I read and enjoyed Harry Potter while growing up, but I'd never been into fan fiction at all. Never really knew it existed tbh. It wasn't until a friend made a derogatory remark to me, while I was in my first year of Uni, that I should go read fan fiction. He said this like it was something only the lowest of the low would do, and an obstinate streak in me thought that this would be a great idea. So I googled Harry Potter Fan Fiction, and found that site. I read a bunch of stuff on there, and loved it, and kept searching for better and better stuff.

I've never been one for mediocrity, so I kept looking for the best things to read, which eventually led me here. I remember being so disappointed once I'd started reading the fics that were deemed acceptable here. I still remember the realisation that I'd never be able to go back to the shit I had been reading, and that so much potential enjoyment was gone. In hindsight I used to wish that I'd found DLP more slowly.

Initially, I never contributed too much, as I was quite uncomfortable with just how trolly and dicks so many of ya'll were back then. These were the days of The Office, which I've still never read, or the days of popularity of fics like Vash's Oedipus Flower.Things designed to shock and make people uncomfortable. RIP Introduction forum. God, that was a shit show, and an end of an era when it closed. However, over time DLP matured, and became less edgy. And over time I started reading fanfic less and less to the point where I don't anymore. I'll perhaps read a fic once a year or so (recently read Victoria Potter, which was great), but I don't have the capacity, or time, to devour it like I used to. I don't enjoy it like I used to either.

It's been about 5 years since I've come here for fan fiction, but it hasn't stopped me coming here at all. I used to wonder if I'd drift off once I stopped reading fanfic, but it's almost the opposite. It's still the tab that I open first every day. I come for the interesting discussions with an incredibly diverse group of people who have managed to shape my perceptions of the world for the better. While we have changed in many ways, we are still true to our original principle of valuing intelligence and logic above the vagaries of emotive discourse. This transfers across all our areas of interest. I can genuinely say that what I have learned from our discussions on subjects like politics, religion, guns etc, has shaped my life for the better. It's given me a way of thinking through problems that is inherently logical, and to look for and point out the holes in my arguments before I make them, so I don't get shit on by all ya'll. This has benefited me a lot in life.

Finally, I guess I'll say that as with many of you, I've had my ups and downs. But the one constant in my life for the last 13 years, has been DLP (...and the fucking razor deathadder mouse that I bought the year after, that thing will never die, I swear). Those are my two longest physical and intangible attachments, bar family. I got no regrets about any of the time I've spent here. It's paid dividends, always.

Here's to another 15 years.

 

Lurked for years giving up thumb ups, fanfiction has been with me for more than 10 years now and I owe it a lot of entertaining hours and learning english to read the best fics. DLP is still a site that I check even when I'm not reading fanfics to learn and laugh.
Here's to hoping for 15 more years

 

Damn, should've waited a few more days man, you could've posted that on your 10th year anniversary!

 

Holy shit it has been long time. DLP was one of the first forums I have joined on internet and definitely the first fanfic forum. I was in high school back then and was so edgy ı could cut myself on that edge (tl;dr: I was rapper) also didn't really know english at all, pretty much learned it here.

I mean Ginny kill offs were really fun I thought back then now it is just funny for entirely different reasons. Still funny tough hehehehehe.

 

Good Greif. Its odd how this has become a forum I've posted on for such a long period of time. There were earlier ones, but they generally died a death long ago. Like most members, I've dipped in and out of lurking, in and out of vistiting, and in and out of posting over the last 12 odd years. Congrats to the Admin team on being able to keep things going for so long!

I'm greatful for any speciality forum still living, reddit and discord are shitshows.

 

It behooves me to contemplate on the whetting stone that DLP has been.

When I ventured out of lurkerdom on my rediscovery of this community, it was solely for target practice. I sought, in my stupor, to do something I had never done before, despite every opportunity to do so. Believe it or not, DLP was where I stepped out for the first time into conversations that mattered.

There was enough domain expertise between Gio, Pers, Zombie, Sauce, and yet others to keep threads interesting. The scholastic elitism among forum participants and laissez-faire egalitarianism of the mods made DLP an attractive place to organise and test my thoughts, gather feedback to elevate my approach.

It was a therapeutic process. One much-needed. One that has paid off in spades.

I came, a very very long time ago, for the fanfiction, and I stayed for the community. Launching now into the next stage of my life, I look forward to the connections we'll continue to feather, on Discord and off.

 

Dork.

It's a long time since 2006, and it's been a great experience to grow up with DLP and to watch DLP grow up. And to see some of the new members grow up, too. We've all changed a lot in 14 years, it's been fun.

Here's to another 15.

 

One of the things that strikes me is how few that have been here a long time have prestiged. There are tons of regular posters here that have been in the forum over ten years that haven't got the post count.

It's one of those strange things. Like, there's people who I recognise regularly from the 2000s that don't have the postcount of people that joined in the last few years.

Is this me attaching more significance subconsciously to people I've met long ago?

 

Quality > quantity. Always.

Most of my posts are not quality.

 

Oh no how did I miss this thread! the same way I miss most new threads, by only reading bookmarks.

my partner still mocks me for the cover art on the homepage, but she’s accepted it by now. I don’t even read much fanfic anymore, but this website got me through my college years of skipping classes and endlessly reading on my phone. Whether I was in bed failing to sleep, ignoring my girlfriend, waking across a crowded street I almost always had my face buried in a book. for a good 6 of the past 8 years I’ve been here, it was often a fanfic I had seen recommended here.

what keeps me coming back isn’t the fanfic though - I haven’t read a new fanfic in like a year! Instead it’s something much more precious: the wonderful and brilliant community that we have all built here.

