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Featured Article

Remembering RetroJunk

By: vkimo
I joined RetroJunk in the Fall of 2008. I was 22 years old at the time and stumbled on the site while (I think) looking for a Doug episode. I've been a regular ever since. I currently hold the record for highest rated article on the site and have 3 in the top 10, and have written 24 total. I'm not trying to brag- because believe me, that's not something you brag about- but I just thought you guys should know. I haven't written an article for this site in over 3 years. This will be my last for the site, so I wanted to make it special. Look at it as the sum total of my experience with the world's greatest Nostalgia site.


2003-2005 The Primordial Soup Starts To Bubble


The earliest known image of RetroJunk. Notice the articles, videos and so on are all shown in one feed. No membership was available at this time as evidenced by no options to sign in



The site was so small it didn't have a forum yet. Look at the forums now, we've come full circle!

RetroJunk got its start back in 2003 when college roommates Vertex and Birdman decided they wanted to have a place online where they could relive their childhood. The site basically consisted of a chat room and a video archive of TV intros, toy commercials, and PSAs. This was before YouTube mind you. So if you desperately needed to see that McRib commercial from 1989 then RetroJunk was where you'd find it. I'll wager a lot of you found RJ by its infamous watermark placed on videos while browsing YouTube. The first years saw steady growth and the site kept getting new features and most importantly a phpbb message board. A forum is the true heart of any website, and where I will begin.


The early forum looks pretty generic. I wasn't a member at this time but I can almost hear the Disney's Doug shaming from here

As I said before, I joined in late '08. By this time the message boards had been around a solid 4 years. That's a lot of posts. I was a member of the site for about 3 months before I even posted. I submitted my first article, which had no pictures and was about 5 paragraphs, but was hooked. The boards were moderately active, and no member had more than four thousand posts, so you could say it was still a young board. There was one member though who was literally wiped from the annals of RetroJunk lore. That member was known as Reaper. He was banned around 2006 but had a whopping ten thousand posts. That's a lot when the average regular had less than one thousand at the time. He founded one of RetroJunk's first cliques, the GERT FRIED OREO CLUB. The reasons are now unclear but his account was swiped and all that is left is a "System" url error when his account is visited. That was about all that happened of note in the early days. Which brings us to around 2007-2009, which is RetroJunk's classical era.


I was intrigued by the old article system. Instead of a number score you were rated by a star system. Not like a nebular star system though, more like an Amazon star review. Silly




Article giveaways. This was great bait to newcomers longing to share their opinions on the DIC closing logo


December of 2004 and the site is starting to look legit!

2006-2009 RetroJunk As We All Knew It


Boomshakalaka! This was RJ at its best. It looked retro, it felt retro and you bet your *ss it smelled retro

By 2007 RJ had settled into its most recognizable layout. With its G.I. Joe font and retro TV ensemble photoshopped together, the site was a welcome oasis for every manchild west of the Tallahassee. Around this time there was a major shift occurring in the demographics of the site. The first generation were true 80s kids who were born in the late 70s and waxed nostalgic about shows like Greatest American Hero, M.A.S.K, Masters Of The Universe and so on. But they were an old breed and with the new decade approaching we saw a younger generation come, the "90s" kids. The forums mainly consisted of absurdly heated debates on what classified as retro, with the general consensus drawing the line at 1999. The site had about 30-50 regular posters. Back then we had forum titles attributed to our post counts that went something like:

0-100 Whipping Boy - Basically you didn't know Alf from ET
100-400 Water boy - You're one of us, but not really
400-800 Devoted RJer - You're a regular and have some clout
800-1200 Elite - You can now backtalk a mod
1200-3000 Retro Pimp - This one still eludes me..
3000-4999 Retro Master - You're undefeated on Scene It
5000+ Retro King Of The Land - You've got no life, but that's ok



Breaks my heart just looking at it. There was so much going on you were just excited to get in on it

In my years on the site, there's only been a handful who achieved over 5,000 posts. Legendary members like Mezase Master, Xe-A-Thoul, Bassman21, TheCrow174, Knuclear200x, EddStarr88, DebrisStorm and a few others I can't recall at the moment. Adventure of Link, Mezase Master and maybe one or two others actually had more than 10,000 posts! My post count got screwed up when I deleted my account (More on that later) but I must have close to 10k posts. The site was such a buzz back then. You could start a thread and expect 5 replies within 10 minutes which is pretty good for such a small forum.


