The PokéMasters forums: Difference between revisions

The PokéMasters forums are currently the only active part of the PokéMasters website.

The forums were started in March 2000 by Pokemaster Kevin and became an instant hit among the Pokémon Community. However, over time, this overactivity led to the ultimate demise of the original forums and they were moved to an ezboard in 2002.

TPMf still exists (now as a vBulletin board) and is still frequented by past members and new members alike.

History

Here is an overview of significant events in TPM history.

-The site opened.

-The UBB and the chat opened, with PMK (Pokemaster Kevin) and PokeMaster Ben as the main admins.

-Adminning of Hyrulian_Genius (kurai) and LuGiA007 (kainashi).

-TPM was originally thepokemasters.com (.net for the board), so they changed to pokemasters.com (net) for a reason unknown to this author.

-Trading forum was deleted, and ASB (Anime Style Battling) was created. ASB still remains a popular game on TPM. ASB was started by Ditto_Pokefreak.

-PCG (Polls, Clubs, and Games) was created, and nearly deleted.. Shazza became moderator and made some changes, and PCG became a popular forum.

-PokeChamp becomes administrator.

-The Shippers branch (a club/fad that ranged through a few Pokemon forums, which is probably explained in another 'pedia entry) came to TPM, and a forum was created.

-LuGiA007 disappeared off the net for months into the unknown, and is de-adminned for inactivity by the time he returns. He adopted grumpy attitude on TPM for a while, but a lot of people didn't care because of his better reputation. This causes some former fans to become enimies.

-Shortly after, L_P (Little_Pikachu) is adminned, and people start a rumor about her and Kevin (which has actually been going on since before she was an admin).

-PCG undergoes a series of spam issues... which are taken care of by getting rid of a lot of the population in the process. At one point, Pokemaster Kevin had set the PCG forum to have cans of spam float above the forum, as a reminder not to spam.

-People notice the Shippers prom being spammy. An epic fight breaks out in shippers, where both sides make idiots of themselves. As a result, the forum gets closed, and the TPM Shippers branch is dead. Some Shippers are still scattered around TPM for other purposes, but a majority left.

-Server shuts down in the summer of 2002, TPM goes to EZboard. A lot of people think all hope is lost for TPM, and people start leaving. kurai/Hyrulian_Genius quits in the process as well, supposedly because of school. Many people are unsure if that is true and think it was because of the EZboard.

-Given the unpopularity of the board, Soo (Bugsy, now Kirei) starts an AIM chat called "ummmm" which was originally intended just for fun, or one day, but people start coming there often, it spreads, and later becomes TPM's unofficial AIM chat.

-Kevin sets up a vB, which happened to be a backup of the UBB. Everyone had their names back, and postcounts... the only problem was lack of a name change feature, but many members got used to it. A lot of members lost during the EzBoard switch returned to the new board.

-Some months later, Zak, Damian Silverblade, Murgatroyd and a few others organize a proposition to Kevin to bring back Shippers (No proms or similar activities allowed). It is successfully brought back, but Little_Pikachu (the only current admin at the time) doesn't approve. An arguement breaks out between a few people, and she gets de-adminned in the process. Shipping stays alive for a few months, more members return, but they realize the shipping community on TPM had changed forever, so they agreed to let it die on TPM while being on other forums. L_P was re-adminned by the time the Shipping board died.

-A bit later Ledian_X, a person with an unpopular reputation as a moderator in Miscellaneous quits. That has a huge impact on a lot of TPMers, some are ecstatic, some are sad, some are too shocked to say a word. That thread is deemed historic by a few people.

-A few months later, L_P, being the only admin, and having trouble getting a hold of Kevin, adds four global moderators (as we say, supermods). Chris (from the help forum), OzAndrew (from Fanfic), Zak (from Pokemon Anime), and Lady Vulpix (from PCG). Zak loses his position for three months for opening a topic.

-The board is upgraded to vB 3.

-Chris becomes an admin.

Moderators

Here is a list of the past and present moderators of TPMs forums. The members denoted in bold are the current moderators, and the members who are italicized are past moderators - likewise for the administrators and the super moderators. The mods are in no particular order. Remember that this is not a complete list.

