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Post the Best Threads

Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
edited November 2024 in Social Entropy++
Debate over whether to transfer old threads to the promised land rages, probably, which got me thinking about if there are any threads worth keeping. Any worth looking at again, at a later date; a mostly absurd idea, surely? If you’re not there at the time what good are they? So I thought about it and got two must haves off the top of my head:


barcs art blog!
https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/241699/barcs-art-blog/p1
cjxrnpa8xglg.jpeg
Starting in 2021, their outstanding work is an art gallery you can look at for free! Online!


Unofficial Elden Ring thread where the release date is known and feet may be drawn
https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/239564/unofficial-elden-ring-thread-where-the-release-date-is-known-and-feet-may-be-drawn/p1
oah78lbz20je.png
Have you ever wanted to watch a person descend into madness? While drawing feet? Every day until a game gets a release date? This thread fulfils that very narrow need.


Which leads me to… What are your memorable threads? Links or not, if it’s so old you can’t find it right now. Jus’ chat about threads in this thread about threads,

Endless_Serpents on
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Posts

  • ThroThro pgroome@penny-arcade.com Registered User regular
    So I'm trash at finding the old threads, but the ones that stood out to me:

    The correct "Help Draw a Horse" thread. Not the other ones.
    Forum battles, with the space-duck. Yeah that one.
    Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff origin thread.
    Speaking of watching people descend into madness, The CRWTH only webcomic thread. Plus the tribute art.

  • ProlegomenaProlegomena Frictionless Spinning The VoidRegistered User regular
    the adventures of Y, freelance vowel

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    the adventures of Y, freelance vowel

    Never saw this one. Choose your own adventure type thing?

  • localhjaylocalhjay Registered User regular
    A while back I went and found all the old Bad Cosplay threads, probably the first threads I remember seeing on SE in the late 2000s and all the image links were dead :(

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    A while back I went and found all the old Bad Cosplay threads, probably the first threads I remember seeing on SE in the late 2000s and all the image links were dead :(

    Yeah that’s sad. It’s part of why I’m thinking there’s not much use preserving the old threads from where they’re at now. A shame!

  • miscellaneousinsanitymiscellaneousinsanity grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brother, i hurt peopleRegistered User regular
    i was never much of a threadmaker but this is absolutely where i peaked

    it should be ported over but without any of the other corresponding threads to provide even a scrap of context for its existence

    uc3ufTB.png
  • ProlegomenaProlegomena Frictionless Spinning The VoidRegistered User regular
    the adventures of Y, freelance vowel

    Never saw this one. Choose your own adventure type thing?

    a webcomic, created purely in microsoft word

    a wordcomic, as it were

    https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/42385/the-adventures-of-y-freelance-vowel/p1

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Five stars.

  • XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    Sadly all the images from the illustrated group hug threads are dead =(

  • JarsJars Registered User regular
    edited November 2024
  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    Look at this BEAR
    it is HUGE
    it's also a lost thread. :(

    My other personal favorite, which only had six words:

    "is tidus gay?"
    And the OP was simply "well, is he?"

    z48g7weaopj2.png
  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Every Little Drummer Boy Thread

  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Every Little Drummer Boy Thread


    NSFW
    6jxp1527q22a.jpeg
    [/spoiler

  • miscellaneousinsanitymiscellaneousinsanity grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brother, i hurt peopleRegistered User regular
    i was never much of a threadmaker but this is absolutely where i peaked

    it should be ported over but without any of the other corresponding threads to provide even a scrap of context for its existence

    curious, the OP image is broken for me on desktop chrome but it shows up just fine on mobile and firefox

    i'll use this as an excuse to post the rare limited edition holiday forums variant

    gci7a3mcn8a1.png

    uc3ufTB.png
  • SCREECH OF THE FARGSCREECH OF THE FARG #1 PARROTHEAD margaritavilleRegistered User regular
    the password sharing threads

  • localhjaylocalhjay Registered User regular
    Whichever thread where someone sent katchem_ash beef jerky wrapped in an American flag

  • localhjaylocalhjay Registered User regular
    Shit I remember when the PlayStation Move got leaked by a patent and all the different memes people were making back in the old industry threads

    Quite legendary in my opinion

  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    A very silly one that pops up in my mind at least once every year or so is Crane Operator: Shadow of the Operator

  • XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    I would fuck up a billion ants.

