A Chronicle of YCM

[Frunk]

[align=center]A Chronicle of YCM

A documentation of the history of the Yu-Gi-Oh Card Maker forums through the eyes of Frunk.

 

To discuss this chronicle, click here.

 

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Chapters

 

Introduction (this post)

Chapter I

Chapter II

 

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Introduction[/align]

 

It occurs to me that when one writes such a thing and posts it in such a place, they will require a lengthy and somewhat daft parenthesis (albeit untraditional) to explain themselves and their reasons. Having said that, if you’re not a fan of long posts (this one, when combined with the first chapter, is 3,800 words), big-people talk, non-fiction books, Australian English (as in “colour” as opposed to “color”), or threads in the Fan-Fiction forum that don’t somehow revolve around “Yu-Gi-Oh,” “Pokémon” or some other fad of a similar nature: stop reading this right now, as for you to do otherwise will be a waste of time for the both of us. However, if you have ever desired becoming a moderator of YCM, declared your “love” and “devotion” to the site or stated that it is the “best site on the Internet,” I suggest that you read on, as you will learn many things you previously did not.

 

To those of you who were intellectual enough to read beyond the above paragraph, I thank you, and welcome you to my chronicle of the history of the Yu-Gi-Oh Card Maker forums, or, as they are commonly referred to, YCM. I have created this chronicle for a number of reasons. I hope to enlighten many of the members of this forum who were not fortunate enough to witness the key parts in YCM’s history as they happened. Many members I see discussing such historical events, persons and happenings of this site haven’t quite got the story correct (at the best of times), and that is, to me, frustrating. Until a few months ago, YCM was a major part of my life, and my time here taught me quite a lot. I felt I should honour YCM with such a documentation of fact so that her members know what really went on and so they can respect what this forum has been through - There have been many highs and many lows, as well as a great deal of interesting occurrences in between.

 

Having been there from the practical start (despite leaving precisely four months ago as of May 8, 2008; and no, I did not plan to post this on the four-month anniversary of my leaving, that is just a coincidence), I know nearly as much of the forum’s history as YCMaker himself, if not much more so. Some of the more enlightened of you will perhaps notice over time that this is not a chronicle as they are traditionally defined. I will cover the history of the site as chronologically as possible, but it will not just be events in YCM’s history that will be discussed (like the forum wars, which have, over time, become heavily shrouded in innuendo from this chronicle’s target audience); I will also be covering certain members who I think had a great influence on the forum, and perhaps even some aspects of the forum itself.

 

Let me say, first and foremost, that the information in this chronicle is written strictly through my eyes. This means two things. First, you won’t be hearing too much to do with the Custom Cards, Yu-Gi-Oh or Graphic Design sections of this forum unless I was directly involved. I spent very little time in those areas, venturing into them only when I wanted or needed to or when my services as a moderator were required. Second, the opinions portrayed in this chronicle may be slightly biased in one way or another, and for that, I must apologise in advance. I’ll also note my poor sentencing skills, my love for commas, and my lack of ability to keep things in the same tense and person. Until I stop learning about silly-old books like To Kill a Mockingbird in my English classes and start learning such useful information as stated, I believe that my grammatical hiccups are, for the time being, incurable. One must also note that due to my schooling I have a very busy life and can’t dedicate as much time as I’d like to writing, and that, obviously, includes this chronicle – my first non-fiction work created by my choice. For these reasons, it may be once in a blue moon that you read a new chapter of this chronicle, but I will try to make it as often as possible. I believe that is all I need to cover in this parenthesis, so the only thing left to do is begin!

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[Frunk]

[align=center]--

I

InvisionFree Saga[/align]

 

Now, where to start? Some of you may think it would be best to start at December 24, 2006; as that is the date on which forum “first began.” If you did think something along these lines, I thank you, as you are the reason why I’m writing this chronicle. You would be correct if referring to the current Yu-Gi-Oh Card Maker forums, which were created on December 24, 2006, but, as a select few who are learned in the history of YCM would know, this was not the absolute beginning.

 

The date December 24, 2006, is commonly misconceived as the start date of YCM. In actual fact, YCM began a long, long time before this date. To properly document the history of YCM, one must travel back to a date when many, if not, all the current members of YCM did not even know it existed, bar of course YCMaker himself. I’ll note that I was not a part of YCM at or even close to the time of its creation, so the following details may be slightly warped, as they go only from what is obvious and what I can determine from records remaining on the forum itself and its Admin Control Panel.

 

The true date of the creation of YCM is July 9, 2005, at approximately 10:08 AM (GMT). YCMaker (under the name “yugiohcardmaker”) registered an InvisionFree forum, entitling it, quite simply “Yugioh Card Maker.” It is likely that this was either in conjunction with the release of YCMaker’s downloadable Card Maker (known as “Yugioh Card Maker 1.0”), or shortly thereafter. It has to be said that it was a very small, bland and unappealing board, featuring just three forums; “Created Cards,” “Questions, Comments, Suggestions” and “General.” One could guess that YCMaker only ever made it to act as a small support board.

