I steadily extended myself into more topics, from Sweet’s Café Talk where I met the Sombrero Gang to the GALAXY WAR RP (a source of endless arguments over everything) and the original Finding Friendships, though as I recall I had a slight preference for its long-dead rival the MB Coffee Table. I don’t think I was ever one of the regulars at the very top of the posting leaderboard, but I maintained a strong presence across the Community Chat forum. I remember joining a casting agency agency RP of some sort where I was cast as Maybear’s brother and kingwja's son, a position that was eventually written into the official MB Family Tree and made me a nominal relation of the entire CC community in at least three different ways. Shortly after this Kingja and I held a father-and-son gokart race through FF to general amusement.
Community Chat accounted for most of my posts, though I still considered Castle to be my home forum and retained a presence in Star Wars. I also joined other forums, particularly their RPs, including Ninjago, Chima, Nexo Knights (not a fan of the canon theme, but the qualily of lore we made up was a great improvement xD), Classics and the Lord of the Rings, which has always been one of my favourite themes but which I delayed joining because of its frighteningly complex RP rules. When I did muster the courage to join I was thrown in at the deep end by being put in charge of the Dol Amroth faction, which had had many great accomplishments under commandercody113 but had since had its bases surrounded. Luckily the experience of losing multiple battles at once and undoing Cody’s victories did not dissuade from the LotR RP, where I slightly improved my tactical prowess over the years.
At the start of 2017, the site shutdown was announced. Though my time on the MBs was the blink of an eye compared to many veteran users, it had quickly become a critical part of my life and given me a safe social and creative outlet. It showed me that although I struggled with social anxiety and had great difficulty making friends, there were many wonderful people out there who liked with and with whom I had immense fun. I’ll never forget that to the end of my days.
In the weeks that followed, as we all tried to process what was happening, people starting hiding code words and phrases into their signatures. I followed several of them, making contact with fellow MBers on Google+, Pinterest, email and a strange little site called legomessage.boards.net. I wasn’t sure what to make of this little forum with a completely different format and with only a couple of dozen users (I was #26) but I saw some familiar faces and decided to try it out. I joined in the effort of hiding clues in posts to try and get more people over (but I think mine were too obscure to be any help xD) and watched the community grow. A few weeks later the admins asked for volunteer mods, a position which I applied to and was surprised to be accepted. As the site grew to accommodate more and more of the MB community, I became as active here as I had been on the old MBs and took on admin role on the staff team under astrokid12
Following the chaotic weekend in the summer when LMBE was nearly closed down, the community here showed immense trust in me by doing me the honour of electing me the new Head Admin. I greatly enjoyed that role but had to relinquish it at the end of 2017. I won’t go into the details, but I will say this. My arrogance and appalling lack of judgement brought this site and the wider MB community confusion and conflict at a time when it desperately needed stability. I regret that to this day. In spite of this I was privileged to remain on the staff as a mod and later Senior Staff under Helios and later Quark.
Nothing lasts for ever, and our lives were quickly changing. Throughout 2018 I started coming on here less often, as I increasingly used other platforms to communicate with old friends from the MBs. In the summer 2019 I stepped down from the staff team completely to focus on academic work, and towards the end of that year personal reasons led to my temporarily withdrawing from this community for a few months.
When I returned it was on a far less regular basis, often coming on here for a few weeks then vanishing for months. I slowly dropped out of roleplays until my activity was confined to Community Chat. I still maintain a small footprint here, typically a couple of chains in Finding Friendships and some with HannahDash, though anyone who was here before the reunion rush knows how inconsistent I can be these days.
I can still remember creating my MB account - it was a little after 4pm on a Wedneday afternoon just after I came out of an online Maths lesson. I’d been reading the boards for a few days and had been waiting for an ideal day when I had some time. I’m certainly a very different person to the immature 13 year old who eagerly clicked the button to sign in for the first time, but I share something of the thrill he felt at seeing that website. I certainly wouldn’t be the same man I am today if the MB community hadn’t been there for me all those years ago. I’ve just turned 21 and in the middle of a history degree whilst working in a museum. My path in life hasn’t always been straight or obvious, but I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people from so many different backgrounds and places.
Those of y’all who knew me back in 2016 may recall how I wouldn’t stop going on about how superior Britain was to the USA. It may amuse you to know that spending my teenage years talking to online Americans online instead of Brits has left me saying ‘y’all’ in half my posts here, and I often find myself trying to say it out loud as well.
