The Hunted: Epilogue

[Tundra]

Small edits, years later. Fancied up the thread title.


This is a message to whomever It may concern. Old members or curious guests.

This forum was The Hunted. After 10 years of being the Hunted, the forum started to die, slowly but steadily. And now, after 10 years, It Is Dead.
I want to express that we fought hard and well to keep the place alive. We did all we could to make it happen, even breaking a few rules to get it done. But alas, it was all to no avail. The Hunted died, and we couldn't save it.

We tried giving it a new name and a new paint job, but It didn't work. And now, we've given up. You only have so much fight in you, and I like to believe we kept fighting longer than most would have.


So now we leave The Hunted, a monument, a memory and a legacy.


But know that a few intrepid individuals gave their best to a forum that gave a few people, so very much.
Even If it was all in vain, I'd like to believe none of us regret a second of it.


What we leave behind, are tens of thousands of threads, written by thousands of people, and when put together, they tell a long story of a little community that enjoyed their time together. It was never perfect, but It was ours.
We'll leave all this here, to tell our story, for better or worse.



And now, what's going to happen? Hell If I know.
Most people here have moved on, but I don't know what they're up to now, I can only hope they're doing well.

I used to be called Rath here, for the older members that should ring a bell. Myself and Michael, former Global Moderator, now Acting Administrator here, will be doing something new. We learned a lot during our time here, both us kinda grew up here. We want to take what we learned from the Hunted, and apply it elsewhere.
When the time Is right, I will post a link here.


There's little else I can say. The Story of the Hunted can't be compressed into a single post. The old members won't need it, you'll understand and know everything you need to know.




I am sorry we failed to keep the Hunted alive. Part of me thinks I could have done something differently, part of me believes that the forum just ran It's course. That It was only going to go so far. I take solace in that.
If anyone ever needs anything, my contact details are in my profile.

Our story Is written on our walls here for you to explore, should you choose to do so.

[Spooky]

I'm not sure how I ought to structure this post. I considered getting drunk to write it.

Well, I've been a member here for 8 or so years. I've grown up a lot since I first joined.
I think the first thing that needs clearing up... well, I won't speak for the other mods but I think nobody would deny that the moderating went a bit too far at times. So I'm sorry for that. But I'll also say that all of us only ever had the best intentions for the board when we were doing our job; suffice to say, there were plenty of painfully ridiculous trolls who came through here (who also provided much amusement for all our residents).
Joker, if you ever read this, I'm sorry. You were the joke-man who made this whole thing happen, and the members and staff have both been imperative to the running of this good forum.

Of course it hasn't just been the two of us who've been active, it would be blind to speak only of us. I'm sure people will pop in occassionally. But as Rath and I, we've done what we could with our permissions to dust out this cave, and I can't say Rath and I bent over ass and tit to try and pull this place out of the tar-pit, but hey, there's only so much you can do, right? Put in a new background, and modify the banner, cull some boards and advertise, and Rath did probably more than me, but as Rath said I guess it was all to no avail anyway.
The Hunted was an awesome community, comprised of geeks, undead colonels, cyborgs, elves, yautja, a pesky feline, and some very strange trolls and fellows, and a hundred other things. But I doubt any of them will ever see this. I don't even know why I'm writing this. I guess in the early years a lot happened, and then the years sped up and suddenly all of the stuff here has become incredibly old. I wouldn't have guessed so many things happened in '06-'09 for example, that I would've thought were only 3 years old or so. Time flies when something like these sacred messageboards drift into the peripherals of my mind.
In short, this place has become creepy. We have a boneyard of 1300 inactive members, which is bittersweet... My username only became Spooky about two years ago, long after our waves of members vacated. Finally my name, Spooky, has meaning. I am one of the caretakers of this ghostly place. My title, the Lonely Yautja has become valid; Rath is currently of a more Lovecraftian role, leaving me one of the final hunters from our big clan.
Well, I won't be leaving per se. It's too easy to log in occasionally. So I'll be going into cryo-sleep until someone comes along.
Maybe if any old members come here to check out the archives, they'll post something here.

