What was HIVE like when you first joined?

[Supernickman 32]

As you may or may not know back in (2016 i think), when I officially joined the HIVE. I've made thread about venturing into history of the site through Wayback machine(i should revive the 'series' as i've abandoned it), but that's not the point, the point is that ever since then I've been curious about people's expierence of the HIVE back then, and while it's fun to read old comments and threads from the day, I'd like to hear (or in this case read) what it was like for you.
And it doesn't matter when you joined, I just want to hear what it was like at the time of your joining. As for my first time as memeber of HIVE, well the only thing different i guess would be site's design and amount of people and projects they strive to complete. And I joined for two major reasons; first I've been using HIVE for sometime already, and second; I actually was part Mario makerish (it had its own 'Mario Maker') site, but Nintendo shut it down so I had to move on to something greater and something that wasn't on it's death bed, so HIVE and Warcraft community became my 'new home' of sorts.

 

[San]

When I started lurking few years ago we have Icon Moderators with actual skills that inspire people. It's mindblowing really, almost a miracle.

 

[Zombie]

it had a group of 4chan shitlords posing as the site's elite called "the jury of awesomeness"

it was so cringy and kind of cool at the same time, though the group's leader, captain griffin was really a huge faggot

I wonder what's up with to those niqqas at this point

also it had a well respected, old admin called wolverabid who was kinda the most helpful dude I ever met

and a literal elf called elenai and a dragon furry called pyrite

and a weird aussie vampire chick called werewulf

also I might have unknowingly befriended someone who I assume eventually ended up in the islamic state

hmmm fun times

 

[Shar Dundred]

When I started lurking few years ago we have Icon Moderators with actual skills that inspire people. It's mindblowing really, almost a miracle.

You mean like we have right now *A* Icon Mod with pretty good skill, plantsan?

 

[Idaero Ace]

Back in 2013, it was primitive.

 

[Arowanna]

Am I supposed to remember what I did in 2007? If nothing else, I remember names. Beyond that, the alcohol has done its job and removed most of the memories in the memory bank.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Hive? You mean Warcraft III Search...

 

[Daffa]

Lots and lots of pending maps, oh, we have more moderators back then, with no reviewers.

 

[The_Silent]

I don't actually remember much of what happened around when i joined.

I do remember,

On one april the 1st. One of the admins turned all the user avatars into a hammer and sickle.

The whole bronies wave, that kinda just derailed all threads for about a year

Pyrite did a bunch of stuff, then left, then returned to say the hive t-shirt was bad, then left again

The user group wars

Rep being a lie It still is

 

[Zepher]

it was.......like this

 

[Devalut]

I can't say I recall much, the reason I joined the hive was because I back when I visited internet cafes with my brother and played non-stop warcraft 3 custom, I wanted something more from boring ass abilities like : "FIREBOLT 100/200/300/400/500/ETC DAMAGE"
I think it was shortly after I became obsessed with shields...

But otherwise I'm sure it was much the same as it is now,
"Don't double post"
"Use the edit button"
"Don't use game rips"

@Zombie
Oh god 4chan back then... Before I joined this site it was mudkips & desu, and now, current time, its frogs.
I love that website

 

[Zombie]

Yeah I remember the "i hear you liek mudkips" and desu memes too and TheDivineBoss, who propagated most of it.

 

[Rui]

Joined in December 2004 (despite the date under my avatar) to wc3sear.ch. People were quite dedicated and hard-working: @Daelin @VGsatomi. I don't remember anyone who pawned trolls with as much awesomess as @Mecheon. Curiously, @ElfWarfare was active only a few months ago!

I was like 9 or 10 at the time, and it definitely marked a part of my childhood to have met these people. I don't think I would've stuck with Warcraft III if it weren't for them Then I would never have learned JASS and probably wouldn't have pursued a computer science degree.

When @Darky29 went missing, wc3sear.ch nearly collapsed, and we thought all was lost. I even remember a period, which lasted a few weeks, when no posts could be made on the site. Then @Ralle came for the rescue and the two sites — wc3sear.ch and hiveworkshop.com — were merged into one whole being. And all peons and peasants rejoiced!

 

[Celaquil]

The hive was so many things back then, it was a huge, scary, place with big faces and even bigger personalities. It was a community that had done, was doing, and would do many great and awe-inspiring things. It was in a state of perpetual "industrial" revolution, people discovered, learned and shared new techniques, new styles and new arts. And simultaneously it was a social platform with so much flair, creativity and cleverness that a shy introvert like myself felt like the tiniest and most insignificant person in comparison. The chat room was always alive with activity, the forums were rich with interesting threads and discussions and the resource sections flourished with beautiful and unbelievably complex custom made content.

