Inspired by the topic of how many active users are on here and a discussion about forums in general in the age of centralised social media. What makes an individual move from one of those default discovery places - YouTube, IG, Reddit - to a forum (which is probably a millennial thing or at least a characteristic of generations before social media blew up)?
Honestly, I’m not even sure exactly how I found E4. I know that about a decade ago I found another forum to buy the remaining Base-Jungle holos I had outstanding and then didn’t restart collecting until the pandemic.
Even after that I mainly used Facebook groups to purchase cards, Pokebeach for news (their forums are basically dead) and Reddit for any other discussion.
I think it must have been when trying to research set pull rates and print runs where I would have resorted to Google to find information due to centralised social media being inadequate for that purpose. Reddit might be the best, but its search function is still pretty damn bad.
Then once I did find a topic on the forum, perhaps growing up with forums made it more desirable to stay since topics are of higher quality, but also because of searchability, like-mindedness, passion and depth of information.
I was iffy on the switch from the previous forum provider to this one with infinite-ish scroll on threads, but guess I’ve just got used to it.
First saw the forum when Quuador linked his Pikachu collection thread in a comment on Reddit. Then later also saw the thread about the German Tropical Mega Battle cards, which I hadn’t seen before anywhere else. I think from there I occasionally looked at the forum and when I started my Staraptor collection and saw a species collection thread I figured I might as well join to comment there.
I only began collecting again last fall when 151 came across my radar. I used Google to find info about the set and how to purchase cards nowadays. Then I specifically went looking to see if it was still in print which led me to reddit which I’ve never used before.
There was hardly any info there, just people posting “god packs” but someone mentioned this site and here I am.
I first had the forum pop up in a Google search when I was trying to find some information about a local card show that was happening here in Atlanta a few weekends ago, and someone had posted a thread about E4 members from Georgia a few months prior, and they had replied to it saying they were going to that card show.
Then the other night, I was watching a Rattle video on YT and he mentioned it, so I decided to check it out and here I am.
I do not recall exactly how I learned of this forum’s existence, but it was undoubtedly part of some research rabbit hole I tumbled down some time after @stagecoach infected me with this cardboard collection curse. Speaking of; I take full credit for stagecoach’s presence on this forum - my first proper thread was made in his stead as he was too much of a coward to make an account himself.
I didnt and still dont follow any social media about pokemon, but @quuador was always on reddit in the pkmtcgcollections sub with great information that linked back to here. As someone who likes to understand the history of what im interested with I found the information fascinating and kept lurking on and off for probably a year and a half before making an account. Once secret santa came up, I wanted to be part of it and hurried to make the minimum comment threshold and felt obligated to join in a bit more to share my enjoyment of the hobby with others who also enjoy it.
Now its a daily log in. Ive gone back and looked at lots of very old topics with wonderful treasure troves of information, and even still I am always learning new details or previously unknown information about releases or cards themselves. Theres been no better place to easily check as a resource for any question that I may have.
It was the flip coin thread wasn’t it? When @stagecoach recently was discussing about the flip coins, I checked some similar threads and there was one of yours. The dots just connected.
Around 2012 I started doing more in depth searches online on what kind of stuff to add to my collection. I was browsing mostly Livejournal at the time for most of the non-tcg stuff but found a few posts from E4 via searches on cards and sets I was missing. The summer of 2013, I looked into more and found even more posts. At some point I started just reading topics and could sense the passion people had for their collections.
I had never showed off my collection to any degree but was inspired by those posts. I eventually joined sometime in the Spring of 2014 and was met with massive encouragement.
I think it was during the summer 2015: Pokemon Go was announced and so I started collecting again, starting with commons and well known sets.
When you are interested in a hobby you quickly hit a roof, and you start craving knowledge, but Reddit + ig posts, at the time, were enough to satisfy my sporadic curiosity. Then, one day, I can recall a Reddit thread about a presumably legit snap pikachu and people recommending op this mysterious website, where serious serious collectors would help: the E4 proboard community.
Well, after years literally spent lurking, here I am.
I just love the slow pace of forums, I miss this kind of internet so much, where discussions are meaningful, technical, long and enjoyable. Today I find social media overstimulating for me, as a person really susceptible to FOMO, and sometimes, I just want to read what I need or reply at threads that intrigue me, without an algorithm overfeeding me.
I’m pretty sure I heard about it on Discord, some people I knew talking about it in hushed tones. Some other place for more serious and big-time collectors. Little did I know how wrong they were about it
