The Never Forgotten 10th Anniversary Thread

[Sparky]

Today marks the 10th anniversary of our forum. Ten years ago I sat down and made a decision that would affect my life far more than I thought it would. I'm gonna tell y'all a

story, but this post will be a little tl;dr so first here is a gift:

Foster's Bible (pdf download)

Courtesy of Cassini, this is the show's original production bible, as written by Craig McCracken! Now to begin:

So I liked this new cartoon called Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends I had caught on CN several times. I like to discuss shows and movies I have seen recently online - I usually go to IMDB, but there wasn't much discussion going on for Foster's there at the time - so I was mostly reading the TV.com boards. I was (well, still am, but frankly don't care anymore) an editor for several shows on TV.com so I was over there anyways.

For those of you who never spent time on the TV.com forums a decade ago...Omg. Omg it was pretty bad. There WERE intelligent people there with intelligent conversation, but you really had to hunt for it. Everyone else was a horrible person, it seemed. Ranting and bawling over every little thing. The Foster's board was festering with people like that.

But there were a few decent people in there, and they were saying "Wouldn't it be nice if there was a GOOD place where we could talk about this show?"

There was someone on there who had been taking screengrabs from a couple episodes and uploading them somewhere, and geez Louise people lost their g*****n s**t. They were HORRIBLE to this nice person who had gone through all that trouble and kept screaming all these demands, more screencaps, better screencaps, RIGHT THIS MINUTE etc. (Seriously, I have belonged to a lot of fandoms, but these Foster's "fans" have been some of the worst people I have come across.) So this persom was like I'M DONE and deleted all their screencaps and disappeared. I don't blame them.

Well I happened to have all the necessary equipment to record off of the TV and make screencaps, so I started doing that. I think basically I just tried to ignore the screaming people, lol. And the intelligent people were still looking for a good discussion board, and I knew I could do that too...It was Pitbulllady who convinced me, she promised she would be my co-admin if I did it.

So I launched the Proboards forum (btw that is still there, the link is on this forum's main menu called Ye Olde Forum). There are details I remember well about this forum's history, such as what I've already told you, and other suff that blurs together; I don't really remember choosing the rest of the forum staff (sorry guys, I just don't). I remember this was before I had a laptop and I would have to use the hotel's computer to police the forum while we were at Comic-Con. That was annoying. I had lost my job at some point while running the forum and my brother, like seriously encouraged me to devote all my time to the forum and stay home for a while. That turned into a few years. I met a lot of the people who worked on the show because of this forum, and my website, and my screengrab library.

We got so popular that I invested in a vBulletin license and moved the forum to my own website. We had a chatroom for a while, but then I found out that wasn't allowed on our host and I had to take it down. Oh, the chatroom. Such drama. We've had our share of certain individuals who plagued our existance, on both forums and in the chatroom. There were a few, but notably, we had Crazy Guy, who had literally copy-pasted large portions of my website and claimed it was his. He would also hotlink to my screengrabs (I had to learn how to disable hotlinking) and claim they were his even though they were CLEARLY located on MY website. I remember Ruki would pick on him...here wait I think I have a screenshot:



However, this same guy really did scare me. He would threaten me all the time, telling me he was a hacker, and kept telling me he was going to hack my website. I didn't know anything about hackers, and I was pretty scared. I remember I actually got pretty sick at one point, I lost more than ten pounds one week and had to lie in bed all the time. That's how stressed I was. Then we had the guy who kept pitching crazy episode synopses, not just to us but to CN, I think he's still out there, probably obsessed with another show. Then of course there was (is?) the autistic guy who can't keep reality and fantasy seperate (for real) and has been harassing us off and on for more than five years now, after he was banned for posting porn. There's been a bunch of weird characters, maybe the rest of the staff would like to talk about them.

Okay this post has gone on long enough. Maybe I'll post more later. Happy Anniversary everyone!

[fosters home fan]

A Happy Anniversary indeed!
I remember the old chat - and its Mr. No No icon.

The "Bible" is a real treat. I'd seen a couple copies up for sale here and there but never got a look at the whole thing. Seems things were a little different early on, compared to what manifested in the actual show.
I haven't seen Foster's in ages, but it remains a firm favorite of mine.

[Cassini90125]

SO much I could write here but at present I can't; the La Quinta hotel did not see fit to furnish my room with a desk so I'm typing this while lying on my bed, on my stomach, computer in front of me, and it's not particularly comfortable. Suffice it for now to say that this forum has been a great experience for me and that through it I've met some pretty dang good people. I'll post more when I get home next week and have access to a proper desk and chair combo... and when my back stops aching.

[frankie_fan]

I think it's great to know that I've been part of this great forum, even though I wasn't here from the VERY beginning. From my beginnings here as a Frankie fan (always will be my favourite character from Foster's ) to meeting great people like Sparky, Cass and Mr. Marshmallow, I'm happy to say that I really enjoyed every moment of being on here, even though it's not as active as it was back then. I still come here if only to see the latest posts and reply if I can. But I'm glad to say that I still admire the show and what both Craig and Lauren brought to the table when a new episode aired.

