I'm sorry I am so late in reacting to the 15th anniversary of the Gang of Five
![:celebrate :celebrate](https://www.gangoffive.net/Smileys/gof/celebrate.gif)
Not long ago Adam and I had a chat and we were getting rather sentimental about the founding days. I dug up some of the first emails we ever exchanged (fanatical historian that I am keeps them archived) and in a chat with Jason, Iris and Gustav we too dug up old pictures (e.g. one showing Jason and me back in 2004).
Nowadays there is a bit of the atmosphere of the LBT 10 song bestest friends about my lack of presence in the GOF. In general I don't write a lot in forums these days (not in the forum refering to my other fandom (MLP) either) but am mostly to be found on Discord and sometimes Skype (am also active on Deviantart these days).
A good portion of my life has also been moved to real life as in me meeting many good friends in real life and organizing meetups, workshops and events within the brony fandom (heaven forbid that "moving to real life" ever referred to denying the importance of Dinosaurs, Ponies, Dragons etc. to real life's happiness, however imaginary they may be
![;) Wink ;)](https://www.gangoffive.net/Smileys/gof/wink.gif)
In spite of my decreased activity on the GOF this forum will always remain a significant part of my life. I have made many awesome friends here, participated in many interesting discussions, and to a certain degree a close lecture of old messages feels a bit like I had written a diary throughout that time.
It is with some regret that I found that the old Network54 forum where Adam, Nick, Jason and I first met seems to have disappeared, but it sure has been a long and very interesting, eventful and adventurous road from that first ever post there (dating August 1st 2000 I think) in which I recall I was very selfconscious about my lack of good Englis, to today
![:) :)](https://www.gangoffive.net/Smileys/gof/smile.gif)
In 2013, back when Malte was the most active admin, I knew about his fascination with the American Civil War, so when I got an opportunity to visit Gettysburg that summer (only a month away from the 150th anniversary of that famous battle), I decided to do a few nice things for him, such as sharing a few pictures and even mailing him some souvenirs.
And those souvenirs sit right here on my shelf and I have since used them several times in history presentations on the American Civil War. Thank you very much, The Chronicler
![:) :)](https://www.gangoffive.net/Smileys/gof/smile.gif)
I also keep every letter I ever got from another land before time fan in a land before time tinbox and the emotional value of gifts which I got from some of you (like drawings or the beautiful clay sculptures made by Iris and Christian or the beautiful prints by Rocking Scorpion) cannot be measured. Some of my fondest memories include meetups with some of you, like the visit to Jason back in 2004, the trips through Sweden and Norway with Jason, Gustav, and Patric respectively Iris in 2009 and 2011 or the Christmas meetup at my place back in 2010 with Tim, Iris, Jason and Gustav
![:) :)](https://www.gangoffive.net/Smileys/gof/smile.gif)
All of that goes way beyond usual forum posting yet at the same time it would have never happened but for this amazing forum. Therefore I want to give a wholehearted THANK YOU to the whole Gang of Five and hope that it will give many more land before time fans the kind of joy and happiness that it has given me since back then when it was created in a land before time...
...well, before this time at least