Where will you be if you can't find you?

[Bo]

Right here, apparently.

I wrote a thing about this place a while back.

By the way, there's a prophecy that the last two people who post here before the forum mysteriously disappears have to engage in a mortal duel. Also there's something about a (checks notes) camel spider. Does that mean anything to anyone?

[Ritz]

That put a smile on my face. It also brought me back, apparently. Is this the start of the great GHZ reunion I've been waiting for?

[Wooduck51]

At risk of being excoriated for being a newblood adding to the conversation of the old guard; thank you for sharing that; even though I didn't join until well into the cynical years ( which will confirm what anyone who saw any or my posts back in the ye old days of 2005) when after a year or two of reading museum pages about sonic games I never knew existed back when the only time I got to play Sonic was at my aunt's during holidays (long before I ever played SA2 I would read the museum page from time to time because not only did I love the story, but GG!'s flare for embellishment still makes me laugh [hopefully I still have a copy of the much more humurous, if less professional original version saved somewhere]) I took the plunge and joined the forums at 14, ( just in time to have my hopes for an amazing Shadow the hedgehog only game to be ground viciously to oblivion; thanks SEGA) this place was a blast, and even though I am in no way as storied in the science and lore of the blue blur, and made some very 14 year old posts that still make me cold sweat on the legendary religion thread, but despite it all everyone has always been very kind to me here, I have nothing but good memories (excepting aforementioned) to this day. I still have my Shadow the hedgehog capsule figure from overseas (makes me smile whenever I see it), and though I will probably be divesting of my copy of SHtH (I 100% completed it, but while the memory of kindness remains, that game is just too painful on a physical, intellectual and emotional level to replay) tge memory of someone s nding me a game I had really wanted to play still burns bright.

So in short the GHZ is a treasured place; even to me who came in late.


SSSSHHHLLLUUURRRPPPYYYYY

[Wooduck51]

I sorry everyone; I post mostly from my phone while on dialysis, so apologies if that post was janky, I started to clean it up, bu my edit windiw closed. Realized I left out about the joy of all the crazy conversations, and the anticipation and vexation of bew new games; but I think y'all get the point!

[Brazillian Cara]

I may have said this once, but I will say it again: I would not be the person I am today - specially not in how I interact with other people over the internet - were it not for this community. And I'm really grateful for that.

[big_smile]

@Bo, that was a nice read. Some of my fondest internet memories were on the GHZ. Although it seems freaky that some of these things happened 10, even 20 years ago. Feels much more recent.

[Majestic Joey]

I still frequent this site every now and then. It's funny though, I started going to this site in like 2001 and I thought everybody on this forums were older than me by a lot. Then it turns out there probably wasn't that big of an age gap (I was probably 12 years old in 2001).

It's also weird that I'm almost 30 now and I still feel a kinship to this site.

[Bo]

Probably 12? Is there some uncertainty about your age?

[Wombatwarlord777]

The GHZ was the very first forum I had joined online, and the response to my first post was someone calling me a dumb kid because I didn't like Sonic and the Secret Rings being on rails. This place was a hell of a lot more vitiolic back in the day, but honestly, that was a part of its charm for me.

It feels weird to say this having posted on and off here for more than ten years, but I consider myself a relative newcomer, especially in the crowd that still patronizes this place, before the foot traffic to the forums started to steadily decline. I feel like I sort of missed out on a lot of the early comradery and in-jokes. But hey, at least I'll always have Drano.

[Frieza2000]

It's not as stimulating as it used to be, but I kind of like it this way. It's more peaceful. Guess we've gotten soft in our old age. It was a great ride, though. The experience really helped shape me, for better and for worse.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

That was a nice read. Did any of Green Gibbon's brothers ever migrate over to this version of the forum? I don't actually remember.

I've been on Internet forums long before GHZ's (I guess that happens when you're in your mid-30's like I am), but I still really like it here, and it remains the only Sonic-based forum I've ever made an account for. There are a lot of great threads and posts on here I can still recall even today.

[Xyton]

Thanks for the read, Bo.

My first interaction with the GHZ was on the old, old forum (before phpBB) where I posted something that was painfully obvious to the world but was such a huge revelation to eight-year-old-or-whatever me that I just had to tell somebody on the internet. Graciously, the response I got was "...yeah." and not a crushing string of belittling / cursing. Years later I still remember that as a kindness.

Later, GG! was kind enough to give me more info on Burning Rangers (and Panzer Dragoon Saga?) when I was trying to figure out if they were worth the money to buy used (they were). I'm pretty off-and-on with being here, but the conversations are fun and I enjoy the lurking, too. Glad the site's still around. :)