9+ years of FOF forums

[sabotai]

A date which will live in infamy...

http://web.archive.org/web/200104290...000&LastLogin=

[Izulde]

I actually registered here as Jestor back in 2001 (the signature of the username confirms it), but forgot my password, so I created Izulde as an account in 2004.

Doesn't look like I posted any as Jestor, though. Everything's been all Izulde.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

http://web.archive.org/web/200010201...ML/001071.html

Nice to see moderator drama is nothing new.

Blackadar can be such a dictator...

[Marmel]

Those were the days...

[Alan T]

I don't remember what my original username here was, or when I even came. All I know is everyone can blame Celeval for both introducing me to FOF2 and FOFC.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Monkeying around, I found an older one....



http://web.archive.org/web/200006140...tartpoint=2000

I think if I could see page 1, that would have the first Bucc post (somewhere around mid-July 2000).

[Doug5984]

wow- the old sideline days, i was so young back then..

I joined there not long after FOF2 became an "EA Game" ...not sure of the exact date, but its amazing to think that I've visited the FOF board, and played FOF nearly every single day for those past 9+ years. Wow.

[Young Drachma]

I came around during the Sidelines days and wasn't posting a ton before the move to the new board and then starting posting dynasties mostly, before deciding to venture into the big and bad general discussion. The rest is history...

[Greyroofoo]

When I first found this forum, I was thinking of joining the Air Force, and currently I find find myself dumb enough to stay in the Air Force.

[Schmidty]

I was a lurker from the start, and then finally took the plunge and registered in 2001 after I bought FOF2001. I can't believe it's been this long.

[Hurst2112]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

You're all cut off - Front Office Football Central

ooh, that's money. man, what a historic time

[Hurst2112]

My reply... - Front Office Football Central

Barry Dorf, right?

[3ric]

First Post!! (kinda) - The Sideline
http://web.archive.org/web/200006042...ML/000040.html

More threads here:
http://web.archive.org/web/*sr_221nr...6.15.145.145/*

[Chief Rum]

Wow, just the color brings back the memories. I joined in 1999. I had asked myself one time almost ten years ago.

"Are there any games like FPS around anymore, because Sierra just blew chunks over that game."

Did a search and found "Front Office Football 2". Huh? What's this? Did another search. "Sideline--forum for Front Office Football fan community."

I checked out the game and bought it. Had issues, and joined the community to get help.

Never looked back.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Wow, just the color brings back the memories. I joined in 1999. I had asked myself one time almost ten years ago.

"Are there any games like FPS around anymore, because Sierra just blew chunks over that game."

Did a search and found "Front Office Football 2". Huh? What's this? Did another search. "Sideline--forum for Front Office Football fan community."

I checked out the game and bought it. Had issues, and joined the community to get help.

Never looked back.

Yeah, I looked and saw the only two posts I ever made on my old FOFC account were complaints because fof2k1 kept locking up on me and it pissed me off, so I came here trying to figure out how to get a refund or return the game

I guess it didn't end up bothering me too much since I still ended up buying tcy and fof4 later.

[RedKingGold]

Lurked since late 1999 (16 years old) after I bought FOF2 shortly before FOF 2001 came out. Didn't register til' 2002 early in my freshman year of college (right around when FOF4 came out).

Now, I'm about to start my third year in college, and still very impressed about the staying power of Jim's game (at least in my FOF MP world).

[wbonnell]

Originally Posted by sabotai

A date which will live in infamy...

http://web.archive.org/web/200104290...000&LastLogin=

Hey, look at my thread (OT: baseball sims). Even back then I was talking anything but football. I wonder if that's the first time I discovered OOTP....

[Icy]

I came in 2003 i think, following a link somebody posted in SI's Football Manager forums about FOF. I remember emailing Jim asking if he could sell me the game on any way, as CD was then the only option and i'm in Spain.

I ended buying TCY as it had a downloadable version through elicense, but i new nothing about college football so i couldn't underestand most of it.

I just wand a pro football text sim, but while waiting for the pro game to be released, i started to learn about college football, the teams, the different rules, tradition, etc to end becoming a huge college football fan.

I remember this forum got me addicted for some time to hattrick and also introduced me to all the other USA sports sims like OOTP, EHM, etc, that lead me to also want to learn all about USA sports and to become the weird Spanish guy who follows more USA sports than our "futbol" (soccer).

