The Source

The Source was the first 9 forum dedicated just to roleplay. To read about the first general 9 fandom forum visit The 9 Forum. Participants roleplayed as stitchpunks.
==History==
===Forum===
The Source was created on July 2009source 9 roleplay update 15 Dated July 2009 (Accessed 12/25/2019) by admin Nicky (the "Forum Warden," or "Cool Guy"), who also frequented The 9 Forum. It was then open to members in August. Nicky seems to have left in 2010, as a post by Sinner detailing rule changes states that Sinner and Eshe were the new admins.Which of Cool Guy's 5 Characters is your Favorite? Oct 21, 2009 (Accessed 12/25/19) However, Nicky did not leave the forum completely, but instead re-named herself to "Kenny."Editor's Note: A private message sent to my account under the mod "Kenny" has "Nicky" in its signature
The forum moved to The Source: Hereafter in January 2012.IMPORTANT! NEW FORUM! Jan 19, 2012 (Accessed 12/25/19) Eshe made this second forum, and after the move Sinner was bumped down to a mod. The second site did not do as well as the first; though many members did move over to it, little to none actually roleplayed in threads there. A large amount of the categories only have a single roleplay thread in them.
Since Proboards updated its design, The Source's original format has been significantly broken. The best way to view the forum as it appeared in its heyday is to use the Wayback Machine, which archived the site in 2013. The sidebar chatbox can be viewed via Wayback Machine, as well as a list of mods and the website's banner. One can also view a snapshot of The Source: Hereafter from 2013, which shows off the formatting that has been lost. This snapshot gives a clear view of the weather system, the staff, and a sidebar that displays recent events/rumors in the roleplay.
On Jan 11, 2016, an admin named Kite posted in the chatbox: "Lays a flower as well. But! For those of you old and new fans of 9 or even past members of the Source, keep an eye on www.carnivele.com for upcoming stuff! ;)" For some while, this website had "coming soon" on it and nothing more. But since 2019, the link takes one to a blank "404 error" page.
====Threads====
File:The Source Thread Goodbye.png | A user says goodbye
File:The Source Thread Inside Phrases.png | Inside jokes
File:The Source Character History.png | A character's history
===Roleplay===
At the very beginning of its creation, the plot is summarized as follows: it's 2020, all humans are dead, and the stitchpunks are split into four differing factions, all of which who are just seeking to survive. The factions were: Saviors, Rogues, Loners, and Traitors. Users could also roleplay as canon characters and machines, not just stitchpunks. The majority of users on and before Sept 16, 2009, chose to have characters in the Savior faction. In 2010 the factions began to divide even further, introducing the Racketeers and The Gray.Recruiting Racketeers~! Nov 10, 2010 (Accessed 12/25/19) All characters were required to choose a faction or call themself a Loner.
Saviors were the the "good guys" who lived in the cathedral and library. The Mark was a faction of stitchpunks trying to escape their past and lived in secrecy. Rogues were a faction of thieves who refused to live under other factions' rules. Racketeers were an "immoral" faction living under a crime lord. The Gray were a faction who tried to keep the peace between the fighting factions (but apparently had a hit list as well).grey hitlist (dead link) Nov 15, 2011 (Accessed 12/26/19) Finally, Loners were factionless, which could include characters who had renounced their faction or characters who had yet to pick one. Naturally, the Saviors were in major opposition to the Rogues and Racketeers, while other factions attempted to stay out of the way of the factions' conflict.
Though the forums attempted to retain a cohesive plot line, there are few posts about the fluctuating plot lines. There are singular posts to describe the plot on both forums, but both are minimal and do not get into major site-wide plot changes or events. Only one very small thread details some plot events.plot updates january 2012 (dead link) Jan 25, 2012 (Accessed 12/26/19) 
Some of the plotting was done in the out of character chatbox, which could account for some of the missing information. Even when it comes to the factions, there seem to be no threads dedicated to the factions nor their histories as a whole, except for one thread on The Grays. (dead link) Jan 18, 2012 (Accessed 12/26/19) The thread that was created to list the world building of the factions and universe appears to have been wiped or not completed.societal structure common knowledge (dead link) Nov 30, 2011 (Accessed 12/26/19) A snapshot from the Wayback Machine of The Source: Hereafter indicates that the majority of plots and events had been listed in a sidebar to the right, but since Proboard's unification of formatting, said sidebar has been erased, making the info box of the past unreadable.