  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    edited November 2024
    Thro wrote: »
    So I'm trash at finding the old threads, but the ones that stood out to me:

    The correct "Help Draw a Horse" thread. Not the other ones.
    Forum battles, with the space-duck. Yeah that one.
    Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff origin thread.
    Speaking of watching people descend into madness, The CRWTH only webcomic thread. Plus the tribute art.

    the real draw a horse threads are all locked up in the holiday forums

    at least, I think... was the original just in SE or something? Maybe I'm just remembering the draw a reindeer threads

    BahamutZERO on
    BahamutZERO.gif
  • LucedesLucedes Registered User regular
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    A very silly one that pops up in my mind at least once every year or so is Crane Operator: Shadow of the Operator

    "my powerful nemesis lies dead for the last time"

    thank you, crane operator was good

  • miscellaneousinsanitymiscellaneousinsanity grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brother, i hurt peopleRegistered User regular
    as far as LP threads go, besides the obvious answer of fishman's x-com playthrough, i quite enjoyed that one blind LP of dark souls where the guy stumbled into the most ass backwards path through the game imaginable and conquered it through sheer stubborn luck and pluck

    uc3ufTB.png
  • FishmanFishman Put your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain. Registered User regular
    Some I can no longer find, long lost to the cullings of old:

    Shippy Ship the Awesome
    This one was one of the fastest moving, shortest lived forum events that kinda spontaneously spun up in about 2002/3?

    Someone started a thread called Shippy Ship the Awesome and invited everyone onboard to be pirate crew. Everyone piling into the thread took on a role on the 'ship' (thread) and we all post post posted about the pirate adventures we would be going on. Much rolicking and mirth and stupid in-character / fourth wall jokes were had.

    Then we set off. I don't know which mod did it, but the thread was moved from SE++ to ... I want to say G&T? People just posting and refreshing in the thread (it was moving that fast) didn't even have time to adjust. Suddenly we were raiding other sub-forums! New crew were coming abord Shippy Ship saying 'WTF?' and we were capturing them as prisoners. Soon enough they would work out it was SE++ shenanigans, and after 15 minutes and few pages of this a mod turned up and said 'what's all this?' before sending us off... to Everything Else/D&D. We shipped through 3 other forums before returning to SE++, each one raided and pillaged as we stepped out, checked in on other subforum threads, picked up new random crew from far-away subforums.

    It lasted about a single day, hit the moon (thread lock) in about 20 hours, but the weird little roleplaying inter-forum pirate raid was one of the weirdest, most unique spontaneous forum events I've ever been part of, an absolute chaotic mess that just spawned mostly out of a few bored, itinerant posters and a few mods willing to play along and see what chaos would spawn.


    Do you shave your junk?
    I want to say this thread was around 2005? I'm pretty sure I posted in it from Canada, so that would be about right.

    On the surface, a fairly eye-rolling SE++ subject matter that in true 2005 fashion stayed on topic for about 6 pages and then devolved into true glory: over 20+ pages of @Druhim posting professional pics of tropical fish underwater, along with summary details of behaviour, habitat or sighting points of interest. Just, non-stop tropical fish. For 20+ pages. It was glorious.

