Site History

OtakuBoards initially began as the “theOtaku.com: Forums” and it was contained in a folder under theOtaku. It was powered by Ultimate Bulletin Board (UBB).

In early 2001, the site moved to theOtaku Forums v2, which was renamed “OtakuBoards” and given its own domain. Version 2 continued to use UBB, although it was modified in the transition from theOtaku to OtakuBoards. The v2 iteration of OtakuBoards was very active but benefited very little in terms of moderation or quality control; there were numerous moderators and administrators, but very few of them were actually active. Members often partook in flame wars that would last as long as a week before any action was taken. The site’s quality began to improve as active staff members, such as Safer Sephiroth, James, and Transtic Nerve emerged.

OtakuBoards as it appeared during the Version 2 era.

In August 2001, Shinji and another member, Gendo, who had both previously been staff members, acquired Adam’s password and did various things (banned people, deleted people, de-modded staff, modded friends, etc). James, kuja, and Justin all worked together to curb the damage these members were doing to the site. It was salvagable, but James recommended to Adam that they start from scratch.

So they deleted OtakuBoards and re-created it as OtakuBoards Version 3.0, using Virtual Bulletin 2.0 software (vB for short). At the same time OB re-opened, James gained greater control of the site, becoming its primary administrator, or Site Director (he was previously an Administrator and Moderator, back when the site had about ten administrators).

OtakuBoards version 3, powered by the stronger vBulletin software.

What happened to OtakuBoards Version 2.0 was like a wake-up call for the site. Shinji and Gendo’s attack actually had an effect opposite to what they intended. The older, inactive staff was removed. Meanwhile, James immediately sought to establish a tangible set of rules and hire an active staff to enforce these rules. A demand for quality, in addition to recreation was instituted. OtakuBoards, as we know it today, evolved from this framework.

Categories: History