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HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY TSS/SSMB! Our Fondest Memories!


Dreadknux

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I joined the forum in August 2015, so I don't have many memories to share. I first came after getting in trouble with almost EVERY member of another forum (from my local country)  (I was only 12, I barely knew what I was doing with my life). And sorta, SSMB was my refugee. For some reason, having to speak English always felt a huge mature step for me. This might explain why nowadays I mostly write in English for almost EVERYTHING I do.

Still, that's 1 quarter of the forum history. Also, it's crazy to believe SSMB was already a thing even before I was born.

But yeah, I think my fondest memories probably would be attached with my personal life, either when I got completely impressed with a game, thought a movie was a complete piece of trash, but also supported me to find many cool Sonic facts and most important, fight and recover from my depression.

I quite barely remember an early visual similar to the 2009, I guess on the very first months I was here. But all my memories are attached with the new visual and Shadow and Tails themes I used.

I guess that's it. Glad to be part of the history and (I hope) to be recognized among some of the most active members. Not much more to say, Happy Birthday Sonic Stadium Message Board!

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I am a newbie, so my history is scant. However, it is auspicious that I have joined near the 20th Anniversary, something I can swear by the Ancient Walkers was not planned. 

I am thrilled these forums exist. That Sonic fandom is still alive and kicking. For me I had a buddy who was a die hard fan like myself. We met in a Summer Camp, both of us holding our copies of Sonic The Hedgehog Archies. For a long time my pal was the only other die hard fan I knew. 

Thankfully that had changed. I am grateful to have found a home here for my fandom. And in these Covid times may we all “Chaos Control!” keep the chaos that is stressing us under control. :) 

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So many memories. 

I found this site when I was entering high school back in 2005-2006, and joined up at around the time of Sonic 06's release... in order to defend it from the meanies who hated it for no good reason. Heh. Especially had fun trying to hide the fact that I was spending more time here than studying from my parents... 

But overall, it's been a great experience posting here, getting to know other Sonic fans and learning how to hold my own in a debate, hyping new games, respecting others perspectives and participating in various events throughout the years! Had so much fun goofing off with everyone here.

Here's to twenty more years! 

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It feels like millions of old memories are coming back into my brain, and I never been on this site for that long, only for a couple months (I'm conflicted to say that they were GOOD months, too). either way I thought I'd never have the opportunity to even be here, yet here I am gushing over the good old days of SSMB even though I was probably a mere sperm at the time.

before I found this site, I was watching Shaymay's sonic spitball videos which I fell in love with (the 3rd one at least), which would explain my "Shaymay" talk at the time. I then decided to look up Shaymay's Sonic Spitball videos to see If I wasn't the only one who knew about it's greatness, as I did not expect, I saw post all the way back from 2014, seeing people argue about the sonic canon and stuff in Shaymay's video. that's what prompted me to make my own account via laptop & tablet. the first post I made back in June was very cringey looking back today, I guess I parroted too much of Shaymay's words that it ended up biting me back, mostly anyways, the wall-run, new homing attack, and boost mode are still hella godly. I guess I was also a "bit" too destructive the first time around, letting all that opinionated frustration drive me to making topics like the multiple gameplay style crap.

Now that it's been so long, I think I've matured enough to know what to do in order to not come off like that, and communicating with you guys has been a lot more natural than what I expected ever since. this site really help me communicate with people better (online anyways, I still not really adapted in offline social skills yet. you guys really helped make my summer vacation the best it could be for me, as well as building the courage to make a twitter account. Thank all of you for bringing Naturality & un-superficial Joy back into in my stale, boring, polarizing, mostly complicated and unpredictable life... except for the (annoying) ban dodgers, you did nothing in the slightest.

oh yeah and thank you for constantly reminding me how divided and almost broken the sonic fanbase actually is, I needed that.

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happy birthday, SSMB! you don't look a day over 10!

i've been on this board for nearly four years, and i have made quite a few aquaintances here that i really like interacting with.

you guys post things make me laugh more often than i'd like to admit, and there has been some very interesting conversations and topics around here.

happy 20th, SSMB! here's to 20 more.

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Back in 2011 an article was written about me and my music, right here in SSMB. It was my introduction to the Stadium. Unfortunately at that time I couldn't actually join the forums, because of life priorities and obstacles (not to mention this was during my musical hiatus). I wouldn't be able to join until 2016 when my memory was jogged of this place, and it's the first Sonic related site I ever joined.

I've been super honored to meet all the wonderful people in this community. And SSMB alone opened the door to something much more awesome in my life. I owe this site so much! And I'm so happy to be here on its 20th anniversary!