    Best part was it lasted weeks, but many had dipped out in the first few pages, and therefore had to be constantly be brought up to sped as to why the Shave Your Junk thread was regularly being referenced in other threads and why it kept getting bumped and posted in. It wasn't that we were all degenerates (I mean, we were, but that's not why it was bumping), it's that it became the secret tropical fish thread, and it had a misdirection on the door to keep unwary posters out. Legendary


    LiteJedi's Monster of the Day
    Not so much a single thread, but a long running daily series, where @LiteJedi would, every day, select a D&D monster and post a picture and summary, including discussion of how to make it interesting. This would often result in a few pages of discussion about said monster, reminisces about it's appearance and encounters in various posters campaigns of memory past. One of the more notable reasons for it's legend was simply the dedication of LiteJedi; showing a Brolo-like dedication to creating a new update to the series every single day; he went through all the popular, common entries in the Monster Manual. He went through dozens of rare beast from splat books and expansion material. He had a Spelljammer season and Planes creatures and a whole week of gem dragons. In my mind he kept it up for a couple years, literally hundreds of threads. Of all of them, but 2 remain: both created as throw back references to the series that was already over for years on the few times he came back to post another.

    X-Com LP Thread I, II, III, IV, V
    That's unbelievably cool. Your new name is cool guy. Let's have sex.
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited November 2024
    Hm… starting to get convinced honestly. I definitely loved LiteJedi’s threads.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • KanaKana Registered User regular
    Best Threads:
    All of Mine

    Worst Threads:
    All of Yours

    A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    Kelets deserve to be remembered

  • TynnanTynnan seldom correct, never unsure Registered User regular
  • SCREECH OF THE FARGSCREECH OF THE FARG #1 PARROTHEAD margaritavilleRegistered User regular
    the LeftistCybertruckFanatic thread was a classic

  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    I was quite fond of the crwth-only webcomics thread hell prison
    we all pulled together to eat infractions to help him escape

    BahamutZERO.gif
  • XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
  • FishmanFishman Put your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain. Registered User regular
    Not so much the whole thread (although it is amusing), this is one of my all-time favourite single posts I've written.
    Fishman wrote: »
    I find being hunted by Geth.... exhilarating. I don't understand why people don't like it. No one plays Half-life 1.5: frozen in limbo for 5 years. No, you play the hours of conflict; the desperate situation, the thrill of danger, the adrenaline pumping and the rushing sound of your ragged breathing and racing heartbeat filling your ears.

    When every post is accompanied with the thrill of the chase, the looming terror of fear, that acid bile rising in your throat as you click 'Post Reply', not knowing whether it will come with deliverance or condemnation... well, going back to that benign, safe, comforting same old of posting just seems... boring.

    Before long, you begin to miss the fear, miss that hard edge that comes with being pursued. You start trying to recreate the experience, skirting the line of defiance, making disparaging remarks about the coffee machine and stretching the glorious edict as far as you can without breaking it, hoping that the ever-watchful flashlight might be drawn to you. Not too much, just a little, just to get that quick hit to take the edge off.

    This is where so many fail. Over time, the hits become not enough. You need bigger and more elaborate plays, more attention, a bigger rush. You start taunting the robot, playing chicken with the mods, getting the odd infraction to just get you through the day. Before long, you're doing temp bans to stop the shakes. Burn outs, flame wars, politics threads; none of it will suffice.

    They say there are no old runners. You just can't keep going without succumbing to the need. The addiction. You huddle together in dark shadows, talking about those who couldn't stop, the ones you'll never be like, the Bagels, the K_As, the Wiggins, never looking at each other in eye for fear of looking into the mirror.

    There are no old runners. Just those of us who haven't been caught yet.

    To understand the context, it references a small period between late 2012 / early 2013 when @geth was set loose to hunt people, an event probably few remember and fewer still even got to experience first-hand.

    For the unaware, in November 2012, something odd was noticed by myself, @#pipe, and @PiptheFair.
    After hanging out on a thread page for a short while, we'd get a little popup in the usual vanilla notification spot (these days usually complaining Vanilla thread errors and such).

    The little popup would say things like 'You get the sense you are being watched from the bushes' or 'You feel a set of eyes upon you'.

