Does anyone remember (really dating myself here) the AOL message boards for NFL Teams? I think it was around 1994 and the Internet was pretty new. I had three computers in my office (probably what fried my eyes, those old CRT screens) and one was just for internet searches for background information. I used to spend a lot of my lunch on the AOL Bengals board. There was a Samoan guy named UMADOGG, that later went by UMAFLYY. He was an absolute riot.

I wanted a computer of my own at home, largely so I could message on that Bengals board.

The format was horrible looking back, but there was lots of debate on how to turn the perennial loser around. Then, we had the Blake era, and that showed for a brief moment how much fun it was to discuss a team that was actually fun to watch.

I doubt there is anyone here from back then, but as the GM of the Saturn of Dayton store, my ID was STRN1. Man, that was a lifetime ago.

So we're finally fixing to graduate to first grade, huh?
Yeah, I remember when the mother board kicked us all to the curb and we lost that wonderful moderator who banned damned near everyone at some point in time over nothing. See what kind of stuff crops up when you start waxing poetic about "the good old days"? But at least back then the board was run pretty much just like the team itself...badly. 
Thanks for the memories as Bob Hope would sing..
At least this board is sustainable and seemingly run in a democratic fashion for the most part. 
"I KNOW MY RIGHTS! You're a public servant..get me a glass of water, servant!" 

(05-12-2020, 08:38 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: Does anyone remember (really dating myself here) the AOL message boards for NFL Teams?  I think it was around 1994 and the Internet was pretty new.  I had three computers in my office (probably what fried my eyes, those old CRT screens) and one was just for internet searches for background information.  I used to spend a lot of my lunch on the AOL Bengals board.  There was a Samoan guy named UMADOGG, that later went by UMAFLYY.  He was an absolute riot.  

I wanted a computer of my own at home, largely so I could message on that Bengals board.

The format was horrible looking back, but there was lots of debate on how to turn the perennial loser around.  Then, we had the Blake era, and that showed for a brief moment how much fun it was to discuss a team that was actually fun to watch.  

I doubt there is anyone here from back then, but as the GM of the Saturn of Dayton store, my ID was STRN1.  Man, that was a lifetime ago.

I remember those good old AOL days when I got kicked out for using the horrible word "A$$" That's when I decided to go with a regular internet provider without all those chat rooms and cartoon icons and really lousy connections and who could ever forget those lovable script kiddies who sent you emails to steal your password at will?  I did get even with the jerk that banned me and sent him an email bomb to flood his account with junk mail.. That was fun and then my old AOL friends all acted like I was some kind of terrorist or something.. lol  that was me..an AOL terrorist.. Gee.. The good old days, huh?   Back then I had a regular following of people who thought wav files were the coolest thing since sliced bread and the whole world wanted to have every sound bite known to the human race right at their fingertips. Hey, I never thought they'd die out either.  I guess I was wrong in retrospect..

(05-11-2020, 11:22 PM)CoCoNuT Wrote: I remember Denny banned one of the iconic posters at the time to me, joefromflo


I was a big fan of his posts.
Someone should try to pull him back into posting.

Joe is here. 

He was often my arch nemisis on the old board, but he also took me to my first game at PBS. He had fourth row season tickets in the end zone. Closest I have ever been to the field at an NFL game.

He and Denny had a long history.

(05-11-2020, 11:22 PM)CoCoNuT Wrote: I remember Denny banned one of the iconic posters at the time to me, joefromflo


I was a big fan of his posts.
Someone should try to pull him back into posting.

It was a constant power play with him. it turned away alot of Bengal fans because they weren't allowed to voice their opinions on the state of the team at that time if it didn't fit into his narrative. 

But you have to take the positives away from the negatives, if it wasn't for him we wouldn't have this board which is on a different level on how its run and we are in a much better place as a result.

Message boards are huge for me because i have not lived close to Cincinnati in 40 years and none of my friends are Bengal fans.

Hard to believe 5 years have passed since the other board went dark.

I posted a little more over there, but since work is so consuming, I haven't even tried making a troll account or anything. An old fantasy football board I used to frequent, used to have some of the funniest fake accounts that would literally blow things up and we're lol funny. One with a handle 2dgsfkn was my favorite.

Here there have been some funny moments. I still laugh at the First and Only Choke on a bone award thread. I have only made 6 threads in five years, but to see people turn on each other, kinda funny. People walking on egg shells and not wanting to hurt each other's feelings mostly the feel , but a few couldn't help themselves.

Also, still go and look at the funny pictures thread in klotch.

