Important Note: This story is still being written. It is incomplete and unrevised.
Wikia History[]
I first began using Wikia in early 2009 to research LEGO sets from the Power Miners theme that had just been released. By November of 2009, I had begun to explore around the Wikia network, and made my first edit to the Calvin and Hobbes Wiki. I continued to read Brickipedia throughout the 2010 year, but didn't really get involved in anything until January 2011. Before that time, I had been very active in LEGO's online message boards, and at the start of 2011, I began venturing to other online communities. The first one I decided to participate in was Brickipedia, the same site where I had originally discovered Wikia two years before.
As an active member of the LEGO Message Boards, one of the first things I checked on Brickipedia was their information on the boards. I was disappointed to discover that there was no mention of the forum in the entire mainspace. I decided to fix that, and created a page for the message boards, as well as a page for all of its many features. I had pages for every rank, a page for moderators, and even a page for the most active poster. But I was again disappointed when almost every single one of those pages was marked for deletion. After most of the content was merged onto the same page, and the rest were deleted, I decided I wasn't content with the amount of information Brickipedia had about the LMBs.
That was when I decided to look for a wiki specifically about the LEGO Message Boards - and if there wasn't one, I planned to found a new wiki. There ended up being an already existing wiki about that topic, but it was almost completely inactive. There was one user there who checked the wiki every other day or so. I ended up joining anyways, and ended up editing quite a bit.
...I'll finish this later. (this has probably been sitting here for two years unfinished).
Overall History[]
I'm going to make an attempt at summarizing my entire online life. This is going to be long, and it's going to be good. I know it will, because my life here has been long, and there's been lots of users who have made it awesome. I will state some names of my best friends and users who have greatly influenced me. I apologize if your name isn't here, but I want to make it clear that if you've ever met me or even been around me, you've somehow helped to make my experience a great one.
My story starts early, about 2001 to be more specific. (yeah, I told you this was going to be long) I received my first LEGO set ever. It was the first time I had even heard of LEGO. I really enjoyed the set, even though I was so young. My grandpa, who had given it to me for my birthday, took me online and showed me some online LEGO games. There were only a couple LEGO games in existence back then. The only one I specifically remember was the first Junkbot game (the second one wasn't out yet). I absolutely loved those games. I played them until my parents made me get off. The next day I went back on to play again. Even to this day, I remembered that the games were on a site that had something to do with the letters MSN. However, when I typed it in, it didn't take me were I wanted to go. So, I searched for lego games. Of course, the first result was lego.com. That was my very first discovery of the now familiar site.
For awhile, I just played games. I loved those games so much. However, I soon needed to create an account for a reason I can't remember. It was around 2002 when I created the account, which I named "drew1200." I used that name because it said in the registration that I should use my nickname followed by a couple a numbers. I did almost that. I continued my playing of games for a couple years after that without any notable events. That is, until around 2004 (or possibly '03, I can't remember), when LEGO started using cheat codes in some of their games. That's what caused me to find the LMBs. I saw that there was something about cheat codes for games, so I clicked on it. That link took me to a topic on the LMBs. From that time on, I read them, searching for new cheats.
The next thing worth mentioning is when MLN was released. I didn't join it for a long time after it was released. The phrase "Join now, and create your own page today!" is what scared me away. I thought it was an actual webpage creator where you create your own website. As a 6-year-old (or however old I was), creating my own website was not something I wanted to do. I went for months like that. Eventually, the constant advertising over all of LEGO.com caused me to just go check it out, with the plan of just going back if I was someting I didn't want to do. I never had to put the plan into action, because I quickly became addicted to the fun game. That was another thing that caused me to read the LMBs even more. I wanted to know all I could about MLN, especially the secret networkers. I just silently read for a long time while playing my games.
