Introduction
So I've been working on a "my story" sort of thread for over a year now and as I keep adding to it I realise it may get to a point where I never release it because I'm still growing and learning. What I would like to do is talk about how Hack Forums helped me develop. This won't be a particularly sloppy thread but it definitely is a "thank you" for the help throughout these years. So here's a little story on how Hack Forums helped me develop my English skills and helped me develop a passion. Some of the timelines in this thread might be patchy, I can't remember everything as it was over 7 years ago and many of the threads have been deleted or lost in time so take everything (in regards to the timing), with a pinch of salt. And before anyone gets on at me about how they have found grammar mistakes in the thread, suck it. I'm still not perfect and I'm trying.
A Little About Me
So for a little context before I get into the main bulk of the thread; when I first joined I was a 14-year-old kid looking for hacks. I'm naturally okay at school but was never anything special. Scraped by with C/B's without studying which at the time I was fairly happy with. After joining secondary school when I was 12 I soon found English to be my most hated class. I was a typical teen and just didn't pay attention and was far from cultured enough to really care about poetry or literature in general. Everything else you don't really need to know, I grew up a normal life, I've had my patchy spots and matured along the way but that is for a different thread. This is all the context you need for the rest of the thread.
Reviewers and AA Weekly
Everyone knows who the Writers are, they're the ones who continuously work and release news and those that work on the Wiki. They do so with very little thanks but continue to provide everyone on the site and its great to see. For those that might not know, there were also the "Reviewers". You can read about the Reviewers here, but to sum up, they reviewed books in the eBook bazaar and at one point without an official review, people could barely sell a single copy. In theory, the idea worked out great and for some time it worked very well but some things happened and unfortunately, the group shut down. This is drama and again, is for another thread so I'll continue. I joined the Reviewers a few months after I joined Hack Forums. At the time I was struggling in English and was barely getting a C and so I wanted to use the opportunity to work on this. I lied about my level of English on my application and had my friends proofread my application around 30 times just to make sure it was perfect, for this I owe Skill an apology. Fortunately, I was accepted and this was my time to shine. One of my earliest iterations of a review can be found here. I used my time in the Reviewers as a way to grow and I slowly did. Thanks to everyone in the sub-forum I began to learn quickly. I've always been a fan of criticism as it helps one grow and boy did I take some flack, but it was all good and helped me learn very quickly I needed to get better or I was never going to beat this. After some time I left the Reviewers, I can't quite remember why but it was one of the worst decisions. I think I was in the group a little over a month but I quit for what I'm sure were personal issues at the time but even in my short time, my English level had grown.
Then comes AA Weekly. For those that might not know the abbreviated version, I'm talking about Anime Adventures Weekly. Which was a weekly news thread posted in the Anime Adventures subforum. I joined as a member around a year after leaving the Reviewers and in my real life timeline, this put me a year away from my exams and my English was still at a similar level to before, albeit a little more rounded off. I thank Tasemu a lot for his time and patience with me when I was in the team and working alongside him. I often missed weeks due to being too busy, which often meant I got caught up hanging with friends and didn't have time to do my share of the work. But he kept working with me and this really allowed me to hone my writing skills. It sounds weird but all I needed was a platform and an interest and it allowed me to really learn to love writing and Tas gave me that. Sometime down the line I even took over AA Weekly and submitted many issues. You can even see the difference in writing from my very first article to one of my last as head editor.
Conclusion
The thread is already getting a little long so I'll try to sum it up here: thank you to everyone. Everyone's patience has allowed me to really develop as not only a member but a person and allowed me to meet some incredible people and some great friends. I bounce a lot, but every time I come back everyone does so with open arms and it really does make me happy. Here's to 7 more years.
So I've been working on a "my story" sort of thread for over a year now and as I keep adding to it I realise it may get to a point where I never release it because I'm still growing and learning. What I would like to do is talk about how Hack Forums helped me develop. This won't be a particularly sloppy thread but it definitely is a "thank you" for the help throughout these years. So here's a little story on how Hack Forums helped me develop my English skills and helped me develop a passion. Some of the timelines in this thread might be patchy, I can't remember everything as it was over 7 years ago and many of the threads have been deleted or lost in time so take everything (in regards to the timing), with a pinch of salt. And before anyone gets on at me about how they have found grammar mistakes in the thread, suck it. I'm still not perfect and I'm trying.
A Little About Me
So for a little context before I get into the main bulk of the thread; when I first joined I was a 14-year-old kid looking for hacks. I'm naturally okay at school but was never anything special. Scraped by with C/B's without studying which at the time I was fairly happy with. After joining secondary school when I was 12 I soon found English to be my most hated class. I was a typical teen and just didn't pay attention and was far from cultured enough to really care about poetry or literature in general. Everything else you don't really need to know, I grew up a normal life, I've had my patchy spots and matured along the way but that is for a different thread. This is all the context you need for the rest of the thread.
Reviewers and AA Weekly
Everyone knows who the Writers are, they're the ones who continuously work and release news and those that work on the Wiki. They do so with very little thanks but continue to provide everyone on the site and its great to see. For those that might not know, there were also the "Reviewers". You can read about the Reviewers here, but to sum up, they reviewed books in the eBook bazaar and at one point without an official review, people could barely sell a single copy. In theory, the idea worked out great and for some time it worked very well but some things happened and unfortunately, the group shut down. This is drama and again, is for another thread so I'll continue. I joined the Reviewers a few months after I joined Hack Forums. At the time I was struggling in English and was barely getting a C and so I wanted to use the opportunity to work on this. I lied about my level of English on my application and had my friends proofread my application around 30 times just to make sure it was perfect, for this I owe Skill an apology. Fortunately, I was accepted and this was my time to shine. One of my earliest iterations of a review can be found here. I used my time in the Reviewers as a way to grow and I slowly did. Thanks to everyone in the sub-forum I began to learn quickly. I've always been a fan of criticism as it helps one grow and boy did I take some flack, but it was all good and helped me learn very quickly I needed to get better or I was never going to beat this. After some time I left the Reviewers, I can't quite remember why but it was one of the worst decisions. I think I was in the group a little over a month but I quit for what I'm sure were personal issues at the time but even in my short time, my English level had grown.
Then comes AA Weekly. For those that might not know the abbreviated version, I'm talking about Anime Adventures Weekly. Which was a weekly news thread posted in the Anime Adventures subforum. I joined as a member around a year after leaving the Reviewers and in my real life timeline, this put me a year away from my exams and my English was still at a similar level to before, albeit a little more rounded off. I thank Tasemu a lot for his time and patience with me when I was in the team and working alongside him. I often missed weeks due to being too busy, which often meant I got caught up hanging with friends and didn't have time to do my share of the work. But he kept working with me and this really allowed me to hone my writing skills. It sounds weird but all I needed was a platform and an interest and it allowed me to really learn to love writing and Tas gave me that. Sometime down the line I even took over AA Weekly and submitted many issues. You can even see the difference in writing from my very first article to one of my last as head editor.
Conclusion
The thread is already getting a little long so I'll try to sum it up here: thank you to everyone. Everyone's patience has allowed me to really develop as not only a member but a person and allowed me to meet some incredible people and some great friends. I bounce a lot, but every time I come back everyone does so with open arms and it really does make me happy. Here's to 7 more years.