I don't post much, and I didn't join for a year after visiting, but I've had my times here. Mostly gaming related, but bits and pieces elsewhere here and there. Still do play games with quite a few of you, even if some of you have dropped off over the years.

Also, kind of wish I had gone to one of the various meetups, but that has yet to happen.

It's good to have had a familiar group over all these years, nonetheless.

 

What a long, strange journey it's been. I wasn't there in the beginning, but I've been here long to see how much we've all grown. I've been reading books since I was a couple years old, but it wasn't really until HP finished that I asked the important question - what if? Further than that, what if there were same people thinking the same thing as me? What if people actually wrote those ideas? The first week I discovered fanfiction, I probably read two million words.

From the very beginning, there were always this acronym that seemed to be the boogeyman - DLP. It was like a secret club or something. Most people said fuck them, some people praised them. I'd come across random fics in the wild, and then learn that they were written by a DLPer, and they were great. The idea that this was a site that I could actually join myself never really crossed my mind -I was just a rando who didn't have enough hours in the day to get his fill of fanfiction. But it was the luckiest of chance encounters (and I know I've told this story before) - I was playing Magic Online, and happened to get matched up against this guy named nonjon. Not a particular common name, so I took a shot and asked him the obvious, and he recruited me here.

Hard to believe that was over ten years ago now. The site that is still my first open tab, the site that I still have mirc installed for (though I guess with discord I don't need it anymore... rip), the site that I'm still trying to write the perfect Harry/Daphne fic for and still failing.

 

I have very little to add that hasn't already been said far more eloquently and profoundly than I could. All i'll add is that to me, DLP is a place where I don't really know any of you, and you don't really know me. And in not knowing each other, we know each other - our true selves - better than almost anyone else. This place is freedom and honesty. Here's to another 15 years.

 

I, uhh, have been absentee to actually posting or participating at all for some time, but now reading this thread I wish I hadn't been, because goddamn, the memories made here... Nothing like it.

I remember coming here and posting my own fic to For Review (less said about the fic the better, though), then it all just spiralled from there. Everything kicked off at #pokemanz on IRC - the tournaments (Seratin's fucking Shuckle, Vira's Togekiss, the unfortunate choice of mine to be a grass gym leader), Oz (I think?) making me and Lutris mods to it (for reasons none have yet fathomed), that one time Narf (Also I think. Time, man.) closed main channel and kicked everyone over to #pokemanz (also me never speaking in main channel for years)... Jesus. I remember Sparkly Hufflepuff and Lockhart's zombie adventures, Pokemon White Knight/Troll Face, running ideas with Taure and Newcomb, line by line beta'ing Sesc's Unatoned, trying to further the Dresden/Molly agenda, birthing The Traveller and the mafia games in general, the post-#pokemanz Skype crew... A thousand thousand memories like grains of sand on a beach, some swept away by the tide and half-forgotten, but shit, if I tipped my shoes over there'd be sand pouring out regardless.

But the thing that sticks with me most is the Anthology project - Unbroken, Unbowed, Unrelenting. Still got my copy in my drawer. Something I've written published in a goddamn book; might've been one of the the best day of my life when I held it in my hands. Hell, if I asked to be buried like a pharaoh of old it'd be one of the items I'd want in that coffin with me.

In my time there's been bad days and good, but in all of 'em, DLP's been a constant. I owe y'all a lot, both with writing and in life, so happy anniversary to you DLP, and thanks for everything <3.

 

I first started reading fanfiction on Portkey.org, and realized that there had to be more out there. I was in high school, trying to find anything that I could do on internet that was almost as slow as dial-up in 2007. I finally found it in fanfiction, and from there, DLP.

I have never been a very active poster, mostly popping up every so many years for work on the DLP archive. One of my first posts was offering to mirror the 2007 archive, on the domain name that I had misspelled when I registered it ( thanks @Xiph0 for pointing that one out).

That pretty much set the tone, but I loved it.

I made one foray into the "Politics" thread, which was my first and last time there, and then later having to try to explain to my mom why "Mitch" showed up in the filtering software set up on the family network (didn't realize it was there at the time). So that was a good time. I remember reading The Office as a right of passage, and then the Ginny Kill-Off threads.