 

This forum sat, likely, completely idle for over a month until August 17, 2005, when a member finally joined. This was not something to be rejoiced, though, as this member did not post, and only a total of eight members joined before the end of 2005, only two of whom posted, and neither of whom more than just once. It wasn’t until April of 2006 that another member joined, yet still nobody appeared to have any plans on making more than just the one or two posts. Things changed, though, on June 10, 2006, when a member who was to become YCM’s first moderator (other than YCMaker himself, obviously) registered.

 

Many of you may think that I’m referring to myself with the above sentence, but this is incorrect. The name “DarkChaotix” should’ve gone down in history as YCM’s first moderator, but due to my name appearing second and in bold on the current YCM member list, many members have misconceived that it is I who holds this title. I most certainly was not the first moderator YCM ever had. I was, in fact, the third. I’ll try to refrain from dwelling on misconceptions so aptly and get to the part of actually rectifying them. Most of you should have already grasped that DarkChaotix joined on June 10, 2006. It is certain that between this time and June 21, 2006, DarkChaotix was appointed YCM’s first moderator.

 

He made only nineteen posts in his time on the forum, and now, unfortunately all these posts, save one, have been lost. This is likely the result of activity sweeps or server crashes on the board, and the reason why much of the history of the InvisionFree YCM before August, 2006 can only be very vaguely retold. The one post of his that remains on the board was the made on June 21, 2006 (which is how the possible dateline for his appointment of moderator was calculated), and appeared in the forum’s most popular and longest-surviving thread. It was a thread created by YCMaker to discuss whether the next Card Maker (which many of you know as the predecessor to the current Card Maker) should be a downloadable program like the first, or a web-hosted application (like the current version). Created on June 20, 2006, the thread wasn’t replied to until the next day, when DarkChaotix stated his opinion. For those of you who read the first edition of this chapter, you may recall me noting that this one surviving post from DarkChaotix would be his legacy. However, I spoke far too soon, as on June 17, 2008, two years and one week after his registration to the InvisionFree YCM, DarkChaotix reappeared, registering to the current YCM and actually commenting on this chronicle! This has, technically, made what I originally chronicled about him incorrect and irrelevant, so it has largely been removed. Rest assured DarkChaotix will be rediscussed greatly later. What I will say now is that, obviously, DarkChaotix had little reason to stick around, and soon disappeared, never to be heard of again for over two years.

 

The first anniversary of YCM came and passed, likely unbeknownst to anyone, as the forum slugged through July, 2006. Fortunately though, things soon began to change. August, 2006 could, arguably, be one of the most important months in the history of YCM. However, August was very much like previous months up until the August 25, 2006. It was to be on this date that the forum’s second moderator came to join – This particular moderator appointed to his position just two days after his registration. “SuperSanji” is a name familiar with some members due to his frequent reference, more often than not, from myself. He made a total of just thirteen posts before disappearing, and in this time he was, as stated, appointed a moderator position. At the time, YCMaker did state the reason for this appointment, stating it was nothing more than a token of thanks for SuperSanji actually using the forum. SuperSanji seemed to completely ignore this bestowment (arguably with good reason), and I had always thought of him as a bit on the arrogant side. After becoming the first person to ever suggest the addition of “Tokens” to the Card Maker, SuperSanji disappeared in early September.

 

August would not pass as uneventfully as previous months, though, for on August 30, 2006, two members joined who would, ultimately, rescue the forum from the brink. This binary began with a member called “yugimuto2006” (later known as “eminem93” of the current YCM), who, while not providing the forum with overly much, did provide the second member of his binary company. This second member of the said binary was to become just the thirty-seventh member to join InvisionFree YCM. If you guessed me; well done; for you guessed correctly.

 

I registered to the InvisionFree YCM under the user name “frunk.” It is highly likely, though, that had Yugimuto and I not joined the same day, neither of us would’ve stayed much longer than those who came before us. I was quite the typical “noob” [sic] at first, not knowing anything about forum etiquette, proper posting manner or anything of the sort. The moral behind this, I suppose, is that everyone starts somewhere, and in my case, the InvisionFree YCM was first forum I’d ever joined. I imagine Yugimuto was much the same, but, oddly, I recall very little of him. The early days were quite hazy.

 

Both Yugimuto and I made scattered posts in each other’s company, but Yugimuto appeared to have a lacking interest in sticking around. I was quite the same, but I account my interest in the forum to the fact that I was appointed a moderator. Like SuperSanji before me, this happened just two days after my registration, and, despite YCMaker not providing an explanation, it was likely just a token of thanks for being active on the forum like my predecessor. This raises the question, though; why was Yugimuto not appointed as well? This question, due to my lacking memory of this time, could be answered, possibly, by looking at Yugimuto’s posts. I, though, have chosen not to look into it for two reasons. First; due to InvisionFree’s ongoing disbandment of the InvisionFree forum system (to make way for their new “Zetaboards”), it is now extremely difficult to locate such information. Second; it really is one of the great “not that it matters” questions of YCM. I think that there is no reason for it to be answered at this stage, or at least, no reason for it to be answered by myself.

