I. General Forum History(2002-Today)
As far as I can ascertain, the forums were founded in 2002. The oldest accounts date back to then, but the founding is obscure in my mind since I was only on fleetingly on another account then.
When I joined in late 2003, we were quite a mess. There was a lot of spam and guest posting was still allowed(and continued to be for quite a while). The board layout at the time was not this(this layout can still be see in the "Talks" section of Cliques/Clubs) and was silver in colour. There isn't much to say about that time, all of the members were quite out of control and flamed each other constantly.
2004 was very similar to 2003, though things began to be cleaned up with new mods at this time. The one major event of the time was the "Mod Vote". At the time, we were frustrated due to the lack of mod activity and demanded that we have a say in the decision. A group of names were proposed in a thread and those names were voted on by the members. Three member were chosen to be mods, one completely inactive, another the worst mod ever, and the final was a good mod(and close friend of mine) who had to resign. This occurred in late 2004. That year, sweetpea200202 also became a mod amid much scandal due to her short time of being a member. The anger mainly came from older members who thought they were better qualified.
In 2005-2006, the majority of the second mod team began to become inactive/resign. This resulted in new mods slowly being chosen over the next couple of years and the only mods who came from that second team are dudettel and Elanorea. I came first, then Miranda, Sarah, and then Silent_Wolf and Hayley. These years marked big change for us as power shifted, handdrawn dolling first appeared, and roleplaying was brought here. In early 2005, a group called the "TDP Forums Family" also came into existence. While never terribly active, many of the current and past mods and older members participated in it. There was a King, Queen(Potter15, I believe), Princesses, Warriors, Sorceresses, and other silly stuff. While it never had much of a point, it brought together the forums as a community.
At the beginning of 2007, the layout was changed to our current one. Before it, a slew of trolls came on and left disgusting spam. One example was a really disgusting song in the RPG games area and another was the obscene pictures. This did not stop the change though and the new layout came out regardless, much to the displeasure of some who were horrified at the new pink theme. The new layout had updated graphics and the new profiles, with comments that we didn't have before. There had long been suggestions of an update and it resulted in this(which has been destined to become the main layout, though the change has been happening slowly). When it opened, we got a massive influx of new members who joined, then left and some of our highest numbers of members online come from that time.
In 2008, after member problems involving trolling and support's decreasing activity and interest in maintaining the forums, it was proposed that a second admin be appointed. This was Miranda and has led to some changes in positions(new mods, "Greeters" created, some promotions) and the forums(new rank names, member pruning, major cleaning, etc), many of which are yet to come. At the end of 2008, we also had our first forum event ever for Christmas/the Holidays-the Secret Santa Event. It went well with over 30 members participating in it and most being really active in spreading the cheer. The season was also accompanied by a special appearance by 'Santa Claus' and his special kind of carolling.