What GFF is to you.

So, I'm rapidly drawing towards my 4 year anniversary at this asylum, and I figured given the recent events, it would be a good idea to get this down.

I considered a few approaches to this. A list of my friends and how my opinions of them have changed over the years. But I realised I do that for birthdays, and just did a version of that for Christmas in my journal. I also thought that maybe it was more important to focus on what this place as a gathering point has done for me, rather than the individuals that make it up.

I also considered a wrap-up of my own changes while I've been here, but I thought that was too self-involved.

So I've settled on this.

What GFF is to Me: A Rope of Sand.


This place has become a sort of touchstone to me. There's a level of intelligence and involvement here that I rarely see anywhere else on the internet. The word elitist gets tossed around a lot, and I think at our very best, we are, in fact, elitist, while not necessarily exclusionary. And there's nothing wrong with that. This place refuses to play to the lowest common denominator. Because of that, I can actually have a certain amount of hope that the world at large isn't made up of 4chan or GameFAQs idiocy. There can be intelligent debate about everything from Ron Paul to Nomura. Yes, a lot of times it descends into fanboyism, but often long after it would have anywhere else. There are individuals here that make that happen, to be sure, but there's also a certain spirit to this place that encourages it to take place. I know this because I've been here long enough (albeit not nearly as long a some people) to see a transition of faces and names and yet the same basic precepts continue to dictate actions in this place.

It's also a bit of a launching point. I get a lot of political perspectives here that I don't get elsewhere (what up Gold Standard, Brady?) as well as news on video games I wouldn't normally follow. Music my little 90's speedpunk addled brain would never come across, and even, from time to time, a movie I might not have given a shot had not one of the people I respect pushed it at me. Now, I'm not going to lie, I research almost every point brought up here, as I'm not going to take GFF as, you know, the ultimate force of knowledge, but it's an absolutely wonderful place to learn the foundations of a myriad of different things. There's just such a wide variety of people here, and so much bleeding goes on between the different sub-forums that you get exposed to such a wide variety of different things.

I mean, I think the large majority of us use this as e-home, that much is obvious, so I'm curious to know what this place represents to other people.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

This place has meant different things to me over the years. This place, more than anyone or anywhere else, has seen me grow up and go through a lot of shit. I've made some close friends here and this place is obviously my e-home. I'm glad I have the kind of job where I get to be active here 8 hours a day.

More than anything, this forum is probably the most friendly I've ever been to. It wasn't always that way but nowadays it's definitely the most friendly out there.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Well, there isn't much more that I can say that I didn't say in my journal, so I'll post a link to that. What I wrote.

But I guess I'd just like to add that out of any forum out on the net, the people here are a heck of a lot more diverse. I browse the UnrealPlayground forums, and it's all a bunch of 14 year olds with no knowledge of anything. In fact, it's a pretty dead forum now. Point is though, they are all the same. All of them were just video game nerds, with all the same opinions and such. At least here, there are a wide variety of opinions, people know how to express themselves better and you can really get to know the person behind the keyboard alot better, as opposed to only knowing the anonymous AOL style, single line posts like on some forums. Each person here brings something different to the table.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I've been here for around 4 years as well through 3 different user names. The first name I used was lost when GFF went down for a while and the second one was just a temporary name that I used. I'm sticking with this one though.

Anyway, GFF has been a lot of different things for me. When I first started posting here, it was just "that other forum" that I visited along with Shinra Online. Shinra was my main forum back then because I was playing a good amount of videogames at the time and that forum seemed to be more focused on gaming. Also, the people at Shinra were actually nicer then. When I started to lose interest in videogames, I started to switch over. After posting at both forums for a bit, I noticed that GFF started to become a friendlier place and, like smelnick said, GFF was more diverse. I'm also not into the anime thing much and there's less of that here than at Shinra.

It's probably been 2 years since I started posting here as my main forum and it's definitely one of the best places to "hang out" on the internet. While I'm not the intellectual type, I enjoy having many people that can give highly developed point of views that they are able to articulate clearly. I go to a website called entensity.net for funny videos and when I visited their forum, their members reminded me of the youtube crowd that post the most hateful and nonsensical comments.

Basically GFF is one of the few places online that I can go to that doesn't have the typical internet population of immature people. There's really no one that I dislike here, although there are some people that I'd rather avoid. And it really is one of the nicest communities I've been to on the internet.

