300,000 User Milestone! - Celebration Ideas?

[ash_pikachu_98]

2012 marks our tenth year of being together as an awesome community of fans from around the globe!

It's been a long journey. There are a lot of new faces around today, and still many old ones who have been here from the start; some like myself from back in the beginning who may not even be particularly active anymore, but still strongly support and believe in the community we've built. Even beyond Pokemon itself, we've all developed many great relationships with our peers, learned so many new things from those around us, and quite possibly become better ourselves in some ways; from just being a faster typer or a more refined writer, to even improving how we interact with so many different types of people and personalities. Our shared experiences over the years in this community are things we'll carry with us for years to come.

Do you have any suggestions or ideas of how we might be able to celebrate this milestone? To get creative juices flowing here's just a few I've thought of first without really digging into all that much detail yet.

• Dedicated thread where users post their Top 10 Favorite moments at tPC
• Dedicated thread where each user would post a short history of how they came to be a part of tPC, and if it has affected their lives in some way, how.
• Social Media push where maybe we plan a coordinated effort to get tPC trending somewhere like Twitter or something. Perhaps a particular hashtag (#10YrsofTPC? #PokeCommunity10years? #10yrPokeCommunity?)

Since quantity honestly means little and quality is what actually counts, choosing 300k is more about creating an opportunity to commemorate our past and celebrate our future, not necessarily putting any importance into the number itself. So while thinking of ideas, keep that in mind and let's see what we can all come up with together!

-Ian/ap98

P.S. Below is a consolidated list for easier viewing of basically all replies to this thread so far that contained specifics on ideas. If yours is missing and you'd like it added then just lmk.

Originally Posted by Team Fail

Well, perhaps we can have a comittee of users and staff to plan out events. One part for a theme(s), one to organize and round up former staff, one for a PC Timeline event, one for -insert idea here- and etc.

Originally Posted by droomph

A great celebration idea would be to show how stuff was "back in the day" for us new peeps! Blah...that could mean many things, but it'd be cool imo. But being more realistic, a Get-Together sounds great!

Originally Posted by Team Fail

How about a retro day? Get all the old staff together and have a happy day? That would be my idea of a celebration.

Originally Posted by Requility

Within the Get Together I was planning on a PC history quiz of like, 100 questions, but I should go all out and do 500 or so. But other than that it's probably all I can think of, although the ideas that everyone else has mentioned and the ones in the first post are great imo!

Originally Posted by Harlequin

Although I imagine it would get overly cheesy, I think a thread for all the members of PC to share their top 10 favorite moments is a wonderful idea.

Originally Posted by Para-Dox

I agree that having a retro PokeCommunity day would be a great idea, as compared to you guys I'm still new even though I've been lurking here for about 2 years here. Maybe some people could use their old themes and we get forced to use a ancient theme from 2003.

Originally Posted by Olli97

I'm horrible at thinking up ideas, so a thread for people's favourite moments is what I'd say for now, however I feel like it'd be a bit unfair for the newer members, as that is kinda what this celebration would be about, being all about hitting 300.000 members, right? Anyways, hopefully people will have some great ideas.

Originally Posted by AlexOzzyCake

Let's have a massive forum-wide bake off where everyone bakes a celebration cake and we can compare/rate them all! :D

... Butchea the memories thread is a great idea and the get-together certainly should be made extra special in commemoration :3

Originally Posted by C_r_e_a_m_p_u_f_f

My suggestion is that our artists work on a cool new forum style (even though Chromatic was just released) to honour this special occasion!

Originally Posted by Requility

When I saw this I started thinking of a collab with past style creators, while a few are off-site, there's only a few that might be willing. Sooo I asked Jake (Hiroshi) and he said he's doing other stuff, Gav (Abnegation) might be interested and I haven't yet asked anyone else but I figured it might be a nice thing to do!

Also uh, link to old ex-staf list if it helps any.

Originally Posted by Team Fail

How about rehosting the old boards as an archive for us younguns to see? Or was a backup never made?

Originally Posted by droomph

I think we should make a gallery commemorating 10 years of AWESOME. Like, different portraits of different forums (for example, we'll put lots of baby Pokémon in with a Meganium and Snivy for the NU/W forums) and different times (like a Zorua tricking everyone for the 2006 (3?) & 2012 April Fool's trick) though I'm not sure this should be the only event. Opinions?

