DCC: Birthday Bash is a go!

[Gramps 2,227]

Members of DCC,

Three years ago, this community underwent a transformation, both symbolically and in a very real, practical sense. CPI was dying, slowly being overrun by spam bots. It had been abandoned by its creator. Some very insightful staff members there decided that, no, that moment would not be the death of the community. It still had life. It still had stories to tell.

And thus, Digital Community Café was born. The idea was simple: provide a place for friends from CPI to continue being friends. My, how we have evolved. Today, DCC’s role is much more expansive than that simple notion. We could spend any amount of time discussing the finer philosophy of why we spend our time on a message board. That’s not the point of today.

No, the point of today is to reflect on what we’ve done in our three years. To reflect on how we got to this point in time. To reflect on our highs and lows. Our wins and our failures. Not everyone who started this journey has made it to this point. On the flip side, there are so many new faces – myself included – that have joined the community since the transition to DCC. Today is about their stories as well.

To celebrate DCC’s birthday, the Community Management Team will be holding some awesome events this weekend. If you haven’t already, please check out the post here:

And now, a look back at just a few of the many moments from our three years of DCC:

On January 30^th, @Tiger, the site’s original creator, made this topic, welcoming everyone to the forum.

The next day, @Frog_LQ, the long-time site owner who carried DCC through uncertain times, made his own introduction.

The forum had its own unique flavor, distinct from CPI, but with many similarities as well. The members of DCC had grown older, and with age, their interests expanded. DCC features many conversations on topics such as anime, gaming, and KPop. We all remember when @Archie discovered EXO.

Members stepped up and volunteered to help the forum in a number of ways. @David, or as he had been known mysteriously on CPI, Doc, stepped up to helm the DCC Monthly, a whimsically whacky look at forum events every month. Here was the DCC Monthly’s first issue:

Every month, the DCC monthly crew would also interview the DCC Member of the Month, a project led by former admin @Country Gal Forever, highlighting the members who contributed the most to the forum in a given month. A variety of members had the chance to claim the prize during the few months that the award was given.

Creativity flourished on the site. Two of the topics with the most likes to this day were creative topics:

Think, a poem by @Agent P

 

And Emily’s Art by @Emfoofoo

 

There were many happy times. Members frequently interacted on the onsite chat that was present in the early days. Memes were shared. Impromptu Pokemon Showdown battles were organized by members. Members formed a DCC Facebook Messenger group, from which @Liberty and @Rosettaroses developed their infamous variety of theories regarding the interpersonal relationships of members on the forum. (Peel the avocado)

DCC also formed a Hangouts group, in which there were constant late night calls. Plenty of laughs, and sometimes there were tears. Life happened, and we had the chance to share it with one another. For a look at some of the funnier moments to happen on the Hangout calls, please see this topic:

There were also plenty of fun movie nights. Let’s give a shoutout to @Flora for helping organize those. From Star Wars to anime to Spongebob, movie nights produced some fun times and great laughs.

However; there were sad times as well. In July 2016, the site’s founder Tiger, as well as fellow admin Country Gal Forever, made the decision to leave the board and cut ties with the community. Everyone, including the rest of the staff at the time, were shocked by the sudden departure.

That being said, one door’s closing is another’s opening. Liam/Frog_LQ promoted moderators @Grant and @Echo to their current administrator roles. Additionally, he hired Liberty and Rosettaroses to join the staff as moderators. Liam’s leadership could be defined as significantly more laid back. He let the rest of his staff begin making small reforms to the site. The rule set the new staff produced was significantly more laid back than the site’s original rules. DCC changed in significant ways in 2017.

In July 2017, we got an unprecedented surge of members, many of them younger siblings of other DCC members. Newly created forums like the Head to the Polls! Section and the Music section saw a significant amount of success during this period. This success lasted through December, and an enthusiastic wave swept the members during this time.

Unfortunately, this success was short lived. Most of 2018 was very slow for DCC. At times, entire weeks went by in between posts. There were many members during this time who kept the faith and regularly logged on during this dead period. To those of you who did, I would like to sincerely thank you for keeping the fire burning. Because of you, DCC still lives today.

Finally, in December of 2018, an impromptu Hangouts call occurred between a few of the members. At first, the point of the call was just to catch up on life. However; eventually the idea arose to revive DCC. The rest, as they say, is history. DCC 2.0 was born.

It’s only been a little over a month since I started the DCC 2.0 initiative, but I am very pleased with our results so far. I would like to thank you all for returning and giving DCC a second chance. I am looking forward to celebrating many more of these birthdays.

Well, this old man has rambled enough. Please, enjoy the celebration this weekend. You’ve earned it. You make DCC what it is. That’s something worth celebrating.

On behalf of the DCC Staff:

All the best,

Gramps

[Gramps 2,227]

Thank you for joining the celebrations, everyone! The CPI theme has been restored to default. The Birthday Celebration 2019 theme is now available via the theme switcher at the bottom of the page.