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by 3ric

First Post!! (kinda) - The Sideline
http://web.archive.org/web/200006042...ML/000040.html

More threads here:
Internet Archive Wayback Machine

That was good, still finding my fist bucc post. The name Amaroq was familiar to me - who de he become?

[molson]

Really amazing how long ago that was. Mckerney was all over the board then and his profile says he's only 23 now. It really was a bunch of teenagers posting back then and now it's all people posting about their kids and wives.

We're a bunch of geezers.

[Zelig]

http://web.archive.org/web/200010192...ML/000335.html

http://web.archive.org/web/200107100...ML/000153.html

[Buccaneer]

The reason I was curious was I recall my first people explaining how I had played Mogul and then stumbled upon FOF and that site. Someone welcomed me and hoped this site would fit me (given its quirks and personalities). Wanted to know who that was.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by molson

Really amazing how long ago that was. Mckerney was all over the board then and his profile says he's only 23 now. It really was a bunch of teenagers posting back then and now it's all people posting about their kids and wives.

We're a bunch of geezers.

Hehe, I don't think that was entirely the case. I think I joined in winter time 2000, and I know there was a good deal of others my age (just out of college a few years roughly) back then. At least the people I first interacted with (mostly OOTP league folks as I learned about OOTP2 from this forum sometime around the same time in late 2000) were mostly early 20ish folks.

Now a days, 8 years later we're all entering our mid-30s.. ugh!

[daedalus]

i started around thanksgiving during the DR debacle. i read a blurb about the original game in a computer game magazine, tried the demo but could not get a feel for the game since the demo was so short that i decided against it. then, maybe about a year later, there was another blurb when the second came out and, since i was going to have free time during turkey break, decided to splurge (for me) and get the game. DR being DR, the activation borked. i searched (i think it had to have been either yahoo! or altavista at the time) and found this board because i remembered that it was mentioned in the article to try to find solution. besides posting to ask for help (i believe either PSUColonel and/or BillsFanUK was the person responding with a "sorry, good luck. we've seen the same problems." type of response), i mainly lurked until a thread about ricky williams where mckerney decided to be, well, mckerney and not just debate/argue my point(s) but tried to call me out just for being new. BillsFanUK, i believe, had my back (much props, even if i never see him anymore).

no slight to anyone in the least but i really, really wish ez, amaroq and oldschool were back. ez and our MP leagues would have been made for each other. i would say that between ez and QS, kasparov faced less pure computing power. i remember when we all looked at this web-based boxing game with really detailed options for various scenarios and we got into an awesome discussion how great that would be to have for FOF. OS was just a cool dude in general.

back to the game . . . of course, since it was turkey break, i had zero chance of getting any help and it was not until a week later that dan wassen was able to help me activate the game offline and was able to play the game. i was very sad when the "cut off" mess happened, given how much dan did for us as a community. i could have gotten past it, if he would have man up and just apologized with, "guys, i screwed up. i lost my head."

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I don't recall exactly when I showed up at The Sideline, but it was in the early days. I have a printout of the original Bear Bryant Challenge from there (started 2/10/2000). It covers 102 printed pages, several hundred hundred posts, 40 seasons of FOF2, and runs from 2/10 to 3/25. Based on what's in that printout, I have several comments

• Dynasties had been going for quite some time at that point.
• People already knew my first name, so it had become a "community" even by then. (I used "SkyDog" as my user name when I signed up orginally for anonymity, but obviously I was past that by then.)
• Cohesion was in the game back then. (I wouldn't have guessed that.)
• The brief time that we used Chubby's alternate board was in mid-March of 2000. (I referenced it in the thread.)
• Future ratings changed more than I remembered back then. I had a QB go from 38/100 to 69/94 to 96/100 to 93/93.
• Other users who posted in that thread: OldSchool, OldGiants, Daedalus, tdmaster, Thor, Z Drive, MG, Darkiller, f_monster

For those who asked about history/dates, here's a bit of that. October 2000 is when we moved from The Sideline to FOFC. Blackadar handed the board over to me in late Spring of 2002. (Don't know the exact date.) The upgrade from ubb to vbulletin was in January 2003. Oct-Nov 2004 saw the month-long outage of Gamespy's hosted sites. (The board came back up on election night.) And of course the move to OS was in early June of 2008.

