Happy 5th Birthday, IDB!

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alittledizzy
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Wanna feel the acute passage of time? This was the first post made in a main thread on In Depth Bants - and it was made half a decade ago.

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The name of that first main thread is "The Mods are NOT EXEMPT FROM ANY RULES". That's the entire premise that this forum was made on; we wanted to escape a place where moderators were free to pick and choose what rules had to be followed and who had to follow them, exempting themselves from anything they felt like.

We think we've done a half decent job of creating the forum - what started out as a bit of fun has ended up with over two thousand members and is still going strong five years later. But the real magic isn't the mods - it's the members. It doesn't matter if you joined in 2016 or last week, every person that has jumped in with an opinion, a meme, or a tidbit of information has contributed to the atmosphere of calm debate, less calm excitement, and community that we try to create at IDB.

Happy 5 Year Anniversary, In Depth Bants! :birthday: We're going to be sharing some forum memories in this thread throughout the next twenty four hours, and we invite you to do the same!

Your Mods,
alittledizzy, missemma, oqua, jesp, rizzo, Catallena, lefthandedism

And former Mods,
jhamba, human, ayane, mermaid blood, Vivastian, shoe
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alittledizzy
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This forum was actually started by a small group of people led by jhamba - she's not active in phandom anymore but she did send us this message to pass along.
jhamba wrote:Even though I'm kind of out of the fandom now, I love to see the way that it's grown, and I love how Dan and Phil have grown with us! When we made it, I didn't think we'd get this far, with Dan and Phil coming out and making cute stereos, and I'm really excited to see what the future holds for all of us!
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rizzo
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Happy Birthday IDB!!! This is my favorite spot on the internet and I'm soso proud of the cute little phandom home we've made. :')

Now off to Kindergarten with you!
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LAshleigh
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Aww, this is so cute! I only made my account here about a year ago but I have been lurking since 2018 and I don't know how I would have processed my emotions about BIG and COTY without seeing everyone else's thoughts and pride for the boys here. This forum is one of the few corners of the internet that is truly 99%+ toxicity-free, and I am on here almost every day even if I don't say anything!
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Susanisnotafish
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I’ve been here since nearly the beginning (summer of 2016 - first content drought). I can’t believe it’s been that long ago! Love it here because the bants really are super in depth.
"Rub those freckles all over me!" --Daniel Howell
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Catallena
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:rainbowsparkle: :hbd: :rainbowsparkle:

Happy 5th Birthday to In Depth Bants! You're in primary school now :D

I remember used to lurk on The Toxic Pit That Shall Not Be Named, watching the beef between the lovely people of the DnP thread and the dictatorial regime unfold, until suddenly the servers gave up on life. Mood. Anyway, they redirected to a page with a comment section for a while and in there I found In Depth Bants. Rather than just lurk again, I decided to make an account and actually post something. And I've never regretted it. Thanks to IDB I made friends within the phandom, some I've even been able to meet IRL. I'm so happy that this place is still around 5 years later. This is my favorite little corner of the internet :love2:
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kavat
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Aaw happy birthday idb!! This is my favorite place in this fandom, where people are encouraged to have thought out discussions instead of just retweetable quips (with a healthy dose of shitposting for fun). The name In depth bants is so fitting. I've learned so much through people talking about their experiences and I'm so grateful for that.

:hbd:

And thank you to the mods for keeping this a fun and enjoyable place <3
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adequate duck
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it's been a million years since i posted or lurked here, but still wanted to wish you guys a happy 5th birthday! <3
"don't respect any ducks" - phil lester
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missemma
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I can’t believe it has been a whole 5 years since a group of us sat down and decided to make our own corner of the phandom and here we still are!

I vividly remember sitting at my dining room table at 1am getting increasingly frustrated that the table size and colours wouldn’t work properly but being so happy when it worked.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure it would take off but we hit so many members so quickly and I really am so happy that 5 years on people still come here to post and express their opinions. I also love the tour section so much as I love reading back through peoples meets and their experiences of the tour. We really do have the best people here so thank you to everyone for making IDB what it is ❤️

Without IDB I wouldn’t have met so many people from the phandom. I’ve met quite a lot of you face to face and each and every person has been super lovely. I hope post COVID I will get the chance to meet more people (including all of the lovely mods here as I’ve only met one irl!)

And finally (sorry I post a lot), without IDB we would not have had some wild finds; remember when one of our users found Phils The Weakest Link? Another member found out about Truth Bombs before it was announced. I remember each time the excitement from everyone. Ahhhhh I love you all.

