Rise and Fall of the New Syndicate
I have noticed recently that many (but certainly not all) of the recent articles submitted to Starmen.Net have either been ramblings that wander far off-topic or are of little importance. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...) This article, however, deals with something more important.
Its namesake has been whispered in the dark halls and back alleys of Starmen.Net as a group bent on taking over Starmen.Net and then the world. It itself has been mentioned many times, usually with more than a tinge of curiosity. Well, my friends, in this article, the veil of curiosity will be lifted.. One of the most famous private groups in SM.Net will be revealed in...
The Rise and Fall of the New Syndicate! [music plays]
One day in the early fall of 2000, I had heard rumors of a secret forum lurking in the bowels of Starmen.Net. Noticing that each forum had a number in its web address (Forum1, Forum2, etc.), I substituted this number for numbers that had not been assigned to any of the forums. Once, I tried the number 10. To my surprise, I found not the forum I was looking for (which shall remain nameless, for it is not the point of the article), but a whole new forum. It had one topic, something to the effect of "Hi, I got here first". It had about two replies, who I'm fairly sure were Regulas and Reyna (whatever happened to them anyway? Wait, I'm getting off-topic again...). It was moderated by none other than icEFusioN. I posted there, and moved on. I came back a few days later, and noticed that more people had found it. Soon, the forum was thriving, with about 10 or so people going there often. Someone hypothesized that the forum that we were posting was previously the forum for the old Syndicate (later the Communist Club). Thus, we decided to christen ourselves the New Syndicate. A hierarchy slowly developed, with icE, Ole-Nessy, GeneralLeo, and myself at the top.
Soon, icEFusioN put a password on the forum, to keep it from growing and eventually becoming semi-public like the previously mentioned "secret forum".. We talked, having fun knowing that only ourselves (and the administrators, possibly) were the only people reading what we posted. BlackLeader, who became the leader of the New Syndicate (icE still moderated, he just didn't "hang out" much), started his own EASY Trivia (this was back when Luna updated about once every equinox). You ever notice that (NSET) in my sig? Yep, New Syndicate Easy Trivia. We even created an IRC channel, #syndicate, with restricted access. (Find the one and only Best Of #syndicate at http://www.geocities.com/yoda2727/syndicate.html, in its original, unabridged edition!) Life was good.
At times, we noticed references to a "secret forum 10" popping up on the boards, both public and private. I distinctly remember ROFISH trying to "break in", and Wizmo's "Syndicate Rebellion" (though that was more centered around the Communist Club- Syndicate). Everybody got a good laugh over that, since we never did anything! We were just a group of people brought together by our knowledge of a private forum.
This time was destined by fate to end, however. One day, EarthboundAholic made a topic called "*Tips his hat*". The body of it was, simply, "*Tips his hat*". The moderators and admins came flooding in from there. The New Syndicate essentially died on that day. However, we first moved to an EZBoard and went on, pretending to take over the world. It just wasn't the same, however. We abandoned it and went back to the private forum. We tried to keep it up, but with the moderators, it just wasn't the same.
Two events came about that signaled the death knell for the New Syndicate.. On January 2, 2001, Luna made herself co-moderator of the forum, named it Luna's Pocky Club/icE's :D club, and changed the colors. That essentially killed the New Syndicate forum. #syndicate struggled along for a few more weeks, but BlackLeader left and gave control of the channel to Ole-Nessy, who messed around with the members list. A lot. Soon, even the channel slowed down, and on Tuesday, February 13, 2001, Ole-Nessy resigned. The #syndicate topic went exactly as follows: 'On Tuesday I will resign as leader of the New Syndicate. As of then, the dream will be dead. R.I.P The New Syndicate September 2000 - Februrary 2001 If you have any objection to this at all send me a message through NoteOP ~ Oley'. He lived up to his word, and the New Syndicate was officially dead.
Most of the people who were part of the New Syndicate are no longer with us- most either went to AllRPG.com, or just dissappeared and never returned. A few, however, are still here. They will remain nameless to protect their privacy, but they are more than welcome to come out and identify themselves. For the New Syndicate was nothing mean, or stupid, or evil. It was simply a group of people with a common interest (Earthbound) and a common forum (Forum 10). The forum is still there, and the password is the same (You think I'm going to give it out? Yeah, right. :D) But, looking back, the New Syndicate was like growing up, in a way. In the beginning, it was fun, and stayed fun for a long time. Unfortunately, the period of idyll ended, and problems came, like the angst and troubles of adolescence. In the end, everyone broke up, like we all drift apart after high school and college. There the similarity ends, for you keep living after you grow up. In the New Syndicate, however, you didn't. But I'm still glad to say I went along for the ride. PERFECT 10! The score will say 1.10, but it's actually 10.
