The trends, culture, enforcement, & popularity of Early GTP

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gtamann123
I'm not really sure if this question/topic belongs here, but it does pertain to the forum as a whole, so..

I was wondering how popular the GTP site was back in the olden days, and how it ran.

One of the things is the (social) culture of the forum. How did people speak to one another, how did people relate to one another, how did people post, that sort of thing. And how did the methods change over time.

Second is the trends of the forum. What was popular to discuss on the forum, as one portion of GTP or in general? How long did it last, and how did improve, backfire, or maintained? And if it did backfire, what was replaced? This question deals mostly on what was common to discuss, whether it was popular culture, humor culture, etc. It actually correlates to social culture. For example, premium status is a virtue currently. And anyone who isn't a premium member will be tempted to become one. And so a course of Premos attempt to persuade some, gift persons at random, etc.

Thirdly is enforcement of the forum. How severe was anti-AUP members, how difficult it was to handle such persons, and how tight it was.

Lastly is the popularity of the forum. How many members did it attract, and how it is distributed in each portion of the forum. This is probably tough, since it'll be a bit on statistics rather than observance.


Think of this as a "blast back in time", really -- and in interview, sort of :p But you'll have to be a member who has been here for a long time to respond to this properly, though. Also, you don't have to write an essay or anything like that. Little pieces is well enough. Or none at all..
 
I'm actually curious about the second point too. It always seems like there are in-jokes that I was around when they started but didn't get in on them for whatever reason.
 
The Rep system.

It appeared a few years back and disappeared almost as quickly, because as a group, we can't be trusted with nice things.
 
My memory is a bit fuzzy, but for what it is worth:

Technicolors
I was wondering how popular the GTP site was back in the olden days, and how it ran.
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I don't recall an explosion of new members for GT3 as for GT5, when as release drew closer, lots of new members were signing up. GT4 had that a bit though. There was the whole 'dr1ft4, l33t t4lk3r' phase where the drifting community thought their subculture deserved it's own hax0rs language, but like all meme's it burned bright, and then died out eventually.

One of the things is the (social) culture of the forum. How did people speak to one another, how did people relate to one another, how did people post, that sort of thing. And how did the methods change over time.
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I don't think that has changed much. Petty squabbles broke out, although I remember things usually escalated more publically with a bigger peanut gallery, probably as a function of a smaller board.

Second is the trends of the forum. What was popular to discuss on the forum, as one portion of GTP or in general? How long did it last, and how did improve, backfire, or maintained? And if it did backfire, what was replaced? This question deals mostly on what was common to discuss, whether it was popular culture, humor culture, etc. It actually correlates to social culture. For example, premium status is a virtue currently. And anyone who isn't a premium member will be tempted to become one. And so a course of Premos attempt to persuade some, gift persons at random, etc.
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"Back when", there was probably slightly more rope given on what would now be called 'useless posts'. There was the infamous "how many replies can we get thread", plus, there was once upon a time a "Test Forum" - chiefly designed to allow new members to test out formatting and smilies and stuff. Posts did not contribute to post count there; but a few of us (me included), treated it as a slow chat space with a regular group of regulars in the greatest thread of them all "The Color Blue; an argument", which started off as an argument about the colour blue :D. That forum often contributed to stupid posts leaking into the broader forum was and was eventually shut a few years ago.

One fad from 5 or 6 years ago was the "club" phase; "the sports car" club, "the Porsche" club, the "4wd" club, the "Nissan" club. Created in either the GT forums or Cars in General forum, people's signatures were clogged with their "club" memberships.

Thirdly is enforcement of the forum. How severe was anti-AUP members, how difficult it was to handle such persons, and how tight it was.
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Rogue members got the same treatment as now, that hasn't changed :)

Lastly is the popularity of the forum. How many members did it attract, and how it is distributed in each portion of the forum. This is probably tough, since it'll be a bit on statistics rather than observance.
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The membership base was naturally smaller and it was a lot easier for people to 'stand out' and build a profile, as there were less sub forums and a greater number of bigger, regularly stoked threads on the go.

