Seven.
Seven. Long. Years. Would you believe we (The Fighting 1:18th) has been around for 7 years now? A tad longer, but we always celebrated our birthday as July 4th (Cause 'Murica!).
July, 2009. A bunch of wacky miscreants broke free from the oppressive yolk of Hisstank.com and started our own misguided adventure in foruming. We had BOLD ideas, creative plans, lots of NSFW posts, and Chyna (RIP). We were told we wouldn't amount to anything, that we were most definitely not nephew friendly, and that our membership of 12 was a joke.
Ha! Ha! I say.
Here we are now, 7 long years later and.. what? What is this? Oh, we do only have 12 members now. Well, whatever, those 12 people are diehards! True believers! Up for whatever and down for the cause! Attica! Attica!
... *ahem*
The passage of time has not been without strife and loss, however, as we should take a moment to pour one out for our homies who are no longer with us (on the board, hopefully not dead):
Paul Pratt
MAJOR BLOOD
Monkeywrench
deleted
Midget
Rick
Wild Weasel
HeelJoe
Bravestarr
xhairs *snicker*
starwarsgeek
... and the rest.
You may be lost, but you'll never be forgotten. We have a great archive of all your posts.
Through the many years, we tried (and failed) many different things. A chatroom! (Remember that?) A front page with new and interesting stories (so close, almost made it happen). Comic Con coverage (Thanks for nothing, #SDCC). We even tried doing our own reviews.. but alas, none of it was meant to be. The one stumbling block, the thing we didn't see coming.. our GREATEST ENEMY.. was that we all were adults with adult things to do, too.
Everyone got to jump in the sandbox and play with our toys, some longer than others, but it seems like the school bell of life was destined to ring for everyone at one point or another. People started having more kids, or jobs, or wives, or some combination of those, and a 'for free' site devoted to little Army Men suddenly became the last thing that (rightfully) deserved attention. One by one, people began dropping off.. to be replaced by new front line soldiers, at first.
The first major casualty was Paul Pratt, one of the original Trifecta who formed the site (PCSguy88, NSA, Paul Pratt), also known as "The Other Paul". He was the IDEAS man, he had a great vision for turning the 118th into this shining amalgamation of SSHQ & Hisstank.. but in.. ONLINE MAGAZINE FORM! It sounded pretty spiffy, but, and it's a big but (And I don't lie), it turned out that required an inordinate amount of work, and, as it turns out, most of us are lazy as shit (most times). So Paul went his own way, and exited the hobby.
We replaced him with Tony aka MAJOR BLOOD, who was a great right hand man (if you know what I mean, *winkyemoji*) and served the 118th well, until he too got called by the great recess bell of life. Kids.
The rest of our staff fared no better, some just disappeared, some got busy and had to take a leave of absence, and some even requested to be deleted (looking at you, deleted). I don't hold any ill will towards anyone (except you, deleted!), after all, everything that was done here was for the overall community because we loved this place. It did, however, mean that we were covering less and less as a website, and more and more was going on my plate. I tried to divvy up projects and assignments, XOC2008 stepped up big when I needed him too, until he too.. had another kid (DAMN YOU CHILDREN, you're ruining my toy site!).
Finally it looked like it was just me and Mandingo Rex, who would have thought? Then EVEN HE RUNS OFF (with a woman this time). Later I remembered he didn't do anything anyway, so I was really alone to begin with.
Woe is me and.. whatever, but it just got very disheartening. I've taken extended leaves of absence before, so I get it. Life happens. I've moved 6 times since we started this site, that's a lot of moving boxes of toys. I finally met a girl, bought a house, had another kid.. couple of dogs, 5 cats, fish tank.. 5 chickens.. you know, the usual. Oh, except the girl hates my toys, so they're banished to the garage (D'oh).
It also didn't help that I did, probably 84% of my work on the site while I was "working". Fast internet access, at a desk all day, perfect! A little over a year ago my job situation changed, and I began to have DRASTICALLY less time to fuck around online, so it seriously impacted my time here. I don't even have a PC setup at home now, and browsing on my phone sucks.. so I just ended up coming here less and less. The more time away, the harder it felt to jump back in.