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Gamingforce isn't just my starting page, it's my e-home.

The people here are usually very intelligent - at least most of the time. The willingness for one person to help another (from a simple hardware question to paying off a member's car) here is what really gets to me sometimes. There's an unspoken sense of generosity and kinship that I doubt you can find in too many places on the internet. We all know each other, we all ask about each other, and we're all watching. There's a certain attention paid here to community matters which doesn't seem common to me.

A lot of us revel in getting to know who we are off the internet - which is another thing I fully embrace. The people I've met from Gamingforce alone make this forum worth visiting. So diverse, so rewarding, so fantastic.

There are so many things that you can discuss, and so much stupid shit you can laugh at. (ie: Skills, Tails, airplanes... <3) Do you really need to go anywhere else?

I am grateful to be a part of such a community, though sometimes I'd be hard-pressed to admit it. You all have given me so much.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I don't fit in with the community at large. So, for me, GFF is a place to chill out, discover new music, check up on other people's opinions on absolutely anything and fill my journal with worthless shite. I know about everyone here, but I don't know the vast majority of you. ._.

It's a forum, and it's a damn good one.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Either that went over my head or it just wasn't very funny.

FELIPE NO

It's a roof over my head hot food in my belly. Places to sleep and people to meet.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Comedy

Jam it back in, in the dark.

It took you guys 6 posts to descend into one-liners and 4channery. Why are you trying to prove Deni's nice view wrong? =(

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Kishin

It took you guys 6 posts to descend into one-liners and 4channery. Why are you trying to prove Deni's nice view wrong? =(

You misunderstand, Kishin. GFF really is those things I listed. Members of this forum have opened their homes to me as well as shared meals. I like it here, I like (most of) the people. No joke.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

GFF is basically the only aspect of my life I don't share with anyone I know irl. I mean, I practically say nothing of what I do here to my real life circle, and it actually means a lot in my case since I'm extremely close to my family and friends.

The fact it's in English and that 99,99% are foreigners to me adds a lot to the whole thing. I live in a country that's (like many ?) cursed with an almost unique line of thought, and it's refreshing to have different points of views.

All of this makes that I express myself very openly, particularly in my journal. You guys probably paradoxically have a more accurate insight on my inner feelings than most of my relatives. That place is an online home and a shelter, eventhough I hate to admit it, heh.

That is why lulz internet serious business jokes never flew with me, at least as long as this place is concerned. This is why I sometimes take things overly seriously, and this is why I defend things like what people call the myspace week. I'm here to have a blast and to interact with people whom interests go beyond lolol owned like hell jokes. Both can coexist, really. They have in the past.

Finally, the VGM and sharing community of course, although I've cut a bit on that lately.

Originally Posted by Zeal

Comedy

haha very true

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

So many more people have been here longer than I have, but I've come to feel like this place is a 'home', just like the 'old-timers'. I wouldnt know what to do with myself if this place ever disappeared.

Its a community, first of all. Some may argue that, but I really feel like this is a community. Especially after bobo dropped the ball, when Miles and Blah picked it up, so many people got behind them because they didnt want to leave this place behind. There is a level of intelligence and kindness here, despite drama (something that happens everywhere anyways), that I've yet to find anywhere else on the internet.

Also, it feels more... real. When I showed up at the GFFNE meet, I was of course nervous and felt a bit awkward... but by the end of the first night, I felt like I was hanging out with friends who I hadnt seen in a long time. Everyone just clicked. And I think that was really one of the main reasons why I found myself comfortable here.

I was speaking idiomatically.

The only person I shared GFF with was Temari. And now here she is

This is without a doubt my online safe haven. I come here to get away from the bullshit that life often dishes out, and I find that I'm constantly overwhelmed with greatness, whether it's in the form of friendships I've made, fans of my movies, or just people to talk to, and vent to about shit in my journal. Even just reading discussion, as opposed to taking part in them, is something I love doing.

This place, moreso than any other forum I've ever been to, is truly an online community, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Additional Spam:
Wow nice timing Ally. Jeez

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Owned. <3



FELIPE NO

Well, I have to admit, the first time I got into GFF, I was only interested in the music scores. But after a while being a silent member and only watching what people discuss, I sort of being interested to join.