Users Online section. Just reading the names of bygone members makes me nostalgic. I miss these guys, the sense of community was great. Some time in 2010 and your's truly is busy in the Twilight Marathon thread. My early 20s were a tough time ok?

To say we had a motley crew of members would truly be an understatement. By 2008/09 the discussion matter shifted. The infamous "TV Sucks Now" threads had been done to death and the guys trading VHS episodes had been long gone. The site had a lot of members with Autism and Aspergers who were constantly subject to ridicule, mainly because of their fascination with Closing Logos and Fan Fiction. It wasn't uncommon to see threads 8 pages long debating what female animal cartoon was the hottest. It was a strange time but it really lent to the entertainment and novelty of the site.



If RJ had a Hall of Fame, TMNT would be its first inductee. Known for his hilarious butchery of the English language, Bobby was loved by all. Oh ok buddy?


There was this one group called the Legion Of B*stards. They consisted mostly of the remaining older crowd of the site. The majority of them were crude and did troll a bit. Probably their most vocal member was DebrisStorm. He was ruthless and ran off a lot of the gentler members of the site. He was seen as a hero by many and also as a bully. While I can't say I was fond of him, he did tell people off who needed it at times.



This video has been edited by MarioLuigi, one of the site's most infamous trolls. I think this video was originally centered on DebrisStorm's umpteenth banning. Sadly all the originals were deleted


Around 2008 I was also steadily making my name on the site. I wrote a few articles that had moderate success. I would usually score around a 20 which was ok but not great. Usually anything over 30 was considered popular on the site and I had seen nothing go past 40 since I joined at the time. I was fascinated by the All Time Record page which showcased the sites most well received pieces. RetroJunk has had hundreds of writers, a lot just from one or two time contributors. There were a score or so who consistently wrote popular stuff. Writers like StevenSampieri, Riphard, Cosgrove, Hoju Koolander, Spencer, etc. But then there were less than 4 writers who will go down as the best RetroJunk ever saw.


I always had fun with the About Me section

In the beginning the site was small, and the reading audience was limited. But that would all change when a member named Gaijinninja came and blasted through the 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 point barriers with his articles on handheld gaming. He was the first Dynasty of RJ writers who dominated the readership with high scoring articles. He was the only writer to enjoy having the top 2 places on the all time list. His reign would end though, and that was during the NLogan era. Look at the highest rated articles on the site and you will see his name littered across the pages. He would take a subject and cover it so thoroughly there wouldn't be any more articles on the subject afterwards. NLogan held the highest scoring article spot for a long time.


My journey encompassed in one picture

I looked at these writers with awe, as I really wanted that high scoring breakout piece. Until then my best score was like 27 and these guys had stuff in the 50s and 60s and the highest rated "Trip to the store with grandma" was at like 86! But I would get that break with "Nintendo and Me" in November of 2008. I wrote it in one sitting and was afraid people wouldn't understand it. It was published at night and I remember it got to 20 quickly which got me going. I went to bed and woke up the next morning to find it over 40! I was beyond excited as it almost doubled my best piece prior. Over the weeks that followed it reached all the way to number 3 on the all time list at about 74 points. It was sometime around then I started chatting with Gaijinninja who really opened my eyes in terms of formatting and creating a cohesive reading experience. After "Nintendo and Me" I had a string of successes and since then never scored below 40 or so. In March of 2009 I'd take the title of all time high scoring article with "The Day I Went Psycho". It was the first article to break the 100 barrier and now sits at 200. I highly doubt it will ever be usurped, which in a way is actually very sad.


What the forums felt like in 2009

The site itself around this time was very active and definitely the in prime period that I experienced. There'd usually be around 30-40 members on at any given time. The site had a users online section that would show who was online and even more interestingly what they were doing. Benjanime was watching Sailor Moon intros, PirateNinja was in the War Room, etc. There was a live chat room too, but it was very glitchy so Knuclear200x created a Chatango page that became very popular. I would rush home after work every night to find about 8 or so members chatting in real time. We had a blast gossiping, making video responses and just goofing off. For about 5 months I was zeroed in on that chat from 6 pm to almost 10 at night, what a waste of time but it was fun.