 

A very notable registration took place on September 5, 2006. This member was to become a very famous member of the current YCM, and equally infamous in the early days thereof. “One Love=Yugioh” may not be a name familiar to many current members of YCM, but the case is not the same for his current alias: “Falling Pizza.” The account One Love=Yugioh was never logged on to after the day it was registered and was used to make just three posts. Only one of his posts remains in existence: the infamous post that brought YCM its most famous card (or at least what is widely regarded to be so) of all time; “Jonus.”

 

Jonus was a “Pig-Type Fusion Monster” with no listed fusion material, outlandish attack and defence points, an “over-produced” circulation, a photo of an unknown, overweight man grimacing and an effect, or more appropriately, a description, that read; “Nha Trang is a breath of fresh air coming from Vietnam’s south. It’s a major coastal town and has that bright, lofty, pastel air about it. In fact, the city reminds me a lot of Santa Monica, California, which is weird.” Its creator stated that “this Yugioh Trap card is inspired by the voyages of Jonus,” and listed its creator as “©2006 Sarah.” Falling Pizza, through the use of IP records, has been confirmed to be One Love=Yugioh, and thus the one who posted Jonus. When asked, he has said he could not recall why he created Jonus, nor could he explain any of its features.

 

“Ashes Right Hand,” a now-inactive member of the current YCM, joined on September 13, 2006, but there isn’t much of a tale behind his 21-post contribution to the InvisionFree YCM, as he was just another member who happened to post, and there were a good half-dozen or so of these in the end. A few days later, I departed on a holiday (which I account for overwriting my memory of the early events of my joining) which saw out the rest of the month for me. Thus, September, 2006, was, ultimately, quite a bland month. It needs to be noted, though, that it was towards the end of this month when Yugimuto disappeared.

 

When I returned early in the next month, I came to find that the forum was largely idle. Due to my registration within a short period of time to two other members who posted more than the majority of accounts registered on the site, seeing the forum as idle was new to me. October, 2006 wasn’t to be easy or extremely fun, particularly the first 20 or so days. Between October 19 and October 22, though, a number of members joined and posted unusual amounts for the InvisionFree YCM. None of the names really need to be repeated, though one did go on to join the current YCM, known as “setojim” on both sites. After this small wave of activity, though, the InvisionFree YCM would slump once again.

 

Early November was wholly uneventful and looked to be turning out much like September and October. On November 12, Yugimuto returned, albeit for a very short time, before disappearing again, and, as I recall, he did not return to the InvisionFree YCM thereafter. Two days later (and finally, might I add), another very notable registration took place. At first, “steven” seemed to be much like those members mentioned for late October; just another member who joined the forum before drifting out of activity. The difference with Steven, though, was that he seemed to have quite a fair bit of time on his hands (like I) and stuck around for a long time. One might describe him as “another noob” [sic] if he was still active on the current YCM, but this isn’t a fair description. Had Steven not been who he was and posted as he did, there is a great possibility the current YCM would not exist. With Yugimuto’s second disappearance, and the absence of several past active members, I was, nearly two and half months after registering, losing interest. I don’t think I should ever be criticised for this, though; these times were the worst the forum had seen since I’d joined.

 

Steven, though, took over from Yugimuto in the role of being the active member (other than me), and he kept my interest in the forum to its ever-mediocre level. As November continued, a number of members posted a good half-dozen or so times each to keep the forum running. Soon enough, December was upon us, and as we continued to make what we could of the site, another notable member registered to the site. “maddog15” joined on December 5, 2006, becoming another member who would “keep me interested” in the forum. Yet, his 38 posts may have ultimately been in vain had not YCM’s fourth ever moderator joined on December 18. Despite being synonymous with my name in the early days of YCM, his name is now a relic, and little known to some. “Danilus”’ contributions to YCM would be phenomenal, and members of the current YCM should thank him for the entire modern Yu-Gi-Oh section. It was he who originally suggested the addition of the forums “Fan-Fic”, “Your Deck” and “Yugioh TCG”, and later on the current YCM he was to be the mastermind behind the ill-fated “Card Trade” program as well.

 

All of Danilus’ ideas (excluding Card Trade, which was not even a concept at the time) were implemented onto the InvisionFree YCM, but these forums weren’t overly popular, as they only existed for a small amount of days before the site came to an end. One final registration needs to be noted, though, before one can round off the history of the InvisionFree YCM. “Poc” joined on December 24, 2006, and, for reasons about to be stated, didn’t have much of a chance to impact on the InvisionFree forum at all. The site, at this point in time, had a number of active members (to recap; Danilus, Steven, Maddog, myself and a few others including Poc), and YCMaker noticed its potential, and, on December 24, 2006, he created a “News” forum and made a thread in it stating; “I've noticed this site seems to be growing more and more rapidly, so I've decided to create a new forum which is a bit cleaner and more organized. […] I'm not going to remove the current forum any time soon, so take your time migrating there.” None of those who remained active, though, wasted much time moving to the new site. I was the second member to join the current YCM as I saw the announcement posted by YCMaker approximately three minutes before Maddog, and another half an hour before Danilus, members 3 and 4 respectively.