(05-11-2020, 03:13 PM)Synric Wrote: Congratulations TBB. It's been a ride lol.

...and to all the members that have disappeared along the way.

TheBURG (he once mailed me a Jeff Blake jersey)
RoyalRedLegs (Berserker on the old boards)
Wildcats (RIP)
JoePong (just playin, that dude was a troll)
Savage Henry
BANJAXED
Steeler Eater
CinciREborn (I think he was a troll, but he was funny)

Just a tiny portion of names that aren't around.

(05-12-2020, 12:00 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Message boards are huge for me because i have not lived close to Cincinnati in 40 years and none of my friends are Bengal fans.

We're not your friends? 

(05-12-2020, 01:31 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: TheBURG (he once mailed me a Jeff Blake jersey)
RoyalRedLegs (Berserker on the old boards)
Wildcats (RIP)
JoePong (just playin, that dude was a troll)
Savage Henry
BANJAXED
Steeler Eater
CinciREborn (I think he was a troll, but he was funny)

Just a tiny portion of names that aren't around.

RoyalRedLegs was on here a couple of years ago and then just disappeared. I didn't realize he was Berserker on the old board? JoePong and BANJAX I remember

(05-12-2020, 01:31 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: BANJAXED

One of my favorite "non-football" posters.  Got married, had a kid, and disappeared.

EOXYOD was a high school kid that I watched mature and grow up on the boards.  Last I heard of him he was working for a marijuana grower in Colorado.  Maybe I should look him up "for old time's sake".

JohnnyCupcakes is still here but he does not post as much.  There was another funny member that seemed to know Johnny, but I can't remember his name (not Mikey).  They were entertaining.

Didn't Turk die?

I met him at a game one time.

(05-12-2020, 01:34 PM)sandwedge Wrote: We're not your friends? 

I was talking about "REAL" Bengal fans.

(05-12-2020, 01:40 PM)fredtoast Wrote: One of my favorite "non-football" posters.  Got married, had a kid, and disappeared.

EOXYOD was a high school kid that I watched mature and grow up on the boards.  Last I heard of him he was working for a marijuana grower in Colorado.  Maybe I should look him up "for old time's sake".

JohnnyCupcakes is still here but he does not post as much.  There was another funny member that seemed to know Johnny, but I can't remember his name (not Mikey).  They were entertaining.

Eoxyod was also a mod here in the early days of the board, but had a lot of other stuff going on in his life.

Being a mod on this board requires a decent investment of time, and is why I'm so grateful to Benton, BD, Shake, Zona, Sunset, Harley, treee and jfk. They do a great job and are the reason this place runs as smoothly as it does on a daily basis.

Also gotta mention Wildcats. When he passed, we not only lost a great mod, but also an outstanding board member and friend.

(05-12-2020, 12:25 AM)EatonFan Wrote: Very nice message board.  I do miss a lot of the older fellas though (and some ladies too!).

Trinna Ann never missed a message board member's Birthday

Bengal Sis gave better than she got in the Graham posts

K- Day was a personal fav and I'll share an all-time favorite story about her:

Back in the day there was a big divide on the message board. You were either Team CP9 or Team 85. Us Team 85ers were vastly outnumbered especially from most of the well established members. K-Day was definitely Team 85.   One day she and I were going back and forth with a couple of the more established members (she was fairly new; I turned on the lights on the Mothership). 

Anywho during the debate it was discovered that K-Day was a female. one of the established members (still here I'm quite certain) said; "I thought you were a dude by the way you talk". She came back with "And I thought your were a female by the way you bytch". She had to drop the mic. Within 24 hours she had neg rep of 100,000.

There was actually a way to manipulate the rep on the old board. I'd watch folks go from 10 to 10,000 overnight

Happy 5 years! I like this board because of all the knowledgeable members. I've mentioned before I'm a more casual fan and don't know a whole lot about football as a whole. I mean I know enough to understand what's going on but not so much the more technical stuff. I've learned a lot since I've been here from so many people.

Most people here seem to have a decent sense of humor as well which I appreciate. Also one thing about this message board is people might argue and get snippy with each other but people seem to not hold too much of a grudge once the dust settles. I know I've pissed off a few people from time to time with snarky remarks. I'm trying to be more mindful of that though and be more polite with less snark. :)

I do wish I had picked a better screen name though. It seemed funny at first as a Seinfeld reference but it seems kind of negative now and grown old to me.

(05-11-2020, 05:14 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: I'm just happy to be still involved with a community that welcomed this outsider from up north, into their ranks.