So while I feel like I've taken a break from the hobby for a little while, it really feels to me like the hobby has been leaving me for years. Seeing the product dry up, the enthusiasm wane, the prices skyrocketing while quality dropped.. it didn't really make for a conducive environment for the site to succeed. That too, was depressing. We all want our creations to be appreciated and to flourish, and I had a hard time thinking we just basically failed.
So here we are, it is what it is. I'm glad to see that a few of you are still using the site. Actually, according to my stats, *47* registered (and as far as I can tell, real) users visited the forums in the last 24-hours. Obviously not all at the same time and likely not all posting, but still good to see there are people who remember we exist.
"I'm not dead yet!"
I'm taking suggestions for what you, the remaining stalwarts, would like to see (within reason). Just want it to stay being a place to shoot the shit? Sure thing. Want a new forum? Ok. More n00ds of Eddies wife? Alright!
Regarding the 2016-2017 Officer Club drive.. I'm setting it up now, but it's going to be a little different. It's going full-on donation mode at this point. All existing Officers should be able to keep your status without donating another dime. I still need to get Beeavision to finish the gold star and 6th and 7th year badges.. but I don't have an ETA. Anyone who wants to get in on the sweet sweet NSFW Officer action can donate once and get in for the foreseeable future. But if you love the place and would like to help keep it running, feel free to toss a few bones my way. The hosting cost is currently around $135/year, so 5-6 people helping out would help keep the costs down.
We made it to "lucky" #7.. how many more years do we have in us?! And to think we've been 'Crush-free' for over 5 years! (Maybe I shouldn't have said that).
My sincere thanks to all the fuckers who've stuck with me and the site and continue to be a part of this community. I consider a great lot of you actual friends, even if we've never met. I hope to keep this place running for as long as it's wanted.
-- Paul (NSA)
Seven. Long. Years. Would you believe we (The Fighting 1:18th) has been around for 7 years now? A tad longer, but we always celebrated our birthday as July 4th (Cause 'Murica!).
July, 2009. A bunch of wacky miscreants broke free from the oppressive yolk of Hisstank.com and started our own misguided adventure in foruming. We had BOLD ideas, creative plans, lots of NSFW posts, and Chyna (RIP). We were told we wouldn't amount to anything, that we were most definitely not nephew friendly, and that our membership of 12 was a joke.
Ha! Ha! I say.
Here we are now, 7 long years later and.. what? What is this? Oh, we do only have 12 members now. Well, whatever, those 12 people are diehards! True believers! Up for whatever and down for the cause! Attica! Attica!
... *ahem*
The passage of time has not been without strife and loss, however, as we should take a moment to pour one out for our homies who are no longer with us (on the board, hopefully not dead):
Paul Pratt
MAJOR BLOOD
Monkeywrench
deleted
Midget
Rick
Wild Weasel
HeelJoe
Bravestarr
xhairs *snicker*
starwarsgeek
... and the rest.
You may be lost, but you'll never be forgotten. We have a great archive of all your posts.
Through the many years, we tried (and failed) many different things. A chatroom! (Remember that?) A front page with new and interesting stories (so close, almost made it happen). Comic Con coverage (Thanks for nothing, #SDCC). We even tried doing our own reviews.. but alas, none of it was meant to be. The one stumbling block, the thing we didn't see coming.. our GREATEST ENEMY.. was that we all were adults with adult things to do, too.
Everyone got to jump in the sandbox and play with our toys, some longer than others, but it seems like the school bell of life was destined to ring for everyone at one point or another. People started having more kids, or jobs, or wives, or some combination of those, and a 'for free' site devoted to little Army Men suddenly became the last thing that (rightfully) deserved attention. One by one, people began dropping off.. to be replaced by new front line soldiers, at first.