Since then, I remember an experiment with turning fics into audio books, hanging out in IRC ( specifically, the whole Earthie incident), and working with @Zombie and @Sauce Bauss to try to track down any lost fics we could still find. Thirteen years since I first joined, and I am honestly more active now than I ever was then.

 

One more thing I forgot to mention:

Palindrome's short-lived but incredibly fun You Must Build In Blue

Simple concept, incredibly well-executed. And the thread was super fun.

 

It didn't really click that I've been a member for 11 years until I opened this thread.

I'm not at all active, but DLP has introduced me to quality literature and been a constant source of interesting debate and hilarity. A stand out moment for me was the Taure v Joe poetry battle in the style of Doctor Seuss over the latest Patrick Rothfuss book.

Congrats on 15 years and thank you for always brightening up my day.

 

I forgot these, somehow - and yet a bunch of copies of the three I wrote in, I bought and occasionally pass to friends/dates/hookups occupy a prominent spot on my shelf next to my records.

Sidenote: I may have given a copy of our first anthology to a famous pop star. Read my entry if you want to guess who.

 

DLP is my internet home.

I’ve gone from school to university to working life, moved eight times, loved and lost, and the only constant through all of it, every single day, has been this place.

I came here for fanfiction, and I still read a ton of that, but the community here is what keeps me coming back, even if I dont actively participate all that much.

A decade well spent.

#BringbackVlad

 

I've lurked here for over ten years now (averaging a hefty 2.8 posts per year!) and while I don't have nearly the tight-knit friendships that many do here, I did read a ton of fanfiction during that time. DLP helped me read better fics and think more critically about what was going on, in fics and in real life.

I also owe DLP for getting me into dynasty fantasy football (having spotted an opening in ~2016) which has had a domino effect of getting me into spreadsheets, then programming and data analysis - eventually leading to a new career in data dev and analysis. It's crazy to think that this was my first ever dynasty league and I barely had the courage to raise my hand and claim a spot in it - but I did and the rest is history! Thank you to @silentclock, @Eidolonic, @MonkeyEpoxy and the many others I've been playing dynasty with - I wouldn't be where I am today without it

 

You bastards have amused this lurker greatly for over a decade. Thanks for that. Heres to another ten years if not more.

PS. Can a mod/admin please capitalise the first letter of my username it's fucked with my minor OCD for far too long, cheers!

 

There's a name change request thread. Post there, grab an avatar and start posting. For the glory of DLP.

 

This place has been around for how long? Jesus. And I've been here for 9 of those years?

I remember when I first started getting into HP fanfiction, coming here because of The Santi's sadly dead work. It was my main focus for a time before I started heading into the rest of the work here. While I don't spend as much time as I used to, nor read as much HP fan work, I still have the habit and automatic finger movements to type in the site for my browser to autofill in and that's saying something.

 

I haven't been lurking or posting here for the past few years but I will always remember you guys. I took refuge at DLP when I was at the lowest point in my life and it will always be a part of me.

Long live the DLP!

 

I remember getting shat on for like three years straight and growing thicker skin because of it.

 

Getting shat on was a right of passage, those who didn't break got stronger.

Lots of fun along the way, the Global Order of Darkness (GOD, Cybernations), Minecraft with Middy, getting camelrushed in CIV5..., Path of Exile

Watching the European Song Contest as a group and chatting was hilarious (Xiph has terrible taste in music.).

Still lurking around even though I don't post much, I'll get back on IRC, it has been a while.

 

DLP has been a home to me for 14 years now and I wouldn't change it for anything.

I remember SerpentSorcerer throwing such an epic shitfit he got his own emoji. I remember Irene joining in a game of Werewolf and winning it in the second round. I remember my first time reading the Office, no matter how much I try to forget. I remember posting a truly awful fic I wrote into for review and it getting ripped to shreds. I remember the Survivor games that evolved out of Little Italy. I remember playing CIV5 multiplayer and getting my ass kicked by Mishie because I cannot into library rush.

I've had a lot of fun times on here. Plenty of arguments too, of course, but even those were fun. Here's to hoping for another 15 years of it!