I'm new here, and being invited here was quite a surprise, especially since I had no idea this private ring of intellectuals existed. How long was I missing out? Basically, I'd like to have the history of this forum explained to me in middleman terms rather than having to read loads of old threads.

So, when did Open Discussion appear? How many people started in it? What were some of the most successful threads? What other miscellaneous information can you give me about its history? Feel free to reminisce nostalgically, while also providing interesting, informative content for my reading pleasure. :)

OD started... a good few years ago now, I guess. There was an older Open Discussion once upon a time, which, if I recall, was actually outright deleted due to off-topic content, setting everybody's post counts back a good amount, but that's rather beside the point.

Originally, all you needed to get into the new OD was 300 posts, but as time went on and folks like Aku and Reapr and all those other guys who post a billion times a day and are kinda jerks showed up, it became an invite-only thing. So, the original OD crowd was whoever had enough posts; there's a stickied list of members who are in at the top of the forum here, and we haven't really invited in a lot.

In the early days, we attempted to start a neat little project called Forumville, mostly spurred along by Worm Mad. We even had a rather heated election for mayor of Forumville, created a map with all of our homes on it, etc. etc. It kinda fell through because everybody was waiting on an official website that never actually happened.

Guess that's all I can think of for now. Everybody else, feel free to add and/or correct.

By the way, welcome. Never saw many of your posts before, but you seem pretty cool.

I'm somewhat new here, but when it started out, you could get in if you had 300+ posts. When Sel came along, it was switched to invite only to discourage spam.
These people are in it now.
http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=20192
Not too many of them actually use it.

[EDIT]Thanks for wasting my post, Zero. :p

I knew I took too long to type that. :p

Mine's better!

You only reference the stickied thread, though.
I provided one of those new-age LINKS. Ha.

How hard can it be to find a stickied thread? :p

You'd be amazed how many people miss them and ask questions they answer.

I'd seen that stickied thread already. In fact, it was linked to in the informative invitation email Sel sent me. :p

So, what else can you guys tell me?

Hmm... I guess the only other thing I can think of for the moment is that we tend to be a little more personal in here. Especially in the Positive/Negative Events threads. This is where we come to vent. :p

Edit: And sometimes we mess with Fan Art.

Above all, OD is not a little hidey hole where the elite snigger about the fools outside in the majority world. It might give that impression but it's not at our core. OD is the haven for those deemed deserving or sensible enough where we can, as Zeor says, be a little more open with each other in a protected environment. We value our privilege and the extra worth it brings to the Team17 forum/board.

Aha. Yes.
This is where we plot things like avatar fads, occasionally.
We haven't done anything in a while, though, since the rebels yell at us about elitism.

I would have italicised those, myself.

It's probably worth noting that back in APJ's (or was it AJP?) time having a 'being watched' status when you hit 300 posts disqualified you from OD. :-/

Still, at least I feel special 'cause I got invited.;)

It's probably worth noting that back in APJ's (or was it AJP?) time having a 'being watched' status when you hit 300 posts disqualified you from OD. :-/

Still, at least I feel special 'cause I got invited.;)Having a Being Watched status prevents access to OD, no matter what the post count is.

Remember these fruit avatars?
http://www.nanacide.com/images/Fruit/
That and many other avatar fads hailed from in here.

Also the counter-OD movement outside of OD should be mentioned, discussed in the "Rumors of OD (http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28652)" thread.

Some people from the UK have been meeting in real life (http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=29716) a few times.

And of course, the "100% Off-Topic Namechangeseverynowandthen" thread.
Our very own "Fan Art" spamhole.

Welcome, Alex :D.

Yeah, basically what was said by everyone else. I think the reason the 300+ posts thing was dropped was specifically because dig was nearing 300+ posts and had been trying to publicise our existence for a while, along with the usual CL2K anarchists (MrLee, Cheech, etc, who were also getting close to 300). I believe it was actually APJ who decided to make it a more closed sub-forum.

Having a Being Watched status prevents access to OD, no matter what the post count is.
Yeah, but if you had access to OD in the first place you get let back in when the status is removed.

I dont know if I was in from the start or invited (anyone remember inviting me?!)
I never noticed forums coming and going, so I always assumed OD was a bit of a spam hole. It was only when I started reading though some longer posts that I realised it was private so starting reading it more.

You defaulted in. You've been here forever. :p

http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17910
http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18011
One of my favorite moments in OD(second thread is a continuation of the first one).
Edit: That reminds me, what happened to Sarge?

I read those threads and they were so amazing and brilliant. Really, I need to get myself a sigworm, beyond the one I made when I started Worms. It's kind of junkish.

Vader, you always seem to win in every thread. You win. Have a trophy. No, I'm not giving it to you. I'm telling you to get it yourself. How, you ask? Well, buy it, of course.

Sigworm?
What would you like? I'll sketch one out for you really quick if you want.

