The Crash Of 2016...Ten Years On

[Mel O'Drama]

On 11th September 2016, Soap Chat - and around two decades' worth of discussion history - unexpectedly crashed and disappeared forever.

The following day, the new site rose like a phoenix from the ashes... being rebuilt from the ground up by members.

As this week marks the tenth anniversary of the new site I thought why not remember how the crash affected members at the time, what (and who) we miss about the old site and what's been good about the last decade. For members who have joined since 2016, it's also a chance to ask as much as you like about the current site's pre-history.

Feel free to jump in and wax nostalgic.

 

[Frank Underwood]

I've been a member here since 1999, so it was pretty devasting to see all of that history wiped away.

I went through many screen names back then too (my original was McSween, but my longest-used screen name was Sid Fairgate).

I was only 15 when I joined, and I was bored one day. I decided to have some fun, and since you could post as a guest back then, I decided to take on the persona of a well-known troll on the site named Francis. I just said the most outrageous things and laughed as everyone took the bait. It went on for a while until the thread was finally locked. I would never do that today, but that's one of the reasons I miss the pre-crash forums. It was fun to look back at those posts and see my evolution from a teenager to a 30-something.

Now I'm 43 and still posting. I still enjoy it, but there was truly something exciting about finding these forums and experiencing them in their heyday.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Selfishly, I miss threads like Sue Ellen versus Jesus -- Who was Better? and my 'The Lout and Miss Shepard' sonnet extolling her virtues.