I can't caption all these images, give me a break

RetroJunk was and still is a predominately male site. So any time a female member came along it was fun to watch the awkward collective masses swoon. There were a few notable RJ ladies to grace the site over the years. There was Celeste who was constantly bickering with the Legion of B*stards. We had NickRules, a loudmouth, immature girl who was on her way out as I came in but was still talked about months after. AtticusFinch, who was a young pretty lady with an appetite for attention, was a great member and probably my favorite female member along with Retroxbunny.


BenJamin had a few notably awkward posts. Again, all these gems made RJ a great place to be

A long running complaint about RJ was the bugs. Tons of issues from the site logging you out to broken links. I exploited a lot of these gaps in the code. I figured out how to see threads in the Mod Forum, see articles in progress by other writers and even figured out how to bring back closed accounts. The Close Account feature was introduced in early 2009. With all the things needing fixing on the site, the admin somehow ignored everything else but decided an option to loose members was worth the effort. Many long time users directly credit this event with the eventual downfall of the site. Left and right people were closing accounts, leaving the dreaded "System" tag over their old posts. I feel a lot of members closed their accounts in a moment of weakness out of frustration with the site's technical problems but might otherwise have still been around.


The site used to have this 404 page with a cat on it. Can't find it now, ironic since you couldn't escape the 404 page back then

2010-2014 The Fall

2010 came and went. RetroJunk was sputtering on fumes as it always had. Forum traffic and user contributions were down but not too noticeable. However even though the site was on an obvious decline by now, RJ did get its 15 minutes of fame when it was featured on Something Awful. The article featured numerous screenshots of the forums, showcasing the oddball antics of our members and some of our more peculiar subject matter.





2011 saw another slump. By this time a majority of the long time members had either closed their accounts or were run off by DebrisStorm. The mods were scarcely around to enforce the rules so the place got a little out of hand. There were rumors of the long awaited site redesign. Vertex himself confirmed he was busily at work. I'll never forget the day he PMed me with a link to the in progress site. He asked me to take a look at the beta site. At the time I guess I was being too kind because Vertex seemed excited. RJ 2.0 was a khaki colored, minimalistic cookie cutter shell. I told Vertex something but I can't remember now. I should have said so much more. That update finally took place sometime in mid 2012. The members were excited at first but soon realized what they had lost.



The old profiles had a gallery, friends list, and comment box. You could go through a person's post history as well. The profiles now are merely a page with your username on it

Not only did the site loose its iconic blue and white layout, GI Joe font RJ sign. and retro pop culture adornments, it also lost many basic features. Our profiles, which used to house image galleries, friends lists, and profile comments was all gone. Leaving a profile page with basically a name and location, nothing more. You could no longer look through a member's post history as well. The update also left a lot of articles formatting unrecognizable. My own Psycho article looks like a mess now with garbled text and HTML tags visible. The voice of protest was strong in the forums. One amusing advantage was all banned users were now able to access the site. Even then members like Cleverhans only stayed a few short weeks afterwards, likely completely uninterested in the new look.





2012 and 2013 had an even greater demise in site activity. The forums were empty save for a few familiar names and more and more people dropped in who posted a little then faded away. All of the great article writers had gone, and an article hasn't broke 35 in more than 2 years, with the average score somewhere between 8 and 15. Early 2014 the site got a minor tweak, keeping the same layout but with the similar blue and white theme pasted over it. It was an improvement. The vast user forums were also purged from the site and it remains as you see it today.



RetroJunk has seen many changes and is a shadow of its former self. I suppose feeling nostalgic about a nostalgia site is quite fitting. There was so much more I wanted to include but for the sake of keeping your attention span and my own sanity, I will have to end it here. This piece was probably a little too late in the coming. I suspect those reading it won't know who I am and even then the amount of people seeing it will be sparse. I just needed to give closure. This is my last article for the site. I never stopped writing though. You can find my new work at http://www.retro-daze.org/ It's a young site, but the owner is a great guy who listens and is always looking for ways to improve. What does the future hold for RetroJunk? No one knows. It was great while it lasted and I had a lot of fun. Thanks for tuning in, and as always thanks for visiting RetroJunk.Com - Your Memory Machine.