In 2006, I finally made my first post. I found a topic were you could request clicks, and made the post "many clicks here please". It was several years before I made another post. In mid 2009, I became adventurous, and explored more of LEGO.com. That began one of the biggest adventures I’d ever have. I made my second post. Power Miners had just come out earlier that year, and I was already a huge fan. So, my post was of course in the Power Miners forum. I remember several users from there. Such as Rock-o-Ages the Initiate, Gsolver the Craftsman, and Tommy_60 the Artisan.
One of the first posts I remember making was in Peat-a-peat’s (AKA RePeat) topic called “Questions of Power Miners or Rock Monsters, I’ll answer them!” In that topic, he and HQuiff tried to answer questions that people asked. The topic had quite a few pages, and at that time, I didn’t know how to go through to the end, so I only read the first couple pages. I remember posting something like “are there just one geolix and tremerox, or are there more than one?” (my grammar wasn’t awesome) The next day, I went to the last page by pressing the “next page” button over and over and over until I got there. I found an answer by Rock-o-ages, who had been answering them because HQuiff and Peat weren’t really active in that topic at all. He was only a JuniorBuilder at the time. I remember his post very well. It was somewhat lengthy, and he basically said that LEGO had never really said, so unless they said whether or not there was more than one of each, there was probably only one. I responded with an argument (yes, that’s how stupid I am capable of being). I said that LEGO already did say that there was more than one in an unreleased advertisement I saw on Brickipedia. (I had already found Brickipedia, but I only read it, and occasionally edited as an anon). In the ad, a Power Miners somehow runs into the Crystal King, and there was two of each Geolix and Tremerox standing next to him. Rocko probably responded humbly or something, knowing him. Template:Smile
So I continued posting in the forum, mainly that same topic, until I was around the rank JuniorBuilder. Rocko asked me if I would join the roleplay. There was three roleplays in the forum. The Human/Miner HQ and Rockmonster HQ had both existed for awhile, but there was some conflict in the Rockmonster HQ that led many people to leave. Instead of going to the Miner HQ, Rocko created a new one called Magmites HQ. Everyone leaving the Rockmonsters went there. I spent a long time trying to decide which HQ I wanted to join. I finally joined the Human/Miner HQ. I posted there tons, and it wasn’t long before Indyman97 and Steelersrule left the HQ. They were in the second and third positions in the HQ, so they left them open. I believe I was able to become the third in command. I forget who was second, but I remember that Tommy_60 was first-in-command.
Let me note, that back then the roleplaying was very serious. It would have made today's roleplayers laugh. There were tongue smileys, but they were in much lower volume. Every once in awhile you’ll see a roleplayer today, that would be what you considered a “good roleplayer.” They’re someone who doesn’t do funny stuff in their attacks, they just do what they would do if they were in that situation in real life. Nearly everyone was like that back then. Except me. Even back then I acted like most roleplayers do now. All my attacks were something stupid that normally resulted in me breaking my toe because I kicked the Crystal King. It almost seemed as though a lot of people started following what I was doing, and started acting the same way. I know I didn’t start that kind of roleplay, but I do think I helped it grow. It wasn’t long before I became the second-in-command. However, it took forever to become first in command. Tommy was going inactive, sometimes he was even completely inactive. The HQ really wasn’t do anything without a leader. I kept trying to become the first-in-command, but Tommy kept posting occasionally, saying I couldn’t be the leader, however, he wouldn’t lead anyone. Finally, he went inactive altogether, and I took over the HQ. Please don’t misunderstand me, I was really sad to see him leave, but I’ll admit it was nice to finally get some order in the HQ.