Originally Posted by AWsquared

I like the idea of a special get-together, but I'm assuming that means actually meeting up in real life, which is something I may not be able to do cause I'm in the middle of the US with no car.

Maybe any member online on the day of the anniversary could get a special emblem or we could have a special 10th anniversary forum wide event and anyone who participates gets an emblem. Like maybe a 10-year anniversary egg swap or something of the likes.

Originally Posted by Curious.

tbh I have no idea how to celebrate such a special event. I'm liking the idea of sharing our top ten moments here on PC though.

Although, I was thinking about this for a few days now before mentioning it here, (it might sound cheesy and all that, and perhaps some may dislike it) but what if we were to have a community-wide collage of out irl photos. Similar to the emblem wall, we'd have to make our photo's a certain size, no as small but large enough to see them, but not too large either. But I think in a way, this sort of unites us omg this sounds so soopy. ;o and exemplifies that although we come from all across the world we're one solid unit. Plus perhaps in like 5 years time, we can look back and see ourselves aha. <3

Just an idea.

Originally Posted by droomph

What if we share the first post we saw on PC aside from rules, official announcments, and whatnot that we can remember?

Originally Posted by Requility

Or maybe sharing the first post that made you feel a part of PC might be better?

Originally Posted by vaporeon7

Maybe we could all change our avatars/signatures to what they were when we firs joined?

Originally Posted by GolurkIsDaBomb

Maybe we could all try and come up with a better slogan as an event?

Or perhaps everyone could change their avatar to be a picture of a pokeball (or something similar) to show uh poketogetherness? Oh and mods could be great balls, and then higher staff would be ultra balls and master balls and whatever.

Or we could all share the first reply to one of our posts, showing the welcoming nature of the community?I don't really know haha :/

Originally Posted by ~RNC~

I like the idea of story telling from all members, I would have soooo many to tell, just imagine what others would have to tell, I would like to know others stories of how they found PC and what their experiences were when they 1st started and now!!

Originally Posted by Bluelatios*

How about having a party for anime fans to tie in not only with the milestone, but also the release of Black/White 2?

Originally Posted by docowocool

Why don't we have a party thread where we post pass the parcels and the mods give us a cool avatar!

Originally Posted by Razor Leaf

The story telling thing mentioned above is a nice idea. Nothing too over-the-top and flashy.

Originally Posted by fenyx4

Um...the only thing I thought of that could be done to celebrate is that someone/a group of active users on here could do something similar to what Jagex (developers of the game RuneScape) did when RuneScape's YouTube channel amassed 100,000 subscriptions from YouTube users.

Many users submitted clips (most of which were short in length, usually a few seconds long) stating to some effect that they were "one of the 100,000 [subscribers] and did many variants of the statement through a variety of videos. Maybe a thread could be started to pool together PokeCommunity members who would like to do something similar here?

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

That's right Ian. I totally forgot when we actually set up (when Kwesi set up that Ikonboard) because I wasn't around then, but to help celebrate, we were planning a "Get-Together" event between August to October (we've been celebrating the anniversaries in October, when we first got a vBulletin and our slogan was… like… it is right now…)

Since you would've been here at the time, when was it that Kwesi set PC up?

[ash_pikachu_98]

You know I'm not totally positive right this sec. I actually have some AIM logs from waaaay back in the beginning; I think I even have the exact conversation record of when we were first putting up 'we're still working on a better slogan' lol. That would be some pretty interesting stuff to read up on so I'll have to do some digging this week. =)

[Drew]

Aaaah, do we really? No way.. @ 300,000 users.

I wanna say that my original user ID was 2,000-ish, and I was thinking there was no way it'd gone up so much. Then I was smacked in the face by a self reminder that it's had seven years since then to reach such a milestone. Does not at all feel like it's been that long for me, I can't imagine what people who've been here from the start think. xD;

[droomph]

I'm sorry for butting in but...

A great celebration idea would be to show how stuff was "back in the day" for us new peeps! Blah...that could mean many things, but it'd be cool imo. I'm stupid aren't I

But being more realistic, a Get-Together sounds great!

[Team Fail]

How about a retro day? Get all the old staff together and have a happy day?

That would be my idea of a celebration.

[droomph]

Yeah, but what are you gonna do to get them together? I'm sure 80% (like colcolstyles) quit PC when they quit modding their section, or...are you saying, the surviving staff, like Kura and co.?