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crazyrandomgamer Posted on Jan 28, 2024 at 12:25 AM

I was a member of Retro Junk from November 2007 to about 2009-ish. I left because there were far too many debates about what is retro and what isn't, who was a kid of the 1990's, the age discrimination and all of the "stuff sucks now compared to when I was a kid" forum topics. Also didn't like the new design. However, the site brings back good memories for me. I'm not really too active on social media these days. Great article!

Benjanime Posted on Sep 10, 2023 at 06:00 PM

Seeing all the comments here it saddens me that most of these users weren't even on this site for very long. I thought we'd see them fully make their home here. I suppose personal life things take more interest than coming back to a nostalgia site after so many years.

Maxine Posted on May 28, 2022 at 03:20 PM

one post by an old user recently posted - i'm tempted to say he's the last proper user of the whole forum.
i made my acc on RJ in 2008 would be active until 2013 ish, i was never an active user and preferred to lurk, was also the girl nobody knew was a girl on there lmao

Baby Jessica Kaczynski Posted on Dec 16, 2020 at 11:27 PM

Ahhh, RJ. I remember you well. Great article, akimbo.

CaseyJones Posted on Jan 10, 2019 at 05:10 PM

I think it's time to let it out of the bag. Marioluigi was not one person. It was a group of people

Vaporman87 Posted on Dec 16, 2018 at 01:45 PM

That’s crazy, Dalek! But you know what they say... “Better late than never”.

Thanks for joining our little family.

Dalek227 Posted on Dec 16, 2018 at 06:37 AM

I'm glad I joined this site the other day. I had a private message in retorjunk from 2012 about this site being open and I never officially checked it out until now.

Dalek227 Posted on Dec 16, 2018 at 06:36 AM

I checked recently and I joined February 21, 2006. The one thing that always struck me was that I was stupid when I was filling out the form to join and put my real first and last name as my username. There was never anyway to go back in and change it LOL

I looked in my private messages and I had a message from MissPiggy from 2009 and Pinface randomly in 2012. I vividly remember Nick Rules big time and Sunriser (the one with the horse avatar) and I recognize Thylacine's avatar. Bassman of course. I remember the whole Reaper thing going down but I didn't pay a lot of attention to that. I know that at one point I had him on Facebook but never actually talked to him.

I remember Eddstar as being older, like my parents age. (I was 26 when I joined). It was great to post a thread and know that you'd nearly instantly get a response. Now when I check in periodically it's the same threads I've accidentally posted to twice that's eight years old.

kodakofiremembergaming Posted on Mar 24, 2018 at 03:23 AM

Thank you so much for this article. With out it I would have never found this site.

mickyarber Posted on Mar 09, 2016 at 10:36 PM

I've visited RetroJunk on and off for years, but was never part of the "community". Thank goodness for Retro-Daze though. I like it here, and I like all you guys and gals.

Retro King of the Land Posted on Apr 04, 2015 at 06:34 PM

Used to love RJ, it's where I got my screen name here!

belakewe Posted on Mar 07, 2015 at 09:43 PM

cool im up there on the list of user names!!! i too miss the old retrojunk.i remember i found it searching youtube for todays special back in 2005 and saw the watermark and the rest they say is histoy!

Vaporman87 Posted on Feb 25, 2015 at 04:47 AM

I'm the same way. I always have a difficult time adjusting to new avatars all the time. I prefer it when they are limited to a select few that make people easily identifiable. Of course, not everybody feels that way.

vkimo Posted on Feb 24, 2015 at 12:39 AM

I always had a habit of remembering members by their avatars, especially ones who kep the same avatar for years. Then when they changed it I would totally forget who that person was haha

Derk Posted on Feb 23, 2015 at 07:58 PM

Yep, that was me. I still go to the RJ forums every now and then, but certainly not as much as I used to.

vkimo Posted on Feb 23, 2015 at 01:56 PM

Derk, you had the Huskies avatar for awhile right?

Derk Posted on Feb 22, 2015 at 06:30 AM

Great article, Vkimo! I definitely miss the glory days of the RetroJunk forum. It was certainly a lot of fun until horrible posters and the bugs showed up.