Generalisation perhaps, but average maturity (as in actual maturity, not necessarily age) was higher. There were immature dorks, but debate was sustained at a more intellectual level for longer, then I currently observe. Humour was also probably at a slightly more sophisticated level then prone to now....
 
Mike is pretty spot on with his post, though I would disagree about the period of growth post-GT3. The owner of GT3.com linked to GTPlanet, and it ended up driving a significant amount of traffic and new users to the site. It was at that time when I received my first hard-knock lesson on site scalability, as I didn't know much about what I was doing at the time but had to figure out a way to keep the site online during the period of growth without completely breaking the bank. Hosting was extremely expensive back then, and there was no advertising or Premium memberships, so every expense came directly out of my pocket.

That cycle of growth has been maintained with each GT release: surge of users come with a new game, they gradually trickle away, more dedicated users stick around, hype begins for the next game, and the cycle then repeats itself.

In regards to the social aspect of things, I have seen many generations of users come and go, and could easily write a book on the different things that have happened here over the years. Fortunately, nearly all of those old posts are still available here, so you're free to browse them and take a look at what was going on at any point in history. You can find some of the better discussions by searching for some longer-term user's posts and sorting them by date in ascending order.

You may also find my post on GTPlanet's ten-year anniversary an interesting read if you are feeling nostalgic. :)
 
Very interesting read, thank you Jordan. Gives a good insight into GTPlanets past.
 
1241Penguin
While we're on the subject of history, what event caused 7,575 users to be online back in 2007?
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It's amazing, because we didn't even have 7,575 total members on this site until September of 2002, almost a year-and-a-half from GTPlanet.net's beginning.

The fact we're at 200,000+ members at this point is staggering, there were times when I'd check GTPlanet's forum home page, and quite literally only 2-3 people were online. Those were rare moments, especially as GTPlanet has become a world-wide phenomenon, and a variety of users, ages, and means of logging on has expanded.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the majority of those 7,575 users online in 2007 weren't members though, just people stopping by after seeing it on Diggs.
 
BobK
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the majority of those 7,575 users online in 2007 weren't members though, just people stopping by after seeing it on Diggs.
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Yeah, it's members + guests I think. Either way it's people using the forum.
 
I'm the 18th registered member here on GTP (had to get that in there ;)) and all i can remember is that it was more of a 'general chat' kinda place, which is different to how it is now (quite professional and 'proper').

Well, going by my posts anyway. I can't really explain it so a search of the earliest posts would probably be easier! ;)

But yeah, its definately improved for the better and i honestly never imagined it getting this big. :eek:
 
GTP is now and has always been cooler than the other side of the pillow.

We know this.
 
GTP was a lot easier to keep up with back then, I also think the off topic sections were more active/interesting then.

Other thoughts
- less people
- same proportion of annoying 14 year olds
- no giant thread dedicated to fapping to ponies
- I'd like to think it was more tight knit, although I may just be out of the loop now since I'm an asshole and hardly ever post
- The MSN chats that Bohn Jergin used to set up were pretty cool sometimes.
- race idiots posts occasionally made sense back then.
- Also the HMRCWG thread was pretty cool at the time albeit full of useless posts and then ruined by 14 year olds if I recall.
- Colour blue thread was solid too, even cooler than HMRCWG honestly.
- Everybody thought Klostrophobic was the coolest guy around (He was pretty cool though, so it was merited)
- There was also that fake car accident and the outpouring of sympathy for somebody who was never really hurt in the first place
- I remember when one of the angry 14 year olds got a former mod's password and banned everybody who made fun of him for being an angry 14 year old. I know this b/c I was one of the ones who faced his 14 year old wrath. and was banned until real mods sorted it out.
-There was the guy with the unhealthy obsession with fire alarms.
- Finding out Doug's entire life was an internet lie.

hm there are so many more but that'll work for now. as a whole, I think the old GTP was much more entertaining, and much less formal.
 
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