that was a good, good dynasty. i followed that dynasty across the sideline to josh/chubby's board back to the return-of-the-sideline, all the while fighting with the imperial force and taking turns getting banned with some of the other rebels.

i had much more time then as was able to follow some really, really good dynasties. this bear bryant one, QS' bare cupboard and the original village challenge (which, if my memory serves me correctly, was dan/thomkal's brainchild). i believe there was one other that i followed real closely but cannot recall the specifics of. later on, my dynasty readings became izulde's various adventures, ef27's manchester united recap and frogger's luton-to-QPR travel.

[Raiders Army]

The thing I notice now is that OT has taken over the board due to:

1. No new football releases from Solecismic in the past two years (and the updates, while great and add new content, don't get the posts a new game gets).

2. People know each other better than back with FOF 1, 2, or 2k1.

3. FWIW, I believe SkyDog did a better job moderating for social purposes than the previous mods. That's not to say they did a bad job, but that SkyDog did it better.

Heh, I didn't even know who SkyDog or Ben E. Lou was back when I got on the boards. I can't remember when it was, but I got the original FOF from the old pc.games.rec.sports (or something like that). I then discovered the sideline from that.

[Apathetic Lurker]

bought the first one a few weeks after it was released then found the board....Still havent hit 500 posts

[judicial clerk]

I remember the old sideline days.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to remember ordering the first FOF by telephone and talking to a girl who I gave my credit card number to. It didn't sound like a profesional phone-bank type of opertion. Could that have been Mrs. Gindin?

[kingnebwsu]

Seems like it's been forever. I came around shortly after FOF 2 came out. And I bought FOF 2 after I bought Baseball Mogul 99 at Best Buy for $10. That's what got me hooked on text-based gaming.

Can't believe it's been like 10 years. Reeeeeeee-diculous.

[Barkeep49]

I lurked during the sideline days and then one day it disappeared and I knew nothing about it until they briefly reopened and I found this place. Registered then and was a lurker for a long long time. I would guess that out of my first 20 posts 15+ were in QS dynasties.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by judicial clerk

I remember the old sideline days.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to remember ordering the first FOF by telephone and talking to a girl who I gave my credit card number to. It didn't sound like a profesional phone-bank type of opertion. Could that have been Mrs. Gindin?

No, that was a service I hired to take orders. There were four women who worked for a company that handled the phones for about a dozen companies.

Back then, nobody trusted the internet for credit-card taking. It wasn't until Amazon really took off (just a little later) that banks started to set up those accounts.

It's getting close to ten years since the original game was released. Does anyone remember the exact release date?

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

It's getting close to ten years since the original game was released. Does anyone remember the exact release date?

I want to say Labor Day, 1998.

[Honolulu Blue]

January 2001. That's when it says I registered, so I'll go with that. I actually had an account on the Sideline, but it was under a different name, and I didn't do much with it, so it doesn't count.

I rarely talk about my personal life here, so to indulge myself I'll briefly discuss what's happened to me in the 7 1/2 years since 1/01 (not in any order):

* Got engaged
* Got dis-engaged
* Bought a house (my only move in the time period)
* Went through four cars
* Lost an aunt, but gained two nephews and a brother-in-law
* Got a promotion
* Won a few dozen sit-and-gos online (including one FOFC championship), cashed a few dozen more times, then got out while the getting was good
* Written God knows how many dynasties about who knows how many different subjects and different games
* Confused some members who think I am my evil twin and vice versa (hint: He has a "_" in his screen name, loves hockey, CM/FM, and U-M; I don't, don't, don't, and don't)
* Bought and played many different sports career text sims and other games

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

I found The Sideline during the FOF2 era, but I don't really remember a date. I had found FOF2 doing a search for "football simulation" or something like that, dowloaded it overnight (it took HOURS for it to download), and then when I went to play realized I had no idea what I was doing. So I did a search (probably using Alta Vista at that time) for something like "Front Office Football strategy", and up came The Sideline. I didn't post a ton, but lurked a lot. I'm pretty sure I registered around the same time that MIJB first showed up, cause I remember having had a n00b kinship with him...

Gr-reat, go blame me for the chunkload of posts you made!

