According to comments on an [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/1226993?sort=0&page=0]Oct 2008 Post[/url], Bungie.com was registered as a domain name on a Tuesday, June 13th 1995. The oldest images of the website I found on this enigmatic 2008 post [url=http://web.archive.org/web/19961030235200/http://www.bungie.com/]show a very different Bungie.net[/url], The basic sprite work of the 90's is on full display here and it gives me such a feeling of nostalgia for things like old preserved ytmnd pages.
In 2003 Bungie.net was created and updated to reflect its new focus on the highly acclaimed Halo franchise, and with it was born the precursor of Offtopic, our waning flood of random discussions; aptly known as [i]The Flood[/i]. Today we are the weakest we have ever been...
But how; where did it fall apart? Some might say the great B.next exodus is to blame, or the "great purge" as it is sometimes referred to. Some might say the game destiny itself is to blame. My goal is to chart the rise and subsequent decline into the undead state we currently exist in. Posts were once awash with thousands of comments, now the top of trending rarely breaches one hundred. This is all very sad; and it made me wonder if when I joined in 2015 and became active in 2017... was I just too late to experience it?
You've seen the posts, old users returning to be greeted by other users you rarely see, then suddenly a literal cryptid like Achronos, Foman etc. appears; That's because something took place on these forums; indescribable by most, the inception of a community, people making friends and bonding over a cultural hit (the Halo Games) and the Legacy of a developer they followed. A smaller developer who had a very different mission than the Bungie of today. I want to explore that and write something, likely a video essay.
Currently I am looking for witnesses to the reign of the Flood and the "pfhor-times" if you get my meaning. If I could find just one user who frequented Bungie.com when the forums were first added in 2003 and the domain shifted to .net, I would enshrine their interview as the last true testament of the ancient users. Yes I know I'm using flowery language to talk about this but frankly there's an almost goofy reverence for those times. I'm just picking up what y'all put down.
All people who have old accounts dating back 15 to 19 years; ~2003-2008 I will interview and take your account if you should so agree to offer your experience.
Anyone who is or can lead me to someone who can prove they were contributing to Bungie.com before Bungie.net launched its forum, I will feature your account as the oldest available.
I will be looking for the accounts of "middle-aged" and "younger" users soon enough, but for the time being I'm only looking for the stories of our most revered elders.
[spoiler]I'll get back to Newtopica eventually... or not; life is funny that way; get over it; you were never paying me.[/spoiler]
Edit: also if I'm getting dates/details wrong, I will seek to remedy that with my research...
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Bungie.net History: https://bungie.fandom.com/wiki/Bungie.net Flood Forum History: https://bungie.fandom.com/wiki/Flood_Forum_History
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Actually, most people (04 or bust group) think that it turned terribly bad when Reach hit. But that was when I came.
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Edited by High Charity: 5/4/2023 1:43:11 PMI'll gladly talk about my experiences from 2008 onwards, for the really old stuff you'll probably have the best luck with some of the mod team. Iirc ImSteelAssassn is an 04 or so and he's a cool guy :) If you want to see more screen grabs of the old site, the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine should have everything you need
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Edited by Machinimagames: 5/4/2023 12:51:22 AMHonestly bro I can literally sum this up pretty well. First oldb.net on that website doesn't show the nav bar era well so check this out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wDjTgmG51o This is from a old moderator who was recording the old b.net before the 2007 relaunch. The community was formally more intimate. Employee came around way more , always had Easter eggs on the website, would play with the community etc. The forums also gave people more individualism. Bigger avatar forum ranks etc. There was a Thing where if you beat bungie 2v2 they would give you armor in the game. They had community favorites in halo for best community pictures video etc. The employee were just more involved. Now it's just the community team. Website design overall was better. I'll give you links to all the designs and forums. We would Call major updates New Hawtness. The link above is from 2004-2007 Old downgraded forums from then. http://web.archive.org/web/20060703163714/http://bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=105242 Old downgraded forums from then. I think 2007-2009 New Hawtness http://web.archive.org/web/20080907064749/http://www.bungie.net/ http://web.archive.org/web/20080913120126/http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=105242 