OK Boomers.

 

I haven't been around that long, so I can't comment on any time you guys seemed more like edgy teenagers than the past year and a half, nor can I say that I've changed that much. That, however, makes my experience here something like that of an archaeologist. I can't tell you how many post histories I've had to read every time there was a name change. Believe it or not, I did find the super consensual Hermione thread before the link to it was removed; I gained some sympathy for the rule about necromancing threads (looking at you, turtle7 or whatever your name was). I went back to the very beginning of the propaganda thread and read all of the occupy wall street posts, as well as the 2008 presidential election, all the idiotic memes slinging back and forth when I would have been like 12. I went back to the beginning of the Alexandra Quick thread back in 2009 and holy shit you people were ridiculous. I'm sure the quality of the writing is much better now than it was at the time, but these were some of the spiciest takes:

I think my favorite memory here, oddly enough, is the discussion that got vlad banned, not because of the result, but because of my logging on one morning, seeing like fifty notifications, and checking the Trump thread because where else. It was one hell of a derail, but it was a fun discussion, even if there was only one way it could have ended. Since then I haven't really taken things that seriously. I officially forgive everyone who suspected me of being a sockpuppet.

 

I would've liked to have been here from the beginning, but I suspect it wouldn't have gone well for 13 year old me. I wouldn't be half the writer I am today if it weren't for DLP.

I still think you're all thots.

 

I've been here for 9 years, 10 if you include my year of lurking and just using the library. For those 9 years, I think I've logged on to check DLP on average 350 days each year. I lurk a lot more than I post, but I read basically every discussion because of how insightful most of the members on here can be, when not discussing dolphin porn. From checking the IRC quotes thread and reading about people having to deal with their cousins wanting to fuck them, to reading Gio's insightful breakdowns into American politics, staying up until 4am on Christmas morning struggling with Taure's puzzles about Sleekezy's Hair Potion, to laughing at a Brazilian claiming that Cristiano Ronaldo is worse than Rivaldo, I wouldnt trade a second of my time here on DLP. Kinda regret that I've never written anything for any fanfiction, but also very grateful that I wont need to watch it get ripped apart on here either.

I just wish there were some meetups I could actually go to, given that I'm in a completely different hemisphere to most of y'all. They seem like loads of fun and I'd love to have met any of you in person. @TheWiseTomato lets do one for the Aussie's here at some point once the rona shit has calmed down.

 

It's been an interesting 11 years. I've mostly been a lurker, over the years, (though I've been trying to post more, lately) but DLP played a huge part in shaping how I think about the world as I was growing up. How to critically analyze the world better, and as the forum has matured, maybe how not to be such a rampant douchebag while doing so. Though I'm still working on both of those, a bit >.>

I was a few months shy of 14 years old when I joined this forum (and I might have been lurking for six months beforehand), so it's hard to remember specifics about those early years, but some of the standouts that come to mind are Yudkowsky barging into his own thread with proclamations of how-dare-you's (both on the forum and off), followed by getting dunked on by Pers and others. Giovanni wrote some really spectacular takedowns of people (or were they fics? Can't remember) that I think mostly ended up in the HoS. The Vlad debacle last year, even though it was inevitable that it end in tragedy. The community rallying together to get the most followed C2 in a handful of months, dethroning 6 year old communities. The MLP April fool's.

The list goes on, but really, I'm just glad I found this community at the time in my life when I did. There weren't many people in my life, at the time, who tried to think about the world in the way that I did. While maybe we were all still a bit immature in 2009/10, I know that at the very least I benefitted a great deal from having a place I could "go to" where I felt like people thought at least a little bit like I did. Even when I wasn't usually participating in the conversations, except to drop my allotted five thumbs up per day.

Here's to another 15! And maybe another 15 after that.

 

This place has been with me through a lot of life, and I doubt that's going to change going forward. I guess you guys are cool.

 

I found out about the forum in 2006 and lurked for only about a month before joining what at the time was a pretty savage place. At the time I was simply desperate to find quality fics because although there were a lot (this was the boom of post HBP so everyone was crazy to write how they thought it might end), it was hard to find good stuff. I did succumb to the rabid anti-Ginny hatred although I tried not to, but I got over that.