Funnily enough, on the Mothership, the old guard RRR'd me and treated me like crap... well they were almost unanimously banned within 2-3 weeks of that lol and then the board became much better as a result (West TX and the like). But never as great as here.

I like that a lot of the great posters with an analytics background and such, came here to continue the discussion, but they've almost all gone now (Ryan aka Royle, Eox, etc.). Synric and CJD are still around (obviously), but this board could always use more of those types (AU165 has become a tremendous asset, on this side of things).

Still this is the best MOD team and still the best NFL community on the internet; I always recall posting a question about tickets on the Bills board (basically, fishing for someone who would sell me some tix lol) last year and not only did nobody respond for 2 weeks, once I bumped it *twice*, I was met with hostility and rudeness; I know none of us here would EVER do that.

As soon as my E-Transfer goes through (in the next 15 minutes or so), I will do my donation :)

Thanks, everyone!

EDIT* Also must give a shoutout to Pally, who must be a news reporter in their spare time or something, because nobody posts news and updates with our team, as quickly and accurately as She () does lol

Wait a minute, Pally is a girl??  

(05-12-2020, 11:45 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Joe is here. 

He was often my arch nemisis on the old board, but he also took me to my first game at PBS. He had fourth row season tickets in the end zone. Closest I have ever been to the field at an NFL game.

He and Denny had a long history.

What's his Username?

(05-12-2020, 02:50 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Trinna Ann never missed a message board member's Birthday

Bengal Sis gave better than she got in the Graham posts

K- Day was a personal fav and I'll share an all-time favorite story about her:

Back in the day there was a big divide on the message board. You were either Team CP9 or Team 85. Us Team 85ers were vastly outnumbered especially from most of the well established members. K-Day was definitely Team 85.   One day she and I were going back and forth with a couple of the more established members (she was fairly new; I turned on the lights on the Mothership). 

Anywho during the debate it was discovered that K-Day was a female. one of the established members (still here I'm quite certain) said; "I thought you were a dude by the way you talk". She came back with "And I thought your were a female by the way you bytch". She had to drop the mic. Within 24 hours she had neg rep of 100,000.

There was actually a way to manipulate the rep on the old board. I'd watch folks go from 10 to 10,000 overnight

I met Bengal Sis at a tailgate back in the day. Very beautiful lady and very nice husband. I felt bad for her, because everyone shit on her for defending her brother. I kept in touch with her for a while via email but it's been a long while. I think she lives in Ottawa Canada

(05-11-2020, 03:03 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: Today marks 5 years since we all started this board on 5/11/2015.

When the old board decided to close their doors, I had been a member there for about 3 years and it had become an everyday place for me to hang out and talk with other Bengals fans. It was by far the best place to talk about Bengals football and interact with knowledgeable fans, at least in my opinion. When they announced the closing, I was like man, I don't want to have to go to social media to talk Bengals...it's just not the same as on a forum. I also didn't see another Bengals message board that was anything close to what Bengals.com had as far as good discussions and a solid community. 

So, I decided to take a chance and start a place that people from Bengals.com could go if they didn't like the other options out there, and hopefully keep most of the community together in the process. I honestly had no idea if it would even get off the ground or if people wanted to take a chance on a new message board. Myself and the staff worked hard in the beginning to try and make it as much like the old board as possible, while also improving on it however we could. The biggest shaping/molding of the site though came from the members themselves...with all your suggestions, ideas and feedback on how you wanted your new home to be. 

The new site took off pretty quickly and is still growing 5 years later. So, I want to thank all of you who have made this site what it is. This community really is amazing and continue to make this an awesome place to hang out with other Bengals fans. I also want to give HUGE kudos to the staff, who have always done an amazing job and have made my life a whole lot easier because they handle all the day to day stuff, allowing me to focus on keeping the board running well and making improvements where I can. 

OK, so with all that being said, any thoughts on the last 5 years? Any favorite moments, threads, game days or whatever? There have been some posts / threads that have literally made me laugh out loud, but only one that made me spit my beer all over the keyboard...and that was 'Naked Andy'. That thread had me in stitches. If we ever do a thread HOF, that has to be the first.

Five years? Damn, time flies when you are having fun doesn't it Holic?  

Remember when they were closing down the old board and I went into a panic and you saved my ass, thanks man!!!

And thanks to all the other mods and brothers and sisters on this board that make being a Bengals fan great.

I think great times are ahead with Burrow coming in and this Free Agency we just had.

The old board doesn't hold a candle to this one though, this is the best forum and the other one was great.

This is saying something.

The classy funny jokes thread always has me laughing with Harley, Zona and company. Great thread, epic.