Old Forums http://web.archive.org/web/20080910230308/http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=22799727 Old Achronos. Employees had Gold Text. http://web.archive.org/web/20090203224147/http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=15804986 Old Duardo ninjas had this salmon text. (2010) New Hawtness http://web.archive.org/web/20101111085823/http://www.bungie.net/ (2012) Good Bye Old bungie RIP New Hawtness http://web.archive.org/web/20120207184400/http://www.bungie.net/ Bungie.next. 2013 Very Tiny Decline from Old Community. http://web.archive.org/web/20141012130450/http://www.bungie.net/ 2015 (major Decline) Including me. I don't remeber when but bungie made it to where if you don't progress in the game you can't post in the forums basically telling old users good bye and thanks for the memories. We are moving on. I personally left for about 2 years. Would check back for updates though. http://web.archive.org/web/20151106030355/https://www.bungie.net/ 2017 ( Major amount of new users). http://web.archive.org/web/20170525024724/https://www.bungie.net/ 2018(basically today onward) http://web.archive.org/web/20180606105614/https://www.bungie.net/ I Will always Love Bungie, but I have to admit even though I'm a ninja if you were not here pre 2012 you missed out on something that will Never be replicated. So many Of Us gone and slowly still leaving. So many great community members ugh I cry to think about and Guess what I was only 9 years old when I first came and 11 when I signed up for this account i'm now 25 so I grew up here man. Also Watching community members become employees is so amazing especially Dmg Duardo etc.
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I'm hardly revered but my account is super old. I think I joined up right before Halo 3? I definitely stopped posting when b.next came through. The main complaint was that the UI / UX sucked. Forums were now "tags" and it took more clicks to get everywhere. Several off-sites were created during that time it was so bad (in a lot of folks' eyes). Eventually (way way down the line) the web devs got things together and it's not so bad nowdays, but during the very beginning of b.next the forum was complete garbage and so much more of a pain to use (at least in my opinion).
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Edited by Swat The Bot: 5/5/2023 1:56:55 AMSwat The Bot
Be excellent to each other. - old
Also, here is what Bungie.net profiles looked like during the Bungie - Halo days. Screenshot is of my previous Bungie account that has been deleted -
[quote]it made me wonder if when I joined in 2015 and became active in 2017... was I just too late to experience it?[/quote] yes, we were
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Good luck on the archeological dig, do we need radiology...
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Edited by Swat The Bot: 5/4/2023 8:06:53 PMSwat The Bot
Be excellent to each other. - old
Some videos of the good old days on Bungie.net: Video #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69qY0aqtDaA Video #2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Hc1p5Mbuc - I'm in this video under 'Mythical Wolf' which was one of my old usernames. Video #3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ib7rdUv-u4 -
I would have loved to experience that era. I am not from that era, though, so I don't have any input for your current research phase.
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So then don’t mind me. I’m a baby.
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Old bnet was definitely a different era, it’s hard to quantify why though. It was my first forum experience which is probably a big part of it. I started browsing it in 04 and then finally joined in 07 in hopes to get a cool forum rank that I had seen lol plus the flood was just hilarious to read back then too lol
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I went on a similar, albeit smaller scoped journey not to long ago. I found this post and thoroughly enjoyed the history lesson. This is by no means exhaustive, but this post gives an outline of both events and general tone of previous eras. Feel like its worth a read if that what you're after. https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/67503871/0/0
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Edited by SometimesIDrinkCoffee: 5/5/2023 6:47:09 PMAs aifos has mentioned, the DMs are botched. Set up that discord or heck...you can DM me yours if your DMs work. (I've been around since 2007) Or go ahead shoot me a friend request
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Swat The Bot
Be excellent to each other. - old
Ah, the good old days. I miss the old Bungie website and community -
2007 user. Have no idea if PMs work on my profile or not.
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While I have nothing to add to this topic, I must inform you of the bad news; I cannot send PMs anymore, because Bungie wants me to raise my Guardian Rank or whatever, and I say no. So I have received your PM, but I cannot respond to it. :(