There were some 'special' moments on that forum. I'm sure others who were there for a decent amount of time remember the 'death' of Pixies... Good times.

Hoju Koolander Posted on Feb 13, 2015 at 07:09 PM

@vkimo Oh, you got me! The funniest part was when I went to pick her up and mispronounced her name which had a very exotic, eastern European spelling. Her Mom just gave me this look like, "You're taking my daughter out and you can't even say her name right? Good luck!" just in case you were wondering she wasn't a high school girl or anything, with the living at home deal. It's not of THOSE Internet dating stories.

vkimo Posted on Feb 13, 2015 at 01:29 PM

Hoju, I knew something was going on between you and JujUbeme!

Hoju Koolander Posted on Feb 13, 2015 at 02:43 AM

This article has taken me so long to process, such great memories. Glad I got on the Retrojunk Train during the Golden era, it was such a fun and sometimes awkward community to be a part of. I had never been "involved" in the Internet before, but supportive folks like vkimo, Cosgrove and good old' Caps 2.0 made me want to stick around. Even Dalmationlover, who irritated me in the best way possible, he was like my annoying online kid brother.

I even had my one and only online dating experience, flirting and private messaging for months with one of the scarce women you spoke about in the article, which resulted in one crazy date that went like this: roller derby, Greek food and a midnight screening of A Clockwork Orange. Gee, I wonder why it didn't go anywhere? ;)

But in the end it was just great to share my memories with people that could relate and appreciate my useless knowledge. I'm glad I've had the chance to reconnect with so many of you here and that vkimo's black magic ability to attract unheard of attention to his articles remains in tact. Is it goat's blood or eye of newt that does the trick?

Vaporman87 Posted on Feb 12, 2015 at 07:04 PM

LOL. Maybe, one day, that will be all anyone sees when they visit www.retrojunk.com. Scary.

vkimo Posted on Feb 12, 2015 at 06:22 PM

Here it is, courtesy of SuperRainCheck. RJ's infamous 404 cat!

Vaporman87 Posted on Feb 11, 2015 at 08:59 PM

Also the Calvin and Hobbes pic should sway you. LOL

jkatz Posted on Feb 11, 2015 at 08:17 PM

I've never been to retro junk so this article is pretty much useless to me as far as nostalgia goes. But that Rocky 4 poster is amazing! I approved this piece just for that.

vkimo Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 11:10 PM

And those 100 movies were in order haha

Benjanime Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 10:56 PM

@echidna64 i think that was pinface.

echidna64 Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 10:51 PM

I miss those threads on RJ where the title is like "Favorite Sci-Fi movies" and then somebody lists over 100 movies in one post lol

Benjanime Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 05:51 PM

now if only we could convince cosgrove to join in the forums, lol.

Cosgrove Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 05:26 AM

Totally feeling the same over here!

echidna64 Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 05:15 AM

Cosgrove! I've missed you man!

Cosgrove Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 04:56 AM

Leave it to vkimo to bring everyone out of the woodwork. It feels like a high school reunion seeing all these familiar names.

I think you said it best about feeling nostalgic for a nostalgia website. There are so many memories I hold dear during my two years on RJ. I can't quite tell you guys how much writing for the site changed my life. Through a rough patch in my life, those thumbs ups were hands down the best thing in the world. But I guess that's why it tore my heart to see the site change so much. Many hours spent, @Gaijin Ninja, on yours and my articles just to see them mauled like they are today. Nothing is forever on the internet, I guess.

I strictly wrote and watched videos, so I never saw the drama on the forums (but it was certainly felt across the whole site). The only wrongs I saw were some comments on articles and how little recognition Caps got on all his interview articles -- hella fine work, sir.

I wish this site smoother seas than its predecessor. I hope to one day grace its pages with you guys. Y'know, harken back to Golden Years of RJ.

Laters!

NLogan Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 04:13 AM

@vkimo

I know his real name but he prefers anonymity and has set up a Retro Machine Facebook page for fans of his old articles.

https://www.facebook.com/TheRetroMachine/timeline

Here is his email, well his fan one anyways:

theretromachine@gmail.com

vkimo Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 01:53 AM

NLogan, do you still have ties with Spencer? We need the Retro Machine here.