That'd be awesome...:D

[Forever]

It's really nice to know that PC's come so far. :3

Within the Get Together I was planning on a PC history quiz of like, 100 questions, but I should go all out and do 500 or so. But other than that it's probably all I can think of, although the ideas that everyone else has mentioned and the ones in the first post are great imo!

Ooh I should go find the great big ex-staff list in... one of my blogs @ previous idea to help "gather" them if we know who they are.

[Team Fail]

Originally Posted by Requility

Ooh I should go find the great big ex-staff list in... one of my blogs @ previous idea to help "gather" them if we know who they are.

This is exactly what I had in mind.

Edit: derp. But still it'd be pretty cool to see all those that made PC who we are today.

[chrunch]

Originally Posted by droomph

I'm sorry for butting in but...

A great celebration idea would be to show how stuff was "back in the day" for us new peeps! Blah...that could mean many things, but it'd be cool imo. I'm stupid aren't I

But being more realistic, a Get-Together sounds great!

I really like that idea, even if it's just something like a summary of PC's history from the beginning, I think it'd be interesting, and I'm curious to hear about it. ;P

[Harlequin]

Although I imagine it would get overly cheesy, I think a thread for all the members of PC to share their top 10 favorite moments is a wonderful idea.

[Para-Dox]

I agree that having a retro PokeCommunity day would be a great idea, as compared to you guys I'm still new even though I've been lurking here for about 2 years here. Maybe some people could use their old themes and we get forced to use a ancient theme from 2003.

[Olli97]

Originally Posted by droomph

But being more realistic, a Get-Together sounds great!

The Get-Togethers are actually something yearly here on PC, usually around July/August, so I think it should be something else :p

In any case, I'm horrible at thinking up ideas, so a thread for people's favourite moments is what I'd say for now, however I feel like it'd be a bit unfair for the newer members, as that is kinda what this celebration would be about, being all about hitting 300.000 members, right? Anyways, hopefully people will have some great ideas.

[AlexOzzyCake]

Let's have a massive forum-wide bake off where everyone bakes a celebration cake and we can compare/rate them all! :D

... Butchea the memories thread is a great idea and the get-together certainly should be made extra special in commemoration :3

[C_r_e_a_m_p_u_f_f]

My suggestion is that our artists work on a cool new forum style (even though Chromatic was just released) to honour this special occasion!

[Cosmotone8]

^Good idea. But how many people would use it?
Also, I don't think that the top ten favorite moments would be all that great. Partially because I can't even remember half of my moments, or that they were just stuff in VMs that nobody but me would remember.
The ex-staff list would be cool, I guess.

[Forever]

Originally Posted by C_r_e_a_m_p_u_f_f

My suggestion is that our artists work on a cool new forum style (even though Chromatic was just released) to honour this special occasion!

When I saw this I started thinking of a collab with past style creators, while a few are off-site, there's only a few that might be willing. Sooo I asked Jake (Hiroshi) and he said he's doing other stuff, Gav (Abnegation) might be interested and I haven't yet asked anyone else but I figured it might be a nice thing to do!

Also uh, link to old ex-staf list if it helps any.

[deku]

Originally Posted by C_r_e_a_m_p_u_f_f

My suggestion is that our artists work on a cool new forum style (even though Chromatic was just released) to honour this special occasion!

That's a good idea, but if I recall correctly the community once tried to create a style together (using art from various people from PC) and the style was never completed.

[Team Fail]

Originally Posted by deku

That's a good idea, but if I recall correctly the community once tried to create a style together (using art from various people from PC) and the style was never completed.

Perhaps now that there are more people to aid with that effort (And there is an awesome deadline) it might actually get finished.

[ash_pikachu_98]

Originally Posted by Cosmotone8

^Good idea. But how many people would use it?
Also, I don't think that the top ten favorite moments would be all that great. Partially because I can't even remember half of my moments, or that they were just stuff in VMs that nobody but me would remember.
The ex-staff list would be cool, I guess.