I'm very humbled to be a part of this great forum and the people I got to chat with here. I couldn't be more happier.

[Lynnie]

Happy birthday NF! I may not have been here from the very beginning, but 8 years is still pretty impressive. I'd like to think I made some life long friends here, and it really did have an impact on my life there for a few years. I too started out at TV.com, and Cartoon Brew, and Toon Zone, and IMDb. I was reluctant to join NF because I thought I was joining enough forums already as it was.

Ahh, good times. I have fond memories of the chat room. I remember when Blooregard himself hacked into the forum, stole the Admin title from Sparky, and caused havok for a day. I remember the thrill of having Craig and/or Lauren log in and post something. I remember having to avoid the forum for a few hours while waiting patiently for the new ep to air on the West Coast or deal with spoilers. I remember how passionate we were about this little show about a sweet 8 year old boy, his rambunctious imaginary friend, and the foster home we all came to love so much. And such discussions we'd have, analyzing every last detail of every ep and every character.

I remember the glorious fan art. I had never tried my hand at fan art until I joined here, and I'm still proud of my own art thread buried somewhere in your fan art section. I remember how exciting it was to have the characters appear in a dream, and then being able to share it. I remember being anxious about news from the Up Front, and anticipating photos and sightings at Comic Con. And I remember the spam section in its hay day. The fun. The drama. Even the occasional romance that evolved between a few members. And this picture-



It's been a wild ride at times. But it's all been worth it. Thank you for the memories, NF.

[Howard]

Happy Tenth Anniversary to NF! Hard to believe that it has been around that long (I think I came aboard in 2006). From this neat little forum, I had the pleasure to not only interact with you on line; I had the pleasure to meet many of you from the SD ComiCon. It has been great, even though I have not posted as much as many of you.

Thanks Sparky for keeping a good idea going and (wait for it) - "Never Forgotten." Cheers!

[One Radical Dude]

I cannot believe it's been that long. I never thought that this series would have a significant impact in my life, but it did. How did it begin? I had watched Foster's since it debuted on Cartoon Network back in August 2004 -- nearly 11 years ago. To be honest, when I had a first glance of the promos, I didn't have a significant interest in watching. With me enjoying Craig McCracken's past works, I gave FHFIF a chance.

After watching "House of Bloo's," I thought the series had a lot of potential and continued to watch the series through the end. The style of the art/animation really grew on me, the way the show was written, the acting, the music -- I'm definitely a fan of the show.

I discovered this place, after I ran into some people from TV.com (it may have just been TV Tome right before the change to TV.com) that were animation fans, and I believe that's where I ran into Sparky. I joined the forum right before NF switched to the current message board system. Then, there was San Diego Comic-Con International. This wasn't my first con of any kind. I had previously done Anime Expo for about five years, through 2006. Some of my friends outside of NF were talking about attending the convention, and I gave it great consideration. For some reason, I knew I had to give Comic-Con a try. I remember getting the 4-day w/ Preview Night badge, and I wondered around the exhibit hall to see what was there. Then, I ran into the CN booth. I met a woman named Lori over there, and I asked her what was going on over there. So, I learned that there were going to be multiple signings and a panel for Foster's. My interest level went through the charts. So, I ended up meeting Lauren Faust and Craig McCracken, voice actors Phil LaMarr, Candi Milo, Grey Griffin (DeLisle), Keith Ferguson, Tom Kenny, and Sean Marquette, writers Tim McKeon and Adam Pava, Khaki Jones (was at CN at the time, now with Disney -- you always saw her name at the end of the credits). I would end up meeting Tom Kane and Tara Strong after the 2006 SDCC. I didn't just do Foster's stuff, but I also met the creators of KND, Camp Lazlo, Ed, Edd 'n Eddy, etc. Finally, I met Sparky and Government Man. It was great! Yes, I remember saying how "it was great!" In the next year or so, I met taranchula, Cassini, Ceeg (CG), BBF, Lynnie, Howard, and cartman.

Let's not forget the Bloo costume -- I wore it at AX 2006, as well as SDCC 2007 and 2008 (both years, Keith and I improvised random dialogue on camera), and I wore it 2-3 more years. I have to admit, the first year of wearing the costume, I was super nervous. I never thought I'd get into cosplay, but it was a really fun experience for me. I've definitely grown from that, as well as meeting the talent from my favorite shows. I never really did the "OMG, I'm the biggest fan" thing, though I was definitely excited to see these people.

Oh, I forgot about the Burger King banner.

I think during the 2006 convention, Sparky thought about appointing me as a moderator, and that happened at some point right after the con, so that's how I ended up with the role.

Anyway, I'm not so sure I would still be doing these conventions, if it weren't for Foster's. I made a lot of friendships, both from the forum, outside of the forum, and from those that work in animation. While there have been moments here on the forum where I wanted to pull my hair out, the positive experiences I've had here and outside of the forum from Foster's have made this a really amazing experience.