 

It took roughly two days for the InvisionFree YCM to be almost completely abandoned. Members joined it at scattered points in time after its abandonment; some of whom were genuinely new, but a lot of whom were members of the current YCM who registered to it for reasons still unknown, and some of whom even posted. For this reason, sometime after December 14, 2007, I disabled the option for new accounts to be registered. Only a fraction of InvisionFree YCM’s genuine (those who joined on or before December 24, 2006) members are known to have registered to the current YCM, and only six of whom (as of June 17, 2008) are still active. These members deserve to be known as true veterans of YCM, and their user names are as follows (I have listed them in order of their joining to the InvisionFree YCM and used their current YCM user names); YCMaker, DarkChaotix, eminem93, Frunk, Falling Pizza, Ashes Right Hand, setojim, bluecool, steven, achoi2 (though he never posted on the InvisionFree YCM, and used the name “alexchoi12345”), RyanKoopa, maddog15, Danilus and Poc. There is a possibility that that list could be longer, but there is no evidence to suggest such a thing. As stated earlier, DarkChaotix reappeared on YCM on June 17, 2008, more than two years after his original registration to the InvisionFree YCM. This proves that there’s still hope for this list to expand. This, I suppose, is all there is to it.

[align=center]

 

This chapter was first published on May 8, 2008, and was last edited on June 3, 2009.

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[Frunk]

[align=center]--

I

InvisionFree Saga[/align]

 

Now, where to start? Some of you may think it would be best to start at December 24, 2006; as that is the date on which forum “first began.” If you did think something along these lines, I thank you, as you are the reason why I’m writing this chronicle. You would be correct if referring to the current Yu-Gi-Oh Card Maker forums, which were created on December 24, 2006, but, as a select few who are learned in the history of YCM would know, this was not the absolute beginning.

 

The date December 24, 2006, is commonly misconceived as the start date of YCM. In actual fact, YCM began a long, long time before this date. To properly document the history of YCM, one must travel back to a date when many, if not, all the current members of YCM did not even know it existed, bar of course YCMaker himself. I’ll note that I was not a part of YCM at or even close to the time of its creation, so the following details may be slightly warped, as they go only from what is obvious and what I can determine from records remaining on the forum itself and its Admin Control Panel.

 

The true date of the creation of YCM is July 9, 2005, at approximately 10:08 AM (GMT). YCMaker (under the name “yugiohcardmaker”) registered an InvisionFree forum, entitling it, quite simply “Yugioh Card Maker.” It is likely that this was either in conjunction with the release of YCMaker’s downloadable Card Maker (known as “Yugioh Card Maker 1.0”), or shortly thereafter. It has to be said that it was a very small, bland and unappealing board, featuring just three forums; “Created Cards,” “Questions, Comments, Suggestions” and “General.” One could guess that YCMaker only ever made it to act as a small support board.

 

This forum sat, likely, completely idle for over a month until August 17, 2005, when a member finally joined. This was not something to be rejoiced, though, as this member did not post, and only a total of eight members joined before the end of 2005, only two of whom posted, and neither of whom more than just once. It wasn’t until April of 2006 that another member joined, yet still nobody appeared to have any plans on making more than just the one or two posts. Things changed, though, on June 10, 2006, when a member who was to become YCM’s first moderator (other than YCMaker himself, obviously) registered.

 

Many of you may think that I’m referring to myself with the above sentence, but this is incorrect. The name “DarkChaotix” should’ve gone down in history as YCM’s first moderator, but due to my name appearing second and in bold on the current YCM member list, many members have misconceived that it is I who holds this title. I most certainly was not the first moderator YCM ever had. I was, in fact, the third. I’ll try to refrain from dwelling on misconceptions so aptly and get to the part of actually rectifying them. Most of you should have already grasped that DarkChaotix joined on June 10, 2006. It is certain that between this time and June 21, 2006, DarkChaotix was appointed YCM’s first moderator.

 

He made only nineteen posts in his time on the forum, and now, unfortunately all these posts, save one, have been lost. This is likely the result of activity sweeps or server crashes on the board, and the reason why much of the history of the InvisionFree YCM before August, 2006 can only be very vaguely retold. The one post of his that remains on the board was the made on June 21, 2006 (which is how the possible dateline for his appointment of moderator was calculated), and appeared in the forum’s most popular and longest-surviving thread. It was a thread created by YCMaker to discuss whether the next Card Maker (which many of you know as the predecessor to the current Card Maker) should be a downloadable program like the first, or a web-hosted application (like the current version). Created on June 20, 2006, the thread wasn’t replied to until the next day, when DarkChaotix stated his opinion. For those of you who read the first edition of this chapter, you may recall me noting that this one surviving post from DarkChaotix would be his legacy. However, I spoke far too soon, as on June 17, 2008, two years and one week after his registration to the InvisionFree YCM, DarkChaotix reappeared, registering to the current YCM and actually commenting on this chronicle! This has, technically, made what I originally chronicled about him incorrect and irrelevant, so it has largely been removed. Rest assured DarkChaotix will be rediscussed greatly later. What I will say now is that, obviously, DarkChaotix had little reason to stick around, and soon disappeared, never to be heard of again for over two years.

