Damn bro! You should write an ebook on the history of Bodybuilding/AAS Discussion forum/chat boards! I’m freakin impressed! When did Millard break into the “market” (as that’s what it’s become)?
I’ve also always wondered who owned the old pay source sites like the sourcecheck.com, thesourceathoraty.net, steroidscouts.com, etc. and why they seemed to vanish practically overnight.
It’s funny because when I was a newb 15 yrs ago Meso and several other forums that don’t exist anymore like BBE, TIP (IPL the liars forum) and a couple others were extremely staunch and “ban hammer clear” about NO SOURCE DISCUSSION!!! Then around 2011ish Millard made myself and maybe 4 other guys (I think LK was in that group but I may be mistaken) moderators and we started planning what is now Steroid Underground sub forum….the other sites with the zero source discussion rule just kinda dissolved…..
I guess I rambled all that off to say simply it’s nutty to watch the virtual ebb and flow of our greater community and after reading
@MR. BMJ post I gotta say that I don’t know a sixteenth of what I thought I knew. Yikes LOL
Yea, man, i'm not really sure when Millard got there. Was he the original owner of the site, or did he buy/acquire it from somebody else?
Meso was a pretty cool forum in the 90's, mainly because of it's older writers/articles from guys like Lyle McDonald, et al. I was there around '96'ish, IIRC. There was aguy there named FLEX, who was probably the most popular at the time. I didn't know him that well though. EF started right around the same time, again, it could have been between 95-96 for both these forums, I know 96 for sure because I still have links from there that year, both myself and others. The forums really blew up after MM2K talked about the forums in one of their issues, I think a Q&A from Bill Phillips, where he mentioned that he didn't go to them because of the hate there was on them. I had already been on them right before that, as i was going to the Junior College I was at and posting from those pc's in 95. MFW was the most popular, it was brutal as fukk though. I was just an 18/19 year old kid, and the drama wasn't bad for me because I was able to read posts from all the guys in the magazines, and I was also too scared to post and get roasted by them, lol. So I just read a lot. I know that right after that, I did a search....fukk, what was that old search engine back in the 90's??? I did a search about bodybuilding forums, and Meso and EF popped up as actual 'forums.' There were other forums like Donovan Brown, who actually got busted after posting too much stuff up. I logged into Meso first, but right after signed up at EF. EF was more busy, so I stayed there.
Around December 96, Llewellyn and Brian Raupp opened up the site Anabolix. They had a falling out, and then Brian created Anabolex, while Bill kept Anabolix, and think that is how Anabolic got started. Both were sister forums to EF. I think it was Llewellyn and Kneller, i'd have to go back and verify this though, that were partners in the supplement company, Mass Quantities. They had a falling out, and I think that is when Paul (aka George Spellwin) bought the company, or something along those lines. Brian also started selling his own Synthol, I think he just used MCT Oil.
Once those forums got more and more popular, I didn't go to Meso much.
Around 97, Underground Supplements was started by Superior1. It was the forum that had TAZ on it. I went there a lot, but I am not sure I posted much on it. They started doing newsletters similar to what Hulkster did at EF, etc.
In I think '97, Paul started EFS, and the board slowed some because all the vet/popular/known posters just posted there mostly. Duchaine did not post openly as much at EF because somebody mentioned his handle name openly, I think it was a guy named gymrat.
There were other forums too like BigSport, Renagade started i think in '98, and a few others. In 1999, EF was shut down for a while because of hackers. It restarted at the end of 99, or maybe the beginning of 2000. I had taken a break from the forums between 98-the end of 1999 because of college, and just notn having easy access to internet 'dial-up' access, lol. I think I went to the library a few times, but it was always super busy at my college. I came back and got back on EF, but didn't post for many months because it was all a new crowd in 2000, and almost all of the old crew had left. It was insane. That said, this started a new generation of posters. Post-2000, it was insane with all the forums that popped up, for like 8-10 years, though some went down after ORD, and especially now since social media came about.
Rawdeal and others will know more about TSC and SA. I may be getting them mixed up, but around the mid-2000's (2006/7?), I think is when one of them was created because I remember that loon needtogetas mentioning he was going there, along with a bunch of others he was friends with, which was an automatic turnoff for me. I was banned in 2007 from EF, I think from BRR or MrX, I can't remember. I was never a member at TSC, but looked through it as a non-member toward the end of it. I mainly just knew of Zeus and Big White/UXL, who were members here, and a few others places I was at.