Well, I don’t have any major announcements about weddings or babies to make, so I think I’m getting close to the end. I’m embarrassed to admit I can’t remember the last time I even touched a Lego set. I was tempted by the recently-released Rivendell set, but it made me think of the Tower of Orthanc set my brother and I pooled our savings to buy but never actually built. If I may make the presumption of using AFOL terminology, to which I have no right whatsoever, I hope my Dark Age won’t last too much longer and I can find the time, space and motivation to return to my old hobby.
On the subject of looking ahead to the future, I hope this little reunion will be repeated, either annually or as often as we can manage. The joy of seeing so many old friends has certainly made me want to try a little harder; I know I have contact details for many of you and just haven’t bothered keeping in touch. We’re only a handful of people left from the old gang, but I hope we can stay in contact for years to come. And if any of y’all are ever in my neck of the woods please don’t hesitate to reach out.
This has turned into something far longer and more emotional than I intended, more of an Ode to the Lego Message Boards than a summary of my time here. I’m glad it turned out the way it did though, putting this down on paper (by which I mean Goodle Docs ) has made me think about good times and good people. Now I’d better stop, before my delusions of literary brilliance grow any further out of hand.
I think everyone thinks they were cringe at that age.
I'll still think it's super cool how well it started to flow like halfway through. I think it was mostly you, Mock, and IceFire writing, right?
Being any kind of artist seems like a lot of fun until you think about all the work that has to go in. That's why I choose to be lazy
I'm glad you enjoy it though!
Well the difference is I'm right. Yeah, and I think one other user..? I can't remember her name, but I remember she hosted the "Journal of an Enderman", I think, and her writing style was a lot more refined than mine, so naturally I was both simping over her and jealous simultaneously.
As you should! That's girlboss behavior tbh Thanks lol! The end product makes it worth it. It gives me a kind of high, and so I keep drawing/animating looking for that high again.
Now I feel bad for not remembering this random avatar from like middle school. But yeah I definitely get the vibe. Kinda how I was about Con tbh
Hecc yeah it is! Chasing the creative high is relatable dw
Welp, I delayed starting on this because I wasn’t sure how you put eight years of happy memories into a few paragraphs, but I sat down earlier and decided to have a go. An hour and a half later, this has ended up only a little shorter than the essay on Victorian policing I wrote last week, (if only inspiration for that had come so easily ) so idk if anyone has the perseverance to actually read my ramblings.
If anyone wants a tl;dr, it’s this: y’all are wonderful and I can’t imagine how a large period of my life would have gone without you in it. I feel so privileged to have had the MBs in my life, and hope to carry on knowing y’all as long as I possibly can.
I first discovered the LMBs whilst randomly browsing google when I supposed to be supposed to be doing schoolwork. I joined on the 11th November 2015, a few days after my 13th birthday. Initially I posted in the ‘Create your own kingdom’ roleplay in the Castle forum where I met users like aburk1, taigonia and mythmaster1 . From there I expanded into other Castle topics, mainly minor one-topic RPs and reading stories before venturing into the official Castle RP sub-forum. I still have many fond memories of joining and eventually leading the Lion Knights and the friends I made in that RP, from people like TheGreatCon , Boomer , LegoAgentFigure and RuleJJ who have made it over here to others like HermanPlatina who didn’t.
In December 2015 I took another step by joining the ‘New RP Jedi Order’, part of the unofficial roleplay on the Star Wars main forum. I made a great many more friends there, from fellow jedi like jedimasterwolf , YouKnowWho , general_han, imalegofan, TG-5102 , 7531Hunter , Stephanie and Samantha Karena to Sith like WizemanII , milbro081399 , Darth Ninion (ngl his username escapes my meory) and Tweed . I would eventually become leader of the Jedi faction there, which has survived in a roudabout form on another platform-that-may-not-be-named. I unknowingly plunged further into the MBs when the Sith from the Star Wars RP hijacked the ‘MB Airplane RP’ on the Community Chat forum. My initial participation in the battle there gave me the confidence to post in other topics on that forum, which I previously avoided due to its scary activity levels.
The first topic I can really remember being active in in Community Chat was Tad 's MB Valentines Party, where I became a founding member of the Party Bosscrashers Crash Bandi-Coots group (I have no idea what the second half of that means, ask Sweets ) who spread chaos and sheep, warring over lemonade through a series of party topics including the St Patrick’s Day Party (which I’m fairly certain was the largest topic I created on the old MBs ). I’m still friends with several of the bosscrashers, especially HannahDash whom I was sorry to lose contact with from 2017-2020 but have talked to fairly regularly for the past three years.