NLogan Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 01:34 AM

@vapor the irony is that it was my vote that did it. In the good old days of Retro*Junk it wasn't about the votes at all it was about sharing all of the oh yeah I totally remember that things that you had come across as an adult that sparked that nostalgia feeling and brought back childhood for a brief moment. I had already submitted my article that won the contest before even knowing the was a contest. We all just were trying to stir up those feelings until the popularity contest got involved.

Benjanime Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 01:26 AM

the back page had its ups and downs. remember when caps 2.0 wrote an article on spongebob as it met that demise?

Vaporman87 Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 01:26 AM

I just realized the ultimate irony... vkimo has passed NLogan for highest rated article HERE with this one. LOL. RJ is still influencing us, even on other sites.

NLogan Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 01:17 AM

@Vapor I also disliked the backpage. It is already inherent in the popular just on the other end of the spectrum. I didn't like missing articles all together that were instantly voted down as they were posted because the user was disliked in the forums by a select few. There were some articles that never got a chance and that probably influenced a few to never write articles or never write an article again.

NLogan Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 01:09 AM

vkimo Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 12:43 AM

NLogan, I was a bit hazy on the details. Who got the all time highest scoring article first, you or Gaijinninja? -end quote

You were technically the first to get the highest scoring article of all time as you were in the top spot when the Popular category transitioned to High Score of All Time. Gaijinninja held the Popular of All Time first.

Vaporman87 Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 01:09 AM

When I finally took a serious interest in becoming a member of the site and contributing, probably one of the biggest turn-offs was the idea of a "Back Page". It made sense to want the best content out front for visitors to see, but it alienated people who had already made the commitment to be an active part of the site. I didn't feel like the trade off was worth it. Perhaps having that project you worked hard on getting sent to the back page made you want to work harder next time... but it could equally make someone discouraged or angry. You could say the same with regard to having ratings at all, but at least everyone gets an equal chance to have their memories shared... which is ultimately what drives anyone to bother sharing them... because they want them known and read and remembered.

NLogan Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 12:51 AM

Gaijinninja held the top 2 spots for the longest time with AA Heaven and Coin-ops Golden Age, 1980-1984. I briefly held all ten spots for most popular for 1 month when gaijinninja's finally got old enough. Then along came a whippersnapper from the 90s generation who totally shook it up and started a new era of Retro*Junk. This is from around the time when vkimo finally broke through the 100 point barrier.

vkimo Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 12:43 AM

NLogan, I was a bit hazy on the details. Who got the all time highest scoring article first, you or Gaijinninja?

NLogan Posted on Feb 10, 2015 at 12:37 AM

I remember the transition from seeing articles in the "Article Archives" either on page after page of the "Front Page" or the "Back Page" depending on the numbers of thumbs up ratings, to seeing articles in the "Article" section with the Newest, Popular, and Back Page with the Popular category divided into 1 Week, 1 Month, 3 Months, and All Time. It made it so much easier to see the best voted articles without scrolling through page after page. The catalyst for the change was an article contest. As far as I know there were no contests on Retro*Junk since 2005. Vertex resurrected the idea to showcase a sponsor in Oct/Nov 2007 with a Wii game as the prize. I won the contest with my article Saturday Morning Cereals with a whopping score of 42 (the first to break the 20 point then the 40 point barrier since the switch from the 5 Star rating).

Vaporman87 Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 11:37 PM

@NLogan: It's great to be able to get to know some of the veterans of RetroJunk for those of us who weren't in the mix for some time. I'm glad your here with us.

NLogan Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 11:21 PM

Good ole Retro*Junk. With the GI*JOE star that I remember from when I joined in 2007. I came because of a random search that landed me in an article. I perused the commercials and TV intros. I stayed for the articles. I came during the transition from the stars to the thumbs up rating system. I generally steered clear of the nonsense in the forums. I left when the site was no longer about retro things and was entirely about factions complaining against each other. When I came back the site downgrade really turned me off and most of the things I liked about the Retro*Junk I knew were gone including most of my favorite users. It is nice to know they are not all lost forever and I have found some again here after being invited back to retro.

Vaporman87 Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 11:17 PM

Gee... you didn't strike a nerve with this one or anything. LOL

blueluigi Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 06:55 AM

Great article all the way. It really hits the nail on the head on Retrojunk's history. If there is one thing that I would change are a few inaccuracies. Retrojunk's familiar design that we're all familiar with came along in 2005... not 2007.

