Phoenix’ fond DM memories

Thanks for doing this! I would love if you could collect as many as you can so we can put them up!

Here are some fond messories: *Warning* This is looooooooooong. You asked for it.

One day about 4 or 5 years ago I was browsing the web for people to talk to about the WoT books. There were lots and lots and lots of sites out there, but the only ones that offered any sort of human to human contact was the RP MUDS and things like that. I tried that, but would often be scowled at if I walked into a virtual tavern and said "Hey, so did anybody here like the ending to Book 5?" They all wanted to Role Play, and nobody wanted to talk to me. At that time, AOL had a organization going for people who wanted to join the Black Tower. They had meetings every week I think and you advanced in their ranks based on how much you showed up, how much you posted on their message boards, and for getting trivia questions right. It was non-threatening, non-competetive, and I loved it.

The only problem was that I did not have AOL. LOL

A few years passed and I looked again for somewhere online to talk to somebody. Still, I found nothing. I had just finished being a participant in a Jedi Knight gaming clan, and had been successful there as the clan's leader and web site developer. Looking back the page was not so great, but it gave me a good idea of how to operate and organize an online community.

So I set out to make my own Wheel of Time site. The first thing I asked myself was "What will make this site stand out from the others?" There was no way I could match all of the other theory sites, or the art sites, or discussion sites, or even the link sites. Those all existed in abundance and already had YEARS of work under their belts and I knew then (as I do now), that I can't really match a lot of them for their content. The answer I came up with was an online community. A nexus, for everybody to come home to after they had visited all the other websites.

To bring this idea to life, I needed help. Somewhere way deep down in that list I call my bookmarks, I found a link to a website that listed WoT fans ICQ numbers. I have since forgotten what site that was, who made it, or how the webmaster collected all of those numbers. When I found that site again, I enlisted the help of several people on there. The first one was a guy who called himself Darksmoon. Darksmoon and I had met months before this (almost 3 years now!) in a random WoT chat, and all we did was argue. I recall talking about the Dark One and his nature, and I remember thinking "This guy is a dumb ass and doesn't know what he is talking about." Well, I have no clue what he said to make me think that, but I take it back Darks. :)

So anyway, I got a hold of Darks and told him my idea about this website I would call Dragonmount, and these things called Organizations. The Orgs were modeled in a way after the online clans that are used all the time for gaming. In my mind originally, the Orgs would be clans that got along, talked, competed, and had fun together in a non-threatening, fun way. DM would serve in a similar way to that of a league. Sort of like the the NFL I suppose with each team being an Org. You get the point.

Darks loved the idea, and promised he would help.

Then I asked Demandred, who I also knew from my days at Jedi Knight playing. He was a good sport, having his butt beat all the time by my clan, and he was really into the WoT. So I asked him to help out and he jumped at the opportunity. Mandarb and Mazrim Tiam (our M'Hael) followed soon after, and pretty soon I had a nice sized staff helping me out.

It was a little shakey when we finally opened out. You would laugh if you could see what DM looked like on it's first day. Man, I would pay money for anybody who had an early screen shot. It was pretty bad. But despite that....it was a monster success. Back then I was doing all the applications for membership by hand, and it was a nightmare for weeks on end. Each day I received bucket loads of these things. People were joining in droves, and then telling their friends. Somewhere....I have a list of the first 100 or maybe the first 500 people to sign up at DM. I have that "locked" up on a special zip disk, and eventually I will reveal those names. But that will have to wait for a special occasion! *g*

As time went on, things went pretty well. The Black Tower boasted about 80% of the total DM membership. The White Tower still had no leader, and I was getting scared. I really wanted the WT to be great because of it's major role in the books. I had put out word that I needed somebody to do a great job. I asked a DM member whom we'll call "Julia" if she wanted to do it, and she declined after a few days. I was bummed, and a little upset, but man I tell you. The Creator works in mysterious ways. *g*............

...........I received an email from this Aes Sedai (who I think was a novice at the time actually) at the Netland Whitetower (which is a great site by the way!) and she was studying to be a Brown. She was goofy, silly, and a few cans short of a six pack, but there was just....something about her. She wanted to be Amyrlin, and --against better judgement-- I agreed.

Never, since the day I opened Dragonmount, have I made a better choice than that. Kathana not only rocketed her membership to rival that of the Black Tower, she built a structure that works and stands today as probably the finest org at DM. For whatever reason, the members who signed up not only believed in her, but really FOLOWED her! I was amazed that people were calling her Mother IC and OOC, asking polietely how they could help and be involved, etc. Then the kicker was that they listened when she talked. Maybe it was the fact that she slapped me silly one day in a RP (or was it OOC, I forget) that made people respect her so much. Hell, even several MEN wanted to join her org! By February or March, the White Tower was the most successful org at DM. As of this writing, I'm pretty sure it's the largest in membership also. At least, it's darn close.

