I was member of 2 other forums for little while before coming here. I had seen forum come up on some web searches, but joining wasn’t required to read thread. Eventually i joined so i could comment on a topic. Even managed to get a nasty gram from @latewood within a few weeks. Wasn’t maybe 8-10 months or so and he was messaging me about helping out here, and the rest is history.
This forum has changed quite a bit in 5+ years I’ve been around. Mostly for the better, but we’ve definitely lost some really good people. I see a few of you mention Maxheadroom, do you know his diy lights live on? He reached out to us when he was getting near the end of the road. Could no longer grow due to his health and was at the point of consolidating his equipment. We were able to find buyer through Mattybear and Covertgrower picked up lights and sent them from Midwest to West coast. Max was super cool guy that we definitely didn’t get enough time with, but his ideas and work grow on through freinds of the forum. @crazyots was another, super cool guy. I helped him out with with a few electrical issues in lab forum and he messaged me asking for my address. I told him don’t worry about it, but he insisted. 4 days later 10 grams of shatter and an unopened black sabbath cd show up on my door step. We exchanged numbers, i thanked him, and became pretty solid friends. Solid enough that when he went from his attic to a 12’x20’ grow room i drove through 2 states to his home and assembled the whole room worth of lights for him. It wasn’t until that day i realized the black sabbath cd was somewhat of a token. I’d like to say “if ya know, ya know”, buy literally not a single one of them is active on this forum anymore. The cd was the cover or discreet shipping tool. It’s been to Australia and back, Canada and back multiple times, New Zealand, New Mexico, Texas multiple times, and only God knows where else. And to this day, sits on a shelf in my basement next to most of my grow equipment. I remember getting a second nasty gram from @Aquaponic_Dumme (lol) because MattyBear, Myfriendis410, and I made some chit chat about meeting at Disneyland. Like for real dude, gtfo with that.
@Donaldj was the guy who made things move and kept things afloat here. He knew who the true potheads and members that kept things moving were, and he put most of us in contact with each other. He left the forum shortly after, is probably the best moderator this forum doesn’t have.
One last story, and I’ll quit my babbling. I really wish we still had @TDubWilly. You’re all familiar with term “red headed step child”? Cannacon las vegas 2019 I tried to arrange meetup there. To my knowledge, Tdubwilly (Tim), Myfriendis410, and myself were only ones that made it. Tim stayed at same hotel as my wife and I, Myfriendis410 stayed with friends and met us for brunch Saturday morning at the Flamingo. His old crabby ass insisted on meeting at like 9am when Tim and I were out til 5am, but we were both right there when grandpa came up the escalator. Alan and I are both about 6’5" although Alan built like basketball player and me defensive lineman. Tim at about a solid foot shorter and ginger af looked like Alan’s illegitimate kid haha. We sat bullshitting for almost 3 hours, then gramps drove us all to dispensary. I bought a quarter of green crack and gelato vape, Alan bought who knows what, and Tim got that goddam lemoncello vape. We climb in Alan’s truck and the damn ginger weed fiend is already screwing his cartridge into a super douche vape mod. He hit that thing so damn hard like 3 times. Passed to Alan and then to me, and from time we left dispensary and got within a block of our resort the 3 of us were stoned stupid. Tim and I bailed so that gramps could get back to his place quickly as i sat in the backseat telking myself “don’t talk you’ll sound like an idiot”. Walking down the strip i felt like t-rex, but was easily ahead of Tim. I looked back and he said i can’t feel my legs bro. We ducked into casino and sat at closest slot machines, then fed $20 after $20 for about an hour. My wife eventually came to get us and couldn’t even keep a straight face. She said “are you guys ok?” Tim said no, i need a nap. I wasn’t as lucky and had to grind it out, but we hit the strip again about 10pm. I had dinner with Tim one more time about a year later, but we lost him 1/23/21 to cancer, just like Otto. You all are great, our team is great, but I really miss those guys sometimes.
Keep dropping those seeds and checking in from time to time, you never know who you might bump into.
Came back to add this, for old times sake 
great service on their products, full replacement for bum seeds, and this forum. I stalked the forum for a while before joining because…well, paranoia (still recovering from the “reefer madness” education i got in elementary school). Everyone here is helpful without hubris.
. So I was back to the drawing board on where to order seeds. I then found the forum and saw tons of people currently discussing things and posting grows with seeds they literally got from ILGM so I knew they were legit. I ordered my seeds and joined the forum and have been on everyday since I joined ( just got the aficionado badge lol)