The Eric Noah Unofficial Message Boards was the News site of legend, greater than WotC or TSR. Once, under the wise rule of Eric Noah and the protection of the Piratecat, the Forums throve and grew. Like the greatest of fan sites, able to withstand any external attack, the Site faded from within though the danger was not visible from the outside.
Aided and abetted by restless, power-hungry individuals within the government, and the massive organs of commerce, the ambitious Piratecat caused himself to be elected President of the Forums. Once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting himself away from the populace. Having annhiliated through charisma and emoticons the Grognard Knights, guardians of AD&D in the galaxy, the Forum governors and bureaucrats prepared to institute a reign of terror among the disheartened forums of the internet.
But a small number of Admins and Mods Led by Morrus rebelled at these new outrages. Declaring themselves opposed to the New Order, they began the great battle to restore the Old Forums. From the beginning they were vastly outnumbered by the systems held in thrall by the Emperor, err Piratecat. In those first dark days it seemed certain the bright flame of resistance would be extinguished before it could cast the light of new truth across a galaxy of oppressed and beaten peoples...
---------------------------------------------------
Or, you can look at it this way...
Eric Noah's Unofficial 3rd Edition D&D News was founded in August/September 1999, as tiny leaks and tidbits were revealed about the brand new awesome-to-be 3rd edition game. As time went on, and Eric shared correspondence with both individual netizens and with those already communicating on the newsgroups rec.games.frp.dnd and wotc.3rdedition newgroups (can't remember the old server name), he decided it would be cool to start a message forum for fans to chat.
The first message forums were small, ugly, and very very fun.
By the time 3E had broke, Eric had a dedicated forum full of people over at the GameSpy Forums, and supported it through amazon.com offers, and through Gamespy banners. (I think the banners were required, though.)
Numerous other websites were popping up in those days, including one which supported an shared world named Daemonforge (which I'll bet most of the Forum members don't even know still exists!!!). This web site was called ENWorld, after the EN community's "shared world building concept."
In 2001, for personal reasons, Eric decided to cease running of Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D News. For a short while, no one knew if the community of several hundred close-knit individuals were even going to be able to stay together.
Then, the Little-known site of ENWorld, led by Russ Morrisey, stepped up to the challenge, and transitioned the forums, the resources, (the news and 3e examples known as Eric's "Black Pages") to ENWorld in late 2001. At some point between late 2001 and 2002, Russ decided live the dream of every gamer on the planet
, and make a go of running ENWorld as a full-time business.
The concept of ENWorld as "the premier 3E and d20 News site" was born in Early 2002, and continues to this day. Every month, new people hop on board as volunteers, supporting this site out of love for the community, and as supporters, helping to keep the lights turned on. Game Days spring up in many regions, of just people from across the world who know each other solely via connection to ENWorld. People spawn contests and competitions, geared to ENWorld members. Lasting Friendships have been forged through these boards.
Without the active contributions of fellow gamers that love the game and the fellowship around it, ENWorld would not continue to be here.
NOTE: Eric, Piratecat, and Morrus: should you feel the need to edit this post for accuracy, please feel free to do so.
