back then I had no strong feelings about Ginny negative or positive. That shit didn't last long once I found this place.

I ended up lurking here and I had an account that I have zero idea what the name is to this day.

I've never been a big IRC or Discord person, but DLP is one of four sites that I check almost daily. I don't post much at all to the politics section, but it is probably my favorite place on the internet. I don't know of any other site that has people that can have actual discussions that don't turn into giant echo chambers.

 

I've been on here for 10 years, first as a lurker (best decision I made), then as a fairly inoffensive poster. I never got into the drama much, but I always jumped onto the plagiarism report-bombings.

Nothing like righteous indignation to get into the true spirit of DLP.

DLP is where I got the effort up to rewrite my terrible fanfiction, to try my hand at one of the contests, and just enjoy being in a group of appropriately elitist jerks.