 

The first anniversary of YCM came and passed, likely unbeknownst to anyone, as the forum slugged through July, 2006. Fortunately though, things soon began to change. August, 2006 could, arguably, be one of the most important months in the history of YCM. However, August was very much like previous months up until the August 25, 2006. It was to be on this date that the forum’s second moderator came to join – This particular moderator appointed to his position just two days after his registration. “SuperSanji” is a name familiar with some members due to his frequent reference, more often than not, from myself. He made a total of just thirteen posts before disappearing, and in this time he was, as stated, appointed a moderator position. At the time, YCMaker did state the reason for this appointment, stating it was nothing more than a token of thanks for SuperSanji actually using the forum. SuperSanji seemed to completely ignore this bestowment (arguably with good reason), and I had always thought of him as a bit on the arrogant side. After becoming the first person to ever suggest the addition of “Tokens” to the Card Maker, SuperSanji disappeared in early September.

 

August would not pass as uneventfully as previous months, though, for on August 30, 2006, two members joined who would, ultimately, rescue the forum from the brink. This binary began with a member called “yugimuto2006” (later known as “eminem93” of the current YCM), who, while not providing the forum with overly much, did provide the second member of his binary company. This second member of the said binary was to become just the thirty-seventh member to join InvisionFree YCM. If you guessed me; well done; for you guessed correctly.

 

I registered to the InvisionFree YCM under the user name “frunk.” It is highly likely, though, that had Yugimuto and I not joined the same day, neither of us would’ve stayed much longer than those who came before us. I was quite the typical “noob” [sic] at first, not knowing anything about forum etiquette, proper posting manner or anything of the sort. The moral behind this, I suppose, is that everyone starts somewhere, and in my case, the InvisionFree YCM was first forum I’d ever joined. I imagine Yugimuto was much the same, but, oddly, I recall very little of him. The early days were quite hazy.

 

Both Yugimuto and I made scattered posts in each other’s company, but Yugimuto appeared to have a lacking interest in sticking around. I was quite the same, but I account my interest in the forum to the fact that I was appointed a moderator. Like SuperSanji before me, this happened just two days after my registration, and, despite YCMaker not providing an explanation, it was likely just a token of thanks for being active on the forum like my predecessor. This raises the question, though; why was Yugimuto not appointed as well? This question, due to my lacking memory of this time, could be answered, possibly, by looking at Yugimuto’s posts. I, though, have chosen not to look into it for two reasons. First; due to InvisionFree’s ongoing disbandment of the InvisionFree forum system (to make way for their new “Zetaboards”), it is now extremely difficult to locate such information. Second; it really is one of the great “not that it matters” questions of YCM. I think that there is no reason for it to be answered at this stage, or at least, no reason for it to be answered by myself.

 

A very notable registration took place on September 5, 2006. This member was to become a very famous member of the current YCM, and equally infamous in the early days thereof. “One Love=Yugioh” may not be a name familiar to many current members of YCM, but the case is not the same for his current alias: “Falling Pizza.” The account One Love=Yugioh was never logged on to after the day it was registered and was used to make just three posts. Only one of his posts remains in existence: the infamous post that brought YCM its most famous card (or at least what is widely regarded to be so) of all time; “Jonus.”

 

Jonus was a “Pig-Type Fusion Monster” with no listed fusion material, outlandish attack and defence points, an “over-produced” circulation, a photo of an unknown, overweight man grimacing and an effect, or more appropriately, a description, that read; “Nha Trang is a breath of fresh air coming from Vietnam’s south. It’s a major coastal town and has that bright, lofty, pastel air about it. In fact, the city reminds me a lot of Santa Monica, California, which is weird.” Its creator stated that “this Yugioh Trap card is inspired by the voyages of Jonus,” and listed its creator as “©2006 Sarah.” Falling Pizza, through the use of IP records, has been confirmed to be One Love=Yugioh, and thus the one who posted Jonus. When asked, he has said he could not recall why he created Jonus, nor could he explain any of its features.

 

“Ashes Right Hand,” a now-inactive member of the current YCM, joined on September 13, 2006, but there isn’t much of a tale behind his 21-post contribution to the InvisionFree YCM, as he was just another member who happened to post, and there were a good half-dozen or so of these in the end. A few days later, I departed on a holiday (which I account for overwriting my memory of the early events of my joining) which saw out the rest of the month for me. Thus, September, 2006, was, ultimately, quite a bland month. It needs to be noted, though, that it was towards the end of this month when Yugimuto disappeared.

