Project Purification? Okay, I grabbed me a bottle of Blue Moon (Mango Wheat) and have "She Likes Me for Me" by Blessid Union of Souls playing in a recurring loop so I have that warm, fuzzy late 90's/early 00's feeling as I write this.
When TMA first started, it was about Twisted Metal but a majority of the action happened on Brawl and elsewhere. Looking back the site was pretty cluttered. I mean, it wasn't just the meat and potatoes like Totally Twisted and Brawl...you had Ask AntiMatt, Judge Joymann, Commissioner Codematt and even gave Blair a section to appease his jealous ass, "Mastermind". It was like getting pop-up ads for insurance agents when you're just trying to fucking get to the 60 second porn clip you're craving.
October 30, 2000 was a big date. The original site had become obsolete and the next version of TMA was going to be a big fucking deal (and it was.) Things were getting pretty serious - I became a TMA-R(ecruit) because I wrote Martin/Mortimer an essay or some shit on how 989 turned the series into clown shoes and how 3 and 4 were abysmal pieces of shit. I got the thumb up to be an admin/member.
Well, the months rolled by and it was prior to the EGM plug...in came Project Purification. It was kind of like being quietly observed over the months to see who really did eat, breathe, sweat and shit Twisted Metal. Well, I wasn't twisted enough and I got the boot along with almost every original member...X-Man, ENOS, EvilED and I believe Mosh were the only ones left.
So, that ultimately meant that Trunks/Sting, Blair, Kaffeine, Joymann, AntiMatt and CodeMatt were kicked out as well. Kaffeine, Joymann, AntiMatt and EvilED were IRL friends that lived in Santa Cruz, CA...and they even "publicly" feuded with each other on Brawl and even the old Ask TMa a few times...specifically, EvilED making fun of AntiMatt wearing gray sweats all the time and him having poodle hair.
Well, that meant 3/4 of the Santa Cruz crowd ragequit - though, I remember Joymann bounced back here and there for a couple years. Kaffeine showed up after we found each other on Livejournal (2002/2003?). AntiMatt never came back - he probably shit his gray sweatpants in anger.
Blair was a pretty sizable TM fan but the guy was a creepy god damn stalker. Anyone claiming to be a female on TMA was instantly in fear of him humping her leg. He even went as far as making a short fanfic of him driving up in a truck and stuffing a water hose up EvilED's(?) ass because he made Kaffeine cry. He even made Mastermind quizzes not about TM...but about HIM - "What color are my eyes?" and shit like that.
Sting/Trunks was a dickhead and about 12 at the time so I figure after he was done crying in his Alpha-Bits cereal and spitting on any hearse he seen (Mort
)...he just went back to watching DBZ and getting his ass kicked around like most David Spade characters. He wasn't so big on TM as much as he was DBZ...fuck him.
All the side story behind: Project Purification thinned the herd and most of the original people never came back.
The WalkoutI remember it happened in June 2000 and it was my original idea to "get back at the man!" when Abe Simpson aka Moopster got banned from the site. The thing was, Blair was always a fucking instigator and pushed buttons. Abe wasn't someone that got pushed around -- hell, he went off on Blair like a god damn AK-47, calling him a cunt among other things and got in deep shit. I think he played a part in crashing the site at one point, too...if I recall, that was a major part of it.
Blair would get a pat on the wrist like Dennis the Menace and Abe got fucked with if he did anything. I remember a single-use poster named "Simpson-Face" saying along the lines of not caring if their site crashed. He ended up getting posting limited to Judge Joymann only -- spawning such troll gems as "I'm the best skier in the world." and "Martin is corny."
Well, Mosh, Abe and Kurf were all three IRL friends in a band called The Nightmare Asylum. They created an EZboard for their band and that is where we hung out for a good 3 or 4 weeks until Blair hacked the EZboard like a colossal asshole. We showed back up, there was a 'courtroom battle' where I was Abe's defense attorney to Blair's prosecutor and our side won that lifted Abe's ban...much to Blair crying like a little bitch.
To summarize the Pre-TMB/Pre-EGM TMA: Lots of posts about Kurf sucking at drums, me having anal sex with Kaffeine, EvilED and AntiMatt fighting, Abe creating the iconic word 'Moopy' and Mosh creating 'Swazzy'...it was just innocent (looking back) fun that really made my teenage and early high school years memorable.
It was like a levee breaking when TMA got plugged in EGM....I think it scared off a lot of the original posters because we were set in the ways we established of Brawl being complete anarchy where we could make one sentence posts and no one was there to enforce quality control. Shit changed and most people hate the concept of change because it means having to re-adapt to your surrounding.
I was openly bitter about the way it changed and I had new people talking shit to me telling me to get with the times. Well, who is still around and who was a 'one year wonder'? I have been on and off here throughout the years but the people, the overall vibe, the nostalgia keeps me checking in.
It's like having part of your childhood still with you.