So, happy birfamaday SSMB! Here's to many more! And thank you all for being here, and being a big part of my life! I love you all

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This has and will always be the best banner.

duckulabanner.png

Context: I think it was somewhere around the late 2000's, Sonic was doing REALLY badly and people were afraid to admit they were Sonic fans. 

So a few of us made banners to disguise the Sonic stadium as a fansite for other things... So if people registered and said "Lol Sonic fans!" we could say "No not Sonic fans... Count Duckula fans!"

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I've been here for 6 years, this year, having joined right before Boom was being announced and released. Ironically, what initially brought me here was trying to figure out what happened with Archie Sonic, and the reboot, which led to me discovering the Ken Penders topic, which had just about the best play by play of how that story went down, and I ended up joining to join in with that conversation.

I slowly moved into other topics, and slowly felt more at home here, especially with some members like @Zaysho welcoming me here. 6 years later, SSMB has just become apart of my daily life. I've made great friends here, and I've participated in interesting conversations, and events. The 52 game challenge in particular stands out in my mind, since it got me to run through a lot of different games, new and old.

In terms of my most favourite memory, I'm gonna put down all of the Musical Spectaculars. I can't nail down a particular one, but it's always a highlight of the year for me. Organising it, and managing it takes a lot of work, but the amount of fun that everyone has, and the really chill environment the community brings during it is brilliant.  

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6 hours ago, Badnik Mechanic said:

This has and will always be the best banner.

duckulabanner.png

Context: I think it was somewhere around the late 2000's, Sonic was doing REALLY badly and people were afraid to admit they were Sonic fans. 

So a few of us made banners to disguise the Sonic stadium as a fansite for other things... So if people registered and said "Lol Sonic fans!" we could say "No not Sonic fans... Count Duckula fans!"

So there really was a Sonic Underground. ;) 

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indexpic0.jpg.c7a6a97a5e38bca4cf40861e27bb6129.jpg

 

I'm pretty sure that this was actually made last year, because then I won't have to admit that I've been here 17 years and saved this random image to my computer just a bit after I joined.

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35 minutes ago, Shadow Chaos Control said:

Were there any banners with Shadow the Hedgehog over the years? 

I'll have a look, we definitely had several Shadow skins in the past... but check my original post and un-spoiler the 'Random Banners' section :) 

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1 minute ago, Dreadknux said:

I'll have a look, we definitely had several Shadow skins in the past... but check my original post and un-spoiler the 'Random Banners' section :) 

I see lots of Shadow banners in OP! I wish I could have been a member when they debuted. :) 

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Oh, the Sonic Stadium and its forums. TSS and SSMB. Been here since the Lost World hype and adamantly stating there are no wisps in the game (despite there clearly being a wisp in the screenshot). The hype for each game is always fun, and it's always fun to join in with the events and general talk. 2013 also got me to watch the livestream of the Summer of Sonic, which eventually led to me going to the 2016 event. Still unsure and lacking in confidence, I had my best friend with me and survived the weekend without succumbing to a panic attack. And what a weekend that was. Getting to try out Mania, getting the poster that still hangs proudly (if a bit battered) on my bedroom wall, seeing the goings-on within the environment instead of through a screen. And who can forget listening to Crush 40 live? That was a great experience, with such a charged energy throughout.

Elsewhere, the hype of Sonic Boom was a fun year, with a certain low-effort Boom!Vader edit of mine being a particular highlight (since we were all making fun of the sports tape and asking "who's next"). SEGASonic Radio was a good thing to have on, with plenty of surprises to be found within its runtime, introducing me to the songs of a few games I hadn't played. And who could forget the community-led projects such as the Music Albums, Spectaculars, and even the Motobug Cytube channel. That last one introduced me to many new things, including a few Youtube creators (such as Caddicarus and AntDude) and a few TV series from the olden days (Kirby and DK shows come to mind here).

We have a great community here, that has stayed strong over these 20 years with many new additions across those years, and everyone has a story of how they arrived here and the adventures they got up to upon first arriving. It's always great to read them. Here's to many more years of TSS, many more projects from the staff and community, and many more years of celebrating our love of Sonic the Hedgehog.

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Seeing that old forum is a true blast from the past! I joined around the crash of SonicAnime, Sonic Verse Team, and Sonic Stadium (anyone remember those temporary forums Bazil hosted?). I remember the revival of SSMB and the second great crash that wiped out everything and we had to start anew (those were not fun times). I met a lot of great people here and have been honored to attend Summer of Sonic many times!

Happy 20th anniversary, Sonic Stadium! Thanks for all you do!

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*un-unlurks*

I remember looking up this new Sonic anime that we all know as Sonic X in 2003 and that lead me to TSS. I gotta admit, the way the site has evolved since then is pretty freaking impressive.

