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SMWCentral, Then and Now

So it has been a pretty long time I think since I have been active in the romhacking community, and I do want to get back into it especially now I have all my tools working fine in Ubuntu.

It seems to me a lot has changed around here since 2013 (or about that time since I was last here). I've personally been a member here now since 2009 and oh lord, that was a time with immature 13 year old me.

I've seen a couple of admins that were still admin then but also I've seen people come and go. Who else here that has been here a long time thinks things may have changed a lot. Or who knows, maybe they've only changed a little.

It does seem like it's not as active as it once was, but I can only get on here a couple of times a day.

Just looking back of when I was romhacking in high school. And god, I was looking at some of my old posts (post count <200) and I cringed at a lot of them.
First of all, welcome back! It's always interesting to see old members reviving from the eternal slumber. I can't really say I recognize you, but if you used to be really active between 2009 and 2013 we probably interchanged words somewhere in the forums.

In fact, this site has changed a lot since those times. The community, the tools we use, the site (in terms of features), the resources hosted, etc... Of couse there has been either good and bad changes, but that's another matter, and most of the changes have been good fortunately.

Speaking about hacking itself, it has been changed a lot too. The "standards" of good and bad levels design have changed, and Kaizo is the most attention-seeking factor in the whole hacking activity nowadays.
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2021 TRENO vibe check thread
The kaizo section was the most interesting thing to me. And back then I was known as TheRPGLPer and before that username mine was MSTR448. I can’t say if I recognize or remember your username though :/
I do remember the name TheRPGLPer from old posts... Welcome back!
Originally posted by Minuy600
I do remember the name TheRPGLPer from old posts... Welcome back!

I remember your name as well, and thanks for the welcome! Now if I can put my ideas into Lunar Magic,I’m going to restart one of my really old hacks. And maybe do a chocolate one depending on how much stuff will run on Ubuntu
the site was always trash but when ur a starry eyed little kid the idea of connecting with a community of like minded people can be entrancing

the site now is a lot less of a community and more of a collective of people. you used to know everybody that posted on the forums and in the irc, but now the people i know either dont post or left a long time ago and i'm not interested in meeting any new people so the new wave of fresh faces are just kind of meaningless to me.

i have a lot of nostalgia for those first two years (as toxic as they could be) but i think a lot of it was just the surrogate of being surrounded by people you considered your friends. It made the loneliness of high school seem irrelevant (even tho hindsight is 20/20 and i wish I put myself out there instead of secluding into the forums)
ask me if i give a f*ck...
Some of that I could agree with. I was a freshman in high school back in 09, and that substituted me not having any friends in school, and instead I talked with and connected with people here.
I'm not quite an oldbie (I'm only a five year old user) but this site has gone through a lot of changes since 2014.

The most impactful change to me is the (almost) entirely different userbase. Most of my friends from the old days are long gone, people like Kagami Hiiragi, Flan (MrGoomba909), Zone355, Suika Ibuki, Xyspade, etc. We and a handful of other users had a little group called Onyx Corp that was formed in late 2014 and was disbanded in mid 2015 after Kagami disappeared for a year.

Putting my friends aside, the staff/admin team has changed drastically. As far as I know the only mod who's still on the team from the old days (besides Kieran) is MrDeePay. Back then the admins were S.N.N., p4plus2, Ersanio and Lightvayne, now we have a whole new set of admins. Same goes for staff.

I can also recall the sections going through some changes too. I remember back in late 2014/early 2015 we had NSMBW sections which didn't end up sticking around very long.

Also pretty much all my 3500+ posts up until the point where I was unbanned a few weeks ago contain at least some level of cringe in them (it gets worse the farther back you go). I can't say for sure if the cringe will stop lol.

