what was doomworld like in the early 2000s and early 2010s?

[Johnny Cruelty]

just curious, I am a newb to the doomworld lore

[nathanB404]

They were probably better times. 

 

 

 

But idk I was 6 in 2010 so I wasn't around on this site nor knew what doom was. 

[Lucius Wooding]

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/1-doom-general/?page=350

 

There are 700 pages of threads in that subforum alone, around half of which are older than 2010. A lot of the links and images are broken, but one nice feature of the format is that most of the old threads are still available to look at.

[LadyMistDragon]

It was a fairly toxic place and also quite a bit more active. Other than that, I can offer little.

[Li'l devil]

I think the key differences between then and now is that there used to be Losers subforum and Post-Hell. Post-Hell is where deleted threads go, but it's not visible anymore. But it used to be and its main purpose was to laugh at stupid threads and stupid people. The reason it was removed, I suppose, is to disencourage people from being stupid on purpose. Losers subforum was for people who got temporary banned. The way it worked is if you got a temp ban, you couldn't see the main forums anymore, instead you got sent to this little subforum where you could talk to only talk to fellow temp banned members and moderators. Basically a prison for bad posters. Also, for the longest time, temp bans didn't expire on their own, you actually had to plead the mods to be "unlosered".

As for the posting, I can only say for mid-2010s. I think there used to be a lot more shitposting, as in, purposefully bad threads (I definitely did not contribute to that). Also, before 2016-17 people on the forums were more diverse politics-wise, which of course caused conflicts, and thus, at one point, some members were banned or left on their own and moved to Doomer Boards.

Also, I sometimes read very very old threads from early 2000s, and it seems like back then the shitposting was absolutely extreme, but it's just my perception.

[Sonikkumania]

I was lurking more throughout the 2010's, even had an alt account at one point to upload my shitty attempt of a TC. I'd say the forums were more "old "fashioned", meaning, there were more people around who had used forums their whole life. I lurked Doom General though so I can't say much about other subs.

The top banner used to have different images.

[Sonikkumania]

6 hours ago, Li'l devil said:

Also, I sometimes read very very old threads from early 2000s, and it seems like back then the shitposting was absolutely extreme, but it's just my perception.

Well you have to understand (idk do you remember) that back then, the web wasn't very mainstream. I don't think the concept of shitposting even existed in the definition we have today, because there really were no rules or standards. The culture was also different, as was the mentality. It's extremely fascinating to sqy the least.

[SimonePiervergili]

33 minutes ago, Sonikkumania said:

Well you have to understand (idk do you remember) that back then, the web wasn't very mainstream. I don't think the concept of shitposting even existed in the definition we have today, because there really were no rules or standards. The culture was also different, as was the mentality. It's extremely fascinating to sqy the least.

Just uploaded one of my videos of my CANNED ICED TEA!!! I even mentioned you!!!

[Sonikkumania]

2 minutes ago, SimonePiervergili said:

Just uploaded one of my videos of my CANNED ICED TEA!!! I even mentioned you!!!

Cool.

But you should really post that in your own iced tea thread.

Because iced tea is not the point of this thread.

[Li'l devil]

While early Doomworld is interesting on its own, I find it more interesting what was Doom community like before Doomworld. It's clear that there was already an established community by the time DW appeared (apparently some people back in 1997 thought Doom community was already on decline due to Quake), but it's hard to imagine how the community worked without the forums. I've heard there were, like, mailing lists and stuff, and idgames repository already existed in some form. But where, for example, were reviews posted?

Yeah, that time is so mysterious for me. I only got Internet in 2007, so anything before that year feels like pre-historic era to me.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Li'l devil

[Sonikkumania]

36 minutes ago, Li'l devil said:

While early Doomworld is interesting on its own, I find it more interesting what was Doom community like before Doomworld. It's clear that there was already an established community by the time DW appeared (apparently some people back in 1997 thought Doom community was already on decline due to Quake), but it's hard to imagine how the community worked without the forums. I've heard there were, like, mailing lists and stuff, and idgames repository already existed in some form. But where, for example, were reviews posted?

Yeah, that time is so mysterious for me. I only got Internet in 2007, so anything before that year feels like pre-historic era to me.

There were IRC, Messenger, email and homepages.

And DC++ :D

[Ichor]

Everything was like a silent movie and we all had top hats and handlebar mustaches and we were having our tea and crumpets while playing sepia colored Doom with our pinkies up.

[The Doommer]

10 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

It was a fairly toxic place

Still is, no offense.

 

As for me, yeah I joined at the mid 2010s but I joined as a dumb kid and the community has been very tolerant of me by my peak activity time.

I still do prefer that community compared to now, but ig that's just me

[Lila Feuer]

Honestly kind of annoying when I joined, but I was also not exactly in the best place, both environmentally and mentally. I was Losered once.

 

I've been here on and off since like 2017 or something. You don't really get toxic trouble nowadays unless you make it yourself. What doesn't go away though? WARNINGS! I deserved it but it kinda sucks the person I was rude to in 2017 flat out just bailed from the damn forums not long after, so my crappy comment was really not worth it.

[DNSKILL5]

There were about 10x more pretentious morons here than there are now. 