Whether it’s the politics crew who put up with my shitposts about drones, or @Giovanni who put up with my shit taste in bars, or even @Xiph0 who somehow put up with my shit taste in careers and/or presidential candidates without banning me (sorry again about 2016 fam, you were right all along), I’ve been coming back here a whole lot over the past 8 years. Mostly, it’s all cuz the people on here are just fascinating to me. The fact that we celebrate expertise, make no excuses for our justified elitism, and that most of us are willing to admit we were wrong? Well now, that’s a group you don’t see just anywhere.

There’s something very unique and special about communities like this. when I was a kid, I wasn’t very popular until my last year of high school (I started smoking cigarettes; it sure made me popular, but jeez what a bad decision). For most of my teenage years, my only friends were the people on an Internet forum for a young adult book series. I spent my days in chatrooms and in PMs, in and out of forums drama and because of it I’ve built a network of friends all over the world!

Unfortunately, I didn’t join DLP till 2012, at which point I didn’t have quite as much spare time to spend lurking chatrooms. Still though, over the past 8 years, I really have felt like I’ve slowly become part of this community. While I have never spent quite as much time in the DLP discord/IRC here (a mistake I intend to change in these quarantine days!), I know very well that places like this are something pretty special indeed.

You might even call it magical.

 

@The Iron Rose, you found us a good sushi place and put up with my suggestion that we watch a bunch of AoE II uploads so I'd say it's pretty even on that score.

As someone who joined this Forum about four months after it was created, and who lived through just about everything anyone has mentioned on here, I feel like I should probably make a longer post . . . but I've been on here for nearly half my life - growing from useless High School male edge lord to just being some jackass with loud opinions on the internet. I'm glad that I've been able to be a member of this community for as long as I have, and that I've been able to meet as many of you as I have.

And if you're ever planning to be in my corner of the USA after we're done sheltering in place, PM me. I'm always happy to buy you a drink!

 

I know I'm late to the party but I can't believe it's been 15 years.

Man, there's so much to list but the bullet points that stick with me are pretty specific

- Xiph0 and Custer being my first real "internet friends"
- All the Mafia Wars
- The creation of PatronusCharm as a fuck you to FFN
-The realization that FFN was too big to "take on" and the creation of the best C2 on FFN (not really but that's how I like to remember it)
-The Ginny hate
- The Old IRC before Discord became the new chat.
- Jon and Shezza's OTP

as I'm writing out this list it's like a wave of nostalgia.

Also, anyone else remember Blaise and the great disappearance?

 

Pepperidge Farm remembers.jpeg

 

you're all fuckin gay especially xiph

 

Holy shit, I came back last night after four years away. I randomly Google searched an old fic and saw the DLP thread for it, and thought, why not? Although I joined in 2013, I was lurking for nearly five years before that, having got into fanfiction back in 2007 and stumbling across this place in 2008. Years of fascinated reading before I finally decided to create an account, and even then barely posting (and when I did it was mostly in the football and Naruto thread).

Eight years of my life I visited this forum every day, and even after I did officially sign up I barely said anything of note. I never joined in on IRC (one of my great regrets, and too late now), was too nervous and socially awkward to reach out and ask anyone for advice and tips on writing, and generally just made an arse of myself when a couple of my posts caught the attention of notable members.

Although none of you remember me due to my lack of contribution, I want to say thank you for making a very socially anxious twat smile and laugh every day for nearly a decade. You eased the boredom and loneliness of my life without even noticing me, and I have been grateful even in my absence. You're all truly wonderful.

I think I'll stay, relive the good old lurking days, and cringe at my old posts. Home sweet home.

 

@EkulTeabag join the discord, tends to be pretty active, and is a much less stressful way to get to know people than posting lol

 

This is way late because real life has been shit ass, as I'm sure a lot of people can relate, but wow. DLP. I joined right after my 16th birthday because I'd been scouring the internet for HP fic that I'd just realized existed, and I was coming off my freshmen year of high school, which basically consisted of me dissociating the entire year in the basement of my parents' house. I lurked for pretty much two to two and a half years, and only really got directly involved when I got back into writing fic (which I need to actually finish goddamnit).

I will say, in all seriousness, that DLP is the only place online that's encouraged me to contribute, and keep writing, and add my dumbass teenager thoughts to a conversation so they can be only kinda meanly debunked. Considering the only other platform I semi-regularly go on is tumblr, I guess that's not saying much, but DLP's kind of like the best of web 1.0 and 2.0. Even imagining how DLP would receive a fic helps me revise it, so I'd say my writing's come a hell of a long way.

And I'm a month out of moving away from my abusive parents' house, so here's to finishing the long fic series I've been writing since 2016, and to DLP tearing it a new asshole before I post it.

Since I haven't been here long, Vlad's banning was definitely the most memorable moment, if only because I hadn't seen a thread derail that bad outside of tumblr.

 

I may have played a part in that...

 

It's a proud moment.

 

I'm just glad I was saved from having to turn him down for meeting IRL for drinks. He PMed me that and then like an hour later was permabanned.