Happy birthday IDB 🥳

ps. Be grateful I haven’t shared the collection of Wanking!Dan gifs I have made over the 5 years 😂
:prideheart: :gayaf: :prideheart:
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liola
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Happy birthday IDB, you're one of my most favorite corners of the internet. I found this place a few months after it was founded, and I lurked for so long craving more interactions. It's been almost 4 years since I joined (holy shit time flies) and I couldn't be more happier and proud to be part of a place that not only accept discussion of opinions but encourages it, even when those opinions clash against each other. Thank you for being the place that allowed me endless rants about communication, hiatus and long-ass posts about marketing and fandom that no one else would ever care about and for being a place where amazing projects started, like phandomwatch and phandomgives that I'm so happy to help with :happytears:

A huge thank you to the wonderful mods for keeping this afloat and generally speaking being v awesome super sexy people. :dog: :forthememe:
Will probably never be over the BONCAS and the beauty of Phil Lester.

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Congrats everyone!

This is truly one loveliest place on the internet! <3
Megancita75
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Happiest of birthdays to the site and many thanks to those who make it happen.
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alittledizzy
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missemma wrote: Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:28 amI’ll admit, I wasn’t sure it would take off but we hit so many members so quickly and I really am so happy that 5 years on people still come here to post and express their opinions.
Catallena wrote: Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:21 am I remember used to lurk on The Toxic Pit That Shall Not Be Named, watching the beef between the lovely people of the DnP thread and the dictatorial regime unfold, until suddenly the servers gave up on life. Mood. Anyway, they redirected to a page with a comment section for a while and in there I found In Depth Bants. Rather than just lurk again, I decided to make an account and actually post something. And I've never regretted it.
I'm still incredibly shocked that are least a couple hundred people were willing to uproot one of their frequented internet hangouts and just follow us to a new place but I think we've done so well.

Also, remembering that era, I just want to say - I think my avatar over there still directs people to IDB. That week was so fun - I wasn't banned so I stopped posting, not wanting to give them a reason to ban me, but I kept changing my userpic and they kept taking it down and I kept putting it right back up... they had banned the url for idb so we were trying to think of creative ways to let people know we all moved so they wouldn't just show up and see the old forum abandoned!

That whole start to the forum was such an exhilarating experience, and I really do think what we've settled into is exactly what we always wanted to be.
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lefthandedism
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I joined the phandom in spring of 2016, and after a few months of being very confused by what I found online, I stumbled upon IDB. That was during the height of tatinof, with more than a hundred posts on the main thread a day, with a new thread lasting less than a week, as well as brisk activity on many side threads. I started reading the forum around June, and shortly after went back to the beginning and read all the old posts in parallel with the new. By autumn I had caught up after reading tens of thousands of posts, and felt myself worthy to make an account and join the conversation. :tu:

A year or so later, at the start of Interactive Introverts, I was honored to join the forum's mods.

This story is probably more about me and my completionist tendencies than about IDB--except maybe it shows that this place is welcoming to all sorts of fans of Dan and Phil. Possibly no one else has read all 121,000 plus posts, but everyone who comes here makes this place special, and I for one appreciate all of us! :lilheart:
"If you're left-handed, ask a friend."
"Why am I left-handed?"
"Everybody makes mistakes."
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Kurapika
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I didn't really help creating IDB (lol), but I was there in the chat with you guys while you had the idea and I'm just so proud of you all and how far we've come from G*** G*******. All that drama, omg! Fun times, though.

Deppy Bants :birthday:
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obvsly
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I'm getting emotional reading this now :rainbowtears:

happy birthday, IDB!
thank you so much, all the current and past mods, and all members too.
Grow strong and be :gayaf: !
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untitled102
smol bean
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Happy birthday IDB!!! I went to an ii show overseas with someone i met on this forum :stan:

Thank you guuuys i really love this corner of the internet :yippee:
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Ablissa
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Happy Birthday, IDB! My time in the Phandom is pretty much over, but I still visit here just to read what people have to say. I've spent so many hours on this forum and made so many friends - this is truly a special place! It's definitely always been (and always will be) my favourite corner of this fandom. In a world full of toxicity, IDB remains fair, kind, and inclusive, and for that, I will treasure it always. <3 Huge kudos and thank you to the mods and everyone involved in the running of this forum, you are doing an amazing job and providing so many people so much joy.
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