|
history
I'm starting this
off stating that this is all from memory and there may be some errors
with dates, names, or events as a whole. This is an ongoing project for
me, if you notice any discrepancies, please
report
to me!
It all started with Diablo
II, the first game that I was ever truly addicted too. I'm not exactly
sure why, but I decided to join DiabloII.net's forums. Back then, I was
known as anime6590 - a username that screams "noob". The forums included
trading discussing, clan discussion, and other various topics. I instantly
became attached to the community, and began posting often. After searching
around for Diablo II hacks, I came across a goldmine - Cheatlist. Cheatlist
was a larger community of people interested in hacking Diablo II and other
associated Blizzard games. The game hacking forum culture interested me,
and I became an active member.
|
2001
- 2003
|
Zelaron
and Game Hacking Culture |
Shortly after becoming
a member on Cheatlist forums, I began meeting many new members. I met
a member named DemiNeo, whom was starting up a new game hacking community.
I was invited to join the forum staff as a supreme moderator, my first
forum leadership position. I chose
the alias of tacoX, and the name stuck. On this forum, I met a
fellow member named Chruser - whom quickly befriended me and invited me
on the staff of his new community,
Zelaron. The engine,
layout, and organization of this forum was done well and I decided to
take a moderator position. I began focusing more time onto the development
and growth of Zelaron forums. I was promoted to Admin, helping the growth
of Zelaron for over 2 years. I ended up leaving Zelaron on a bad note,
but it was the push that I needed to finally start my own community.
|
2003
- 2005
|
Leading
a Community |
I was hurt about the
entire situation that caused me to leave Zelaron forums, and decided to
take a break from forums for several months. After a little forum vacation,
I decided to start a gaming community with my brother, Demo. We chose
the name GamingVoid, with the intention to make an entire void network
of sites following this one. This community grew quick, and many memorable
members. Unfortunately, this community came to an abrupt and tragic end
due to contact hackers. Resurrection of the community was near impossible
because of the damage the hackers did and the faulty forum software used.
Another major contributing factor to the demise of GamingVoid was poor
leadership on my part. I was a very cold, strict leader that ruled with
an iron fist. Many members became upset with me and helped bring the community
down. It was a situation I could not repair, and had to close the community
in 2005.
|
2005
- 2006
|
Lessons
Learned - A New Community |
After learning many lessons
about how to run a community, I decided to start fresh once again. I changed
the focus of my community from gaming to digital art, creating
GFXVoid. I wanted to run
this community completely different from GamingVoid - by being more caring,
friendly, and forgiving. Members began flooding in and posting their work
and tutorials. Within 4 months, GFXVoid was already larger than GamingVoid
- and continued to grow exponentially. Soon, the same hacker problems
that plagued GamingVoid began to haunt GFXVoid. Sever problems, slow loading,
and downtime slowly began hurting the growing community. I began spending
hours a day working on GFXVoid, fixing errors, and making sure everything
ran smoothly. Instead of being the fun community I once knew, most my
time on it was spent fixing things. I decided to sell the community in
May 2006 for an undisclosed amount to focus on my company.
Nowadays I don't forum
as often as I did in the past as I need to focus on development of my
company. Although, I still browse on forums now and then,
see where I'm @! I will update section
as time passes - last update 11/5/06. |