I first stumbled across Retrojunk at around 2004, but officially joined in 2005. I remember a lot of moments that came around with this site. Members like Reaper spamming the forums with his Fried Oreos Club, DucktalesFan1977 posting about his 80s memories and talked about how much the 90s sucked (though eventually as the account got banned and he registered as gustogummi... he did a complete 180). Sonic64 with the way he points out the obvious and how he argues with others about why we shouldn't hate Sonic or disagree with the things he likes... and how Mezase Master, Xe-A-Thoul, and others gave him what he deserved. It had it's good moments and sometimes bad moments. But in the end, I think it's one of the most diverse sites I've seen throughout the internet.

Some of the autistic members on the site were one of the main reasons why I left the site a few times. Not that I don't like autistic people, mind you... and I used to enjoy poking fun at some of the autistic users who came on before. But there was a time where it got to a point where the autistic users just made the site that much less enjoyable, and so I decided to leave for a little while because of it.

vkimo Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 03:42 AM

Vapor- Pretty sure you have the highest scoring article with no pictures haha

Vaporman87 Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 03:27 AM

@Ben: It's cool bro. Life happens.

This article makes me wish I had registered much sooner. I didn't pay much attention to the forum during my lurking years. Just the articles and comments mostly. Even so, it was obvious that the scrutiny was always present. Yet I still saw fit to submit stuff with no pictures. Derp!

Caps 2.0 Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 02:52 AM

A wonderful article, vkimo, but then again, you've never written a bad one. I still have authority on RetroJunk as a message board administrator and content editor, but I don't really post on the message boards anymore. I still submit videos and movie pages, but I stopped writing for RJ in 2013. My last few articles barely got any response, positive or negative. It hurt, especially with the interview I did with Jewel Shepard. It was an interview I was very proud of, but hardly anybody read it.

I'm now writing on Pop Geeks, where I've continued my retro articles and celebrity interviews. Pop Geeks was created by a friend of mine from my early days on the Internet who I reconnected with on Facebook several years ago. She initially invited me to look at the site as a viewer, but when I told her I was looking for a new place to write, she said she'd consider it. I wrote an audition piece for the site and she accepted it. That piece became my first article "10 Comedy Albums To Fall Asleep To". It was followed shortly thereafter by my first interview for Pop Geeks, which was with Catherine Mary Stewart. It was a return to e-mail interviewing for that, but that's what she preferred. I resumed the phone interviews the following month by speaking to Jamie Rose. I've subsequently interviewed Ginger Lynn, Ellen Foley, Michelle Johnson, Lita Ford, Teresa Ganzel, J.J Cohen and Lesley Ann Warren, with several more interviews potentially in the works. They've gotten a lot of Facebook likes...I doubt they would've gotten any response on RetroJunk.

This was a wonderful piece of history, vkimo, and I'm glad it's doing so well.

Benjanime Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 02:43 AM

I honestly miss the golden days of the site, that is though in all obviousness that I could have done without Debrisstorm's constant scoffing at the autism spectrum. Articles were actually worth reading, even if one or two misspellings were spotted (First we had the your/you're problem and now people are saying suppose instead of supposed). Nowadays it's a treasure to find someone post an article on a subject that hasn't been done to death, so I usually sniff around both RJ and RD article archives to keep a good eye to make sure I don't immediately take an article idea from someone else when I'm not aware that more of the same exist.

Anyway for those of you wondering I apologize greatly for the odd hiatuses in not writing articles. I have more to come! I promise!

Mr Magic Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 02:33 AM

I enjoyed talking about stuff with members like Celeste and Xe-A-Thoul. I hope I hear from them again someday.

vkimo Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 01:26 AM

@Pika - You're thinking of ilikehthepixies

echidna64 Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 01:26 AM

I'm so happy that we got to read this! You perfectly captured the good times and bad on Retrojunk. It's amazing how we shared such a strong bond of everything from 90's commercials to favorite junk foods. Just the other day I laughed good and hard the other day remembering why Debrisstorm was banned- over an image of poop LOL Long live Debris!

Mr Magic Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 01:24 AM

Thanks for taking me to a time when Retrojunk was in its glory.

pikachulover Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 01:23 AM

I had been a member of RJ since the early days. I remember sneaking onto the site during my Microsoft Office class. I think I joined the site in either 2003 or 2004. I had been there for a long time.

