The TFD Thread. A legend on the PA forums with only the TC (The Collective) thread and the 'Do battleships have toilets' discussion to stand besides it in the triumvirate of the large threads on the PA forums. The subject of discussion, frustration, admiration and annoyance among both moderators and users.
In 2000, during round 1 of Planetarion, someone came to the forums and created an account called 'Henk'. He made one single post on Alliance Discussions that had an impact on the forums all through the 3 years of Planetarion. It was a post entitled !_=-FryingDutch.net-=_! and in it he stated how TFD (The Frying Dutchmen) was a rocking alliance, and how everyone should join it. The first page consisted of some commentary on it, but it soon turned into a conversational topic between two other TFD members, namely Lyon and Basal, with the occasional interruption of another TFD member finding their way onto the boards. The thread continued with the support of then moderator MikeUK who, despite not speaking any Dutch, still managed to join in the conversation regularly. As the thread started to approach 1k posts, it was already a well-established and considerably sized topic on the forums.
Two other threads were started during those days that rivalled the TFD thread for the position of largest thread on the forums - the TC thread and the Toilets thread. Especially the TC thread did well, and with having a lot more people spamming it and interest in the TFD thread waning, it took over the crown as being the largest post. With MikeUK no longer being a moderator, and his position as TFD thread guardian taken over by Shadow1980, and Lyon and Basal posting less frequently, it seemed the TFD thread was dying a peaceful death, more and more often going to the backpages only to be revived for a quick post now and then.
That changed when a new group of people "discovered" the thread, namely mpr0733, HRS, Zapman and myself. Posting picked up, and once again the TFD thread cruised the front page of Alliance Discussions. It took ground on the TC and Toilet threads fast, especially when the latter two were finally closed. At this point I can only speculate to the reasons why the TFD thread survived, but having a guardian moderator, it pulled through those days. We kept on posting away on it, aiming for that far-away, elusive 10.000 post count mark. Then disaster struck. The TFD thread was just below the summit of that mountain, in sight of that mark we had spammed long and hard for, we were at 9.970 posts (or thereabouts) when Fudge decided to purge the forums of all old posts. The purge scourged the forums and struck into the TFD thread hard - the first 6200 posts were wiped. All memory of Henk, Lyon, Basal and MikeUK disappeared from the face of the PA forums forever.
We decided to hang on, however, and decided that we were going to make it. The road wasn't easy. When Shadow1980 quit as a moderator, he felt that there was no longer anyone to watch over the thread and his final act as moderator was to close the thread. At that point we approached JammyJim, who had then replaced Messiah as forum admin, and pleaded our case. It was discussed at the highest levels, and the verdict was that we were allowed to continue. The thread was open. Once again we were on our way, and once again the thread was closed. Several months later people started suddenly posting threads in all languages, complaining about the TFD thread disobeying the language rule. This time, a thread was opened asking the users about whether the thread should allow to continue or not - an overwhelming majority opted to keep this relic where it belonged, and Zeus himself granted the thread exception from the language rule, based on it's ancient heritage and the fact that it was around even before the language rule itself was created.
We resumed our posting, and after many more months of enjoying a small dutch haven on the PA forums, the 10.000 mark was finally reached. A shared account named !_=-FryingDutch.net-=_! created the very first official 10.000th post on any thread on the PA forums. Now, at roughly 11.000 posts, or 17.200 in truth, the TFD thread has at long last come to it's end. The forums on which it resided for so long, are being replaced by a new set. A net set of forums for a new Planetarion, a world in which there is no place for an ancient relic like the TFD thread. To quote Tolkien: "All things will fade and must sooner or later pass from existence."
By the time you read this, the TFD thread will no longer exist. Only the memory of it remains - one that can not lightly be forgotten by any who have used the Planetarion Forums over the past three years. Thank you, goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
Very special thanks to:
Henk, MikeUK, Shadow1980, Messiah, JammyJim, Zeus, Lyon, Basal, mpr0733, HRS, Zapman, without any of whom the thread would not exist today.
Special thanks to:
All the PD/AD mods and admins for resisting the urge to delete the thread, everyone who has ever posted on the TFD thread, be it in support, in admiration or in contempt, the guys from the TC thread, the guys from the Toilets thread and all the GD guys who created short-lived attempts to outgrow the TFD thread.
And last but not least, all those who voted in support of the thread when the issue was brought to the boards
-Leshy
Linear Mode
