Around how old were you when you joined SPPF and how was it different?

[Gutsman]

I was around 12 or 13 when I joined. I believe it was somewhere before 7th grade and I was searching for Diamond and Pearl news at the time. I don't remember much but I do remember a different layout. I remember misc had a paranormal experiences thread. Trolls were a lot more commonplace. I also remember thinking the older members looked down on me but looking back at my old posts I understand why. I was a kid after all.

I can't much compare it to the forums today because I have only been back a small amount of times in the past 7 or so years. All I know is I'm glad to have these pleasant memories of SPPF.

 

[Samayouru]

I first joined back when I was very young - I don't quite remember how old I was, but I do know that I was far too young to really be on forums like Serebii in the first place. I do remember the place being far more active than it is now, and I'm heartbroken that the RPG forum is kinda dying.

 

[Gutsman]

I feel you there. That and the technology forum used to be really cool places to hang out.

 

[ebevan91]

I just turned 20 about 3 days after I joined. Only been around since 2011, which was when I got back into Pokemon after a break from 4th gen. Stopped after Ruby/Sapphire and bought White when it came out.

The forums really are about the same now as I remember them from back then.

 

[RainbowSupernova]

I joined when I was about 12 *cringes*
Was pretty much the same. I remember there was an anonymous confessions thread and I'd read through it often cause some of the stuff on there was hilarious

 

[SapphireL]

I was 14 when I first joined, and I pretty regularly came from 2004 to 2010. Kind of dropped off after that. I remember the forum being a lot more active in the past. I also remember a period of time when the forums had minigames or something? That was kind of weird. haha

 

[DiaRubyTandem]

11 years old, 2012. I left in 2014 and came back in 2015, then left again and came back this year. :3

I'm bacccccccck! Everyone shall call me Mr. Comeback!

 

[TheJLeeTeam]

I was 16 in 2013 and Serebii is still identical now. Pretty much nothing changed.

 

[Zora]

I was like... 13 or 14? That's almost a decade. It's hard to for me to say how it's changed because I don't pay enough attention to the forums as a whole now.

I do recall the board being a lot more active, and the DDPt speculation threads being interesting to the point I had to report a thread I myself created simply because it was bumped (within the 30 day rule, but by a few hours) that was null and void due to new information released. I want to say there was some serious speculation (or hopes) that Pokemon would be real-time. Then again, I thought Lucario was going to be legendary, so I can't say I helped the problem.

 

[shy_taillow]

I must have been 15 when I signed up for this account. I think it was way more active back then, and it felt like more of a big deal. (Maybe that's because everything felt like a big deal to me back then though.) The Face-Off section was at the top of the main page (not near the bottom in the Fan Work and Interactive section). And the face-off section was definitely more active than it is now. On the other hand, I think the Serebii.net Style background was exactly the same back then as it still is now.

 

[SmartD]

I was like 15 when I joined the forums. I used to post a lot in some sections of the forums, but nowadays I mainly post in the games section. I've seen many prominent members come and go on this site like Lorde. This place used to be active, but now it seems less threads are made these days.

 

[Cometstarlight]

The ripe young age of 16. I was big into RPs within the first few months that I got here. In fact, this forum taught me what RPing was. Since then, I've gotten into college, and during the school year, I can't spend a lot of time here, but the time I do spend here, I just float around and post here and there. The only difference I see is who frequents the debate forums and I've learned to steer clear of those XD Other than that, I haven't reached out and become friends with a whole bunch of people, but the ones I have, I do message from time to time. Serebii forums hasn't changed all that much, to me at least. I've just become more mature in how I frequent the Internet.

 

[Monster Guy]

I was 20 when I first joined. The difference between then and now, there were more active members participating in the RPG section mainly, as well as the different version of vBulletin.

 

[Sketchie]

I was 12 when I joined in 2012. The layout's the same, the bulletins are the same, but the people are way different. The RPG forum regulars consist of maybe ten people, and it was not like that when I joined. When I joined, there were RPG's everywhere. The Art Shop forum was huge! I was so scared when I first opened up Silver Souls, because there was so much competition! Now I'm considering reopening an art shop because the place is so dead. The people who I looked up to and wanted to call my friends are still here, but they seem different now. When I joined as a twelve year old, I was painfully immature. (I mean... I still am, but moreso back then.) I probably really annoyed everyone as an inexperienced RP'er hha. Sometime in 2013/14 I remember leaving, mostly because I had gotten into tumblr, and I just... stopped coming. Several times I tried to reinvest myself, and then it didn't happen. Late 2015, something happened on tumblr, and I decided I needed a break from the stupid website, and with really no where else to go, I came back, and was able to stay this time. It was a lot like coming home, y'know? And even though the people were the same, they felt different. Like all of us had grown up four years more and it just felt calmer. Maybe it's because I grew up four years more.