DLP has gone through a lot of changes and drama over the years, but it's a net positive on my life, and it's great to be able to see my name in Amazon.com results. It 100% helped my writing, and helped me discover other people's writing that I was glad to find. Still don't get the hype over that weird vampire story @Nuhuh wrote.

 

I was a bright-eyed new fanfiction reader in my tween years when I was stumbled into DLP and never got back out. I blame Nonjon. I lurked through a lot of my time here, but the fond memories remain:

Baby me abandoning my first account in 2006 and creating a new one because I got embarrassed about my dumb posts. RIP Emerald or Emie or whatever, lost to the great purge.

Sign-ups getting closed indefinitely after the flood of newbies because of Harry Potter and the Boy-Who-Lived.

The Hall of Shame. May angels sing thee to thy rest.

The pokemanz crew in the early 2010s. My brothers and sisters. And relatedly, slapping losers with my Super Luck + Air Slash Togekiss. Also Choice Scarf Mamoswine was king.

Fuck Lungs and his OP Pokemon team with the Mienshou, Terrakion, and Rotom-W. I was never able to consistently beat it.

Going to the Vancouver Aquarium with Lutris, Inq (I think it was Inq), and my best friend. I got blisters and couldn’t walk, so I got ditched. Fun times.

In 2018, going to Chicago for vacation and meeting Klael and Miner. I went to lunch with Klael and the museum, then basically never spoke to him again. Miner and I watched some bad anime movies, and I dragged him into a Banana Republic because I saw a sale. Also fun times.

Skype chats with a revolving cast of D-list DLP members. Me, Klael, Lungs, and Menace were the mains, but Ollie was there for a time and a few other people.

Teenage Menace deciding to leave his Dad’s in the dead of night and walk to his Mom’s for what I believe was McDonald’s-related reasons, with me and Lungs talking in his ear. I’m still surprised he didn’t die.

The hours upon hours of book chats with Lungs and Menace. Lungs with Knight and his very detailed world-building (Ava x Jace 4ever <3) and Menace with his various connected expanded universe of stories. Shame they never wrote anything though.

The Mafia days when I gave a shit about Mafia and my ability to get frustrated with people was 2/10 rather than 10/10.

Only recently, joining the 500 Club after months of disappointing procrastination. This month I have written 24,000 words, and the satisfaction is had given me is nearly uncontested. JOIN 500 CLUB.

All in all, DLP has been with me for over half my life. First as a naïve and innocent thirteen-year-old, to an anime-obsessed teenager, to a lost college student, and finally across the country to an established and happy twenty-seven-year-old (twenty-eight in four days). DLP has been by my side through five drafts of my first book, since around 2014 and completed 2019, and to my new book started this year.

Even as Harry Potter dies, and it will, we will remain. So many good people have come out of here educated, vaguely responsible, and perhaps even better writers?? I know it’s helped me become that and while I haven’t met very many of you in person, I’m happy to have been part of this community.

Happy fifteen years, DLP.

 

Lol. Goddamn.
Its been that long already?
Fuck, I'm growing old...
I can still remember when I couldn't even log onto IRC without my arranged marriage being brought up. Although none of the fuckers attended, when it actually did happen... XD

And now I have a kid...
Meh, at least I get to be a right cranky old dude.

 

I was a mild-mannered individual when this all started and now I'm an SJW cuck.

​

 

For those lurkers lurking, or those unfamiliar with the club, link here.

 

Man, I wasn't here for the maximum edge that was pre-2010 DLP, but I still marvel at how much everyone has grown over the years. It's almost like we're all respectable worthwhile human beings.

Also, my crowning achievement is not being banned in 9 years despite abundant low-key trolling.

That's how you do it kids. Shitpost in moderation.

 

I actually found this forum quite a bit before I registered for it - funny enough, my reaction at first look was "what a bunch of egdelord kids" and laughed it off.

So of course, what could possibly have brought me back here? Someone linked the... thread that shall not be named on another forum. Here I am still, many years later, being the old guy and hoping I can help someone out, or contribute in some meaningful way.

I have always been a big fan of people in general, from a distance. I love seeing the broad spectrum of opinions and personalities here, and trying to understand what makes everyone tick. I've loved (and felt attacked by) the commentary on the few stories I've written, even if I won't ever admit they're me under other handles on the fiction sites. It's all been pretty cool over the years, and I think the perspective helps me be a better man.