But honestly, since then, little changed. I still clash with HA (all in good fun, right? ), try to out-smart QS and still debate with SA what true democracy is. That and Bucc is still twice my age.

[Sun Tzu]

Awesome. Might as well give this one a bump, considering the other thread that's out there.

I registered between when the original FOF came out, and the EA sports version came out. I've always taken pride in being one of (or at least close to) the originals here. I think I was 16 or 17 when I originally registered. What a ride it's been.

[ColtCrazy]

I've been around for many years, mostly as a lurker though. I remember a lot of the early names and still have my original FOF disk. I still come here because there's some interesting discussions, some great links, and a lot of similarly minded guys/gals here.

[Groundhog]

I lurked for a good while before I signed up, so I've been coming here for a fair few years now. I still come because it's surprising how much news, sports/gaming or otherwise, I find out here before I do elsewhere, and there are some intelligent and funny threads that continue to happen, but I miss a lot of the "characters" that either got boxed or just never returned because they didn't feel welcome. This place has lost some flavour over the years.

[miked]

I think I still have my email from Tony.

[AZSpeechCoach]

I bought a Baseball Mogul/Football Mogul double pack from Stop and Save Software. After playing them for a little bit, I started to look for something different. I wound up at the sideline in late 99 and bought FOF2 around New Years 2000. I was registered at the sideline as AZSpeechCoach and also as Miss Cleo (joke account when some people were predicting the future). When the board moved, I followed, but it took a few years of lurking for me to reregister.

[Julio Riddols]

Oh man.. I finally found a post as my old nick Shanekorn.. I guess I posted enough back then to be a grizzled veteran, but then again, I think the amount of posts needed then was way low..

I think I've been around since there were about 300-400 people on the board, and I remember when we hit 1,000 it was a pretty big deal.

I remember Wignasty, Wignifty, HornsManiac, The EA fiasco, Dave Dial, all of it. I was 17 when I found FOF1 my Junior year of HS.. Damn.

[Chief Rum]

I was young when I joined The Sideline, and yes, I do believe it was just over 10 years ago. I can't remember when I joined, but my guess would be May, 1999. I know it was 1999 for sure, and I don't think it was late in the year.

Now I am old.

[Julio Riddols]

This post in particular was interesting to me.. From the Bruce Coslet stepping down thread, circa September 2000:

From "NFLFAN" - Coslet should have been gone 2 years ago when Carl pickens said why are we keeping him as coach. He was a terrible head coach for the new york jets and he was a terrible coach for the bengals. I just hope he never gets another head coaching job. He needs to stick with just being a offensive coordinator and to be honest with you hes not even good at that.

Some people just arent made to be head coaches, Bill bellichek (or whatever his last name is spelled), bruce coslet, and Ray rhodes in my opinion are just good coordinators and nothing more. They should not be head coach of a football team, some coaches have it and some coaches dont. They dont have it.

[larnott]

I've been here since the beginning. Read every day, but don't post much.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

You're all cut off - Front Office Football Central

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

Dan's Apology (in a locked thread)

with a guest appearance by wignasty

Originally Posted by Logan

Sorry Dan, but you have failed to apologize to the people you called "pirates." They did nothing wrong. They saw that the game was available, wanted to buy it, and gave their CC#, expecting to be charged. YOUR guys screwed up, and should be blamed--not those 10 who bought the game.

The fact is, I would rather give $100 of my hard-earned money directly to Jim for the game, than pay $1 for it through you guys if it meant you got a piece of it.

Yet another reason I will never buy an EA product again, unless it has a Solecismic logo on it.

Whoops.

[OldGiants]

Ah, yes the George Allen challenge. Trade your number one draft choice every year.

What I miss most from those earlier versions was the expansion team options. Not just the Browns, but other teams would pop up to take the league to 32 as the years went on. Great way to extend your interest in a career.

[Arles]

This has been a great ride. Kudos to the community for staying strong for 10+ years!

[dawgfan]

Pretty wild to think it's been ~10 years now. I remember reading the Sideline board, not sure if I posted much (if at all), but I remember being very impressed at the info and work being done at this site to study the game and share strategies. I remember downloading the strategy guide and being very thankful for all the work that had gone into it.

Kudos to those who first started the community and the quality of posters that made it a great resource, and then blossoming into just an interesting place in general to visit.