Originally posted by Hobz
the site was always trash but when ur a starry eyed little kid the idea of connecting with a community of like minded people can be entrancing


Low key facts
I remember all of those admins. S.N.N. Was here before I joined. The staff change is crazy to think about. The only one I remember for sure that seems to be still active is WhiteYoshiEgg if he is still a staff member. A bunch of others that were staff back when I was active last I don’t see anymore. I was looking back at my posts. God the cringe was real up to about when I was 16 or 17 it seems. 2009-2011 were really cringy years with my posts
WhiteYoshiEgg is still here but he's not staff. Still has his name color though.
Back in 2013 when I joined, my posts used to be a lot cringier than now, but I can't tell whether cringe stayed or not, although I'm 100% sure that my posts in general are getting less and less cringy.
I have a Discord server as well! (by joining, you agree to the rules)
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Basically, I believe in peace and bashing two bricks together.

Talking about cringe, damn. 10 year old me sure wanted as many accounts as possible. And it's weirdly funny seeing me as a backseat modder/complaining bastard back in 2013 as that is exactly what got me banned earlier this year too ahaha.

Think my posts are generally starting to make more sense now though. At least to myself, not sure if users who saw my worst phase are ready to give me a second (third?) chance yet.
Yeah, honestly, since I'm technically supposed to be a new user, I haven't got a single clue on how the forums here actually were (I did lurk a lot on the SMW hacks section way before I even "joined the site" tho, but before 2016 literally all I did was comment on the Touhou Mario 2 thread lmao), but from what I've seen of it, it was definitely a lot better than it is now

tho uh, I kinda feel like if I actually joined and tried to become part of the community back when I first started to lurk the hacks section, I would get banned or at least hated pretty much instantly if y'all met me at my worst, haha; I used to go on the GameFAQS Pokemon boards back then, and let me tell you, it was not a very good time #wario{-_-"}
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I joined way back in 2009. Back then, I was some mental ass 21 year old who was trying to fit in with whatever meme or trend was going on at the time. Nowadays I'm just minding my own business, and just being, well, me.

I didn't interact with anyone here because of how intimidating I felt people here were. I only have 100sh posts to show for this as a result. But after 9 years of retrospect, I feel differently about this and, if anything, I wish I put myself out there a bit more and interacted more. But then again, the people today largely differed than the people in 2009.

It's because of that, that between 2009 and now, the biggest change by far has got to be the userbase here. From the common member all the way up to the top of the food chain, the administrators. It feels so different here in so many ways, that describing one example won't do it justice. What was accepted back then isn't accepted now, and vice versa. It feels odd, but I like it.

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STELLA!
I was a community member all the way back in 2011 on a really old account I won't disclose the name of and and I recently went back and read all of my posts and holy Hell I was the most pathetic 13 year old in existence. :/

I was only on that account until about 2012 and then I sorta quit smwcentral because I felt like I didn't fit in. Around that time, the userbase felt much different than it is now. It felt much more stuck up, stingy, frankly rude, cocky, and it was full of know-it-alls. So I didn't return until 2015 when I made this account. But even then I only made about 150 posts before I disappeared again for about 2 years before reappearing in early October with this post and began fully reintegrating myself into this community that I love.

Because there's no doubt in my mind that things have changed for the better. There have been major site improvements, and mainly the userbase is much friendlier and less condescending. I'm enjoying myself on here more than I ever have, and if 415 posts in three months doesn't prove that, I don't know what will!
                                                                                                                  
                              
It took me several years to get my post count to where it is, so it’s crazy to see people with the crazy 5000+ post counts
On the old staff topic, MrDeePay is only as old as the 2013 staff applications. The longest lasting moderator is Alcaro. He's the only person I've never witnessed as not staff.
It's easily the best thing I've done
So why the empty numb?
I think Alcaro has been here longer than me. I swear I remember seeing him back in 2009 too.
I've cringed at so much of my old stuff haha.

The site is certainly different. Not in a bad way though, just different. Less My Little Pony lol. Also since the user base has changed a bit, naturally the overall atmosphere and flavor is a little different. Not too drastically tho. I still like it.
My youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbX4pLm713laHTRtLj9xpxw
My twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theqwollone
Oh good lord, I sure remember all the damn ponies. That was a time. A kinda annoying time, but a time nonetheless.