I haven't looked at this site for a while, and then notice this thread. I think it's safe to say I'm a relic based on when I first registered!
What was the fantabanta thing? Forums going back that far are great. I was probably about 11 when I started using them and I vaguely remember Football Forums, but I used to frequent an obscure one called Footie Threads until it died. Then I started on TFF until that and it successor died.
Fanbanta was a business that bought FF from it's previous owners whilst producing a 'football fans' TV show for UK Television by the same name (it was horrific and literally aired twice) They paid for a full time member of their staff - a Leeds fan to 'run' FF who was pretty detestable and nearly destroyed the site by alienating most of the members and staff, putting adverts all over the site and making wholesale changes without any warning and his stock response was 'If you don't like it then leave' As the stats plummeted and FF was dying I went to war against him and with a whole lot of reading the riot act, some threats and generally telling him what an incompetent epic rotten vagina he was and finally managed to get him out of the site. The business he worked for and Fanbanta was funded by was heavily invested in the US Sub Prime Real Estate market and when that collapsed the entire business ended up in the hands of Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) to sell off the assets and recoup investor costs. What remained of the staff team at that point tried to buy the site from PWC but were outbid and we ended up under another corporate venture for another 4-5 years before Stret, TAFKAP and I managed to get ownership of the site and stabilise things. Interestingly - FF was started when the previous 'most used' Forum was sold to corporate ventures that URL is now is probably one of the most valuable URL's in the sports interweb world sports.com or sports.gone as it's now fondly remembered by the few of us who really are just that old
As someone who's not been around as long as the forum it's fascinating to hear about it's longevity . Occasionally I browse the oldest threads to see what was being said at the time, and posts wanting Fergie gone back in 2000 made me realise that good and bad takes will never be contained to any era in time.
23 years ago for me. Really enjoyed the early years. Some very entertaining posters. Stopped posting about 15 years ago, but pop in once in a long while. Always great to read some familiar faces. Stret is easily the best mod in the many forums with which I’ve been associated.
1998 this started?! That’s like even before social media ruined the internet. My partner posts on a forum which she joined in 2003, the same year it started, but I didn’t think there are older forums about.
