The History - and the Future - of the TMF

[chicago]

It blows my mind how long it's been, all the people I've met and experiences I've had since joining. This really made me think to back when and it was super cool to read. Thanks 🙂

 

[maniactickler]

And most importantly, I'm still here.

 

[baller87]

Anyone remember hysterical squealing?

 

[lostphilosopher]

Interesting read. Thank you for sharing.

"History should be written as philosophy." - Voltaire

 

[chicago]

Wanted to bump cuz this is super interesting and worth a re-read

 

[His Divine Shadow]

What would happen to the TMF if you decided to quit? Does it just run on its own?

It doesn't run on it's own but it doesn't need me to run it either. HDS (HisDivineShadow) is probably the only indispensable one because he's the only one who knows how to fix it when it's broken. I can't imagine I'd ever quit, but if I died I would hope that the forum would live on. HDS wouldn't be able to renew the URL I don't think, but he does have backups of the database and hopefully we'd pop right back up under a slightly different name.

Here's the thing about this, as I look back on it. The problems with the TMF fall into a few categories.

1) Jeff does something that breaks the server (not super common)

2) HDS does something that breaks the server (super, dooper common)

3) HDS does something that breaks the server months or years later, making diagnosis tricky (common also!)

So don't give me credit for fixing my own problems. =P

 

[porcelaindoll2]

I somehow missed this the first time around. This was really interesting to read.

 

[xionking]

Sure, I remember Hotel Tickle. And Tickle Galaxy, too. There were a bunch of sites I went on to before the TMF, and that was one. Tickletown was probably my favorite. But there were many. Max Speer had one, Toyou had one....SW Tickle was one of my favorites....Ironic Tickler, remember that one? And definitely Hotel Tickle, and I would bet that that's probably where I saw the link to the TMF. Either that, or on Tickletown.

And I didn't mention about the notorious ASM board. Wait. ASR? Now I can't remember the acronym. One reason I can't remember is because it was filled with assholes, and I hardly ever went on it. Memories of that board should really make people not take the TMF for granted and appreciate the civility here. But wasn't that the precursor to the TMF?

I wasn't focusing on the history of tickling on the internet, just the TMF. The TMF ended up being the central location for everyone, and the other sites fell away.

But I did appreciate those early sites, including "Hotel Tickle", most definitely. And now that you mention it, I do remember the audio clips section! In both sites, yours and the early TMF. I think I still have them all on cassettes!

I remember when the board changed to ACF or something too one day for like half an hour. I was about 20 years old and right in the thick of of the toxicity of the forum. A lot of strong personalities back then.