Well, let me think. Hmm. I need to ponder a lot. I really want it to be representative of me. :) This is kind of difficult, because I think of myself as having a very complex personality which has an extreme number of aspects, including the great love for nearly any style of art, as long as it's high-quality. It's very hard to decide what I would look like, stylishly. I know for sure, though, that I would definitely need to have a fairly simple costume; nothing too complex, but sweeping-enough of my style that it captures me. I tend to be minimalist in what I do, but maximalist in the number of different things I do. Once again, it's very hard to decide. /me goes into recursive thought algorithms, hoping to extract pure data from deep inside.

EDIT:
Woah...lol. Umm not quite as what I expected but I bet I could make up a "stylish" sig.

Alright, I've got it:

In my representative picture, I'd like to be having a half-smirk on my face; like a half-smile, with thoughtful, but fun-loving eyes. I'm not sure how well you can capture personality in your drawing of eyes, but I'm sure it would be fine. I'd like square or rectangular pupils (whichever looks best to you, the artist). I'd like a blue hat with the shape of Robin Hood's hat, with a yellow feather in it, sticking out diagonally backwards (or vise-versa [yellow hat; blue feather], if that looks better. I realize you'd probably draw it in greyscale first, so don't worry too much about the colouring.). My hands are very important. I feel like all my power is in my hands. I either want black gloves on my hands, or metal hands (mind you, not robotic. It would just be smooth-moving metal hands, I suppose.). I'm not sure metal hands would blend well with the rest of the costume, but you decide. :) The black gloves also look good in my mind's image.

This thread of threads may be useful: http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18546

General searching should help too. Typically the more bizarre the thread title, the more important the topic.

working on it. ;)

Yessss! I can hardly wait. I've seen a lot of your worm art, Slick, and I must say that it's quite good, in my opinion.

Edit: Thanks for that thread, Paul. Weee! /me delves into more old OD threads.

D'oh! I forgot the black gloves. :p

But anyways...this is what I got so far.

D'oh! I forgot the black gloves. :p

But anyways...this is what I got so far.Excellent drawing. *likes the shading*

Edit: That reminds me, what happened to Sarge?
He just kinda trickled off and can rarely be bothered to post anymore. His sig says he's no longer really a regular member.

Shame, that. Wish he'd show up more often.

Wow, Slick. The hat is perfect and the mouth is brilliant. The hands are missing, as I know you noted, but that's okay. I must just have them tucked away for the moment. :)

Really, that hat is the exact-right shape. The only little criticism I have is that the eyes could look a little more thoughtful. That is, the pupils could be a smidgen larger and the eyes not open to their maximum width. However, I am often in a an extremely optimistic mood, so that picture still represents me! Ha, that's great. Weee! I'm excited to have my very own signature worm! Now I just have to learn how to draw it for myself.

As always, your shading and bordering is a delight.

Thanks, the next step is to post a profile here. (http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=19879);)

I will do, eventually. For now, I'm going bedwise. I've been up all night reading this forum, really. This is exciting. Ha!

Thanks, the next step is to post a profile here. (http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=19879);)
Heh, I still haven't posted mine there:-/

Oh and "The 100% Offtopic Thread" used to be called that until AT and thomasp decided to mess with the title. So currently it's "The 100% Offtopic Time Vortex".

Heh, I still haven't posted mine there:-/

Oh and "The 100% Offtopic Thread" used to be called that until AT and thomasp decided to mess with the title. So currently it's "The 100% Offtopic Time Vortex".
I would like to point out at this time that it is mainly AT who messes with the thread title :p


This place was initially invite-only, created by APJ on 17th Feb '03, and Sel changed it to invite-only on the 20th May '04. See here: http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7286


Also, feel free to go into deep in-depth detail about your personal life ;) and read deep in-depth detail about all of our problems, etc, by visiting the Positive/Negative Events & Occurances threads: +ve events (http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=20234); -ve events (http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=20235)


Enjoy your stay :D

In the early days, we attempted to start a neat little project called Forumville, mostly spurred along by Worm Mad. We even had a rather heated election for mayor of Forumville, created a map with all of our homes on it, etc. etc. It kinda fell through because everybody was waiting on an official website that never actually happened.Actually we did get a temp website done: http://forumsville.wurmz.net

But nobody cared by then.

Vader, you always seem to win in every thread.

Yay!

What did I win?

Oh yeah. I've been around forever. I'm slightly jaded and bitter about some stuff from many moons ago but I am also light-hearted and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

I still want my 666 status.

666 4 VADER

You could put it in your Location, since there's no other "line" on the left side of posts. :p

That would be against the point.

The public agreed at the time. There was a sabotage on the poll.

Let's not get into it, though.

Well that's explained things a bit.

I like the way I can see who voted for me in the invite poll though :) to be honest I'm a little surprised you thought me suitable, but hey, thanks anyway.

Oh, hi MrBunsy. :) Are you madly reading everything you can like I did?

Oh, hi MrBunsy. :) Are you madly reading everything you can like I did?
No, only n00bs do that. :)

/me frowns in disapproval, as well as in an attempt to hide his giggle.

:rolleyes:

Pretty much. At least, after I realised this wasn't just a new section to the forum that had appeared since I'd been away.

Didn't you get an email from Sel telling you all about the invitation?

Yeah, but I don't check my emails very often. I only checked when you mentioned you had a welcome email.