The first major casualty was Paul Pratt, one of the original Trifecta who formed the site (PCSguy88, NSA, Paul Pratt), also known as "The Other Paul". He was the IDEAS man, he had a great vision for turning the 118th into this shining amalgamation of SSHQ & Hisstank.. but in.. ONLINE MAGAZINE FORM! It sounded pretty spiffy, but, and it's a big but (And I don't lie), it turned out that required an inordinate amount of work, and, as it turns out, most of us are lazy as shit (most times). So Paul went his own way, and exited the hobby.
We replaced him with Tony aka MAJOR BLOOD, who was a great right hand man (if you know what I mean, *winkyemoji*) and served the 118th well, until he too got called by the great recess bell of life. Kids.
The rest of our staff fared no better, some just disappeared, some got busy and had to take a leave of absence, and some even requested to be deleted (looking at you, deleted). I don't hold any ill will towards anyone (except you, deleted!), after all, everything that was done here was for the overall community because we loved this place. It did, however, mean that we were covering less and less as a website, and more and more was going on my plate. I tried to divvy up projects and assignments, XOC2008 stepped up big when I needed him too, until he too.. had another kid (DAMN YOU CHILDREN, you're ruining my toy site!).
Finally it looked like it was just me and Mandingo Rex, who would have thought? Then EVEN HE RUNS OFF (with a woman this time). Later I remembered he didn't do anything anyway, so I was really alone to begin with.
Woe is me and.. whatever, but it just got very disheartening. I've taken extended leaves of absence before, so I get it. Life happens. I've moved 6 times since we started this site, that's a lot of moving boxes of toys. I finally met a girl, bought a house, had another kid.. couple of dogs, 5 cats, fish tank.. 5 chickens.. you know, the usual. Oh, except the girl hates my toys, so they're banished to the garage (D'oh).
It also didn't help that I did, probably 84% of my work on the site while I was "working". Fast internet access, at a desk all day, perfect! A little over a year ago my job situation changed, and I began to have DRASTICALLY less time to fuck around online, so it seriously impacted my time here. I don't even have a PC setup at home now, and browsing on my phone sucks.. so I just ended up coming here less and less. The more time away, the harder it felt to jump back in.
So while I feel like I've taken a break from the hobby for a little while, it really feels to me like the hobby has been leaving me for years. Seeing the product dry up, the enthusiasm wane, the prices skyrocketing while quality dropped.. it didn't really make for a conducive environment for the site to succeed. That too, was depressing. We all want our creations to be appreciated and to flourish, and I had a hard time thinking we just basically failed.
So here we are, it is what it is. I'm glad to see that a few of you are still using the site. Actually, according to my stats, *47* registered (and as far as I can tell, real) users visited the forums in the last 24-hours. Obviously not all at the same time and likely not all posting, but still good to see there are people who remember we exist.
"I'm not dead yet!"
I'm taking suggestions for what you, the remaining stalwarts, would like to see (within reason). Just want it to stay being a place to shoot the shit? Sure thing. Want a new forum? Ok. More n00ds of Eddies wife? Alright!
Regarding the 2016-2017 Officer Club drive.. I'm setting it up now, but it's going to be a little different. It's going full-on donation mode at this point. All existing Officers should be able to keep your status without donating another dime. I still need to get Beeavision to finish the gold star and 6th and 7th year badges.. but I don't have an ETA. Anyone who wants to get in on the sweet sweet NSFW Officer action can donate once and get in for the foreseeable future. But if you love the place and would like to help keep it running, feel free to toss a few bones my way. The hosting cost is currently around $135/year, so 5-6 people helping out would help keep the costs down.
We made it to "lucky" #7.. how many more years do we have in us?! And to think we've been 'Crush-free' for over 5 years! (Maybe I shouldn't have said that).
My sincere thanks to all the fuckers who've stuck with me and the site and continue to be a part of this community. I consider a great lot of you actual friends, even if we've never met. I hope to keep this place running for as long as it's wanted.
-- Paul (NSA)
, DC is all movie or new 52 looking garbage. Just nothing there for me.
That line of thinking leads my back to the "why bother" thinking. It's a vicious circle.