 

When I returned early in the next month, I came to find that the forum was largely idle. Due to my registration within a short period of time to two other members who posted more than the majority of accounts registered on the site, seeing the forum as idle was new to me. October, 2006 wasn’t to be easy or extremely fun, particularly the first 20 or so days. Between October 19 and October 22, though, a number of members joined and posted unusual amounts for the InvisionFree YCM. None of the names really need to be repeated, though one did go on to join the current YCM, known as “setojim” on both sites. After this small wave of activity, though, the InvisionFree YCM would slump once again.

 

Early November was wholly uneventful and looked to be turning out much like September and October. On November 12, Yugimuto returned, albeit for a very short time, before disappearing again, and, as I recall, he did not return to the InvisionFree YCM thereafter. Two days later (and finally, might I add), another very notable registration took place. At first, “steven” seemed to be much like those members mentioned for late October; just another member who joined the forum before drifting out of activity. The difference with Steven, though, was that he seemed to have quite a fair bit of time on his hands (like I) and stuck around for a long time. One might describe him as “another noob” [sic] if he was still active on the current YCM, but this isn’t a fair description. Had Steven not been who he was and posted as he did, there is a great possibility the current YCM would not exist. With Yugimuto’s second disappearance, and the absence of several past active members, I was, nearly two and half months after registering, losing interest. I don’t think I should ever be criticised for this, though; these times were the worst the forum had seen since I’d joined.

 

Steven, though, took over from Yugimuto in the role of being the active member (other than me), and he kept my interest in the forum to its ever-mediocre level. As November continued, a number of members posted a good half-dozen or so times each to keep the forum running. Soon enough, December was upon us, and as we continued to make what we could of the site, another notable member registered to the site. “maddog15” joined on December 5, 2006, becoming another member who would “keep me interested” in the forum. Yet, his 38 posts may have ultimately been in vain had not YCM’s fourth ever moderator joined on December 18. Despite being synonymous with my name in the early days of YCM, his name is now a relic, and little known to some. “Danilus”’ contributions to YCM would be phenomenal, and members of the current YCM should thank him for the entire modern Yu-Gi-Oh section. It was he who originally suggested the addition of the forums “Fan-Fic”, “Your Deck” and “Yugioh TCG”, and later on the current YCM he was to be the mastermind behind the ill-fated “Card Trade” program as well.

 

All of Danilus’ ideas (excluding Card Trade, which was not even a concept at the time) were implemented onto the InvisionFree YCM, but these forums weren’t overly popular, as they only existed for a small amount of days before the site came to an end. One final registration needs to be noted, though, before one can round off the history of the InvisionFree YCM. “Poc” joined on December 24, 2006, and, for reasons about to be stated, didn’t have much of a chance to impact on the InvisionFree forum at all. The site, at this point in time, had a number of active members (to recap; Danilus, Steven, Maddog, myself and a few others including Poc), and YCMaker noticed its potential, and, on December 24, 2006, he created a “News” forum and made a thread in it stating; “I've noticed this site seems to be growing more and more rapidly, so I've decided to create a new forum which is a bit cleaner and more organized. […] I'm not going to remove the current forum any time soon, so take your time migrating there.” None of those who remained active, though, wasted much time moving to the new site. I was the second member to join the current YCM as I saw the announcement posted by YCMaker approximately three minutes before Maddog, and another half an hour before Danilus, members 3 and 4 respectively.

 

It took roughly two days for the InvisionFree YCM to be almost completely abandoned. Members joined it at scattered points in time after its abandonment; some of whom were genuinely new, but a lot of whom were members of the current YCM who registered to it for reasons still unknown, and some of whom even posted. For this reason, sometime after December 14, 2007, I disabled the option for new accounts to be registered. Only a fraction of InvisionFree YCM’s genuine (those who joined on or before December 24, 2006) members are known to have registered to the current YCM, and only six of whom (as of June 17, 2008) are still active. These members deserve to be known as true veterans of YCM, and their user names are as follows (I have listed them in order of their joining to the InvisionFree YCM and used their current YCM user names); YCMaker, DarkChaotix, eminem93, Frunk, Falling Pizza, Ashes Right Hand, setojim, bluecool, steven, achoi2 (though he never posted on the InvisionFree YCM, and used the name “alexchoi12345”), RyanKoopa, maddog15, Danilus and Poc. There is a possibility that that list could be longer, but there is no evidence to suggest such a thing. As stated earlier, DarkChaotix reappeared on YCM on June 17, 2008, more than two years after his original registration to the InvisionFree YCM. This proves that there’s still hope for this list to expand. This, I suppose, is all there is to it.

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This chapter was first published on May 8, 2008, and was last edited on June 3, 2009.

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[Falling Pizza]

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DO NOT REPLY TO THIS TOPIC. ALL REPLIES TO THIS TOPIC WILL BE DELETED. Thanks for your cooperation.

