10,000 posts!

Intro

So, after almost 6 and a half years of being a member, I have finally hit post 10,000 and thought I'd do something to honour such a great community by talking about my favourite members and memorable incidents since I registered in December 2003.

Before that, I have to say a big thank you to this forum and its members for introducing me to some great anime since I decided to get into this hobby more seriously. Prior to 2003, I was an anime fan, but it was more or less resigned to the classics - Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Evangelion and so on. That's fine, but when I got a DVD player I thought it would be as good a time as any to see what other stuff was out there and boy am I glad I did!

From the end of 2003 until probably mid-2006, I'd say I was at my most prolific in terms of being a regular AoDer. Though as anyone else who posted during that time will attest, as much as I love anime, games are my main passion. At the end of 2006 when the current generation started, I found that I had less time and money to dedicate to anime and went on something of a hiatus from the forums and anime in general, buying only a few series each year and posting dramatically less. At the start of this year however, I promised myself I would make an effort to get get back into the wonderful world of anime on a more 'hardcore' level and it only takes a glance at both my increase in posting and list of series I'm currently watching to tell you that I'm more or less back to where I was before
That's not to say I regret focusing most of my attention on gaming, it's just better now that anime is taking up a lot of my time too.

Members

So, onto what makes AoD a great place to post and visit, my fellow forumers! This isn't meant to be an elite list or anything, just recognising some of my favourite posters from over the years.
First off, surely it has to be Chris B. After all, without him we wouldn't have such an amazing place. The forums have changed a few times in my time here, but Chris has always made it clear that it's all in the name of progress and I think we're much better off now than before. Also, this is the guy that gave us a dedicated gaming forum!
Similarly, I have to mention Cornelius. He lived here in Belfast when I started posting and suggested we meet up for some anime talk/watching and it's probably the thing that made me want to devote a lot of time to it. The first time I seen his bookshelf of anime I was speechless and determined to have a huge collection of my own The amount of anime he lent me/talked me into buying is crazy and it has to be said, most of them are now some of my favourite movies and series.

Then there are the other crazy, weird and completely loveable members that I get on with most. Some have since moved on, but while they were still posting, they were among my favourites:

Jarred/Jarhead - A sports anime/manga nut who was amongst the first to turn me on to the genre. Also a fellow lover of shonen in general. The Fighting Spirit discussions were always great I know he's a big 360 fan and I often see him on Xbox Live too.

ADC - Fellow gaming nerd, anytime you have read something dodgy about me, it's probably been ADC that started it Whether it's because of where I from, apparently flirting with a certain other member, loli-releated shenanigans or even ice-skating games, he doesn't forget when I post and that's probably my downfall

Zanza Hiro/Zanza - The nicest guy that's ever been on AoD. Fact. Huge shonen lover and owner of one of the nicest rooms I've ever seen. Back in the Livejournal days, his updates of new tech and gadgets would always make me jealous

Rogueman8 - The king of pervs and someone whose footsteps I followed quite quickly in when he was still around :sweatdrop: Also the biggest My-Hime fanboy around and was always beating me to posting gaming news updates

Chacranajxy - A fellow GAF member and I've spoken to him a few times there. Probably the poster most similar to me, although I'm pretty sure he doesn't have as many dubious games in his collection Has pretty much the same tastes in games, anime and manga as I do.

Guyver83 - Mr Meathead! A great poster and bodybuilder who shares my love of sports anime. Bit of a player too if I remember some discussions correctly

leongsh - Like Jarred, a huge sports anime fan and founder of the SAMA-FUN (see my sig) movement. Great teacher when it came to recommending older sports classics aswell!

jecca-neko - A gal who loves her anime, manga and games. Wait, they exist?! Well in jecca's case they certainly do and she is a huge favourite of mine from these forums. One of the most prolific back in the day in the gaming forum

Lovely - Another girl?! Yup indeed and one who again loves her anime/manga and games. I thought I was a dedicated Shaman King fan a few years back until I talked to Lovely :sweatdrop:

DiGiKerot - Another one of the gaming regulars and, like Rogueman8, a huge Hime fanboy Also makes me look slightly less insane as he also bought the Idolmaster LE Has a great blog which I regularly read too

Loafy - Oh God, where to I start?! AoD's most amazingly camp poster and someone who I always think was a few steps short of getting a plane over here and hunting me down :sweatdrop: I'm laughing just thinking of the conversations we've had in OT over the years

Vicseer - The AoD mech/Go Nagai Godfather who was great to have around when I wanted to get recommendations for those anime. Also a fellow Tokusatsu fan

Deadly Messiah - Along with Greywing, one of the AoD Tokusatsu hardcore who is highly knowledgeable on the subject and was really helpful when looking for where to start with Toku all those years back

Greywing - Like DM above, a huge Toku fan and fellow UKer. Again, hugely helpful when I was looking for where to jump in as far as Tokustasu was concerned.

Battra92 - Something of a controversial poster regarding his political talk, but he is into Godzilla and idols and is also a fellow perv A poster I would point people towards if they ever thought I had a big collection of idol DVDs!

Aniki21 - Another Belfast AoDer and big gamer. Don't think he has been around for quite a while unfortunately like so many others on this list.

juliant59 - I think he's the only AoDer who is on his PS3 more than me Big gamer and like I said, always online when I'm playing my PS3 Another gaming forum vet.

Azumangaman - The baby of the bunch when he joined, Azu is another big gamer and I always remember him being there for the AoD E3 'liveblogging' on 05, 06 and 07

Gatts - The figure king! His figure threads are always amazing and has definitely been the reason for me spending a lot of money on them in the past

Suika Ibuki - Or 'he of many names' Can't count how many times I've seen him post under different usernames, but has one of the most distinctive posting styles on these forums. Also, if he did a celebration every 10,000 posts, the forum would implode

And that's the main members that I can recall. Others who I admire and love to see around include something (previously Disarm), Fencedude, BonifaceVIII, Mateo, Lego, Njr Scrawl, Noodle, Kevinroc, Zeether, GHardin and lostnomad84.
I've doubtless forgotten loads more great posters so reply and let me know who I've forgot!

Incidents and Memories

Spending this long on any forum will obviously mean you see certain things happen that become legendary or memorable for the posters involved and these are some of the best that I remember:

The 'casual' incident - I think this started around 2005 when a poster whose name I can't remember made a post ranting about basically how no one was as hardcore an anime fan as him and other nonsense. In response, loads of members chose to put something in their sig identifying themselves as casual fans, with the word casual highlighted in red. I joined in for a while and I think there may be some members who still have this in their signature

Gaming discussions 05-07 - Even before we had a dedicated gaming forum, there was always loads of talk about games on AoD. I remember posting news from about 15 different sites every morning for a period of time and, combined with other super-informed posters, AoD was an amazing site for keeping up to date with the latest games news

The 'johnny lotto' - I think it was Chacranajxy who came up with this originally. Basically after a few months of admittedly ridiculous amounts of games bought by myself, there was a 'competition' each month in the 'what games did you buy this month' thread to guess how many I would buy :sweatdrop:

My reputation - Admittedly not helped by things I posted, especially in OT, at some point I have been know as being way to obsessed with games, a super-loli, a super-perv and someone who buys loli figure skating DS games :sweatdrop:

OT threads - You wouldn't really know it now, but there was a point when the Off-Topic forum was a hive of nothing but sex related threads I think I remember it being decided that we'd have to cut back on the smuttiness :sweatdrop:

Conclusion

It's taken me well over an hour to remember and type this, but it's been hugely enjoyable. Although I'm more active on GAF these days, this is the forum I call home and the best community of otaku, pervs and maniacs anywhere on the net!
Apologies if I didn't mention any of you, like I said before, post and remind me! I also want this to be a thread where people can add to what I've mentioned so please, if you can remember any other memorable AoD moments, post them and jog my memory!