Without TSS, I wouldn't had met some pretty awesome people that I'm I was proud to call my friends ("was" because people do drift apart and I've always been personally god awful at keeping in touch with old friends but that's neither here nor there *cough*) so here's to another 10 20 years! \o/

(This may or may not have been the exact same post from 10 years ago which is also oddly enough the last time I previously posted. On a completely unrelated note, see you all again in 2030.)

*goes back to lurking again*

 

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Wow, now I'm really feeling old!

SSMB was my first main forum home. I had been around GameFAQs just a bit but this place is the one I went to most often. I was super active here for 4 years from ~2005-2009. Nice to drop in every now and then and see how people are doing. 

Other than random SegaSonic Radio moments with various DJs from the olden days, I think I'll always remember the elaborate April Fool's day pranks the most. Anyone remember Knuckles DS? 😆 

 

Happy 20th TSS! Here's to many more. 

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Twenty years, eh? Bloody 'ell. I had a good time here from around 2003, for about 10 years or so, doing admin stuff on the forums and other bits and bobs here and there. It was great while it lasted, even though I was much younger and full of shite, haha. Life goes on! I don't have much interest in going too far down memory lane, so I'll keep it short and leave it at that, but best of luck to you lot, yeah XP.

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Happy 20th anniversary, SSMB!!

I was really into the games' soundtrack, and TSS was where I managed to google myself to find those resources at one point. It allowed me to download tracks from the various older console games, and the next time I stumbled upon the site, I felt so grateful for all the provided tracks, so I wanted to honor the site by creating a user account, which I believe was sometime in 2003 or 2004. This was the time when one had to post a secret word from the rules list or so, just to ensure that one had read through everything if I recall correctly. This was at a time when I was unable to communicate in English, but I understood enough basics to locate the secret word. Memory is faint from those first few moments, but one only had access to the introductionary section, and each new member had to be manually approved by the higher ups. Roarey Raccoon, above me in this topic at the time of this typing, was the one to grant me access. With that, I was allowed to browse the boards.

For a long time which felt like an eternity, I was just a lurker. I did not know enough English to post according to the basic grammar rules, and I was too shy to try even if I could. I read through a lot of user content, thankfully it was relatively easy to understand most users. I got to know a few people, it would feel as if I had known them for a long time along with their friendly relationship with other users, but at the same time, it was weird to feel like that, because I had never said a word to any of them before, nor posted.

There was a Fluff & Party Forum section where I basically lived for a while, even if it was never intended as a main feature. Certain topics were approved for games and short replies, which built up my confidence a little, and I had the chance to overcome shyness and interact with others. Back then, I had a yellow Sonic avatar. One of the games in that one forum section was captioning the above user's avatar picture, and multiple users would respond to my animated Sonic GIF with "I wear no pants!" which I never saw coming, but thinking back at it makes me laugh.

I was asked if I wanted to be an SSR radio DJ at one point, something which was a huge leap for me. I decided to push on and give it a shot. I would play Sonic soundtrack and other random songs alike, with some commentary in-between the songs. I made it into a show called the Super Secret Zone, featuring a logo with a large ring, as I was a big fan of special zone levels in Sonic games and the Chaos Emerald challenges. In 2007 (?) there was a Summer of Sonic event, and I was scheduled as one of the DJs. My show was to play the entire Sonic 3 (& Knuckles?) soundtrack, and after each track, I would talk about the various secrets hidden in those levels. Being live felt amazing, and while scary and terrifying at the start of a session, I felt increasingly fluent and controlled as I went on. I still have some of the recordings from when I was an SSR DJ.

At one point, SoniClans were introduced. These were three subsections, or houses if you will, and a user could apply for one of them. If memory serves correctly, the three clans were based on Sonic, Tails (or Knuckles) and Shadow. There was a common section for all the clan users to interact together, along with an isolated section where members of the same clan could enjoy their company and take part in light-hearted topics and games, with minor arrangements being made from time to time. I cannot remember exactly what happened, but the clans needed new leaders, and I was among those given that responsibility. This was exciting, as I always liked the idea of having "powers" in order to organize things, set examples etc, and I now had limited moderator abilities within the SoniClan forum section. Amazing!

One Christmas not long after, the staff had reason to suspect a large attack on the site, including new users with malicious intent (at this point in time, users could sign up and start posting freely). I was asked if I would like to be an extra layer of protection the site for the holidays, to extend my SoniClan moderation abilities to count for the SSMB as a whole. I certainly did! JJ and myself became "undercover" staff for a limited time, with white usernames. There was no access to staff forums, and I believe reports were not directed to us at the time (reports were sent as automated private messages at the time, compared to today's report center and administrative tools), but we were otherwise very active in scanning topics at the time regardless, and any malicious user causing havoc would be spotted relatively quick.