As they say: The good ol' days.

Of course, as some has already pointed out, it wasn't really as magical as all that, there were plenty of trolls, plenty of assholes and plenty of bad sta--- stuff. But there were also plenty good people, plenty great people, and some people who I suspect, even to this day, weren't even people at all to begin with.

However, to me it was magical, and I found my place in one of the most remote, least visited, corners of the forum: The Terrain Board. There I found a family. A small, tight-knit, community that worked together to develop an art never before, to my knowledge, seen and which will probably die with this community. "Scenic terraining", named as thus much later; the useless act of shaping a landscape, placing environmental doodads and playing with lighting and perspective all to capture one image, one moment, one scene. We were a close community, we had to be, we were so few, but we prevailed, we supported each other, we had fun, and we tried to pass on the legacy. Some among us took it to the next level and became proper terrainers, proper level designers, and one even took it so far that he became a landscape architect (hi Void). Others, like myself, stuck around longer than necessary, longer than was healthy, and ended up doing entirely different things. But hey, that's life.

Now, I see, the terrain board is gathering dust, gadamers are waving slowly in the sighing wind of the door that opens and closes, upon whence a few straggling terrainers still, vigilantly, enters and exits. Leaving their works in the silent gallery, to be admired by shadows.

Argh, I feel old as I look back, but so much of my life, my growing up as a person has happened on this site, so I figured, since you asked, I'd give you a window into the past through these eyes.

 

[Nowow]

Not very different from now actually. Perhaps a bit more populated and active.
What I miss the most is Hive chat, where you could sometimes spot Drakes, Shars and sanflowers conversing. I could also count on @Mechanical Man to always be in the chat and get poked.

 

[Rui]

and plenty of bad sta--- stuff

Do tell.

Great text, though, @Keiji. My prose skills can't do the same justice to the people I mentioned. But yeah, all you guys should've been here pre-2008. Those were the days.

EDIT: Also, small correction in my former post: I meant to say December 2004 and not 2014, obviously.

 

[Jamir]

I joined Hive (back then it was called wc3sear.ch) because I was the terrainer of this project: Unsung Legends RPG is in need of members!
Good times.

I wasn't really active here because I was more active on another WC3 site (wc3c). Surprised, actually, that Hive outlasted it.

Notable people I remember here are darky (the admin) and VGSatomi (awesome map moderator).

 

[ILikeMacNCheeze]

I like the old hiveworkshop when there was no zero tolerance incident. Dan van Ohluss & Kitabatake were the favorite hive member back then and General frank is added, along with new members i wont tell.
I was 14 years old when i joined here as this account, but i'm sure i have an old account that i forgot now. Cause Zirumega made my old account be forgotten, turns out ziru isn't just an elf word. It's chinese meaning "freedom of action".

 

[WhiteFang]

A lot different,when I joined we were still on hive 1.Spent most of my days in the social groups talking shit with friends,posting memes and role playing.Outside the social groups I basically just trolled,and did everything I could to get attention,so people can feel sorry for me

Inb4 @Directive255 types a 12000 word paragraph about social groups and wanting to strangle Ralle for removing it

 

[Kazeon]

Hmm.. Let's see... It was 2011... Hive was filled with a lot of outstanding members with admirable personalities... Spell section was still alive and very active... A lot of members were highly motivated to review each other's resources... They made a lot of high quality reviews, Hive didn't even need this "reviewer" system back then... The rating system was still used, it kept people motivated to submit high quality resources... Oh and Director's Cut was still a thing too... Too bad that's all in the past...

 

[Ether]

It was the time of @MouMou's departure, @N'zoth 's controversial death, and tons of models flooding the hive was hive like at the day I stepped in.

 

[Linaze]

Naruto maps... possibly wc3c rivalry? At this point more than a decade later I can hardly remember.

Oh and my old friends were all active.

 

[deepstrasz]

I've been using the site without having an account for some time before that mostly playing custom campaigns and stuff.
Back in 2009 there was much more interest in music contests and music threads in the Sound & Music forum. So many great artists have left in 2010-2011 Also, visual RPs were something back then. Great stuff. Nowadays we still have something so we're still here growing. Call the whole process the timewheel of Hiveworkshop.

 

[Rui]

I wasn't really active here because I was more active on another WC3 site (wc3c). Surprised, actually, that Hive outlasted it.