A few technical and administration notes:

• Rath and I redid the graphics on this site, and renamed the boards while leaving them largely in-tact as a spiritual successor to The Hunted, and renamed it Polaris, around 1 year ago. We couldn't think of a better name. We tried kicking some life back into the place, but to no avail.
• All the Hunted messages have been archived in the ? category, which also houses the Memorable Threads and Trash Can, and the Alley. These have been made accessible just to members, who might want to check them out again.
• Registration remains open I think, though it seems pointless to leave it open. But anyone who is interested can request to register.
• Guests can no longer post on most things.
• Most inactive mods (more than a few years inactive) have had their ranks changed to Famed Warrior of Legend. Just to tie up any loose ends.

Well, I'm not so strange irl.

[Fireblight]

It's sad to hear that this is the end. When I joined this place almost four years ago there were quite a few people active, still. Probably nothing compared to what you two have seen over the years, but people were posting frequently. I haven't been a very good member because of my on/off activity, but I still check this place almost every day.

The last year or so has been a tough one for me. I feel like every time things have seemed to be going well, something happens and everything turns into a shitstorm... I think that's the reason I haven't been able to summon the will to post here, or anywhere else. Of course, now it sounds like a poor excuse, and I think that's what it is.

However, during my rather short time here I met a bunch of awesome people, and whenever I was trying to be active I had quite a bit of fun too. I'm sure I'll still be lurking around, and I'm looking forward to see what you, Rath and Michael, will have managed to produce.

You didn't fail, you did all you could. But times change, people change, and everything comes to an end, as difficult as it is to let go of those times.



Now someone make sure my post won't be the last one, I'm not good at writing these kinds of things...

[Frost]

What can I say? it saddens me to see this happen. But such is life, even for a place as memorable as this. Things are born, they grow and hit their prime. And then just like a living being they grow on to to a declining life and die. But, I'd rather not thing of this as death but, as a new beginning. With the rise of other social media, forums just no longer attract the populace they once did, yet there are still some of us who carry on with this form of communication. perhaps someday we can all come together again, in this form or another. What counts is that we grew as a community. some of us drifted and others became inseparable. In the end we are still a family. I'll always be around... even if I'm mostly taken to lurking now, you can still find me around. I've been a part of this community since around the time of its birth. I've seen it grow and I've seen it decline and then grow again and then reach this point. I've seen many of the same faces change their names countless times, and I myself have been through several changes as well. I will not say good bye but an I'll see you again someday. I'll still check in this place and keep a silent eye on it. Although I am powerless to do anything to help, I'll still be a sentinel to this place. Seek me out if you need of me... call on me if you need someone to talk to. When I first signed on to this place I went by the name of kuroikappa. Google it and you shall find me in my many other forms. heck if you need to email me... just add the @gmail.com or hotmail.com to my original username. I'm always up for a good conversation. even if it comes by at a slow pace.

I will say this again, I won't say good bye. This is simply an I will see you soon.

[Sara]

I ain't givin' up.

Most probably don't know me. But at one point I shaped this place to be less spammy, and I did a lot of technical clean-up work when I did become global mod. I eventually moved on to do my own forum which is also nearing death because I need to upgrade it and RL coupled with my RP stuff (Which is also Predator-related) have put it on the sidelines.

Without this place I wouldn't be where I am today. So thank you for being there. Thank you Joker, The General, Michael, Masurao, Hannibal and his wife Adara....everyone else; you're still with me in my memory.

But rest assured my forum WILL rise from the ashes. I have the technical know-how and I have the wondrous, gracious hosting from Shalimar and Ardath. Predaphiles Network will be awesome. And if anyone wants to help me, please contact me: siliconsara at gmail dot com. And yes you have to be 18 or older. I am 30 now and I do not feel comfortable talking with kids, regardless of their maturity level. The original movies are rated R, and thus I am keeping above the bar where the ratings imply.