I made two users, Alx306 (who was an Artisan at the time), and JohnnyNeturon (who I believe was also an Artisan) the other in-command-positions. I believe Alx was second, and JN was third. I’m not sure if I was even a Craftsman yet. It took me a very long time to get through those first couple ranks. Quick change of subject - that summer I had my first coding experience. I went to a day camp that was 5 days long, and last about 8 hours each day. It was a unique day camp, though. It was about robotics. I learned to build and program a robot. I programmed it using RobotC, a software which supports a modified version of C. You’ll see why this is important later on in my story. Template:Smile
Anyways, it was the beginning of 2010 on the LMBs. I experienced one of the highlights of my LMB life, the Exo-Force Glitch. I believe I was a new Craftsman at the time, I only had around 700 some posts. It was the first time I had looked at the forum, I just wanted to check it out. I realized one of the newest topics: It was created by Tommy_60 (I know, this seems like a contradiction to my early story, but it all lined up somehow :P). It was about some weird glitch. It didn't take long for me to realize that it caused for posts to go through without moderation. There wasn't really anyone there that I was friends with, there was hardly anyone there at all. One user I saw there was named dude777477. I had seen him a couple times in other forums, and I wanted to be friends with him. So, I told him to join the Robot HQ. He did so, and we made 12 pages of posts within the next hour. We became very good friends. Sadly, we didn't talk a lot after the glitch, and our friendship weekend greatly.
Back to the glitch, though. It was Friday night when I discovered it, and according to the other users there, it had only been going on for a couple of hours. It lased until Monday morning when I woke up early to find that it had been fixed overnight. Dude and I had mainly talked on Friday and Saturday, but we had a blast. It is one of my best memories of the LMBs. During that time I had made about 300 posts, and had passed 1,000 posts! During the glitch I had gone and made some posts trying to get some of my friends, like Rocko, to come and use the glitched forum with me. None of those got through until Monday, but tons of users still came, and for a couple days the forum was really busy until everyone realized it wasn’t glitched anymore and left. Many users still stayed, though, and there was a slightly successful roleplay between the Robots and Humans, which became one of my favorite roleplays ever.
I began exploring other forums more and more, and I became very active in the MBs forum especially. I did join many other forums, though. Almost all the forums on the boards. Two of the ones I remember best were the Atlantis forum and the Space Police forum because I was really active in the Shark HQ and the Space Police HQ in those forums. Two other users I have to mention here are 1999bug, and 10310. Those two users have been two of my best friends ever since I met them. Sadly, 10310 pretty much went inactive, but I can still talk to 1999bug. Template:Smile
Most of my posts were made in the LMB forum during this time. I was still posting as fast as I ever did in the Power Miners forum, but I posted so much in the MB forum, that it was more than the PM forum. Template:TS Sorry for being so confusing. Template:TS Anyways, I quickly made it to Artisan were I stayed for about a week, until becoming an Inventor. At that time, it was by far the biggest record for being the fastest Artisan. While I was an Artisan, I also set a couple other records. These included most posts in a day, and one I’m not very proud of, most posts in a row. Template:TS I did 300 posts in one day, which has been beaten several times now, and I made 3 pages of posts in a row, 45. It was in the Achievements topic. Template:TS
I kept actively posting until April 2010, when I got my key for LU beta. I used all my free time for that, every time the beta was open. When it was closed, I would sometimes post on the LMBs, but towards the end, the beta was open 24/7, so I didn’t post at all. It wasn’t until the end of September when beta ended that I considered returning. I did return in October. When I had left I had almost 5,000 posts. I started getting faster again (although no were near as fast as I had been going), and eventually made it to Old Timer. That December, when I had about 7,000 posts, Rock-o-Ages obtained the Rank X during a Mod Party. I kind of expected it to just be an “X”, but I was still surprised to see that he had “broken the MBs”. Template:TS
Around that time I downloaded Google Chrome. In the past, when I never really thought about search engines, I always used Google even though my parents had it set up to use Yahoo. I always liked the results from Google more than Yahoo, so I was already impressed with Google. However, I was even more impressed by Chrome. I loved it. It didn’t take long before I started exploring other Google services, and I really couldn’t find any that I didn’t like.
