I'm probably one of the newest ones to post in this thread...
![:nyah :nyah](https://www.gangoffive.net/Smileys/gof/e34309.gif)
Nevertheless, reading about the tumultuous times, I find it truly remarkable that this community has made it through fifteen whole years.
As I've been here for barely two months, I haven't had much life-shattering experience or changes to my psyche yet, unlike the prior replies. That said, even in such a short span of time, I will say that this place has already made quite an impact on me. For those who read my welcome message, the reason I'd held off on joining in the first place was due to the mistaken belief that Land Before Time would be an incredibly niche community and hence, would be very hard to find a cohesive group with it... well, I was 100% wrong there once I gave it a chance and looked up this place. And since then, this community has been incredibly nice and pretty much welcomed me with wide open arms. And for that, I'm truly grateful.
Funnily enough, the most significant and telling memory of this forum was before I'd even joined as a member: it was when I was applying for membership! Although I didn't know it at the time, I'd joined when a spam wave of banned members trying to regain access - probably the most inopportune time to join. As a result, my application was basically lost (it didn't help that I physically lived around the same general vicinity as that guy... the staff probably though I was an alternate IP alt account!
![:lol dino :lol](https://www.gangoffive.net/Smileys/gof/dino_laugh.gif)
)
Well, I didn't know any of that back then when I sent in my registration, so for twenty-four goshdarned hours I waited on my application for a confirmation email that never came. It really didn't help that the site taunted me by saying I was the "newest member" when I couldn't even log in. It was driving me up the wall, let me tell you! Eventually, even though I was heavily reluctant to, I pretty much last-resorted my way to find out what was going on by going on the staff list and trying to contact them. I went with Rhombus, and sent him an email to inquire on the status of my "lost" account application.
Now this is the part which really speaks volumes about this community. I pretty much got a prompt email reply and an apology explaining the situation. The whole thing was resolved promptly, and thus here I am now. Now, speaking as someone who has moderated other people in another community before, it really shows an intimate touch by a staff member settling the situation as quickly as it did (trust me, I almost expected to wait a week for it, let alone prepared to never receive any reply) Real life takes priority, so I'm touched that the staff here cared and trusted me enough to invest and dedicate their time to fix the problem, even though I was practically nobody.
It was pretty much my first actual experience with a GOF member (reading people's fanfics on FFN didn't count
![:P :P](https://www.gangoffive.net/Smileys/gof/tongue.gif)
), and thus a taste of the welcoming and nice community that the GOF is, setting up a wonderful tone for my experience thus far, and hopefully in the future.
But that's enough of my super long essay. It's been a good run for those here longer than me, and I hope for more sweet memories, experiences and interactions here in the future. Happy 15th Anniversary to the GOF it is!
![:birthday :birthday](https://www.gangoffive.net/Smileys/gof/birthday1.gif)