LINK REMOVED - RATH

[Tundra]

I'm glad to see there's still a few people who'll join us in lurking here henceforth.

And for curious guests, or older members; We still have every single thread created from 2004-2013 archived here: predatorhunted.proboards.com/board/41/predator-trophy-room
And I made a thread a little while ago with some Hunted highlights, If you're ever bored: predatorhunted.proboards.com/thread/5711/hunteds-greatest-hits

[Setg]

So, I'm not gonna lie... it took me 10 minutes to remember my password for this place. Its been a while, as Staind once sang.

Anyhow.

This place taught me about the internet. Id not long started a new jib when I found this place way way back in 05. It was Sunday receptionist for a car dealership. Smile, greet the customers, point them to a salesman. Rinse and repeat.

The main benefit was internet access for the full day. The internet was new to me - even though I'd had games consoles all my life, the web was an alien domain. I'd Googled a few things when I typed in one of my favourite film, comic and book franchise, and it took me to this place.

I was almost rigid with excitement! Other people who shared my enthusiasm for all things Predator! It was a dream come true. I could see that the board had only been going a year, bur already friendships had been formed, enemies made, and I jumped right in.

I got pally with a guy who made me a kick ass animated sig and avatar, then promptly lost them when I didnt know how to transfer them from his imagebucket to mine. Yeah..noob.

I got chatting to other likeminded people, made friends, wrote stories, had fun.

It came as a surprise when I was nominated for Mod, then GMod. I took the opportunity though, and feel in the main I did an OK job. Managed to keep people mainly happy, and didn't actually need to ban THAT many people (my condescending English tone made them leave well before that).

Then something happened. People started to leave. Not noticeably at first, but after a while another face would go. We'd get new people (some good, mostly not) but the decline was there. I've often thought about what caused it. Part of me thinks its the human conditions of always wanting sonething new. I feel these days, that it night just be that he franchise is in such an inactive state that even when they released a reboot of the original film, it didn't draw in new faces, let alone older ones on a resurgence.

I'll miss this place. Athough I've not really been around that much, The Hunted has always been in some part of my mind. I'll miss most of the people; I'm not gonna list them all but the longtime members and the staff mainly are the ones that helped shape this board from.its infancy and made it last for so many years are the ones I'll remember with affection.

I have the odd one or two people on Facebook, including Joker who's just started to use it. I'll drop him him a message and see what he wants to do with the place (as long as we can go back and reminisce over the old stuff, like going through a family photo album).

If I made you laugh or helped you, then I'm glad.
If I pissed you off then I'm sorry.

Either way, I wish you all the very best for the future, whatever wonders it may bring.

All the best.

Setg

[Tundra]

*cough* So yeah, I forgot to mention; A few weeks ago I got an E Mail from Joker, telling me why he's been gone and such. Haven't heard back yet, but I remain hopeful. He might still drop in, maybe see If he still wants to try and make the forum active again.

[Setg]

It'd be good for him to see the place. I imagine he's had stuff going on, or maybe (like some of us) he's just outgrown the place. I think even if he wanted to bring it back, its not something that would happen. We had our glory days...we're in the retirement home now waiting for them to bring our supper. If we try to go dancing with the whippersnappers again we'll probably throw our hip out...

I'm gonna stop with the old people metaphor now as its getting creepy...young Sonny Jim!

Also I don't think we were THAT hard on people Rath. I tried yo join a other board a few years back and they banned people for.the smallest of infringements, like posting in the wrong section. As Sara once said, we didnt get an instruction manual when we got given this gig, and we did the best we could.

I have nothing but admiration for the way you and Mikey tried to keep the place alive, with the new changes etc, and while I'd love to see this place return to the wretched hive of scum and villainy it once was, I just can't see that dream taking shape.

[Tundra]

I'll say that we never banned anyone who didn't deserve it. But we could have done it far better. Usually we threw a complimentary dish of clever comments and verbal annihilations along with the ban, which just fueled the drama, and set a tone that probably wasn't so good for the forums well being.

Like you said, we didn't get an instruction manual, we followed examples. And those examples were not the best they could have been.

