Gothick, you're probably right. Going down memory lane, sometimes memories get misremembered..lol.

I started posting on the SciFi Dominion Board on Halloween 96 and pretty much stayed with it til they purged the last DS Boards in 2006, then came on board here after membership reopened. The great thing about SciFi was posters were allowed to create their own boards, even it was for a show not carried by SciFi like Bewitched. That board was created later on and was purged not long after the entire series was written up. Had to be very frustrating. Over time, there were a bunch of DS Boards... as soon as 1 would get crowded with posts, another one would start. I don't even remember who did all that. The older boards would remain accessible, a marvelous archive. Another fun board which MB adopted was the captions.  Sci-fi would run screen grabs in real time for each show on Sci-fi. Because we didn't have Sci-fi for nearly the entire run of DS, it was my way of staying up with the show and the daily postings.

My best memory is organizing a boardster meet up at the 98 Fest in Vegas. It was really cool matching up the faces with their handles in person. I still have a group photo in our club photo album. I do remember but never met Ashenrider... he really had a thing for KLS lol. And on the trolling and hostilities. I wasn't affected directly and not privey to all the specific ugliness but know it got bad enough to involve the police. Looking back, maybe I should have bailed on the Sci-fi dominion too but it's where I first started online and felt an attachment there. It did split off the DS fans into 2 separate online camps and  I wasn't able to replicate the meetups at later fests. But the dominion is long gone and the forums board is still here and going strong. Repeating what I said after the big crash and downage a huge thank you to MB and Midnite for everything they have done and continuous to do for over 20 years. Wow.

Funny, when I saw the previous post, I was thinking more of Eva. Could see her going Oh hello der ...vould you like some hots cakes? And Roger going, " Oh for the love of..."

jockey holding a lantern statue

Gerard, I'm perplexed by your negativity on this. JP isn't involved and has nothing to do with this event. As a frequent fest goer, would I have liked to see him try some different things and different locations instead of the same-o same-o each year? Sure. But I'm not going to question his motives or efforts. He gave us lots of great memories over 30 years and certainly more  DS gatherings than we would have had without him. Chad isn't looking to duplicate a festival but to do a smaller fan friendly gathering similar to the Ed Lambese gatherings in the late 90's. And unlike JP, Chad is open to fan suggestions. Instead of rehashing the past, I am focusing on the present void of DS fan gatherings. If he is willing to put in the time and effort, I fully support him.

As for gofundme, it's an acceptable way of doing things these days. The producer of the DS based play Blackwood did a gofundme to raise the required upfront costs. He met his goal, they performed the play at the Orlando Fringe Fest and it was great fun. It's all good.

As for enjoying DS here, great - I am all for it. But I haven't been a Dark Shadows fan club president for 27 years thinking the best way for me to enjoy the show was to stay inside my house and watch the show on vhs and dvd. I've always felt the best way for a fan to enjoy the show is to share the enjoyment with other fans in person. It's been a labor of love but I wouldn't trade a minute of it. We actually have kicked around the idea of doing our own DS convention here in Orlando - but while we had organized book signings for David Selby and Lara Parker, a full DS gathering is a much bigger undertaking. So I applaud Chad wanting to tackle this.

Not seeing the pictures that go with the captions in the games area.

Will paint your portrait for a case of muscatel.

V: Ok David,  I showed you what's under my coat... now give me what's behind your back.