In my time on the World Wide Web I have proudly been a member of many internet communities of one rendition or another, but never have I seen one quite like Icrontic—it’s not just ‘another’ community. Now, before I try to explain what I mean by ‘not just another community’, I’d like to start with a brief introduction outlining the various communities I’ve had the privilege to be a part of, if only to better outline what Icrontic is, at least to me.
My time on the interwebs
My first foray into the magical world of forums began along with my first few days of high school. I had just become involved in a Dungeons & Dragons group and one of the guys had the brilliant idea of creating a forum, literally just for our group and a number of friends to talk, hang out, play D&D, and just post whatever came to mind when the group couldn’t get together or we just needed to waste time online. That idea eventually evolved into the now defunct B4 Light, the membership of which peaked at about twenty people. Although just a small project, B4 Light introduced me to a semblance of an online community and I was itching to encounter the real thing.
Thus began my time at The Tangled Web Online Pen and Paper Gaming, and although the B4 Light team only ever used the site for the writable character sheets, I couldn’t help but to get the slightest bit curious about what the site was outside of a character sheet generator. I am, after all, a human and a Role-Player. Those two aspects considered—no one could ever expect me to do anything less. I’ve been a member of TTW for well over two and a half years now, and I doubt I’ll be leaving anytime soon.
As great as TTW is, however, it will always be only a role-playing site. There are no live get-togethers, and outside of what exists in ‘The Asylum’, everything is focused around RPGs, so even though I’ve made several role-playing buddies during my time at TTW, I could hardly say I’ve made many friends—it is the nature of the beast, after all. Simply put it’s incredibly difficult to get to know people when everyone is constantly assuming a different personality. Every friend I made on TTW was made not on the forums, but on the group’s Mibbit server—which was really the only time I ever discussed anything with the members that was unrelated to RPGs. Even though I had finally found an internet community larger than B4 Light I still found myself sitting about wondering if there was anything more to the concept of the ‘internet community’.
Then I found Icrontic.
Home at last
I managed to find Icrontic while in the midst of an aimless Google search. I had also, in this same week, become interested in ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ due to a bet with friends. By Wednesday I had gone through every episode and was sitting at my computer wondering what I could do next.
Thus we come back to my Google search ‘What do I do after I’ve watched every episode of MLP:FiM?’ Of course the search wasn’t specific enough, but I suppose that’s the beauty of it. The first thing I saw on the search results was the article Why grown-ass men love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Being the ever-curious person that I am, I clicked the link expecting, if nothing else, to waste time. What I got from that link was more than I could have asked for. Not only did I get a brilliant read; I also finally found what it was that I was looking for since the creation of B4 Light—a diverse internet community that had a wide array of topics and a multitude of members. In the end I got far more than I ever expected. After finishing the article I wasted no time signing up. The only thing that was running through my mind was that I had found an area of the internet where I could expand on my “Brony” interests.
And that’s when I found EVERYTHING ELSE!
There’s more?
I had never expected to find Icrontic, and I certainly didn’t expect it to be what it is. What I found after signing up was completely unlike my wildest expectations. Icrontic had everything under the sun, and over the moon. I found that they organized conventions and events both in-person and online. I saw birthday threads, something I’d never expected to see online anywhere outside Facebook or Twitter. Threads relating to video games, new electronic products, do-it-yourself discussions—everything imaginable. A person would have to be duller than a brick wall to not find something on Icrontic they could relate to or at the very least take part in.
So I began posting in whichever thread/discussion caught my interest, or that I felt I could at least post something more than a simple ‘yup’ or ‘sweet’. Eventually I made my way to the ‘Introduce yourself!’ thread—I posted my introduction, and no sooner did I click ‘post’ before I received a warm reception from the Icrontic community. That’s what truly made me feel like I belonged here.
But wait! It doesn’t stop there!
My first day in, I was already being treated like a member of a family rather than ‘the new guy’ who’s always signing up at the forums. I hadn’t been a member for a full day, and purely because of shared interest I received an invitation to Icrontic’s MLP stream party. I was amazed, but moreover I was honoured to be invited into a community gathering—after all, I’d only been a member for around two hours. Needless to say, I had a blast, the stream party was great, and even though I had no bloody clue what was happening at first, everyone was patient enough to explain to the noob just exactly was going on.
Finally to put an end to this long-winded abomination:
I haven’t even been a member of Icrontic for a week, and already thanks to everyone I feel like I’m truly
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