@lyleberr @mrbubbles I got curious and went through some old chat records to try to formally follow the breadcrumbs of how @Llyrwenne and I joined.
October 2020
I won an auction for an Ancient Mew with the card facing forward instead of backward. This is just a packaging oddity, but really uncommon for these releases so I was happy to have it. Llyrwenne, ever the scholar, immediately got Googling the different packaging variants of Ancient Mew so she’d have full context for what we were discussing. While doing so, she found this topic: https://www.elitefourum.com/t/sealed-ancient-mew/
I knew I had read threads on the forum before, but this was the first time it registered that all these Google searches were leading to the same website. I didn’t really take a close look at this posted thread, which will become important later.
December 2020
While I was assembling my 1st Edition WotC sets, something I wanted to do as a compliment was collect all the original Japanese cards that had their art altered during localization. I thought that would be a really neat addition in the back of the set. Llyrwenne and I were discussing the cards we knew for sure had been updated when she again got Googling and turned up this topic: https://www.elitefourum.com/t/censored-artwork-of-the-pokemon-tcg/
Similarly, I was considering expanding my collection of Starmie cards to include Starmie cameos. By now Llyrwenne had been accustomed perusing E4 for certain topics and she turned up this thread: https://www.elitefourum.com/t/list-of-all-pokemon-tcg-cameos-english/
At this point, both of us had begun to appreciate the depth of knowledge contained in the forum archive and benefitted from the special focus of various topics that differentiated the information here from Bulbapedia. Llyrwenne decided to make an account to participate in these discussions, but I remained in the shadows for personal reasons.
February 2021
It was getting difficult to properly identify and track my collection of WotC flip coins. The documentation had some gaps and I had sufficiently collected up to the point where those gaps really mattered. Due to the narrow appeal of the subject and the obscurity of many of the releases, I had hit the end of the road on what was already documented and out there. Llyrwenne suggested…
Llyrwenne — 02/14/2021 10:13 AM
I could try making a thread on that TCG forum? Might be able to get some leads on the coins we’re unsure about.
So away she went and made this topic on my behalf: https://www.elitefourum.com/t/help-verifying-wotc-era-pokemon-tcg-flip-coins/
I still refused to join.
March 2021
Llyrwenne continues to use the forum for both of our benefits, asking questions and presenting me with information she turns up here on my increasingly esoteric collecting goals. I was trying to find Pokémon League ephemera and activity books and she found a YouTube video from a forum user that depicted an unboxing.
Llyrwenne — 03/15/2021 1:19 PM
This guy got stacks of them, might be able to get one of each from themStagecoach — 03/15/2021 1:19 PM
This person is selling… I should contact them.
Do they have social media other than YT? A Twitter maybe?Llyrwenne — 03/15/2021 1:20 PM
They have a Facebook and they’re on that TCG forum (stumbled upon this vid in their collection thread)Stagecoach — 03/15/2021 1:20 PM
This is from just last month and only has 72 views… hopefully I can connect.
Youtube doesn’t have a messaging system, does it?Llyrwenne — 03/15/2021 1:21 PM
Nope.
So either joining that forum or creating a Facebook account seems to be the way
Yet still I persisted. I found a round-about way to contact that user based on their YouTube and Facebook information. I remained steadfast in not joining the forum.
April 2021
I’d begun lurking the forum some time ago, but still had not made an account. While browsing or searching something about Ancient Mew, I rediscovered the original thread that kicked this whole story off: https://www.elitefourum.com/t/sealed-ancient-mew
And this time I actually took a closer look at the topic and realized something: I was already in it.
A picture I’d taken and shared elsewhere on the internet years prior had been found and posted in this thread to support the search effort. This was it for me. I thought I was resisting becoming a part of the forum, preferring to stay a lurker than become a contributor, but in a way I’d already been one the entire time.
Stagecoach — 04/01/2021 2:20 PM
Maybe I should finally join this forum.
I finally joined on April 7th, 2021.
The moral of the story is that it’s Llyrwenne’s fault. Every time you read one of my annoying posts, blame her.