I have noticed recently that many (but certainly not all) of the recent articles submitted to Starmen.Net have either been ramblings that wander far off-topic or are of little importance. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...) This article, however, deals with something more important.
Its namesake has been whispered in the dark halls and back alleys of Starmen.Net as a group bent on taking over Starmen.Net and then the world. It itself has been mentioned many times, usually with more than a tinge of curiosity. Well, my friends, in this article, the veil of curiosity will be lifted.. One of the most famous private groups in SM.Net will be revealed in...
The Rise and Fall of the New Syndicate! [music plays]
One day in the early fall of 2000, I had heard rumors of a secret forum lurking in the bowels of Starmen.Net. Noticing that each forum had a number in its web address (Forum1, Forum2, etc.), I substituted this number for numbers that had not been assigned to any of the forums. Once, I tried the number 10. To my surprise, I found not the forum I was looking for (which shall remain nameless, for it is not the point of the article), but a whole new forum. It had one topic, something to the effect of "Hi, I got here first". It had about two replies, who I'm fairly sure were Regulas and Reyna (whatever happened to them anyway? Wait, I'm getting off-topic again...). It was moderated by none other than icEFusioN. I posted there, and moved on. I came back a few days later, and noticed that more people had found it. Soon, the forum was thriving, with about 10 or so people going there often. Someone hypothesized that the forum that we were posting was previously the forum for the old Syndicate (later the Communist Club). Thus, we decided to christen ourselves the New Syndicate. A hierarchy slowly developed, with icE, Ole-Nessy, GeneralLeo, and myself at the top.
Soon, icEFusioN put a password on the forum, to keep it from growing and eventually becoming semi-public like the previously mentioned "secret forum".. We talked, having fun knowing that only ourselves (and the administrators, possibly) were the only people reading what we posted. BlackLeader, who became the leader of the New Syndicate (icE still moderated, he just didn't "hang out" much), started his own EASY Trivia (this was back when Luna updated about once every equinox). You ever notice that (NSET) in my sig? Yep, New Syndicate Easy Trivia. We even created an IRC channel, #syndicate, with restricted access. (Find the one and only Best Of #syndicate at http://www.geocities.com/yoda2727/syndicate.html, in its original, unabridged edition!) Life was good.
At times, we noticed references to a "secret forum 10" popping up on the boards, both public and private. I distinctly remember ROFISH trying to "break in", and Wizmo's "Syndicate Rebellion" (though that was more centered around the Communist Club- Syndicate). Everybody got a good laugh over that, since we never did anything! We were just a group of people brought together by our knowledge of a private forum.
This time was destined by fate to end, however. One day, EarthboundAholic made a topic called "*Tips his hat*". The body of it was, simply, "*Tips his hat*". The moderators and admins came flooding in from there. The New Syndicate essentially died on that day. However, we first moved to an EZBoard and went on, pretending to take over the world. It just wasn't the same, however. We abandoned it and went back to the private forum. We tried to keep it up, but with the moderators, it just wasn't the same.
Two events came about that signaled the death knell for the New Syndicate.. On January 2, 2001, Luna made herself co-moderator of the forum, named it Luna's Pocky Club/icE's :D club, and changed the colors. That essentially killed the New Syndicate forum. #syndicate struggled along for a few more weeks, but BlackLeader left and gave control of the channel to Ole-Nessy, who messed around with the members list. A lot. Soon, even the channel slowed down, and on Tuesday, February 13, 2001, Ole-Nessy resigned. The #syndicate topic went exactly as follows: 'On Tuesday I will resign as leader of the New Syndicate. As of then, the dream will be dead. R.I.P The New Syndicate September 2000 - Februrary 2001 If you have any objection to this at all send me a message through NoteOP ~ Oley'. He lived up to his word, and the New Syndicate was officially dead.
Most of the people who were part of the New Syndicate are no longer with us- most either went to AllRPG.com, or just dissappeared and never returned. A few, however, are still here. They will remain nameless to protect their privacy, but they are more than welcome to come out and identify themselves. For the New Syndicate was nothing mean, or stupid, or evil. It was simply a group of people with a common interest (Earthbound) and a common forum (Forum 10). The forum is still there, and the password is the same (You think I'm going to give it out? Yeah, right. :D) But, looking back, the New Syndicate was like growing up, in a way. In the beginning, it was fun, and stayed fun for a long time. Unfortunately, the period of idyll ended, and problems came, like the angst and troubles of adolescence. In the end, everyone broke up, like we all drift apart after high school and college. There the similarity ends, for you keep living after you grow up. In the New Syndicate, however, you didn't. But I'm still glad to say I went along for the ride. PERFECT 10! The score will say 1.10, but it's actually 10.