The forum still has a bit of soul left in it. If we wanted to see it flourish again, there's no doubt in my mind we could do it. But there's just never really been such a strong flux of activity that we made it happen.

[E-Stalin [Orthrus]]

It is a shame, but all things come to an end. I have to say that this place will always be a significant memory for me because it was a very important part of my growing up. When I first got onto this forum, I think I was 13 years old. It was the first time that I talked to people online, and as a very shy kid, I probably met and befriended more people here than I ever did in school.

The reason I found it so wonderful was that people here seemed to know more than me. As a kid I loved two things: science and reading. I was self-conscious, barely spoke intelligible English, and had grown up in a Russian culture. I didn't understand sports, wasn't familiar with popular movies, games, or music, and didn't comprehend what all of my schoolmates found interesting.
As 13-14 year old kids, the average classmate I had would spend recess playing some game and talking with eachother about things I didn't understand at all. I spent my time reading and chatting with my teachers.

On here, I ran into so many folk, kids and adults alike, that not only had a shared interest with me, but loved to talk about it. I experienced everything from discussions on sci-fi here to meeting and talking with grown adults that inadvertently rubbed off their life experience on to me.

This forum was the first time that I tried role-playing, and as a result I got into writing, and now I'm in the middle of revising a book that I'm hoping to publish. If I hadn't played with Stone Heart and read Adara's stories here, I likely never would have tried my hand at it.

This forum was the first time I witnessed justice. Not to sound sappy, but my entire experience of law and order as a kid consisted of "Authority figure says X, do X because they're right because they're authority."

The verbal destruction of trolls and idiots here by General matured my world view right quick. Not only were they hilarious as hell, but more importantly they let me make a connection between rules and the reasons for those rules. Instead of simple input-output, I started to understand why law and punishment exists and more importantly, started figuring out how to think about exceptions to the rules and gained a better understand on the subject.
As a result, I developed my own morality and personal worldviews, which eventually led me to enlisting in the Marines.

If I hadn't seen something so basic as banning a troll on this forum, I might never have gone that route.

Everywhere I looked and everyone I talked to on here all offered me something, and as a kid, those small little things all grew. I'm happy with who I am today, and honestly believe that I wouldn't be that person if it weren't for all of you wonderful motherfuckers. This community gave me an outlet in which to mature and grow up that my real life never did. It gave me a chance to see and talk to real people instead of just grouping everyone into, "Adult/athlete/bully/bully-bait."

You lot are all a wonderful group of people, and I certainly can't thank you enough for the influence you've had on me, and the memories of this place will always be an important part of my childhood.

Thank you all, and best of luck to you in future endeavors.

[lieutenant]

*salutes*

Good show, men.

On behalf of the Fatal Alliance, I bid you adieu, until next time.

[Scarface]

Obviously I'm way late posting in this thread, but I guess the most I can do from my end right now is pay my respects. Not sure if anyone who happens to see this will recognize me, but I've been an official member of this site since 2007 (roughly 8 years now), and am now about to graduate high school within a few months. I do indeed feel guilty that I took one too many hiatuses from this place, but I'll always carry memories of this place. It wasn't always the largest and most active community here and we had our issues, but I always remember being able to recognize almost everyone that posted. Most of us were pretty well knit, and I had a fair amount of constructive discussions regarding the fan subject of the forum. I remember finding members on here to be more agreeable or at least more reasonable compared to many members on larger sites like AVP Galaxy. This forum was one of, if not the first message board I really started posting on and I still remember that. It's a shame that activity continued to die down for a good while now, and it is very saddening that it is basically at the point of no likely return. But hey maybe by some miracle this site will come back somehow by some chance. Until then no matter what happens later I do wish you all the best, and I hope each of us can find other ways to express our enjoyment, and continue being fans.

[Tundra]

It's both comforting and encouraging to see so many people taking the time to leave a last goodbye, or an au revoir here.