That January (2011), I decided I was going to join Brickipedia. I discovered I already had an account. Let me note that this was long before chat existed. Template:TS Some of the first things I remember doing were trying to get the Power Miners articles more accurate, and creating an article for the LMBs, and for each rank. The Message Boards article was succesful, however, all the articles for seperate ranks got put up for deletion, and eventually did get deleted. The Message Boards article looked almost identical to what it looks like now. I can remember two other users who had come to Brickipedia with me. 242oak, and 1999bug. 242oak went inactive before long, but Bug is still active on Brickipedia even now.
I was pretty upset about all the articles for rank being deleted, so I wanted to go somewhere that I could write about the LMBs without people deleting it. That’s when I got my idea to create a wiki about the LMBs. I went to create it, but it notified me that one already existed. I went there, and was really disappointed to find that it was almost completely inactive. There was one other user there, however, who was still slightly active, trying to keep the place in a little bit of shape. Really, though, the wiki was in worse shape than I’ve ever seen a wiki before. It looked like all spam, and it couldn’t be cleaned up at all without admin tools.
It took about a week, but eventually that user checked back and found that I had joined. The user was Legobatmankid10. We talked about what to do with the wiki (at that time, chat hadn't been invented yet, so we just used talk pages. Template:TS). He figured out how to contact Wikia, and they directed him to the adoption requests page on Community Central. Neither of us qualified for adoption, however, so we started editing. I made the List of Forums page, and we started to create an article for every page. By the time we had finished, a couple other users had joined. Pepsicola, 1999bug, Legostudios34, and Legocat (InvisibleHunter).
We wrote a blog to make sure they were okay with us becoming admins. They all approved, so I sent in the adoption request. It did take awhile, but Brandon Rhea eventually responded to our request and granted us sysop and Bureaucrat rights. I was so incredibly excited to finally be able to really get the wiki looking better. I believe that I only had 100-300 edits at this time, but back then that was hundreds more than anyone else. At this point, I was still partially active on the LMBs, but I was having trouble working on the LMBW, and still posting on the LMBs. It wasn't much longer before I disappeared entirely from the boards. I had around 8,000 posts, and that had always been my goal (when I set that goal, it would have been worth 8 studs). I really didn't want to leave, but I had to if I wanted to continue to work on the wiki. Below is a quick timeline of things that happened in the rest 2011.
- April 28th - I created our first logo
- April 30th - I began to go inactive from the wiki. I still checked back periodically, but not enough to be considered active.
- May 26th - We began planning for the big LMB update that ended up not happen for another year and a half.
- June 12th - We promoted Legostudios34 to admin. He soon went inactive and requested for the rights to be removed.
- July 16th - I decided to return to the wiki.
- July 20th - I reached 1,000 edits. I was the first user to ever do so. The wiki also received it's 200th article.
- July 25th - Eagleeyedan was promoted to admin, and became one of my best friends ever.
- August 3rd - We had a favicon contest, but never ended up finishing it. We wait another year before we finally made our first favicon.
- August 24th - I checked out the LMBs again, but decided not to stay because there were very few people left that I knewm and no one else knew me.
- September 15th - I decided to retire from the wiki. It lasted three days.
- November 7th & 10th - I posted two video blogs. I'm only saying this because the videos are awesome and I want everyone to watch them. Template:TS
- November - I had a big disagreement with a couple of the users on the wiki. They ended up getting themselves banned, and accused me of abusing my powers. I took a small break to think about it.
- December 7th - We had a group of vandals from Brickipedia attack our wiki. To this day, our wiki has never had a worse attack. Sadly, it decreased Brickipedia's reputation on our wiki, which I do not approve of.
- December 10th - I had reported the vandals to an admin on Brickipedia, and he started a forum. After this, I decided not to go inactive on Brickipedia, and I am still there today.
- December - We had our first chat party, and had many other events for the holidays.
That was pretty much everything significant that happened in 2011. Overall, it was a pretty impressive year. We started with a completely inactive wiki, and by the end of the year, we had an extremely active community. Not very many wikis get the growth we get in such a short amount of time.
