User:Tyrannosaurus Lex/My History

So I was reminiscing a few hours ago about this community, and my part in it. Trying to recall as much as I can, I decided to type it all up just to add a little insight for anybody who's interested. Note that all of this is from my memory (as 80% of the fanstuff wiki has been wiped clean, unfortunately), so the details will probably be quite sketchy.

I was introduced to Homestar Runner during the summer of 2005, by one of my IRL friends. At first, I completely resisted without knowing anything about Homestar in the first place, I just thought that the name sounded dumb. After a long period of persistence (about 2 minutes, actually. You'll find that I'm quite easily convinced.), I gave in and decided to check it out with him. So he showed me the "First Time Here" page. I found the jokes mildly amusing. Still not overly convinced however. Then he decided to show me his favourite toon, which happened to be "A Jorb Well Done". It was this particular one that really got me hooked. Looking back, I have no idea why I found it so hilarious. Maybe it was the funny way Coach Z pronounced "Job". Or maybe it was because my mind wasn't in the gutter, and I could actually appreciate humour that wasn't all "babble babble bitch bitch". Nonetheless, I loved it. So I decided to check it out even further, by my own.

Over the next couple of weeks, I happened to watch everything to do with Homestar Runner. Every toon, every character video, every SBEMail. It was only when I accidentally clicked something during one of the SBEmails where I realized that there were hidden easter eggs. I was ecstatic. I immediately looked on Google for some sort of page that would list the individual easter eggs, which I did. It happened to be a Homestar Runner forum that was independent, but affiliated with the Wiki. I lurked on there for a while, until I saw a link to the Wiki itself. Curious, I clicked the link, wondering what this Homestar related website had in store.

I couldn't believe my eyes. An entire Homestar Runner database, chronicling every single detail of every single thing on the site, along with things that weren't on the site. I lurked on there for the first few weeks, reading transcripts and stuff, then examining every detail of the toon just to see if they would match up. Heh, it's amusing when I think about it, but back then it was SERIOUS BUSINESS. It was only when I accidentally clicked a stray link to the HRFWiki where I found one of my first homes on the internet. At first, I thought I may have stumbled upon a restricted area of the site, as the content of this wiki was completely different to that of the HRWiki. I remember getting excited about all the different fanmade email shows, only to be disappointed when I found out that I couldn't watch them in flash. It was only when I actually bothered to look at the main page, instead of jumping around like a kangaroo on speed when I realized that this was a community that catered to the fans specifically.

Without hesitation, I signed up. While I can't remember the date specifically, it was around October 2005. The wiki hadn't had a new user for a couple of weeks, and as a result my talk page was bombarded with welcomes by quite a lot of prominent users. Naturally, it was a huge mistake for them to do so, as it ended up having an effect on my ego, which had already been overgrown due to IRL popularity. (I was the only British person in my school, which happened to be situated in a small Canadian community. Whoo.)

So yeah, the first day I happened to be a member of the community, I already felt like one of the popular kids. This however, was not the case at all. I was just lucky. After the whole fanfare on my talk page died out, I felt as if I had just been cheated out of notability, despite doing nothing to actually earn it. I even went so far as to complain to Joshua that no one wrote on my talk page any more. Sorry bro.

Not long after my entrance, the HRFWiki was attacked by a plague of bot-trolls called "NSMC". NSMC was programmed to replicate itself hundreds of times, and vandalize thousands of pages all in a manner of minutes. The resulting FALLOUT of this attack took about a month to clear up. While I did help with the restoration progress, I was offended that NSMC didn't even have the balls to vandalize any of my fanstuff, despite the fact that I didn't even have any. Blehh.

My computer also got hit by an Adware virus, but that's a boring story, so let's skip to mid-2006.

My stay at the HRFWiki only lasted about 5 months, and I soon faded away into obscurity as another crappy user. During May 2006, I was forced to move from Alberta all the way to London, where I am still living as of me writing this. Anyway, my life had taken a complete 180 turn. I was no longer the unique British kid, I was now the socially-awkward seventh grader in a state school full of assholes who I still hold a grudge against today. (Fuck you, Tony Blair. Fuck you, and fuck your state academies.)

Anyway, in this dark period of depression, I needed something to cheer me up, and that's when I rediscovered Homestar Runner. It managed to lift my spirits, as I knew that I was able to get some enjoyment out of my life. Soon after, I rediscovered the HRFWiki, which had changed quite significantly after the months. The wiki was now in the Third Generation, and there was a boom of new users who had joined. Not only that, but I also discovered that the wiki even had a forum. In an attempt to reconnect with a community who barely knew that I existed, I decided to join.

The forum was more tightly-packed than the Wiki, so I managed to gain notability quite fast. Of course, it wasn't exactly the kind of notability I was looking for. I happened to be a terrible poster, bumping old threads, making pointless ones, spamming the hell out of everything, and being a general annoyance. It didn't help that I happened to Talk Just Like This, Either. Seriously, I Had A Really Bad Habit Of Capitalizing The First Letter Of Every Word In Every Sentence. Around that time, I had half of the community detesting me, and the other half defending me constantly, asking them to go easy on me. While I would've never agreed at that time, the people who hated me were completely right. I was essentially a 2006 version of Raiku. (BUT I ACTUALLY LEARNED FROM MY MISTAKES, COUGH COUGH)

So as the months went on and on, I continued to make a presence at the HRFWiki Forum, and most people started to warm up to me. I think that I should note that I even got a 24-hour ban and a 100% warning during this time period, which back then, I felt was complete injustice. Nowadays however, I feel that it was completely justified, and that I was lucky to have not been banned for a longer period of time. Haha, I still feel indebted to Super Sam for bringing my warning down, even if it did take a whole year to actually reach down to zero.

There's much more I could explain, but I can't actually think of right now. If you have any specific questions that you're curious about, ask me and I'll be glad to answer.