    I'm not sure I can put into words how this kinda gets unsettling, particularly when you're like 'hey, is anyone else seeing these messages?' and most people are like 'No'.

    It took a short while but slowly we found out we weren't the only ones seeing these messages and came together in a thread, where people noticed our posts had 2 extra reactions no one else had: one of 'Alert Authorities', and one of 'Help escape'.
    People could react to our posts, and over time the messages changed to be more ominous - 'You hear footsteps behind you', and such. Spooky.

    Thing was, you couldn't see other peoples reactions to your own post. You had no idea how people were voting for/against you. They were counted with you unaware of your own status.
    Your peers and friends - were they reporting you? Or helping you flee?

    Each time, if a person accumulated a sufficient number of Alert Authorities, geth would imprison you - jailing you with infraction for a period, and earning you the 'caught' badge.

    Or, if enough people helped you, you would escape, and get the 'escapee' badge, and you could go about your business just fine.


    I believe, in total, I only saw a half-dozen or so hunts. The initial one for the 3 of us, one related to I believe EPYC Jan 2013 on the handful of people yet to submit their entry on the slower team after the first team had finished... and the one I instigated when I posted this in the 'Secrets from the Mod Forum' thread.

    So I ended up in 3 of them. I escaped all 3 times, but others got nabbed, and spent a few days jailed at the hands of their peers.
    Particularly inconvenient when you get jailed and still need to turn in your EPYC creation.

    But this one... this one I called out, literally within a day or so of just having escapeed my second hunt. It was a fun post full of hubris, and for my efforts, I got to go around one more time. A bit of silly fun.

    Like I say, I don't think most people got to experience being the target at all, and with a downside of being jailed at the judgement of your peers, even in jest, I think some people wouldn't have found it as amusing. But damn if I didn't find that one of the more entertaining forum plug-ins @Icyliquid set up.

    X-Com LP Thread I, II, III, IV, V
    That's unbelievably cool. Your new name is cool guy. Let's have sex.
  • ButlerButler 89 episodes or bust Registered User regular
    The best part of the Elden Ring thread was watching Peas get genuinely really good at drawing feet. What a cursedly specific skill to develop.

  • TefTef Registered User regular
    I remember getting hunted by geth! I can’t see my badgers on mobile (or I don’t know how), but I’m pretty I have the hunted! badger

    I enjoyed the cryptid help and advice column threads we had for a while. That was just a fun RP moment for us all.

    The Auspax threads (before offical auspax was thing) were some of my personal favs, but they don’t really have a lot of cache with anyone who wasn’t an Aussie, kiwi, or Wimble. There were too many fun and funny memories in those threads to pick any one thread, but possibly that time we (mostly Blake t) kept accusing #pipe of mildly annoying crimes was up there.

    There was a bunch of just really funny moments, like “technically, that’s my LARP character” guy, or that dude who tried to flame out and called us all homps rather than homos.

    Probably my personal fondest thread was that time I shaved and waxed my entire body to fundraise some cash for a poster whose wife was in hospital with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

    help a fellow forumer meet their mental health care needs because USA healthcare sucks!

    Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better

    bit.ly/2XQM1ke
  • #pipe#pipe Cocky Stride, Musky odours Pope of Chili TownRegistered User regular
    I had

    Completely forgotten about that

  • minor incidentminor incident publicly subsidized! privately profitable!Registered User, Transition Team regular
    edited November 2024
    The best threads on the forums are the ones my boss in like 2004 called me into his office and had printed out to ask me what the fuck I was doing on this website on company time.

    minor incident on
    another member of the crowd goes down
  • minor incidentminor incident publicly subsidized! privately profitable!Registered User, Transition Team regular
    (and yes, he had sections highlighted)

    another member of the crowd goes down
  • MadicanMadican No face Registered User regular
    I had that talk with my supervisor as well one time. Though it started in a not great place because this was when subforum names would be displayed on the main one.

    They also had a screenshot of the front forum page. And I had to explain what Strip Search actually was and not what they thought it was.

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