2005 - 2007

COMMENTS ARE IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER AND ARE LIMITED TO 1000 CHARACTERS. PLEASE READ THEM FROM BOTTOM TO TOP.

Compadres,

I hope this message reaches you and you are all alive and well. As of this announcement Sven-A-Holics started over a decade ago. I can't imagine just how different all of our lives are after 10 years. Enough time has passed that even the youngest of our youngest members are now considered consenting adults in our respective countries. My life has become so vastly different and eventful that February came and went and I did not stop to reflect on what we did a decade ago.

Below is a rough account of my early days with the clan. I'd like to encourage everyone to share how they found out about SAH, when they joined, awesome things that happened, things you regret, etc. in the comments below. If no one else wants to participate, I'll record my memory of the last third of the clan on my own, but my participation was much more detached like a lot of people, a big reason we wound up dissolving in the first place. All the new folks at the time could provide a clearer picture than I can.

While the Sven-A-Holics server existed long before the clan, the [SAH] clan and tag were conceived by Monkey-Knuckles and Mightymouse in February 2005. Mightymouse eventually created the original Proboards forums around Valentine's day.

The original members recruited were extremely inclusive. Most of them simply asked and were granted membership and permission to use the tag instantly, many of whom were also given admin or moderator status on the server. Early member and server admin Exolent created our first website which I remember being pretty flashy for 2005, but does not appear to have been archived.

I was still pretty new to the mod, and started frequenting the server around mid-February after spending some time at Snark Cafe. What attracted me to the server was the fact that map was recently set to "hide_and_seek" which was originally made for Counter-Strike. Mightymouse had organized an honest-to-god game of hide and seek with an honor system as to who tagged who. It was stupid, childish, and incredibly fun.

By the time I decided to join in early March, the recruitment process had an extra layer of approval: you had to fill out an application, and two currently existing members had to vouch for you as their "sponsor." My two sponsors were Mightymouse and Foxid, who I chatted with regularly on MSN messenger. I asked for their sponsorship prior to posting my application, and received a [SAH] tag.

If anyone still has this application, I would love to see it again. I believe it remained largely unchanged for 2 years.

Other people I became tight with such as Brom, Reckless_Killa, and Mobius 1 joined around the same time as me or shortly after. We'd eventually start up a Specialists server on the side to play on during the weekends. I can still quote some of the inside jokes we developed during those nights, but they might be a little blue for the tone of this retrospective.

Being a dumb 20-year old undergrad in Ohio at the time, I was very protective of my actual identity. I didn't want people to find my MySpace profile and all of my real-life friends, so I took to using photos of others and favorite bands in place of myself (sorry guys). Mightymouse wound up catching me in the act and in retrospect—with social media being so pervasive as it is now—seems really silly.

My initial membership in the clan lasted all of, what, 6 months? Mightymouse proved to be a polarizing personality in the clan. He and Exolent eventually had a falling out, causing Mighty to announce that Exolent was being expelled from the clan and his admin status revoked. Exolent, without so much of murmur, shut down svenaholics dot com[web.archive.org] and retained ownership of the domain for years after, forcing the clan to move to sah-home dot com[web.archive.org]

Mighty often used his admin powers on the server in service of a cheap laugh, or changed maps unannounced from the typical coop-format to gimmicky maps like WTF, OMG and Crazymaze. I did not complain much at first; he granted me moderator abilities on the server which kept me complacent.

Eventually it became too much and the server had become unfun to play on, so a few of us (namely Brom, Foxid, and myself) attempted a coup, writing a list of grievances and petitioning Mightymouse to give up his admin status or leave the clan. Mighty, backed by the rest of the admin/moderator team, counter-offered: Leave the clan voluntarily or be kicked out. We chose the former, offering our resignations, although I believe Brom was allowed to stay in the clan with reduced privileges.

If you're reading this Mighty, I'm sorry. I should have talked to you like a man. I still really like Dead Kennedys, even if most of the members suck now. Add me on Facebook[www.facebook.com] and let's chat sometime.

Soon after leaving I hooked up with Exolent, who had started his own group for The Specialists mod called Poetic Justice -=)>.].=-, but we were never as tightly knit as [SAH]. I spent the better part of a year not playing many games and mostly performing accompaniment in jazz combinations and shmoozing at college parties.

About a year later, I was allowed back into the clan under a trial period using a new "recruit" tag (sah). Eventually I was granted my moderator privileges back after a difficult split decision vote, and I can hardly say I blame you. I wound up sponsoring some real winners of members after that like AllegedlyDead and Evil Homer. I am deeply sorry for THAT, as well. I moderated the General Chat forum without any rules, but no one ever seemed to take advantage of that fact.

I believe it was around this time that Monkey-Knuckles took a leave of absence to spend more time with his family, with Wolf taking his position in the clan chain of command. I don't remember: was he selected or was this voted on? I do not recall the process, only that it happened.

DCBomB and I became really close friends because of this clan. He crashed on my couch for like two weeks when I was still broke and writing my doctoral thesis back in 2010. If you ever visit again, you'll now find my accommodations much more inviting, dude.

Even still, the rest of you were a big part of my life from 2005-2007 and I love you all even if you don't like me!!

XOXO,

[SAH]Miscellaneous_T

ps. Let's hang out sometime. I never memorized the path in Crazymaze, so you can mess with me and vent your frustrations about what a bad mod I was. I can handle it!