Author Topic: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM  (Read 7193 times)

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WarmUpZone

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Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« on: July 04, 2021, 11:08:14 AM »
What up, PALS!
It was exactly 20 year ago that skateboarding changed forever when the website for SLAP Magazine opened a public message board forum. Happy birthday SLAP Forum!



I spent a lot more time than I should have digging around the Internet Archive to gather a little history for y'all and see how things looked back in the day. This might be a long post, so get comfy...




While the exact date the SLAP Forum launched could not be determined, the oldest record that could be recovered was from July 11th, 2001. The Forum was already up and running at that time with a whopping 87 members and 42 topics in Categories like "Skate Talk" and "Brandy's Corner".




Things seemed to grow quickly. Here is one of the earliest sampling of threads I could find, from the "Website Suggestions" board:




Here is a bit of what the front page of the slapmagazine.com looked like at this time (Oct 2001):




By December of 2001, things we're rolling. The "Skate Talk" board, with multiple mods, had threads hitting plural page counts.



It is cool to see topics with themes like "Who is this kid?", "Tricks you learned today", and "Old Spitfire vids". The more things change, the more they stay the same.


By June of 2002, the Forum was up to 614 members and over 1300 topics. The color scheme had gone grey at this time, apparently.
Just for comparison (and if you haven't checked the Statistics Center on SLAP, it is fascinating (https://www.slapmagazine.com/index.php?action=stats)) at the time of this post I'm writing right now (and the current stats go back to 2005) there are 37640 members and 99502 topics.




And now here is how things looked in 2004:




Things start to look familiar in this 2007 screen shot (some images aren't archived, though). "Skate Talk" has turned into the "Useless Wooden Toy Banter" we know and love. "Photo/Video", "Whatever: whatevs", "Events/Classifieds", "Music" (although "from 8-Track to Ipod" is pretty dated), and "Classic SLAP" is all there.




For the next 7 or so years, the Forum is part of a well balanced SLAP website, even though the printed SLAP magazine stopped in 2008. Here are screen-shots of the website sidebar "Hot Topics from the Forum" from 2011:




At some point this may have evolved into "Forum Feeder" updates on a sidebar of other articles:



A sample of "Article Roulette" from 2013




While it feels like the real decline of original SLAP content began with the collapse of the 2012 One In A Million season, the marked slowdown of non-forum SLAP website posts began in July of 2014. Over the next few years, there were only a handful of posts, with about a third of them related to the death of a skateboarder (Matt Reason, Jay Adams). The final SLAP front page post was on October 13, 2016, about Dylan Rieder's passing.



Sometime between September 28 - 30th, 2017, the index page of slapmagazine.com redirected straight to the Forum, thus ushering in the contemporary era.

-----

This is all just what I found digging around, but I wasn't here for most of it. Please, join in on the 20-Years-of-SLAP-Forum conversation with your fond (or loathsome) recollections of the SLAP Forum. If anybody can fill in the gaps, or correct some of my assumptions here, please do so. If anybody can convince Trippe to log back in and kick some knowledge, that would rule.

Big THANK YOU to all the Mods past present and future for volunteering their time, High Speed for keeping the Forum up and running, and everyone for contributing in one way or another.

Pour some out for the homies who focused their accounts or are no longer with us for other reasons.



Warm Up Zone. Let's watch some skateboarding videos.

Pete

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2021, 11:26:08 AM »
we would "leak" fake info here and watch kids go to skateperception talking about my friend just told me yada yada.

or the classic "new NYC video trailer" thread with a link to a picture of a trailer on fire in BQE traffic.


was def dope when wed get real DLXSF Giant SoleTech etc catalog leaks from shop owners that didnt give a shit tho. back before you could easily see what every brand was doing for the next year and half out.


thanks for posting those real early pics and that gif with carroll and bobby. cool to see that again.




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FREE MAX B

alonelikeastone

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2021, 11:27:55 AM »
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

NoComply180

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #3 on: July 04, 2021, 11:44:47 AM »
I was more of a tum yeto message board guy in those times. This was cool to read through. Thanks for putting together.



Him ah fall off building an bumboclot him legs

sometimeperhaps

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2021, 12:03:43 PM »
Thanks for putting that together.

I think I started lurking here in 2006-ish. I was interning at some random company, and I sat at the back and had so much downtime.

I wonder who the longest active poster has been, and how many from the 00's are still hangin around.

kingpinuser

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2021, 12:20:49 PM »
Thanks for putting that together.

I think I started lurking here in 2006-ish. I was interning at some random company, and I sat at the back and had so much downtime.

I wonder who the longest active poster has been, and how many from the 00's are still hangin around.

I've been lurking since then, I remember the change over when we had to re-register on the "new" board... just checked and I've had this one since November 2005. Somedays I think I should post more and get up to Pal but I think I will forever be heavy lurker.

baaaaaaguette

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2021, 12:41:00 PM »
Joined this year only but damn this is super cool OP, thanks for digging these out! Happy birthday slap!

