Twenty-five score sixteen years ago Christopher Colon (aka Columbus) landed on an island and to this day they are debating on which exact island it was he set foot on.
A quarter of a score years ago the first land before time board under the name "The Gang of Five" was established. This should put us in our place, shouldn't it
Same as Colon was not the first European to come to the "new world" the Gang of Five was not the first land before time board around and it was not certain by any means that it would be as successful as it did become.
Let us take a little trip through the history of some LBT boards. Probably the most important for the GOF is the
Network54 LBT forum. It is probably the oldest land before time board existing. It cannot be ruled out that there may have been earlier Yahoo Groups on LBT, but for certain N54 was the first successful one. It was founded in 1999 and it was there (on August 1st 2000) that I met other land before time fans for the first time. The importance of this board for the later development of the GOF can hardly be overestimated. Many of our members of the first hour came from the N54 board and it was there in September 2002 that I got to know Adam. A funny coincidence had it that there had been a spammer calling himself Petrie the Pteranodon shortly before Adam arrived under the name Petrie. At first I thought him to be the spammer (though that one was quickly solved). Many of you will remember N54. Today the board has become rather silent. I will continue to keep out the spam and respond to any non spam messages though.
I must point out the invaluable service on behalf of the land before time fan community which the founder of that board did. He called himself Littlefoot but did not post in the board for ages. He is kind of lost and all attempts to find him have failed. I don't even know if he is aware of how much has become of all this...
Overspammed and desolate are today the many Yahoo groups about the land before time. Many of them never really took off, but some did and were the first places I am aware of where the exchange of land before time pictures occurred...
Much that once was is now lost, even though they still live who remember it (and will hopefully continue to do so for a long time
). An example for this is the board which I think could have developed into what the Gang of Five has evolved into. It was the 2001 founded
board of a land before time fan who called himself Zaroff. I do regret that he never made his way to the Gang of Five, but perhaps I will try to find him and invite him. His board did have the same advantages as the GOF did over the alternative boards. I don't know why it did not become as successful and I can only guess that it may have lacked what one might refer to as the Adam effect.
Today there is just the background image left of that board and all that was posted there is now lost. I will always remember that board affectionately now for it was there that I first met our GOF member Littlefoot in January 2002.
Zaroff's board is not the only one that is lost. This now empty
Jurassic Park board may in a sense be considered an early ancestor of the GOF as well. It did have a Dinotopia and a land before time section and unless my memory fails me Adam was an admin there. Perhaps it was there that the thought of an independent land before time board of a similar kind came up in his mind.
That board came along in late 2002 I think and parts of it are still existing while other parts have been deleted. It was titled
Welcome to the Great Valley and some of you will remember it. That one is truly the parent to the GOF. The first LBT ez-board group founded by Adam. In spite of the creation of the next board I'm going to mention (the one whose founding occurred exactly five years ago) this one continued to be active until 2004.
What we are commemorating today appears almost like an arbitrary point in time in the development of the land before time Forums. I do not even remember for sure why this board was to replace the Welcome to the Great Valley board in the first place, but in any case it was the first to bear the name
Gang of Five.
At last in fall 2004 the Gang of Five page we are visiting now was created. I cannot say that it was the founding of the GOF "as we know it". For it was made "as we know it" by YOU. Every active member here has done a part to make the GOF what it is today. And I don't want to rule anyone out from that. We have members who have been around since the N54 days of 2001 and we have members who are around for weeks only, but have shown great activity in those weeks already. It is the activity of our members and their enthusiasm which makes projects such as those conducted by us as a community possible. And it is this enthusiasm which makes me not doubt for a second that we will hold on together, that our dreams will never die, and the GOF will last. For all this I am really grateful to you
Let's go for the decade now!