[Frunk]

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II

The Story of Johanderson[/align]

 

Almost unbelievably, it has been more than a year since this, “A Chronicle of YCM,” was first written and posted. The almost-sad irony that such a long-lived website only had had its “dull years” covered is one that did indeed annoy me in the aforementioned lengthy gap, but was not one that I was prepared or willing to rectify until, obviously, recently, due to the amazing amount of members and post that now grace my former “Internet home,” it would seem that the thirst – and need – for my knowledge, which is of course perhaps sometimes biased as I acknowledge, has become to great to be palmed-off further.

 

As a matter of fact, the need seems so great that I will not take the time to complete the chronicle “chronologically,” as one might expect. Rather, I’ll try and solve a bit of the problem while at the same time hopefully wetting your appetites for the much larger and much more innuendo-provoking chapters to come, namely, those of the Grammar War and Sartorism, which shall act, when the time, hopefully very soon, comes, as the second and third chapters of this work, respectively (for the record, work on the latter began exactly a week after the first chapter was last revised, and has never been far from completion), which will make this, perhaps the fourth, until Card Trade and Danilus each get their chapters.

 

This chapter, however, covers an issue arguably as interesting in the eyes of some members, the fascinating case of “Johanderson” and his aliases. His various antics spread far and wide, including involvement in both the aforementioned war, and a large “contribution” to the ill-fated YCM Card Trade program. I must state, before I start, that I have no ill will for the man I am about to discuss, nor should he be seen as anything negative, as he was, I believe, instrumental in the forming of the YCM of today.

 

The first known account utilized by “Johan,” as the man behind the Johanderson and related accounts is called, was called “The Apollo,” which was registered to YCM on May 16, 2007. Due to having a lacklustre popularity as caused by his vulgarness, as I remember, he requested that I let him make a new account so that he could start anew and become a “better member.” I allowed him to do so, and this new account was known as “Koloth,” created on July 6, 2007, and it was on this account that he began to emerge as what he would become.

 

His time with this account was rather untainted until late in that particular account’s career when his enterprises in the Card Trade program were becoming undermined due to his tendency to make promises he simply couldn’t keep (whether to do so was his intention or not is not clear). An example of such was when he engaged in “card for card” trading. He would claim, often using reasons along the lines of “my parents won’t let me,” that he was unable to his cards to the person he was trading with, often after that unlucky person had sent theirs, resulting in Koloth conveniently receiving free cards, keeping the ones he owed (that result being the classic example of a Card Trade scam, which resulted in many highly dissatisfied members, which will be discussed in a later chapter).

 

Irrespective of the true nature of his antics, Koloth would find himself among the hypothetical list of YCM scammers before Card Trade was finally shut down by Danilus in the extended aftermath of Sartorism, aside names such as “silverboy0213” and “chaoserver.” Koloth eventually disappeared on September 5, 2007, leaving his disputes with other Card Trade participants unresolved, and donating all his points to “Poc” in a contest.

 

The very next day on September 6, 2007, the account “Johanderson” was created. As the nature of this chapter suggests, this was undoubtedly his most famous account. He was, at first (long before he had been identified as a double account of "The Apollo" and "Koloth"), a highly liked member. He, for seemingly no reason, engrossed himself in the doing of “good deeds,” most notably that of giving 100 Points to random new members as they posted their introductions, gaining him respect and appreciation from many, me included. He became the first member to achieve a “Reputation Count” of greater than 100, and reached Elite Status (1000 posts) in 9 days, snatching that record from myself, who had held it since early January, 2007 (with 10 days).

 

Soon, Johan made the initial suggestion for the YCM awards; however, he had pictured it running in a very different manner to what the final product was. A key example of which would be the fact that he had originally wanted the ceremony to only be held annually. Since many members mightn’t be lucky enough to be around this long, Deity Mitsu and I put our ideas forward for a monthly ceremony, and together the three of us became the founders of the awards. Seeing as it was his concept, it was decided that Johan was to host the first ceremony (September '07), but he simply could not control them. The awards for that month were taken over halfway through by Deity Mitsu, who ultimately saved them.

 

From there, one would've expected Johan to go on to become one of YCM's true greats, but this soon changed. It was on September 17, 2007 that I discovered, after “cyberdude,” himself now denounced as a Rep scammer (and double account of “silverboy0213”), sent me a private message containing his suspicions, that Johanderson was a double account of Koloth and The Apollo, as well as another account, “Deviant.” I posted a screenshot of the matches in a thread in which a number of members were demanding refunds of Points and the like in the aftermath of Koloth’s scams. Upon seeing it, Johan denied this evidence, which was admittedly inconclusive (which is why I didn’t act upon it). Little became of this anyway, though...

 

On October 4, 2007, Johanderson became the first person to join the club started by “nukyasu” known as the “Say ‘NO!’ to Animal Cruelty club”. After a few posts of discussion between Johan and Nukyasu, Johan set up another double account that would act as the “club bank:” an account that members could donate to “to help stop animal cruelty.” At this time the Points system was for the most part useless on YCM, thus the idea that they would some kind of real world value was nothing short of ridiculous. Apart from having no chance of helping to “stop animal cruelty”, the account was, above all, a double account, of course, made without staff permission, thus I banned it as soon as I saw it, making it the first known ban of a “Johan account.”