Some more personal memories of the "early days:"

I remember role playing with the likes of Serafelle, Darksmoon, Sathinar (*sigh*--you never miss a pain in the ass until it stops itching), Ben, and Nordan, and those times were great. They were all over ICQ, they were horribly imbalanced, but they were fun. Many of you now are probably role playing much similar things now in our ever-turbulant RPG, and I encourage you all to save those chat transcripts and look back over them now and then. The Internet is an odd place to make friends, but you can't deny that it's a lot of fun. Those oddly spelled names are real people after all.

Those were all fun days when the sever was less advanced, and most of the action was based on ICQ around a significantly smaller group. A lot of people I know miss that smaller feel I know, but times change. DM kept growing, and instead of being one tight group where everybody knew everybody very well, it is now a collection of such groups loosely based around the orgs. It's been difficult for me at times to accept this as well, but one significant person really made me aware of how things are. Maarin Sedai.

Trysh--more commonly known here at DM as Maarin, was a sister of the Green Ajah that I ran into in DM's first ancient chat room. The story of Maarin and I can really sum up and mirror how I have felt overall at DM since it opened. She and I met and stuck up casual conversation whenever we were online. We e-mailed each other fairly often, but just cause we were bored or wanted to talk WoT stuff. There was nothing ever "going on" between us OOC. I was (and continue to be) in a serious relationship with Jennifer, and she likewise was involved with somebody as well. So our relationship was nothing romatic, but we certainly clicked in a lot of ways. We seemed to read each other's mind at times, and were a great compliment to the other. In terms of our characters, Maarin was a Green who had not found a warder, and I was a kid who was trying to accept the fact that I could channel. OOC, that showed a significant paralell. OOC, I was so happy being a "normal" member of DM, that it was tough to deal with day to day stuff like making the RP, making sure the Orgs all worked, getting new Org leaders, dealing with problematic members, updating the server, making new graphics, searching for WoT news, etc. It was just so easy to slip back into the comfort of being the guy who met Maarin online each night to talk about anything and everything.

Despite the fact that Jarron (my character) had swore not to be bonded by an Aes Sedai (something that OOC I didn't really want either), Maarin proved that you don't need strength in the One Power to beat the Dragon. Our characters bonded and that just rocked DM's world for a week or more. I still remember reading people's reaction to the whole thing. Some people were shocked, some were thrilled, and some were bitter (Maarin was not the only one to offer a bond). The months that followed were my happiest in terms of being an actual member of DM. Our first big Breaking was coming up if I call correctly, and I was online with DM constantly. Maarin and I role played with Ben, Darks, Sera, Nordan, Mandarb, and countless others as much as we could. It was a blast and everything was great.

And then a tougher time came around. I had to work more IRL, do less at DM, and Trysh became busy as well. We still talked often, but less and less with DM members, and less about "fun" things. For me, I was starting to see that because of the role I was playing as DM's director/Admin/whatever, I simply couldn't be "just another member." I couldn't simply join the warders and be Maarin's warder. I had the Dragon to play, and the site to run. That made for some good RP stories, but it was no longer as fun. I began (along with a lot of other DM members I think) to focus less on the RPing (which never was the biggest focus anyway) and work on making DM better for everybody...not just myself. I learned that sometimes, you just need to do something yourself if you want it done right. Nobody, no matter how capable, can see your vision and make it just right. And so I then dedicated my full attention to making DM work for everybody, almost at my own expense.

Now don't get me wrong. This doesn't mean I was sad or depressed! lol. Actually, it just meant that instead of enjoying the toys I made, I began to remember that the biggest joys I find are in making those toys for everybody else. Maarin doesn't come by DM much anymore due to limited net access and less time, but she and I still talk occasionally. When we do, we ALWAYS are amazed at how well we just slip back into these old roles of grinning and teasing each other. When bad stuff is going on at DM and it's frustrating, I really just remember all the fun I've had with everybody and I see that every second is worth it. Yes, this site has had its issues. It's had members who want to kill other members. It's had Breaking, and resets, bad leaders, and great leaders. It's seen people storm off in a rage saying it sucked, and it's also seen a few couples fall in love IRL.

We may not have the amount of theories that other websites do, we may not have any encyclopedia of WoT terms and languages, but we do have something really awesome: a community that models real life. The lives we lead at DM have told a story that is as complex and amazing as the books that bring us all together.

So that's all I can think of right now. We're soon going to be going to DM 5, a newer place (Editor’s Note: DM5 is here already) that I hope will encouarage more community and make everybody's experience of the Wheel of Time much better. Cause in the end, we're just fans of a great series of books that tell the story of life in turbulent times. Take out Dragons, Forsaken, Aiel, and tor'raken, and you have a story of women and men who do the best they can with what they have. We've done that for almost two years here at Dragonmount, and it just proves even more that the words Robert Jordan has written are not just fiction, but in truth, an accurate mirror of the way we are.

Thanks for doing this Lanfir!

-Phoenix