2012 has been just as big of a year as 2011 was. The excitement began early on when the moderators began approving links and references to the LMBW. That has probably been the biggest source of new users that we've ever had. The main burst of new users started in March, and went through to about May. But we still had new users joining consistently throughout the rest of the year. There was a lot that happened in 2012, arguably even more than what happened in 2011. To start, I'm going to tell you my experiences on Brickipedia during this year.
So after the vandalism occurred at the very end of 2011, I suddenly decided to become active there. I really, really did not like how the site was run, and to be perfectly honest, I still think of that time as sort of a "dark age" for Brickipedia. The rules were not enforced or followed at all. Even some of the admins didn't follow them. People could go around freely swearing and trolling, and at worst, only get a warning. There were some admins who wished to improve the community, but they didn't seem to have much power alone. Please keep in mind that this is simply how I remember it, I may not be entirely correct, but either way, the rules were not being enforced as much as they should have been.
I liked Brickipedia, so I went into this in the hope that I would eventually be able to improve the site. As I soon found out, 90% of the users there hated me just because I was a member of the LMBW. For some reason which I still don't known today, everyone viewed the LMBs as a group of immature children who just liked spamming emotes. This really upset me, and I responded terribly. I was off to a horrible start on Brickipedia, but I intended to improve my reputation there, so I worked hard at it.
I occasionally edited there because I knew I would have to if I wanted any kinds of rights. But I found it very difficult to find things to edit, because the article quality was significantly higher than it was on the LMBW. After about a month, I was given rollback rights. I must note that I was also encouraged to edit because EED was also an editor and rollback there. I'm not sure if it was the competition, or if it was just because I had a good friend there, but it motivated me to edit more.
During these couple months, it seemed like chat was disabled and then enabled over and over. It was definitely the most problematic feature on the wiki, and it was rarely used for good purposes. Some users wanted to disable to avoid the trouble, but others liked having a chat, and wanted to keep it. The decision to keep it, or get rid of it kept going back and forth. Finally, in February, I believe, a permanent decision to keep it was made. I was against the idea, but it was promised that this time, the rules would be enforced, and the rights would not be abused. I believed this, which pretty much turned my vote to neutral. It turned out that the promise was kept, and chat was finally much more pleasureable. I had also begun to get over people insulting the LMBW, which really seemed to help increase my reputation.
Before long, I put in a nomination for myself for ChatMod. After the voting period ended, I had one or two more oppositions than supports, but the oppositions used invalid reasons that were totally made up just to try and keep an LMBWikian from being a moderator. I was convinced that the deciding admin would see right through it, and say that the nomination was a success. However, that didn't happen, and I was greatly disappointed. The next month, I tried the nomination again, and it was extremely successful. I had a lot of support, and barely and opposition. I was promoted to moderator, and extremely excited.
By this time, I had started to edit a lot faster. I had passed EED, and was over a thousand edits. I continued support editing for a couple of months until I was over 3,000 edits. I had finally met my goal that I had set when I first started editing - I wanted to be on the leaderboard. I was only #19, but I was proud of it. I continued to edit to try and get further up the leaderboard, and eventually made it to #16. That was when I had nearly 5,000 edits. Around the same time, CzechMate had also put in a nomination for me for admin. I was really surprised, but the nomination was successful! I became an admin on Brickipedia. I was one of over 20 admins, but I still considered it an impressive achievement.
I wanted to stay active, and I tried really hard to, but shortly after becoming an admin, I had to give up a lot of time on Brickipedia to spend on the LMBW. There were a lot of things I wanted to do in the LMBW, but in order to have time to do it, I had to give up some activity elsewhere. Brickipedia was the only other place that I was active. So, I reduced my activity there so that I could spend more on the LMBW. I still did my best to check back there every day, but I didn't edit as often, and wasn't nearly as involved in the community.
Back to the LMBW....
To be continued!.... O_O