FamiTracker Forums

The FamiTracker Forums are two forums created by jsr for the purpose of aiding FamiTracker discussion and development.

The FamiTracker website itself exists since October 2005 as shown by the visitor count on its homepage. It was initially hosted on shoodot.net (now defunct), getting its own domain in 2012 after the Shoodot site shut down.

Creation
The First FamiTracker Forum was created between late 2005 and early 2006 with the idea of providing a place where jsr, FamiTracker's developer, could communicate with his users and get feedback on the program itself, as well as bug reports and development. It later allowed for songs made with it to be posted in a dedicated forum section. It uses Forum Senaculum, a custom forum package created by Slize106, who hosted the FamiTracker website from 2005 to 2012. The exact creation date for the first forum is unknown, but the oldest thread available was created on April 23rd, 2006.

Sections
At first, the forum consisted of 3 sections: In October 2008, the Show Off Your Work section was added, after being suggested by forum user furrykef six months prior. Its earliest thread dates back to October 17th, 2008. This section was used for posting music and receiving feedback from other members. It is the section that saw the most usage as old and new users shared their creations in there.
 * FamiTracker Talk, for general discussion and help about the program. Its first thread is the very first thread on the forums.
 * Bug Reports & Feature Requests, for reporting issues with the program or requesting new features. Its first thread was created on April 24th, 2006, and it's the second thread ever created on the forum.
 * Source & Development, for discussions about the program's or its NSF driver's source. Its first thread was created on June 27th, 2006.

The last section to be added was Site Maintenance, with its earliest thread dating back to November 20th, 2010. It contains discussion about the FamiTracker website, including the forum, but it is only accessible to users with an account. This section did not become publicly accessible after the new forums were created.

Closure
The old FamiTracker forums were replaced on April 2015 with an installation of phpBB after at least 4 years of a replacement being in the talks. New accounts could no longer be created after the new forum was introduced, but it remained open for new threads until being completely phased out on May 13th, 2015.

The old forum was replaced due to Forum Senaculum, the forum software it ran on, not being in development anymore and presenting important vulnerabilities, usability issues, and bugs. Common problems mentioned were the presence of bad moderation tools, issues with sending and receiving PMs, and duplication of threads and posts, among others. One of its most important vulnerabilities was the ability to read other people's PMs, which was promptly patched after it became known.

The new forum (2015-present)
On January 20, 2015, JSR created the Second FamiTracker Forum  with phpBB and then opened it to new accounts on April 20, locking the entire First Forum shortly afterwards. (give information about the fate of the second forum here).

This section is bogus and is in dire need of rewriting but I'm too fucking sleepy for that, remind me later. More news at 12.