Thankfully, the anticipated threat did not become reality. Not-so-fortunately, the SoniClans system was announced to be removed. I remember I was chatting with forum administrator Roarey Raccoon, and I felt it was a shame that SoniClans were to be no more. I had poured a lot of love and work into it, and without it, I was ready to revert back to regular membership. He said, not necessarily, and asked if I was interested in being converted to a permanent member of staff. I was one of few, if not the only one entering the team this way. Usually, a member would have to be voted for and elected by the members of forum staff, and I was an unpopular option amongst them, so the administrators promoting me seemed to be a shock to most of them, but I think it worked out quite well, and I was euphoric being able to help out my online home.

In 2009, the SSMB was wiped off the Internet. I am not sure entirely what happened, but I heard it was related to a misunderstanding somewhere, and the site hosting services pulled the plug, with little to no recoverability. The SSMB was shortly rebuilt from scratch, using a different provider if I recall correctly, and it quickly grew its userbase over again, and the site you are browsing this very moment is evolved from the one that was rebuilt at that point in time.

Many years have passed since then. Users come, users go. New forum sections arise, some are moved around, merged with each other, and new topics and discussions arise. I am far from as active as I used to be, lurking through the boards as I once did, maybe some cleaning and organizing in the background. Most users that are here today may not know me or might not have seen my name around here much while I lurk around.

There was once an SSMB Christmas calendar that the staff made for the community, and one of the calendar entries, as mentioned by Dreadknux in the opening post, was a Christmas sing-a-long, sung by members of the staff. The song was The Chipmunks' Christmas Don't Be Late, edited and put together by Flint. I sang two portions, one as myself and one as a silly mystery chipmunk.

I have a warm and happy history with SSMB. I am glad that I was allowed access to the site all those years ago. Thanks to the SSMB and all the content here, I am able to communicate using English today and can enjoy content and contributions by other members. Thanks to the SSR, I can now record and/or livestream immersive gaming content without fear, but feeling fluent and proud. Thanks to the admins and staff, I am feeling confident and believe in myself. A big thanks to all users, and basically everyone in the community, including past, present and future, for being here, and for participating in a friendly and constructive environment we may enjoy call home. Happy 20th anniversary!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 10/20/2020 at 5:51 PM, Shadow Chaos Control said:

I am a newbie, so my history is scant. However, it is auspicious that I have joined near the 20th Anniversary, something I can swear by the Ancient Walkers was not planned. 

I am thrilled these forums exist. That Sonic fandom is still alive and kicking. For me I had a buddy who was a die hard fan like myself. We met in a Summer Camp, both of us holding our copies of Sonic The Hedgehog Archies. For a long time my pal was the only other die hard fan I knew. 

Thankfully that had changed. I am grateful to have found a home here for my fandom. And in these Covid times may we all “Chaos Control!” keep the chaos that is stressing us under control. :) 

Glad I'm not the only newbie still joining forums. (If anyone uses the term "newbie" anymore...)

I began using internet forums in 2005 but at that time, I wasn't so into Sonic stuff. This was the time when the Sonic fandom was starting to be known for being cringy and embarrassing (before the term "cringy" was really used). So I'd go on some Chao sites but distanced myself from Sonic games etc. So I guess I never bothered with this site.

Came on here now because I can't stand mainstream social media, had to deactivate my accounts due to how toxic everyone is. Tried Reddit which is... somewhat better than the others but still not great. So I decided to start using forums again, even if they only have like 10 or less active members. Because I was happier using them than stuff like Facebook, and I feel I can be myself more.

Anyways, hope this site sticks around forever! I'm glad to be a Sonic fan again.

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On 11/17/2020 at 6:58 PM, Zaysho said:

So I'm fashionably late but I wanted to post something here. I thought about writing some personal history but honestly I'll just ramble on for too long so instead I made an illustration. I got the bug to try to make something the week the celebrations started and thought I could get it done in just in time for the anniversary date but I overestimated my ability to finish in a timely manner.

I tend to give up on art pieces if I can't figure them out in the time I need, but every couple of days I'd see this thing in my projects folder and I just couldn't leave it alone. I'd pour a few more hours in late at night trying to teach myself something, bug my friends for feedback, and just play around. This was the basic pattern for the last three or so weeks, juggling with other projects. I feel like I'm finally at a point where I'm satisfied with it so I thought I'd share it with you all.

I'm sure the rest of the mods will be happy for me to shut up about this one drawing finally too lol

tss20-finalweb.png

Happy (belated) anniversary, Sonic Stadium!

I absolutely love this. Thank you Zaysho! :) 

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