So for the ones who linger, I'll still be around. It doesn't take more than a few seconds of my day to check in here, and respond to any threads or PMs people will send my way. So if anyone has questions, thoughts or just want to chat, feel free to make a thread, the boards are still open. Or toss a PM my way, I'm guaranteed to respond.


Also to clarify a bit on Joker's whereabouts; My last contact, indeed any of our last contacts with him, was an e mail he sent me last summer. I did reply to it, but he hasn't responded yet. He was understandably not forthcoming about where he's been the past 3-4 years, and I won't spill the beans here, It's simply not my place, nor do I even know any specifics.
But he did say he's doing alright, and he does miss us, the forum and he has been trying to get the time to visit us again for years. Sadly he's very busy, and of course real life always takes precedence over a virtual one.

But for him, and the members left, I'll be around for as long as the forum is still live.

[Hannibal]

Well fuck me runnin and call me Hannibal, or sexy, what ever worka for you. Die? No. This place shall not die. There are those of us who are here, those of us who have returned and those who shall join and continue the battles.

I for one am just too damn hot to let this place cool off. If you wanna cools down take a cold shower 'cause I'm about to stir up some fun.

Watch for it, join in on it and create your own as we travel through the world of the Predator's, our staff and members as well as the dark recesses of Hannibal's mind. Mostly a flirt now, not as much as an a-hole. Maybe? Lol. Tune in and find out what happens next!

[Tundra]

Just bumping this so people are more likely to see it, since It's an important post.

For those lurking; I'm considering making a timeline post here, summarizing the events leading to the current state of the Hunted.

[earthyautja21]

its been a long time since I've been here. As I type this, the memories are coming back in floods. I was here 10 years ago and I made a lot of friends and had many a laugh. I was a noob like we all were but then I came to love this place. I would stay on the site for hours. I really learned how to role play here. Before I came here I had never done Paragraph rps and so i give my thanks to you all for being my friends and teachers.

Over time, I came to see everyone on the site as brother and sister, I role played with a lot of you and I hope some can remember but if not, read the old posts. I made the Yautja Mother ship to act like a place we could all hang out, chat, do some light rp. But it just didn't catch on. When I made the Yautja Mother ship the site was gasping and close to death. I had once hoped to be a mod but as I look back, I'm glad that rank was never awarded to me. I know I was a pain in the butt for the mods on a few occasions, I made a stink about unconfirmed members and such.

I'm now 30 years old and i hope I'm a bit wiser, and with this new decade, maybe Predator or Aliens will get a reboot. I've been looking at the site and it has been redone nicely. Still has a Pred motif that is absolutely beautiful and if any of the old gang wishes to hang out and chat, PM me, I will gladly hang out on this site with any of you!

May all your hunts be successful!

[Huntress Kwei]

I had a dream about this place a few nights ago and kept thinking about all the Predator related forums I've been in over the past 12 years. This is the only one still up and running on the internet, unfortunately. I wish I could get back into the Predator movies and be obsessed like I used to, but I ended up growing out of it. I still love Predator and I keep my Predator figures/sets on my desk, but I don't think I'll be able to roleplay, draw, write Predator fanfiction anymore :/

You guys did a good job though keeping this forum from tanking for so many years. If my parents hadn't thought the internet was the devil back in 2004-2005, then I think I would have been a very active member for a very, very long time.

na'tauk (︶︹︺)

[Tundra]

I'm sure glad to see members returning, even if just to leave a brief message.

Sadly, I can't offer any words of hope or encouragement that the forum will be restarted, or that any attempts will be made to bring back some activity. All I can say Is that I'll still be around. This being my 10th year here, checking in has just become a habit I'm in no rush to break.

In the interest of full disclosure; I attempted to E Mail Joker a little over a month ago, only this time to find both his personal, and work E Mails are now out of order, effectively killing all hope of getting some comment from the big guy.
Of course If anyone ever finds themselves in Tasmania, feel free to go door to door and asking for Joker.

[E-Stalin [Orthrus]]

Tasmania? Jesus Christ, why not hit Antarctica while we're at it?