This Friday marks the 20th anniversary of the forums.

Despite all the changes, all the ups and downs, over the years, that is something significant in the world of internet fan communities.

EGF is indeed a remarkably resilient community. This isn't always obvious to people inside it, but it is really a wonder to many Eva fans out there that this site and its enormous wealth of resources - be them translations or discussions and theories that have been fundamental to interpreting the franchise internatioanlly - are still available, and they are very appreciated. I have even seen quite a few Japanese/Chinese/Korean fans, who a priori have higher access to all of these, who know of Evageeks because it has managed to retain those in one easily accessible place for 20+ years, whereas the Japanese sites often disappeared. Naturally it has also been reproduced elsewhere. There are some really good French, Italian or Spanish-speaking fansites that link back this site frequently or feature translated articles and forum posts from the forums and wiki. I am personally satisfied that this site has had a hand in informing people and dispelling several myths. Even though forums were born in a previous era of the Internet, they quite clearly have their own advantages and this is a format still better suited to proper discussion, archival and cooperation towards longer-term projects than social media whose algorithms usually push discussions down to the oblivion after 24 hours.

Hilariously it even leads to people assuming Evageeks is responsible for some sites or communities just because they are big and thus people assume they naturally "belong" to EGF. Although forum activity itself is quiet right now, it's easy to see that tons of people still read the forums. (I myself have made a post, only to see it screencapped and Google translated to Spanish hours later on Facebook, haha) Considering the mostly confirmed New Eva Thingy should be coming in the next 1 to 2 years (presumably for when Evangelion itself has its 30th anniversary), we should see it picking up again also.

How time flies. Doesn't really feel like it's been that long at all.

This is such an accomplishment really. This site was so important for the Evangelion community as a whole for so many years. It's still a reference, like it or not! So many great people put so much hard work into the forum and the wiki over the years... I'm lucky to have found it in time for the last movie. It was a really fun time back then. I wish more people would be here now to celebrate, but the site lives on!

Congratulations, EGF! I am just glad to be part of this history.

Places like this are important; I think the rise of -chan and social media internet culture more or less undermined the use of forums like this as a means of discussion and that was ultimately a bad thing, the forum architecture allows certain kinds of in-depth discussion that the other sorts of websites just aren't designed to support. Here's to another 20 years.

Sorry for posting two months later. Congratulations on the 20th anniversary. Keeping alive an important site such as EvaGeeks is not easy and I am aware there is a lot of effort behind it. Thanks to this forum I learnt some details of NGE that I wasn't aware of previously. There is not enough data about Evangelion in my language, and then I decided to search in English. This forum (and the main page) popped up.

Cheers!

shinryujimikihiko wrote: the forum architecture allows certain kinds of in-depth discussion that the other sorts of websites just aren't designed to support. Here's to another 20 years.

I agree. That's why I love forums and we ought to preserve these kinds of websites. Classic boards over modern fast interactions.

Mr. Tines wrote:This Friday marks the 20th anniversary of the forums.

Despite all the changes, all the ups and downs, over the years, that is something significant in the world of internet fan communities.

Here I am, posting not long after the 17th anniversary of joining these forums, yet I feel I missed something significant by not being part of those initial three years. Indeed, despite all the changes over the years, we exist, and as far as internet fan communities go, I think we've done something right.

Most everyone else is long gone by now.

It is very difficult to keep an online community alive for many years. Time passes by, and 'real life' issues suddenly pop up. I was only 7 years old when this forum was settled up. Who would say I will join 17 years later? Yes, you guys did a very good job. We can say this website is surviving by different generations.

I'm grateful EGF is still around, in spite of everything, even in this state, I think I'll endeavour to make more of an effort to post on here, see what happens.

20 years!?!? Christ, doesn't seem that long ago it was only 10 years old.