After all the nonsense with Reaper and other things. I had had it when everybody pretended that one guy died from suicide. That was the last straw! People really have to really have to deal with things like that. It's not a joke!

After all that nonsense I would lurk, but I hadn't posed in a while. I think I started posting again in 2012.

I never really had any problems with the other members.

I didn't ever post articles on there because I was too intimidated to.

Were females really a novelty on RJ?

Ruespieler Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 12:29 AM

*Thumbs up #3 was mine ;)

Ruespieler Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 12:21 AM

Man, it hurt reading this. Great job on the early pics, have no idea where you dug those up.

I enjoyed your reminiscing of the forums, and learned a thing or two about how they operated. As you know I rarely hung out there (except for that whole 10 article disaster when I learned the hard way what the difference was between a thread and a post lol). Debris... The Al Franken of RJ.

Knites will be furious that you didn't mention the fact that is was his article, 'On Writing', that turned the site around and officially began RJ's golden age.

We need to find DalmationLover and bring him here!

Celeste too!

I had been looking forward to reading this, sorry it wont make it to RJ. You didn't disappoint.

I thought you took it pretty easy on ol' Vertex. Easier than I did...

Thanks for the nod, it was great those times when we'd nit pick formatting issues, even on two different continents!

Technically, I was the 3 time all time article champion if you include the time when, soon after the "upgrade", there was a glitch in the article thumb voting mechanism that allowed me to vote mine and Celeste's articles all the way to the top of the heap. Celeste's 'Animation to Live Action 2' still stands as the only article to break 1000 thumbs, both positive and negative.

Nice read, mang. When's that contest starting?!?!

vkimo Posted on Feb 09, 2015 at 12:12 AM

Thanks Silver.

@Comic book fan - No, RJ isn't shutting down, it's just on life support.
@Gaijin - I know right? My article isn't harming RJ, Vertex is with his complacency.

Ruespieler Posted on Feb 08, 2015 at 11:55 PM

lol @ Vertex approving Animation to Live Action 2 but not this.

Silvervix Posted on Feb 08, 2015 at 11:55 PM

Great article dude, I loved every word in it.

comic_book_fan Posted on Feb 08, 2015 at 11:50 PM

is retro junk shutting down.

vkimo Posted on Feb 08, 2015 at 11:43 PM

Now, I know Gaijin feels my pain!

Ruespieler Posted on Feb 08, 2015 at 11:27 PM

*tries to speak**becomes overwhelmed with emotion*

Ruespieler Posted on Feb 08, 2015 at 11:27 PM

*sniffles*

vkimo Posted on Feb 08, 2015 at 10:33 PM

You're definitely right about social sites putting a blow in things. RJ was your primary source for old commercials, but then Youtube came along and you can watch anything. I think dedicated niche sites always have that problem with bigger sites having similar content mixed with everything else.

It's still no excuse for the downgrading quality of the site though.

Vaporman87 Posted on Feb 08, 2015 at 10:23 PM

It's sad to see what has happened through the years. It's not something that is unusual though. The internet is full of once promising nostalgia sites that have all but died now. Trust me, I've searched about as thoroughly as any human can for others like us.

If any nostalgia sites are thriving now, it's because they are "retrogaming" sites, of which there are like 50,000,000 out there. Few sites replicate what RetroJunk originated. Sydlexia and Plaid Stallions are about as close to RJ as I've found, and even they are different in that the owners are the exclusive article writers. Nostalgia sites are hanging on by a thread. Facebook and social media have become the replacement for sharing memories, albeit in micro form.

I think Vertex reached a point where he had a choice... either invest in improving the site for the users, or improving the site for the money it could make. A simple layout with flashy Google Ads would be the perfect place to land potential clickers. The huge mass of content would draw them in, and the ads and layout would handle the rest.

My interest in impressing Google is no less than Vertex's, but for different reasons. For me it's simple... the more, the merrier.

I just wish Vertex had made the other choice.

vkimo Posted on Feb 08, 2015 at 09:56 PM

In case anyone is wondering why this was published on Retro-Daze and not RJ, the owner of RetroJunk wouldn't approve it.

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