If I'm here for as long as I have been up until now again, I'll actually be able to post about my real-life, no-shit retirement for good on this board. Wouldn't that be a trip. Many happy returns, you fucking degenerates.

 

Like many, I was a lurker long before I became a member.

There are so many things I enjoy about DLP, even though I do not participate in all of them – learning about the different perspectives and experiences of people from all walks of life, looking at the memes and the funny pictures, paging through the competition entries, joining the film/tv/games/literature discussions, the whole of the WBA (which is still the gold standard in terms of quality of writing and feedback for me)… I could continue for a while.

My favourite memories are probably reading through the threads of my competition entries and taking all the feedback in.

Someday I’ll start a thread in WBA.

Through the (roughly) three years I’ve had an account on here, I can count the days where I didn’t check the “Recent Posts” page at least once on one hand. We can come here to share the good news in our lives, but more importantly, we can also come here to share the bad news. You people are a part of my daily routine, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Here’s to the next 15!

 

I've not been around as long as some of you old farts, even if I did lurk here for a good few years prior to finally taking the plunge (when I promptly recommenced lurking again). I've never been particularly deeply involved in the day-to-day goings on, outside of a fairly brief period when I occasionally frequented IRC (and seemingly managed to convince Minion that I was at least in my 70s, if not in body then at least in spirit).

I didn't grow up with DLP, like some of you, but DLP did help me grow. I remember posting my first story here and the very helpful advice I got from @ScottPress. That story was quickly abandoned as a bad job, as was the next, but it seems the damage was already done. Fanfiction was to be the thing that would consume much of my spare time for years to come. It very nearly resulted in my failing to submit my dissertation, but I wouldn't choose to change that, even if I could.

I do have one last thing to say, though. @Newcomb, you bastard. You still owe me a Rumbledore fic!

 

I had expected a macabre April Fools joke a la DLPonyville except avatars would have face masks and it'd all be sparkly coronaviruses or such. Reminiscing is nice too, I guess.

Shooting the shit with folks in irc on election night and witnessing Giovanni casually shit fury on poor, ignorant souls highlights my experience here. Used to lurk and just read the politics and RL discussions along with the occasional gem of a fic that inevitably gets abandoned.

Still do that, but I used to too.

The wealth of experiences and stories of the community here leaves me no shortage of people from which to catch wisdom and aspire to.

Anyway, back to lurking.

 

I'd managed to erase that from my memory, thanks for that.

Would you believe I actually sat down a few times over the years and tried to crank it out? (no pun intended) Turns out it's actually incredibly hard to write a good shitfic.

Anyway, I'm a little sad I missed the edgelord years myself; would have probably fit right in here at that point in my life.

My fondest memories of DLP... I remember being relatively new to IRC and getting into an hours-long conversation where people kept getting the bot to throw out different saved quotes and telling the stories behind them. I have a very distinct memory of the "soem rocks" thing and laughing so hard I couldn't breathe for a second.

I remember making little offshoot rooms to chat with Taure and MattSilver for endless hours about story ideas. Talking with those two really opened my eyes.

I remember collectively shitting on the trolls who'd end up in Hall of Shame, and how amusingly disruptive they could be.

I remember being pulled into some WbA threads despite knowing nothing about the fandom the story was about, just because of how fun and lively they seemed. (Looking at you, Written in Reverse).

I remember that brief moment when I unintentionally got a bunch of people into a low budget web series about gay vampires. (Hi @Lungs)

I remember, and still grateful for, the amount of feedback and insightful thoughts I got from posting my work here. It meant, and still means, a lot to me.

Thanks for being a thing, DLP.

 

I remember googling Harry/Fleur about 6 years ago. The Harry Fleur Community Thread was the first result and I read it in its entirety (must have been about 120 pages back then). I lurked for almost a year before I decided to create an account and start writing my own fic.

That first post was a shit show. I couldn't even write the title correctly. Still, here I am. Still lurking. The pandemic has me writing fanfiction once again.

I haven't been on this site as long as most of you folks nor can I say I have forged strong relationships as some of you have . What I can say is that I've enjoyed my time here for these last 6 years. The insightful discussions regarding all things fanfic, the U.S. elections threads, the plot bunnies, etc.

I hope there are many more years to come. Cheers, DLP!