[roadworx]

while i was around here much more during the mid-2010s, it was very chaotic and very, very toxic. lots of arguing, flaming, trolls, shitposting, etc. while i'm glad the place got cleaned up after new mods got brought in around 2017 or so, it's unfortunately a bit more boring imo. a lot of the troublemakers are gone now, so you don't get as much of the ridiculous drama and legendary threads that you did back then.

[ChaseC7527]

it was a magical place full of people with fishes for profile pictures.

[Lila Feuer]

4 hours ago, ChaseC7527 said:

it was a magical place full of people with fishes for profile pictures.

I at least got to witness the end of this era, long live the fish!

[Li'l devil]

I got to witness the era when you had to post 250 posts to be able to have a custom avatar, and avatars could be no more than 64x64 pixels in size (apparently in very old days, it was 48x48 even). And of course, you couldn't set your own custom title and instead admins gave you one if you did something stupid (I managed to get one twice, because I was that stupid). Altho being able to set your own custom title is a more recent change (2021, IIRC).

[Captain red pants]

dwforums.wad will give you a taste of mid bush era Doomworld drama

Warning: contains Doom palette GOATSE texture

[Doomkid]

..Respectfully, all you pissy babies WHINING your tits off about how "toxic" Doomworld is/was frankly wouldn't know the first goddamn thing about "toxicity" if it brought a paddle to your spoiled asses. :^)

 

Ahem.

 

..Bullshit aside, I really do believe DW has always been well below the "standard internet level" of toxicity. It was (the closest thing to) a reasonably welcoming place for trans, gay and even furry Doomers well before communities being even partially welcoming to those demographics was at all common - I'm talking late 2000s, FFS - and shit, acceptance of those groups is STILL really rocky in many communities, YT or social media comment sections, etc etc... but not here.

 

I been round the various corners of the Doom community since I was a literal child and I never felt "pushed away by toxicity" or whatever such nonsense. Occasionally someone might talk some shit, but usually before I'd even get to respond, someone else would jump in the fray on my behalf. So a little crazy compared to the norm, maybe? Not toxic though. Absolutely below the common internet average, be it 2003, 2013 or 2023. There was (and to a large degree, still is) this sense of camaraderie that I didn't feel at all in other (gaming) communities of the older eras.

 

Maybe that's just my experience though. But man. I cannot imagine even attempting to navigate the greater web, ever, if I couldn't even stomach DW's lite-ass nonsense.

[OceanMadman]

More free, maybe. For better and for worse. Not that I was there to witness it, but that's what I've gathered looking at older posts.

[Stupid Bunny]

15 hours ago, roadworx said:

while i was around here much more during the mid-2010s, it was very chaotic and very, very toxic. lots of arguing, flaming, trolls, shitposting, etc. while i'm glad the place got cleaned up after new mods got brought in around 2017 or so, it's unfortunately a bit more boring imo. a lot of the troublemakers are gone now, so you don't get as much of the ridiculous drama and legendary threads that you did back then.

 

Thus the wheel of history forever turns

[Lila Feuer]

2 hours ago, Doomkid said:

I really do believe DW has always been well below the "standard internet level" of toxicity. It was (the closest thing to) a reasonably welcoming place for trans, gay and even furry Doomers well before communities being even partially welcoming to those demographics was at all common - I'm talking late 2000s, FFS - and shit, acceptance of those groups is STILL really rocky in many communities, YT or social media comment sections, etc etc... but not here.

 

Tbf my first impressions of the greater Doom community was Skulltag forums in 2009 and ZDoom forums circa 2010-2012, I initially recall liking those communities more, but really thinking and looking back (then, especially ST since well you know) they were actually more annoying, particularly in regards to their moderation staff compared to DW's.

[JadingTsunami]

On 11/25/2023 at 3:13 AM, Li'l devil said:

But where, for example, were reviews posted?

 

Mostly they were posted on people's individual web sites. Many personal web pages with Doom sections also had a "Reviews" section. The reviews were more like old-time movie critic reviews: comprehensive, long-form, and often with screenshots.

 

It was more like each person published their own personal newspaper, where content was organized and presented by topic and was mostly text.

 

Forums and chat software existed, but they were more like Discord today: the conversations were mostly contained to those spaces.

[BGreener]

This was something I was messing with through the Wayback Machine not too long ago - so the timing is very odd and cool. It was around this time in the early 2000 when I was just feeling the urge to play some Doom, then I went down a rabbit hole and came upon this site and it really opened my world up:

 

 

My favorite thing at the time was the sidebar with all these mods:

 

 

A lot of the pages still work like this one for Batman Doom:

 

 

It and Immoral Conduct were my favorite.

 

Funny how I only became interested in the forums a few years back when I've been coming to DW forever.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by BGreener
made it purtier

[VoanHead]

Damn, DW should bring back pic of the day. Imagine all the doomcute that would be submitted.

Edited November 26, 2023 by VoanHead

[LexiMax]

I always thought that the frontpage was a good feature.  Besides /newstuff, it was nice to be able to follow major releases and breakthroughs in speed-running all in one spot.

[Li'l devil]

2 hours ago, BGreener said:

"Come chat about Doom and type ... to kill the Linuxers"

 

That's not very nice.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Li'l devil

[prfunky]

What's a "Linuxer"?