General Discussion: Antiash Superstar, Austrian ViceMaster Alex, Jay Umbreon, Chris the Sandslash, Azura Stardust, Magmar

Miscellaneous Stuff: Little_Pikachu, Raven Adonis, Kirei, Kris, GreenShirT, firepokemon, Too Cool Scyther, Ledian_X, Damian Silverblade, The Arbiter, Ninetales3001, Takeshi, PokeMaster Misty, ThunderTheTalkingRaichu, Reeb, kurai, The Rusted One

Help/The Binary District: Chris, shazza, Little_Pikachu, kainashi, Aipom Of Doom, Cyndaquil7

The Pokédex Project: sgator

Advanced Generation/Ruby and Sapphire: Sir Chris, Number1ChanseyFan, The Muffin Man, Ultimate Charizard, Gligar_Man, Madelyn151, MetalScyther, Damian Silverblade, Dienamight, Azura Stardust, Vaporeon911

Gold, Silver and Crystal/Gold, Silver and Crystal Help: Mr.E, SupremeChampion, Sir Chris, Strider, Dienamight, Quicksilver, Green_Pikachu, Little_Pikachu, kurai, Number1ChanseyFan, waynetheman, heh_man

Red, Blue and Yellow: RaZoR LeAf, Charizard04621, SageOfLaughter, woz, SilverSuicune, The Muffin Man

Other Pokemon Games: Razola, Dienamight, Vaporeon911, Sir Chris

Trading Card Games: Roarkiller, Water Pokemon Master, Alec Trevelyan, Clicky Pen, kurai's servant, Zombie, Draggy, Dean

Video Games: kurai, Metallix, Lezta, PNT510, Razola, red13n, tron, ChronoDugtrio

Anime Discussion/Pokemon Anime: Zak, Aglandiir, Animelee, Craig, Misty, AKA Pokemon Fan, Calaveron, Kasumi/Windforce, Hanada Tattsu, Murgatroyd, Mew26, MistyKasumiWaterflower, Machamp

Shipping (which no longer exists on TPM): Misty, Archaic, Kaz-Ohki, Murgatroyd, Zak

Other Anime: Last Exile, Mewtwo-D2, EVme15, Dark-San, fat man with a monkey, PlatinumHawke, Jay Umbreon

Anime Style Battling: The_Missing_Link, Chris 2.0, RaZoR LeAf, Charizard04621, Yumimeru, Impereon, The Arbiter, RaichuPet, Herakasam, Ditto_Pokefreak, Blastoise #009, Porygonix, Gengachu, Cyndaquil7, tygerofdanyte, Sniper404, Hugo, Clio670, charz_69c, Indecent Exposure

FanFiction: Andrew, PancaKe, mistysakura, Gavin Luper, dratinihaunter13, Psi Yamaneko, Timeralay, Misty Rocks, Tygerofdanyte, Damian Silverblade

FanArt: Agent Elrond, Iveechan, Lightning, Meowth_Kitten, espreon, Ninetales3001, Nuriko

Online Pokemon Battling: Vineon, red13n, GotMiltank, Pikapeace

Role Playing Games: Bulbasaur4, Outlaw JT, The Muffin Man, Ultimate Charizard, Master Rudy, Ginger Cat, Azura Stardust, Damian Silverblade

Polls, Clubs and Games: pikatogepi, Vidgamer, Lawrence_III_Fan, Pidgeot, Heracross, shazza, Angel Blossom, Dark_Flame, Silver Ledian, Quicksilver62160, cool_daddy_47, Lady Vulpix, Wolfsong, Jay, The_Missing_Link, Aipom Of Doom, Cheesey, Kirei

Administrators: PokeMaster Kevin, Little_Pikachu, Chris, gsnetworks, kurai, kainashi, PokeMaster Chris, PokeMaster Ben, PokeChamp, Dodrio

Super Moderators: Lady Vulpix, Zak, Chris, Andrew

Historic Members

Here are a list of members who some deem as historic for whatever reason, from the thread " Historic TPM Members - they are in no particular order:

Happy Hoppip: Quite possibly the youngest known member of TPM. She was only 7 years old.
The Rusted One: An ex Misc mod, he was known for his lengthy arguments in debates and discussions.
Ash_300: A member with over 36,000 posts, more than any other member.
Grinch: Mouthy, perhaps argumentative and an infamous poster.
firepokemon: A loud-mouthed member who lied about many different things and constantly argued with others, making him someone who everyone loved to hate and hated to love at the same time.
Dodrio: Admin who had wars with firepokemon as firepokemon believed he was corrupt. Quite unpopular.
Kasumi: A man who pretended to be a woman... and many male members had a thing for "her".
Misty: Originally Catbert, he used to mod the Shipping forum and currently mods Pokemon Anime. He once got his name stuck as "Princess_"...well, something.
Archaic: Now webmaster of BMG, he used to mod Shipping, but was practically booted out.
Blitzzzzzzz: Popular moderator with over 9,000 posts to date, she disappeared a couple of years or so ago.
Reeb: In firepokemon's own words "forceful, responsible and intellectual". She moderated General Discussion and Misc.
Too Cool Scyther: Originally came from Ultimate Pokemon Network. Won the Misc Mod Elections in 2000.
Takeshi: Well aware of himself, he was a good poster and also disliked Dodrio. He was similar to former admin kurai, so they say.
KarmaChameleon: Hacked TPM back in the day, he was egotistical and many members hated him.
Master_Pokemon_H: A spammer who had posting competitions with shazza back in the years 2000/2001. He always used a cool smiley as his post icon.
Vidgamer: Great friends with shazza and used to mod PCG. Still online, but he never comes to TPM any more. He was Little Brother when TPMs Big Brother game first started.
Mr.E: Infamous battler for the GSC games, Mr.E mods the GSC forum, although he's nowhere near as active as he once was, given GSCs decline in popularity.
Ginger Cat: Ex-mod of the RPG forum, no longer comes to TPM. Wrote FanFics too.
Gligar_Man: Ex-mod of Ruby and Sapphire, he was remembered for being stoned pretty much 24/7. Has since left TPM.
Nuriko: Not that widely known outside of the FanArt forum, there was a period of time where she was constantly modded and demodded due to her erratic activity. Has since left TPM due to depression, but was one of the nicest people around according to some.
The Muffin Man: Not the most popular of members, but recently hasn't been as disliked. Got banned in 2004 and used to mod RS and RPG, TMM is very outspoken and very well known.
shazza: Ex-PCG mod, still hangs around TPM and goes to the IRC chat #pbs. Was one of the most popular (if not the most popular) PCG mod but since has changed quite a bit, as he has said himself. Runs the TPM game Big Brother.
Lawrence_III_Fanatic: An ex PCG mod who entertained the board in late 2000-early 2001. She had an odd gimmick of saying she ate yellow socks.
The Arbiter: Ex mod of both the Misc and ASB forums, he was previously know as Greyfox10584. He disappeared from the forums in about 2002, but came back in late 2004.

Forum Descriptions

Here are some forum descriptions, written by housemates in PCGs game Big Brother (the 5th version).

Role Playing Games: Well, all I know about that is the RPG forum was once very active and filled with tons of members, and now most people go there, fill out a couple forms and then don't play when the actual RPG comes around. It lead to wonderful people like Kalah (Bulbasaur4) just getting outright frustrated-- and other people in power, or people that used to be seen as high quality RPGers (I won't name whom) have been slacking off and not even participating in nominations and such.

This caused there to be no nominations at all, and Pokebabies (an RPG) was nominated so many times for just about every thing imaginable, which caused many people to act out of anger or jealousy.

And now, well, RPG is sort of dead. You see an update maybe once a day there, now, and a lot of people just give up on things halfway through.

~ written by Tainted

FanFiction: TPM's Fanfic Forum, although not very recognized within the boards, is a community of its own. It has a selection of fics, poems, lyrics, short stories, and anything else written, both fanwork and original. It's been through various mods [insert mod names here], and is still thriving with dratinihaunter13, Gavin Luper, Mistysakura and Pancake as its current mods.

The fanfic forum has always had its biannual awards. They were once known as the Winter and Summer awards, but due to a debate over seasonal differences, a vote was held, and they are now known as the Silver Pens and Golden Pencils. These were always awards for writers to win in a various amount of categories.

A few recent additions to the forum have been the two subforums. There is now a Writers Lounge, a place to discuss anything from how your day was to writing techniques, and a Completed Fiction Archive, for finished fics.

The forums numbers have dropped, and the activity of the forum has dropped quite a lot, but it is still a community within itself, and a great place to mod.

~ written by Pancake

Other Anime: The Pokemon anime served as a gateway anime for many of The Pokemasters members. The Other Anime forum was created to give these topics as a home. It eventually became home for all topics cartoon related, although it has recently been disputed, with the new moderators saying the topics belong in Misc. Stuff, and former moderators saying cartoon topics belong in Other Anime.

Often, a spirited argument will erupt regarding subbed and dubbed anime, with many members of each group guilty of the same bias they accuse the other group of.

Recent staff changes in Other Anime have brought a renovation of the forum, presumably to increase traffic and posts. These staff changes sparked a short argument with The Muffin Man and fat man with a monkey disagreeing with the new moderation choice. Other Anime has recently started a collaborative project with some RPG and Fanfiction members to create an anime for The Pokemasters, a project organized and run by the new moderator, Dark-San. This collaborative project has received much positive attention by many Other Anime regulars, as well as Fanfiction and RPG regulars.

- written by fat man with a monkey

External Links

• The PokéMasters Forums