TL;DR, the layout is the same, but the feel is radically different.

 

[Archangel Azazel]

Joined when I was 18. So not that young haha.

It has changed greatly, in my eyes I guess. The layout was way different regarding the Profiles. Couldn't do a big *** bio like you can now lol. In general it was a small struggle getting used to what we have now.
The people have changed too. I've seen so many leave and others come in. I honestly feel like I used to see a lot of kids and now I see a lot of.. kids talking/going to college instead of their high school woes.

Almost every section of the forum you went to had a really nice traffic and active people. I used to frequent games section way back in my starting days. I was rather shy so I simply went there for straight interaction rather than an introduction (which I did do later on). Art shops were plenty, but I did notice it's kind of dead now.
The Misc and General Pokemon Questions were always full of new threads to get a discussion going on. Now rarely a new thread is posted :C

 

[Alexander18]

I joined in 2011 so I would have been 19 years old I think. I can't remember what the forms were like back then but I like the how the forums are today.

 

[Requiem's Eclipse]

I was 13 in 2006, now I'm 23 going into my senior year of College and I have facial hair. Jesus.

Anyway, It was a lot more active and all around fun. Now it's kind of dead compared to 2006-2008 (I frequented the debate and RPG Forums). I stopped coming regularly because college eats up a lot of time...on top of growing out of the forum. I come just to see people's speculations really about games and maybe if I feel like it post in the Miscellaneous discussion.

 

[tylerH]

I joined in 2007 when I was 12. Now I'm 22 and about to get my bachelor's degree. I also annoyed the heck out of people in my younger days. I've been going through my old accounts lately and found this (I used to be known as BlackChaosMew in the Pokemon fan community). I can't stop laughing at some of the things I used to say on here. I hope forums like this remain online for as long as possible.

 

[ロストSTORY]

When I originally joined, I was like, what, thirteen? It was much more alive, and I remember there being so many people I'd talk to but most of the people I've talked to is now gone from the forums. RIP.

 

[Kutie Pie]

I was 13-going-on-14 when I first joined in February of 2006. I had lurked on the forums for a few months prior when I realized there was a forum past the front page, and I thought it was neat despite that forum lag--until I discovered the fan fiction section, and had a strong desire to join for that alone. It was thriving, a community within a community. There were many people I looked up to that I wanted to be like. There were fun stories just as much as there were bad stories that we can look back on and laugh.

Nowadays, the fan fiction section has basically been left to only a few active people at this point--both regular and shipping (which I think is struggling even worse). A group was talking about this this past weekend and mentioning how it looks like fan fiction on forums in general is dying out. Something about forums just aren't "adapting" or something compared to everywhere else where fan fiction could be posted. (My guess is maybe it's the new rules that were implemented a couple of years back--I know that peeved me off a bit and made me go "Lol noooope, shipping fics are more lenient than you guys". But even the shipping fic section has changed a bit, and I don't think I can blame the new mods there for it because I noticed it was going inactive before they became mods.)

For the forums as a whole, I remember it being much more active and all sorts of people were around. I also remember there being more trolls, more shitposts that (usually) gave a good chortle, just more people being silly, it looked like. It was pretty entertaining, not going to lie. Even with the drama that would pop up around the Miscellaneous section here, there was just something lively that I loved about Serebii (hoo boy, do I remember that drama. Too bad I can't talk about it here since it involves banned members). And sadly, I kind of miss that because at least it'd mean something was going on.

I thought X and Y, OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire, or even Sun and Moon would get the forum active again, but I honestly haven't seen a big influx of people since HeartGold and SoulSilver were announced (although the new record is listed as October 11, 2013, so I guess X and Y helped? Somehow I don't remember that as much as I do with HG/SS). I have seen a bigger number of newbies sign up at the start of this year, and it did get me excited, maybe a little hopeful that the site will thrive again with some new blood, but it was too good to last, it seems. I think only a small handful of those newbies are still actively posting at this point.

I do love this site, and I'm sad to see it wane like this, but I guess that's to be expected? Serebii tries to change things up a bit, but it might be a little too late/too slow at this point? I'm not sure. Far as I know, forum activity as a whole across the web just might not be as prevalent these days like they used to be. But that's just the thing: I don't know how true that is. I just remember the Internet being a much, much different place back then when it came to these sorts of sites. Ten years is enough time for there to be noticeable changes, so another ten years should also bring about a drastic change to these forums, for better or for worse. I probably won't be here by then to tell the difference.