1/4
Firstly, of course I will read the ramblings. Secondly, it's Crash Bandi-Cutes, which makes even less sense. I don't think there's anything more to it than the video game Crash Bandicoot? Thirdly, I'll clarify that the group wasn't founded until the St. Patrick's Day Party... in June.
I find it amusing you showed up to the MBs only like 3 days after I did, though it took us a few months to meet. I share the sentiment of the ramblings as a whole, the MBs were a very special place (and pretty much my only source of socialization for a year ) and you're still one of my best friends from there.
Those of y’all who knew me back in 2016 may recall how I wouldn’t stop going on about how superior Britain was to the USA. It may amuse you to know that spending my teenage years talking to online Americans online instead of Brits has left me saying ‘y’all’ in half my posts here, and I often find myself trying to say it out loud as well.
And yes "y'all" is very useful. It's about the only trace of a southern accent I have despite living in this part of the country my whole life.
Welp, I delayed starting on this because I wasn’t sure how you put eight years of happy memories into a few paragraphs, but I sat down earlier and decided to have a go. An hour and a half later, this has ended up only a little shorter than the essay on Victorian policing I wrote last week, (if only inspiration for that had come so easily ) so idk if anyone has the perseverance to actually read my ramblings.
If anyone wants a tl;dr, it’s this: y’all are wonderful and I can’t imagine how a large period of my life would have gone without you in it. I feel so privileged to have had the MBs in my life, and hope to carry on knowing y’all as long as I possibly can.
I first discovered the LMBs whilst randomly browsing google when I supposed to be supposed to be doing schoolwork. I joined on the 11th November 2015, a few days after my 13th birthday. Initially I posted in the ‘Create your own kingdom’ roleplay in the Castle forum where I met users like aburk1, taigonia and mythmaster1 . From there I expanded into other Castle topics, mainly minor one-topic RPs and reading stories before venturing into the official Castle RP sub-forum. I still have many fond memories of joining and eventually leading the Lion Knights and the friends I made in that RP, from people like TheGreatCon , Boomer , LegoAgentFigure and RuleJJ who have made it over here to others like HermanPlatina who didn’t.
In December 2015 I took another step by joining the ‘New RP Jedi Order’, part of the unofficial roleplay on the Star Wars main forum. I made a great many more friends there, from fellow jedi like jedimasterwolf , YouKnowWho , general_han, imalegofan, TG-5102 , 7531Hunter , Stephanie and Samantha Karena to Sith like WizemanII , milbro081399 , Darth Ninion (ngl his username escapes my meory) and Tweed . I would eventually become leader of the Jedi faction there, which has survived in a roudabout form on another platform-that-may-not-be-named. I unknowingly plunged further into the MBs when the Sith from the Star Wars RP hijacked the ‘MB Airplane RP’ on the Community Chat forum. My initial participation in the battle there gave me the confidence to post in other topics on that forum, which I previously avoided due to its scary activity levels.
The first topic I can really remember being active in in Community Chat was Tad 's MB Valentines Party, where I became a founding member of the Party Bosscrashers Crash Bandi-Coots group (I have no idea what the second half of that means, ask Sweets ) who spread chaos and sheep, warring over lemonade through a series of party topics including the St Patrick’s Day Party (which I’m fairly certain was the largest topic I created on the old MBs ). I’m still friends with several of the bosscrashers, especially HannahDash whom I was sorry to lose contact with from 2017-2020 but have talked to fairly regularly for the past three years.
1/4
I forgot you were part of the Castle RP! Best RP I've ever been in, mainly due to RuleJJ's perseverance with it.
I don’t think I was ever one of the regulars at the very top of the posting leaderboard, but I maintained a strong presence across the Community Chat forum. I remember joining a casting agency agency RP of some sort where I was cast as Maybear’s brother and kingwja's son, a position that was eventually written into the official MB Family Tree and made me a nominal relation of the entire CC community in at least three different ways. Shortly after this Kingja and I held a father-and-son gokart race through FF to general amusement. 
If I may make the presumption of using AFOL terminology, to which I have no right whatsoever, I hope my Dark Age won’t last too much longer and I can find the time, space and motivation to return to my old hobby. ![[derp]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/YqNTPqyQUocVMYXZgUAI.png)
![[bg]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/pSVuRUznx_wS1avOLKjF.png)
so naturally I was both simping over her and jealous simultaneously. ![[h]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/ASkEmT0RFbBMlOyCMsYy.png)
