The GHZ Forum

Not specifically Sonic-related, just a curiosity of mine that I figured I'd finally address. What morsel of information lead you to the forsaken corner of cyberspace known as the Green Hill Zone?

"I was led here by an evidently deranged friend."
How <i>he</i> found out about it, I'll probably never know. He's not really a Sonic fan though, just a "hardcore" gamer.

I was linked from some thing that used to be up on "Shadow of a Hedgehog". I was looking for details on how to raise Chao.

Many many moons ago, I thought I'd see what the internet has to say about Sonic. The first site I tried was Sega.com, and back then they had a list of Sega fansites on their links page, and this was one of them.

Something about the SEGA forums. I don't remember much. Oh! I made a top ten Sonic sites list once! And put you as number 1! And Bo was there! Like, whoa.

Google search. This was the website I was always looking for, something that extensively covered all of the Sonic games and told you everything you never needed to know. When I get into something, I really get into it and I search for every available piece of information that I can find. The GHZ was perfect for that level of obsession.

Incidentally, while I loved the game pages and I checked in regularly for the front page updates, I was never terribly interested in the forums (of course, trying to regularly browse the old forums on a 56k was especially frustrating). I often lurked, but I never found anything actually worth replying to unless it was directly Sonic related (and we know we can count the number of Sonic related posts in any given month on the hand of a bad woodshop teacher).

Then, the new forums came and I felt compelled.

Well, I got linked here by God Awful Fan Fiction.
They were making a comment on how horrid Spazz's Boobies thread was, I wandered in, and said, "Hell, this looks like fun."

I blame Pep.

For most things incidently, but chiefly this. **files under deranged friend**

That EGM thing led me here. For shame, I know.

I wandered in while looking for info on those Martyn Adams sonic books, and was instantly hooked. So now look what you've done.

Crap, I don't even remember anymore.

I think when we first got the internet, the only websites I was smart enough to find were Sega.com and Nintendo.com. Then I used Yahoo! and found Sonic HQ and The Sonic Foundation, and I think The GHZ was linked to from one of those places. I don't visit either of them anymore (HQ and tSf, that is).

It took me a while to get into the forums. I think I started posting regularly after I'd contributed some info and screenshots.

I just remembered, my friend said there was a Sonic site with <b><i>all</b></i> of the Sonic games listed called Green Hill Zone, but I had to Google it to find it.

Baba O'Reily wrote:Well, I got linked here by God Awful Fan Fiction.
They were making a comment on how horrid Spazz's Boobies thread was

Link plz.

Pop told me to 'check out his sight'. Not one to be modest.

'My sight', huh?!

Us glasses-wearin' folk usually don't have the best sight.

I don't rightly remember how I got here. I'd like to think of myself as the sailor who washed up on the shore of the GHZ with a smile on his face and a case of syphilis just as big. Actually, I went to the GHZ a number of times to check facts, but never got into the forum alot until a little over a year ago.

http://www.godawful.net/forums/viewtopi ... =looks+fun
Look for Stone Cold Crazy. That'd be myself.

(quote)That EGM thing led me here.(quote)
(quote)I was looking for details on how to raise Chao.(quote)
Ditto. I was hooked by the ironic humor, wich made me look foward to read every single update that came. I never found out the Chao thing, tough.

About six months ago, it was obvious that alt.fan.sonic-hedgehog was dying, so I started searching for alternative boards. Most Sonic sites I know of are either dead, and have been so for multiple years (rat.org, Artail, Sonic Foundation) or crappy (Sonic Cult and Friends). So I just kinda ended up here.

Does anyone else remember rat.org? That was my first exposure to crappy Sonic fan art and fanfiction.

Sonic Cult kept mentioning on its main page, GHZ-this or GHZ-that but I could never find a bloody link on their site... eventually I stumbled upon it while looking for NiGHTS information and proceded to spend the majority of 2 days reading the entire thing. Never touched the old boards because they were far too painful to browse, especially on 56k.

When the new boards went up, I began stalking them regularly, but was too lazy to register an account. After months of effort, I finally registered for one, all-important reason: Yes, to tell my incredibley un-intresting account of how I found this place.

Welcome.

Before I started joining forums (2001) I used to just check this site every couple of months (I found it on Sonic HQ). Eventually, I stopped checking, until someone in mid 2004 posted some weird Sonic comic with Tails and the character designer or something, when I noticed on the news page that there was a new forum starting. I decided to take a peak, and have been hooked since.

Does anyone else remember rat.org? That was my first exposure to crappy Sonic fan art and fanfiction.

Wow, I remember rat.org. Back before the furries had gotten huffy enough to distinguish themselves from Sonic as a decidedly different classification of "furry." The GHZ was one of the only Sonic sites back then that didn't offend my sensibilities. I had been to the GHZ more then once by way of various searches or crappier sites but I didn't stick around at (or even check out) the board until the deranged invitation.

Sega Threads when I was 11... I think I stumbled upon those trying to win a Sonic 3D Blast contest. Then I posted in the Open Forum in GG!'s Hooked on Sonics section for a while, and made the leap when the GHZ opened. And never left. Although these past couple months I've read and posted fewer messages than ever before, but I still try to read every couple days. College is hardcore awesome.

I remember rat.org, too, but only that it had a blue background and yellow text.
Edit: OK, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/199612151320 ... rg/">maybe not</a>. I was thinking of <a href="http://www.andrews.edu/~drazen/sonic.html">Dan Drazen's</a> page.

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