 

Johanderson was increasingly becoming a figure of prominence around the forum, an idea that he seemed to love. It can be presumed that a desire to either keep or expand upon this status was what ultimately led him to self-destruct. The Rep System also appeared to be a major influence on him, as he went to extremes to ensure that his enormous number went unchallenged. He did achieve that desire, legitimately, for a while, but soon enough he grew impatient, and this was his undoing. He tried to achieve more Reps in any way he could.

 

Soon enough, also on October 4, 2007, Johan made a thread in General called “Point Back,” the home of a system of the same name. The idea of this system was to allow members to “withdraw” points from Johanderson at a maximum of 500 points a week. This act was not a violation of the rules, but after a few replies, Johan indicated his true desires from the exercise, saying; “a rep or 2 would be appreciated.” Whether the members who were withdrawing points were indeed giving Johan reps as charity is irrelevant. In practice, it was still considering “Rep buying,” which is classed as a type of “Rep scam.” As soon as I saw it, I shut down the enterprise; locking the thread and deleting the reps achieved through it.

 

This could've been the end of the issue, and it could have forever gone unmentioned, but the next day on October 5, 2007, Johan created a thread entitled “I’m leaving” in General, in which he stated the fact that he was, indeed, leaving. Apart from not utilising the “Leaving/Return thread,” at the time still in “pinned” in General, he included some slurs (coarse language included) that he directed towards me and later Tkill93 (who had posted in my defence). The combination of the double accounts, the trouble that said double accounts caused, the Rep scam, and the swearing was what got Johan banned, permanently, after just 30 days precisely on the forum. Such a promising member (forgetting for a moment the antics of his previous accounts) corrupted by the most ridiculous part of YCM: the Rep System.

 

The next few days were peaceful, until Johan reappeared under a new double account called “randonname” on October 11, 2007. He posted a thread entitled “I GOT FRAMED !” in General, in which he made up a far-fetched story about his “friend” living “down the street,” accessing his account and proceeding to frame him. He said that they had been talking one day and somehow got on to the subject of YCM, which is when this friend stated he was Koloth and, apparently, began to gloat to him about hacking an account called “Johanderson.” He also stated that this “friend” had “scammed [him] in real life before…” and that “last week” before he was banned, he was “logged on as Koloth for some weird reason,” (hinting that "this kid from “down the street” had somehow accessed his computer), despite Koloth having not been recorded as online for over two weeks at the time of that post.

 

As replies were made to the thread, his story changed to say that he had only been friends with this person for a few weeks, and was now stating that their IP addresses were “the same” because they lived next door to each other (which is not, in fact, possible). A few replies later, after posting what he remember from the conversation with Koloth, the fight seemed to go right out of him and his posts gradually got shorter and more pathetic until he stopped altogether, having made 11 posts. Soon afterwards, I found the thread and raised a few questions that had not already been raised, in the hope of a reply from Johan that I could use to prove he was lying once and for all. However, he did not respond, and the randonname account was banned later that same day.

 

The by-then infamous Johan was not seen again until January 19, 2008, when a new double account called appropriately called “Redemption” made a thread entitled “Public Apology” in General. He stated that he was Johanderson and that he wanted to make amends with the forum and its members and return. I would not allow this, though, and stated my reasons at the time, which were derived from the antics of the three main Johan accounts (to recap: The Apollo; Koloth, and; Johanderson), and the fact that, in my eyes, members should not be allowed to return if they are permanently banned.

 

However, I contradicted the above when Johan returned again on April 20, 2008, with a thread titled “Don’t Even Bother Getting Mad, This is My Last Visit.” The reason I allowed it to continue, I suppose, was the nature of the thread. Unlike last time, Koloth was not attempting to re-establish himself, but rather just “wanted to say a few things.” In his 6 points he; at various times apologised both to those he scammed in Card Trade, and to me, for the trouble he caused; stated that his intentions in the “Rep buying scam” were in fact pure, but admitted to abusing the Rep system; stated that he had moved from all the events of the past, and hoped that others were moving on too, and; mentioned he frequented a different site and that “this [would be] his absolute last visit.”

 

I was first to respond to the thread and received it well, for reasons stated, but after others appeared to be missing the point, and I questioned “Azuh” as to the legacy of Johan. His response was not as accurate as this chapter proves it could be, and it led me to write a work that did indeed eventually become this, roughly two months before the first chapter was written. To this date, Koloth appears to have stayed true to his word, having not even logged in since the day of that post, let alone posted again. His other still-unbanned account, the Apollo, has not been active since July 6, 2007, the very day Koloth was created. That, I believe, is that.

 

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This chapter was first published on May 25, 2009, and was last edited on May 25, 2009.

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