Easy Slider

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #7 on: July 04, 2021, 01:26:00 PM »
I missed all of this because I already had stopped skating in 2001 (about the same time Dre dropped 2001), if I imagine how much time I could have wasted here  :'(

Anyway, I am glad I found these forums, it has helped me in many ways since my comeback to skating in 2020, with trick tips, gear recommendations, perseverance and motivation. Thanks Slap and happy birthday!
why come?

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #8 on: July 04, 2021, 01:35:29 PM »
Sweet!

The crail board went down and huphtur told me that slap is a good place … must have been around 2004-2005. Everything seems blurry.

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #9 on: July 04, 2021, 01:41:08 PM »
Thank you for the walk down memory lane.

I was left to surf the internet to keep from murdering my shipmates when I first checked aboard my ship in the summer of 2002. I discovered this place promptly after wheelbite went extinct. My first distinct memory of slap is finding out Pepe had passed away from this messageboard.

Cheers to everyone and I hope I'm still lurking here 20 years from now.

goodatmeth

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #10 on: July 04, 2021, 01:50:32 PM »
Amazing history, thank you

ShyLow

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #11 on: July 04, 2021, 01:53:07 PM »


Happy 20th SLAP

el chino

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #12 on: July 04, 2021, 01:57:00 PM »
Thats fucking cool
Happy birthday slap! ❤
<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/8ph4y/embed"></iframe>

Alan

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #13 on: July 04, 2021, 01:57:55 PM »
Great post @WarmUpZone. Thanks for doing the digging!


I thought I had more stuff, but these are the only forum-related images I could find on my hd. Wish I had more.





Hosin' out the cab of his pickup truck
He's got his 8-track playin' really fuckin' loud

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #14 on: July 04, 2021, 01:58:30 PM »
My favorite moment was winning that signed Black Label Tony Alva cruiser in 2008.
2022 Slap Fantasy Football Champion

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #15 on: July 04, 2021, 02:19:15 PM »
Hah rad to see those old screenshots, thanks. I must've registered my first account around 04 and have definitely wasted years of my life lurking. 


wheee!

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #16 on: July 04, 2021, 02:21:08 PM »
Happy Birthday Slap
You guys still have your Grosso contest boards right?

Alan

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #17 on: July 04, 2021, 02:31:21 PM »
You guys still have your Grosso contest boards right?

Of course!
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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #18 on: July 04, 2021, 02:34:28 PM »
Happy birthday Slap and thank you for this wonderful place.

Here’s to another 20 years of shaloming and mudslinging.
Well I have like 9 Andy Anderson dated flight decks.

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #19 on: July 04, 2021, 02:36:40 PM »
big luv y’all

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #20 on: July 04, 2021, 02:37:03 PM »
Happy 20th, SLAP Forum!
<3 XOXOXO <3

slappies

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #21 on: July 04, 2021, 02:55:16 PM »
This is my second account, just tracked down my old account and it looks like I made it in April of 2007 when I was freshly 14 years old (probably after a few months of lurking). Hard to believe I've spent literally half of my life posting here, Jesus Christ.
CRACK RAIDER RAZOR

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #22 on: July 04, 2021, 03:11:15 PM »
awesome!

i had a good laugh when i saw my original username, ebtravis, in the first screenshot.

pretty wild to think about spending time on here 20 years ago, but cool to be aware of.

cheers to 20 years more... i can't even begin to imagine what they state of humanity will be then.

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #23 on: July 04, 2021, 03:20:00 PM »
Happy birthday!

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #24 on: July 04, 2021, 03:47:45 PM »
At least this forum is now safe from the Braille crew want to fuck it

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #25 on: July 04, 2021, 04:29:09 PM »
Wow way before my time. The old layouts looked sick. I was a Skate Perception kid so I was late to the slap game.

hbd

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #26 on: July 04, 2021, 05:39:45 PM »
Joined SLAP at 40. Was having a midlife skate crisis. I always skated and watched videos but felt like I was holding on to the past. I credit SLAP Msg board with helping me stay motivated by feeling part of a community.

Also, I am a bit of a technophobe and this is the only social media I take part in.

SLAP has to be the most tight-knit msg board community in the world!
« Last Edit: July 04, 2021, 05:47:09 PM by GardenSkater77 »

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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #27 on: July 04, 2021, 06:01:36 PM »
been here in one form or another since at least 03.  made some actual good friends over the years, no regrets.
Quote
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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #28 on: July 04, 2021, 06:05:20 PM »
Great post @WarmUpZone. Thanks for doing the digging!


I thought I had more stuff, but these are the only forum-related images I could find on my hd. Wish I had more.






I love the pitchforks one!


HBD SLAP! Thanks OP for a walk down memory lane and showing examples of previous iterations of the site.
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Never forget:
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Re: Happy 20th Birthday SLAP FORUM
« Reply #29 on: July 04, 2021, 06:41:57 PM »
SHALOM to all the posters past and present



Roll Forever Tate, 360 Frip, Yappie Dappie, Rusty, T Mack, Pablo, Malcolm, Nosey, Abair