Excellent point. I think the purpose of a top ten favorite moments isn't so much for the people reading it and to spark that same mutual memory for nostalgia, but to actually get individual people thinking. When you've been here since the start like myself but have been inactive for a large portion of it, you can imagine I'd have trouble even coming up with a top 5. Since yesterday though I've been browsing through my message histories and other files and it's been sorta fun to try tracking down some of the fun, interesting, or memorable moments of mine. Now for those who are so new they couldn't possibly have ten to list, perhaps theirs is an open-ended list that is just waiting to be completed in the future? Maybe they only have 1 favorite moment so far and it was something like first joining and then being helped a ton with something by a vet. Maybe a top 5 instead of 10 so it's a bit more achievable to fill by a wider group of users.

Originally Posted by Drew

Aaaah, do we really? No way.. @ 300,000 users.

I wanna say that my original user ID was 2,000-ish, and I was thinking there was no way it'd gone up so much. Then I was smacked in the face by a self reminder that it's had seven years since then to reach such a milestone. Does not at all feel like it's been that long for me, I can't imagine what people who've been here from the start think. xD;

I know right??? lol you'd never even notice unless going out of your way to look. Around this time last year I even took it a step further and dug into how our total post count compares with other familiar communities or corporate forums. Since user count alone isn't the best measurement of a community's growth, post count is a great way to guage actual activity.

Put into perspective, PokeCommunity.com is larger and more active than ALL of the following forums: Deviant Art, Gamespot, Mozilla, Howard Stern, City of Heroes. Even larger than the official forums of million dollar entities such as AMD, Nintendo, Playstation, Sega, Tivo, Warner Brothers, Ubuntu, Sony Music, G-Unit and Pearl Jam. Some familiar sports teams we also beat out are: Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Diego Chargers, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, and NY Giants. Our goal was never to be the biggest, but we certainly set out to build the best community we possibly could. We first started PC a decade ago now beginning with a solid core group of dedicated and passionate people. We had a mission to bring together as many fans as we could from around the world and create an unbreakable community that would stand the tests of time. I think we achieved that goal.

Originally Posted by droomph

I'm sorry for butting in but...

A great celebration idea would be to show how stuff was "back in the day" for us new peeps! Blah...that could mean many things, but it'd be cool imo. I'm stupid aren't I

But being more realistic, a Get-Together sounds great!

No apologies necessary silly :-p Not a bad idea. Maybe sort of like slowly building up a tPC timecapsule?

Originally Posted by Team Fail

Perhaps now that there are more people to aid with that effort (And there is an awesome deadline) it might actually get finished.

Setting a date and creating specific expectations would definitely be needed. Otherwise you could have a group of genius savants working together who are highly motivated, yet still end up with a barely started product lol.

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

The PokéCommunity 10th Anniversary Get-Together. I was planning to hold it around September to October (when we became a vBulletin) but if you can find a date, I'll hold one sooner, Ian. :P

(Of course, you've never been to any recent ones, so you wouldn't know exactly what they are.)

[ash_pikachu_98]

Originally Posted by Hiroshi Sotomura

The PokéCommunity 10th Anniversary Get-Together. I was planning to hold it around September to October (when we became a vBulletin) but if you can find a date, I'll hold one sooner, Ian.

(Of course, you've never been to any recent ones, so you wouldn't know exactly what they are.)

Indexing a couple of my drives now to search for particular keywords to narrow in on some logs. haha yeah Ikonboard's were waaay back. Didn't they have the 'glow' feature for text that was so nifty at first until people overused it? lol. Or maybe that was ProBoards. I think Sept-Oct is a pretty good period to hold something; Sept is soon to be my favorite month since that's when my gf and I are due for our very first baby boy . For posterity reasons I'll still keep looking for any old info though.

[Team Fail]

How about rehosting the old boards as an archive for us younguns to see? Or was a backup never made?

[droomph]

Originally Posted by C_r_e_a_m_p_u_f_f

My suggestion is that our artists work on a cool new forum style (even though Chromatic was just released) to honour this special occasion!

Dis'a Pokémon Forum, right? I think we should make a gallery commemorating 10 years of AWESOME. Like, different portraits of different forums (for example, we'll put lots of baby Pokémon in with a Meganium and Snivy for the NU/W forums) and different times (like a Zorua tricking everyone for the 2006 (3?) & 2012 April Fool's trick) though I'm not sure this should be the only event. Opinions?

[Luigi-San]

Originally Posted by Team Fail

How about rehosting the old boards as an archive for us younguns to see? Or was a backup never made?

http://web.archive.org/web/200211231...community.com/

The oldest viewable archive of the board. Kind of scary to think that this very community is older than Ruby and Sapphire!