And now, GFF IS becoming my e-home. Since I've never had any friends from foreign countries, so I guess in here, I can understand people from most part of the world better. I can also get input, critics, and advises in many ways that I can improve myself from day to day. Also thanks to GFF, I can slowly change my shy personality into less everytime.

Not only that, I can learn anything new from GFF since I rarely watch the news and seldom read newspapers. So any news posted as a discussion helps me understand the world more and know more what do different people think about an issue. Then, I can learn to agree and disagree other's thoughts in good effect.

But then again, everyone's unique ere...

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This place is history for me. Everybody's saying it's an e-home, and I suppose I need to hop on that bandwagon. I never lived any place longer than 3.5 years, except for college, which was 4. I've been here 7. This place is significant because of that.

It's like a family reunion too. I remember people from when they were kids, who are now fully productive members of society, etc and so forth. I've put down roots. I feel like I belong here. With this place, I don't feel like I'm on the outside looking in.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Goodness, what is GFF to me? I have been here so long that I have jokingly asked for GFF retirement funds (can I still get that Blah? Miles?!).

It has been one of the few constants for me over the years. No matter how I changed, where I went, or what I did, GFF was still around. GFF may have changed to, the forums may have gone up and down, and the ownership may have gone from near non-existent to a complete change of ownership, but GFF has, in all it's intent and purposes, stayed around.

GFF is like the all-in-one for me concerning news, opinions, advice, gaming, and so forth. It's not the "YOU CAN GET VIDEO GAME MUSIC FORUM" as I haven't done that for a while now and sparingly at that. Heck, while I DO check out the music forums to see if any new albums are coming out that I have missed, I am MORE likely to check out the Video Games, Media, and any of the Tech sub-forums.

It is also a place when I can make friends. Granted, I haven't really talked to any beyond the forum levels since galatea but be that as it may, it's yet another place to make friends.

It is also a place to hear of the good times in the past concerning so many things in one's life from video games to cartoons to music to events to a variety of other things. Invariably, SOMEONE on the forums will remember SOME past event/game/song/etc and a discussion can start which is pretty darn nice.

So yeah, I guess it's one's e-home. I suppose that was apparent to many (including myself) last March when it almost disappeared for good.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I've been here for some time as well, and I have a lot of memories of the place. GFF is sort of an e-home for me, I guess. Though I don't post much, the journals are usually damn entertaining and the sharing forums are great. It's a great place to lurk, and it's a great place to fight the man. The MEC and movie night with their content and all are hard to find anywhere else, so it's great to be able to use them.

That, and when other persons are involved with the surges of drama that occur regularly, they make for incredibly good reads.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

GFF is like that girl you always know you can count on for a good time, without a whole lot of commitment or drama.

Yeah.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

That doesn't sound like GFF at all Capo!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Wait, that was Google.

GFF is actually like that girl with the really big ass, you know the one I'm talking about. And, it's like, this ass isn't flabby at all, it's just there. Anyway, when she comes over, she's always quick to show affection, and doesn't really ask for all that much in return.

Just your love.

And, man, let me tell you, the sex is fantastic! You've never had anything better, but it's almost kinda sad, because you know this may be as good as it gets. When she leaves, she says good bye seductively, and waves that little wave you love. And then, your heart drops. Until the next time you see her. Mmm.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

You've been looking at Alice's Halloween entry again, haven't you?

FELIPE NO

Initially when I joined in the summer of '03 out of a link a friend of mine (Malahk Angel but at the time it was Musashiden) so after awhile of signing up I mainly used the forums for requests of albums mostly (Dancemania and other Bemani-related soundtracks), began using FTPs on dial up which wasn't that bad for internet I didn't really pay for. Later in the year I started using the journals, a first in which I kept a (more or less) public record or shit that usually happened in my days usually long and not really worth anyone's entertainment.

And so some 4.5 years later things haven't changed other than I don't do any requests in My Stuff (as much) and as a former member here mentioned on a Myspace blog comment "I cant really plug myself into these forums" I guess I'm the same with zero impact/appeal, why do I still lurk around? I guess you can say that there are surges of things that can keep me somewhat entertained for the moment.

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GFF to me is the place where I got a lot of FF albums.

Jam it back in, in the dark.