What is the history of the forums?

[Shapeville]

My first question is why is it that some of the forums (viewforum.php?f=0 and viewforum.php?f=1, viewforum.php?f=2 and so on) say that they don't exist(viewforum.php?f=45) or that access is restricted (viewforum.php?f=39).

My second question is that did the forums start in 2009 when the oldest post were created or did they start earlier. If they did start in 2009 why is do the forums start at ?f=3 and not ?f=0 or ?f=1.

[Archannia]

Dont know, but some recent minor history is that a IP grabber was here, then got banned. He had 3 addresses on him

[[violet]]

Yeah they're older than 2009. There's an archive of some older stuff.

As for why there's no ?f=1 etc, probably just because I tested and destroyed some things while setting it up.

[Hesitant Dispatch 440]

Yeah they're older than 2009. There's an archive of some older stuff.

As for why there's no ?f=1 etc, probably just because I tested and destroyed some things while setting it up.

While we're at it, which monster decided to not give Forum 7 the 7 id?! What waste.

[Choppyhausen]

Yeah they're older than 2009. There's an archive of some older stuff.

As for why there's no ?f=1 etc, probably just because I tested and destroyed some things while setting it up.

While we're at it, which monster decided to not give Forum 7 the 7 id?! What waste.

From the NSGP History Thread:

Merethin is correct, though it was long before my time on NS - Reppy has posted about it a few times. I think the original Forum 7 was from the pre-Jolt forum, so 2003ish.

Pretty much; in Ye Olde Dayes when the saber-toothed server hamsters (now extinct) had everyone at their mercy, folks realized that the only forum id that wasn't publicly visible was f=7. (For example, if you look at the URL for Gameplay, that "f=12" at the end is the forum ID.) That's because f=7 was the mod/admin sekrit forum in the pre-Jolt days, spawning a bunch of goofy conspiracy theories about "Forum Seven!" So as part of one of the early April Fools, we made it look as though the sekrit forum had "accidentally" been revealed to the public. The original Forum 7 was actually f=13 and as tends to happen with April Fools subforums it quickly turned into a very silly place that we kept around until we had to feed it to the saber-toothed server hamsters in a desperate bid to try and keep them from devouring the rest of the forums. We revived it here for our slightly less serious social/forum games forum. (The modern Forum 7 is actually f=25.)