That was the reaction from most of Wc3C's own elite.
But I'm not surprised. We were not ultra elitist, but had enough standards to not let in just about anything. As they say, virtue lies in the middle. Plus the website's interface was quite pleasant and iconic.

I like the old hiveworkshop when there was no zero tolerance incident.

Love you.


@Quilnez We had mini-moderators back then, though. On an operational perspective, the current system of moderators & reviewers sort of fills an homologue role. Still, I miss ratings and the director's cut too. Not sure what was the rationale behind removing them.

 

[EggPooPoo]

Haha ah man, I'm from 2004. Back then it was called Warcraft 3 Sear or something. Or, "War 3 File Download Area".

It was really something. I slowly saw the age of people willing to go more and more daring every day with their maps! Rao Dao Zao was at some point making some campaign with Mechs, where you could fight on top of a speeding train. He said he had finished the level, but he never released it then.

Others had used vertical floating with the Page Up and Page Down key to stack different objects to form a cool structure! You could take base primitive white shapes like Cubes, Balls, Triangular Prisms, etc., and simply colour them vibrantly for use in some cartoon game! Then you build walls and stuff out of em. Cool stuff.

Really cool things with attachments were done, the pioneering of weaponless models and shirtless ones! So you could make your own item models and attach em!

I at some point wanted to see a project finished where we had 3D floating overworld models for EVERY item in the game! So they weren't just treasure chests . But man, those chests were mighty cool.

 

[Vengeancekael]

Jesus christ this thread just made me realize it's almost been 10 years for me.

It was fun for me, I think my most active period was 2011-2013. My fondest memories were those of spending time in the (now gone) chat and in the map development forum scavenging for SPRPGs.

I can't say how it is now, but the forums were particularly active back then, especially Off-Topic which was a headache at times. The best part was the return of the Something Else subforum with all its inherent banalities.

 

[Prince Aerrus]

I just joined, so like it is now. But I have been lurking here for sometime, things didnt really change much

 

[Whispered]

More artistic

But a bit weird

 

[Heinvers]

Short form:

Ponies ran amok, artists were around more often, memes, cringey things, weird staff members, trolls etc.

For all its flames and RP-ing among other things, it was definitely more active.

 

[Daffa]

Oh, don't forget social groups @Heinvers

 

[supertoinkz]

There was a rubber ducky wars.

 

[Ralle]

It was about my map. Now my map is buried and outdated. So sad

 

[Ether]

Hive was like a literally a beehive.

 

[Spear]

more active than it is now, that I can say for sure

 

[RED BARON]

I noticed this thread a little late.. But while there was a lot of things that happened only a few really stuck to me.. Posting my first art (really the first thing I did related to Wc3 modding) on wc3sear.ch, and being grilled by Werewulf(kimberly) about it in the chat, seeing posts about how the site was slowing dying, especially the post by VG where it was mentioned how Darky had somehow managed to have the site be larger than the hosting provider allowed and how they now had reached an agreement with an odd unknown person from Hiveworkshop.. fast forward until site basically died and was merged with Hive, upon which I finally moved my account (and started doing some actual modding instead of odd art work).

But for Hive itself, a beloved impression of Hive for me (which is likely also directly corresponding with the amount of time I spent on the site daily) is the amount of very unique people it collected. Some of them from back then are still here and active, while others have sadly left us years ago or even more tragic died. At any rate, of those users the one I almost always immediately remember is Shados, with all text colored in a gradient purple.

At any rate, the essence I what I truly recall was the activity level. Something was constantly going on and I could see updates to threads every minute, spend hours helping out, answering questions and what not.. + having the time myself to do things.

It is strange to consider that it has been 18 years since I began modding Warcraft and by doing so kinda started what ended up being both my study and current work. So in a way, that is Hive when I joined, a place of wonder, optimism and amazing people, which inspired others to do more.

I had high hopes for reforged to rekindle some of that spirit, but sadly it was not to be. Instead I will be looking forward to see how members of this community will and have created their own individual games (something we really should have a thread to collect specifics about ).

Stay safe out there in these odd and trying times.

 

[Mandex]

I officially joined in August last year although it wasn't my first time surfing on the website. As far as I remember, Hive had the theme it had been using for at least half a decade, the leaves-themed one. As much as I miss the old design, in my opinion the new one is pretty convinient, as well as attractive thanks to the way its categories are sorted in a very iconic and distracting way on the top of the website. It is being "Reforged" in a way in comparison to the old one.
Besides the design, I wasn't quite into the system so I'm not sure about how much the rules and user experience itself have changed in this (quite) short period.