Roleplay was done in a public chatbox as well as in the forum's threads. The chatbox roleplay was not always considered canon, but on Oct 13, 2010, the events in the cbox were made canon as if they'd been roleplayed in the threads.Brand New Day (IMPORTANT) Oct 13, 2010 (Accessed 12/25/19) There may have been some discourse between mainly-chatbox-roleplayers and mainly-thread-roleplayers, as Sinner described the mainly-chatbox-roleplayers as "lurkers." There was also an out of character cbox.AIM Staff Access Mar 28, 2012 (Accessed 12/26/19)
To instigate a roleplay, one would use one of two options: begin an open roleplayUnusual Allies (Open~) Sept 29, 2009 (Accessed 12/25/19) or a private roleplay.A Thread of Light (17 and 70) Nov 7, 2009 (Accessed 12/25/19) An open roleplay would start out with the poster setting the scene and simply allowing anyone, or a set number of people, to join at will. A private roleplay was a roleplay that already had certain users in mind, and was not free for anyone to join. However, both could be viewed by members.
Users kept up with their characters in various ways. On The Source: Hereafter, each character had their own separate log-in, while on the original website this was not practiced. On the original The Source, characters were kept up with mostly by their profile thread. There were also separate threads for character's relationship tracking and character development. The category called "character development" didn't really have much development, and instead seemed to serve as a place to create alternate universes of characters, such as what Pokemon they would be. However, there were a few staff-made threads designed to help players expand upon their characters.Character Development Sheet Dated Nov 12, 2009 (Accessed 12/28/19) If a user became inactive, and did not respond to an activity check, their characters name and/or number could be re-opened for claiming.
Users could originally only have three characters. Then, on September 19, 2009, Nicky expanded this to four, as well as added a rewards system to encourage roleplay.SITE UPDATE 9/19 Dated Sept 19, 2009 (Accessed 12/28/19)
==Community==
The small community was even more tight-knit than the relatively larger community of the main 9 forum. Since The Source was created for roleplay, that is what the community was focused solely around, though there were also categories for non-roleplay chat. Though many members appear to express a positive experience through their interactions, because the community was so small and there was a very strict rule about creating well-written roleplay posts, the atmosphere was also criticized as intimidating for casual players. Though the rules threads can no longer be found on either site, Sinner made it clear that not writing up to par with the staff's standards was an offense. Repeatedly writing or replying to roleplays with quality below their standards could result in being banned.
There was also a rule against sexual roleplay involving rape, which Sinner noted was to protect under aged users and to keep proboard's anti-NSFW policies off their back. However, there were no issues drawn with sexual roleplay being held in the public forum chatboxes, even if under aged users could see it.Editor's Note: Personal first hand experience. I recall watching characters soul bond/soul bind in the chatbox, and recall one of the characters involved was an admin's or mod's character. The character was a calm one, but during soul bonding his soul exploded with anger but they continued to bond. Having watched The Source's chatbox roleplays like soap operas, I actually wrote down this event in a personal journal in real life, including summaries of what was said. One of the mods who created the Racketeer faction also included a prostitution ring within the faction.
Even though the community was close, there was the occasional discourse. A user named Urist was banned from the chatbox for 3 days after repeated complaints from members, and they then went on to make a thread complaining about the site and staff. The admin and mods chipped in with the reasoning for the three day ban, including: making rape jokes, pestering users for private roleplays, and saying inappropriate comments in chat.Rant ahead. by 
urist. Dated Mar 30, 2010 (Accessed 12/28/19) Another user named Elphie16 made a thread complaining that the website, especially the chatbox, was too clique-y, and made it difficult for newer members to find roleplay partners. The admin and the mod Nobody responded that it was Elphie16's responsibility to make users roleplay with them, and that it felt like they "pushed people away" in roleplays. Elphie16 seems to have since deleted their account.A Cbox Rant by Elphie16. Dated Feb 16, 2010 (Accessed 12/28/19) At some point in 2009 a kid by the name of Eccentric caused discourse among staff after accidentally mimicking the theme of one of the admin's recent characters. She subsequently left the forum by deleting her account. In 2012 she joined The Source: Hereafter under a different username, and the ex-admin (Nicky/Kenny) apologized for what had happened in the past.Editor's Note: Me
==References==
<references>
Category:9
Category:2009
Category:2010s
Category:Role Playing