The Official Erin Hunter Message Boards

The Official Erin Hunter Message Boards, widely known as the Warrior Cats Forums, was the community hub for fans of all works by Erin Hunter, primarily the Warrior Cats books. The main draw of the site was the message boards and discussions, which included roleplaying and original characters. Fanart and fanfiction were also shared on the site.
The forums were the central platform of the Warrior Cats fandom for a long time (reaching a peak around 2010-2013https://wcrpforums.com/thread/913/warrior-cat-forums-history-putting), before it was shut down in 2016. Message Board Shut Down Announcement by Alex - Moderator on 7/29/16 (archived) There had been millions of posts on the message boards at the time of the closure.
After the WCF's shutdown fans created a new site for unofficial forums known as the Warrior Cats RP Forums.
==Features==
The Forums featured different categories, which included General Information; The Books (discussion about the books divided by series and arcs), Ask Erin (where users could pose questions to the authors); as well as forums for off-topic discussion, roleplays, fanfiction, and fanart. These categories have been preserved in snapshots of the site on Archive.org. Unfortunately, the content of the forums was routinely purged for inactivity, which resulted in much of the site's history being lost prior to its closure in 2016. 
Users' avatars were limited to a specific set of images, mostly artwork from the books. In addition, a glitter text font known as KittyBling was specifically designed to be forum compatible. Each individual letter was individually created by user GKoC.https://wcrpforums.com/thread/8089/warrior-cat-forums-history-far 
Throughout its history, site admins and mods took a variety of efforts to create a more kid-friendly environment as most of the userbase consisted of tweens and young teenagers. For instance, at one point outside links were banned. The website imposed strict censorship on words that were considered to be profane or sexual, which were blocked out in asterisks. This included terms related to sexualities (homosexual, bisexual, etc.) and even words that had other uses such as lotion or prick. Due to the age of the userbase, this often had the unintended consequence of teaching users alternate meaning of these terms. Personal recollections of user EllieElls99, a former user of the site. She was active in the early 2010s under the name Arcticmist. She mostly was involved in the OOTSian community and has remained friends with members of this group to this day.
The Forums did not allow for direct messaging of users, due to the inability to adequately moderate this form of communication.
==Community==
=== General Website Structure ===
The website was established in the summer of 2009 (possibly in June or July 13th) and quickly became an influential space in the Warrior Cats fandom. "When the Warrior Cats Forums was released in 2009, the forums were extremely small. The forumboard was much more focused on Warriors at the time; there was no Seekers or Survivors board, or even an Art Forum or Off Topic Discussion. In the beginning, the forums had only a few Moderators; some moderators that existed then were Matthew-Moderator, Mary-Moderator, Warrior Cats Moderator, and a few others. The day the forums were released, "snail-posting" as it was called, was still enacted. Snail posting was the process of having to get your post approved by the admins/moderators before it was posted. This process made the forums slow, luggy, and made role-playing almost completely impossible, so it was done away with, although on the current forums, if you upload art from your computer, the Moderators will have to approve of it, however the process is faster and more efficient today. Back then, the forums even looked different, the colors being green, dark gray, and brown, and it also ran on a much older system called Eve. It was so old, old users used to tease it was a "dinosaur forum". In late 2013, the format changed to what it is today. The Warrior Cats Community was extremely small back then, but today it has grown and prospered to become a large, friendly society to celebrate our favorite book series. WCF has gone through countless changes over the past 5 years, and it is bound to go through countless more." --User Rainfur100200 in 2016Smaller communities in the forums revolved around different areas of the forums. There were dedicated spaces to fan art, fan fiction, and roleplay. Communities also thrived in forums dedicated to discussing different arcs of the book series. One notable community were the OOTSians - frequent users of the board dedicated to the then-ongoing (through 2012) Omen of the Stars arc.https://wcrpforums.com/thread/2153/big-thing-oots-old-forums?page=1&scrollTo=184988 From about 2010-2012, some of the more popular OOTsians dubbed their friend group "the OOTS Awesomez."
Sometimes, conflict would arise between different groups of members. An example of this is the Off Topic Discussions vs. Omen of the Stars Rivalry that flourished between 2011 and 2012.To the best of my knowledge as a former user and OOTSian, this rivalry started after a bunch of OOTS topics were repeatedly moved by the mods to OTD for either being off topic in the first place or turning into off-topic conversations (we were not good) at sticking to a topic. Sadly, I do not remember the exact details. From, EllieElls99 (aka Arcticmist), 2024 
The most active contingent of the website was always the Warriors section, but discussion of later the later Hunter book series Seekers and Survivors also had their own specific sections. An Off Topic Discussion forum also flourished.
One status symbol in the community for awhile was getting a moderator to edit your signature and leave a comment of their own."2010-2013 was peak forums. FAQs was littered with several popular advice columns until the mods moved them to OTD (since the board was meant for questions about the boards). there were many very popular fanclans that dominated the top of the board: swiftclan, megaboneclan, savageclan, wolfclan (that was mine!), an "Original 5 Clans", more im forgetting. these would often do 20 pages a day and accumulated well over thousands of pages on their original threads. megaboneclan was particularly interesting as it started the "kit-stealing" trend which eventually got them deleted and its members banned multiple times. many copy-cat clans popped up and popularized various forms of "kit-____ing"; the most popular remained kit-stealing and it's rival kit-saving, but various bizarre versions like kit-styling, kit-washing, and kit-hugging. basically people would barge into random clans and steal, style, etc. their kits and leave. ("no kit-___ing" became a very common rule seen on clan pages). there was the OOTS wedding in which popular, frequent users on that board "married" their favorite characters. everyone was in the "rAnDoM XD" phase of the internet. the art forum was booming with many extensive and popular comics (several of which have been reposted in the current AF). "adoptables" were also popular, as were "shops" where people could make custom banner images for you. OOTS and OTD frequenters hated each other. many people used "post headers", which usually included a banner and fancy formatting with sections for chatting and rpings that they had to copy-and-paste manually into each post. using copy-and-paste generators for "fancy text" was a common way to decorate your threads--we only had BBC code and no html so we had to get creative." Description of the forums during its heyday by Saint Ambrosef, 2021Around 2014, the community of the Forums declined as many chatrooms and roleplay clans grew increasingly inactive. A general culture shift also took place, congruent with wider trends on the internet of the time, where the "lol so randomz" form of humor and interaction fell out of fashion.
=== Notable Events ===
As follows are some notable events from the Forums' history. Please feel free to add your own.
==== The Great Troll Attack of 2011 ====
An event that would be dubbed as "The Great Troll Attack of 2011" took place, possibly in May or June of that year, due to actions of a user going by the name "Hai : D" This individual started a topic bashing another user and generally posting inappropriate things. They were ultimately IP banned."Rumors that Hai had an alternative option for evading the IP ban and returning to the forums spread like wildfire, and many users (including myself) began planning for a major forum evacuation if she did end up returning to prevent the disaster from happening again. The term I have coined for this event for this purpose is The Attack of Hai, although I'm open to name suggestions. If any users have any more in-depth info on who exactly Hai was (I wasn't online during the time of the attack, but I quickly learned of what happened a short while after the posts were deleted and she was IP banned)--cocokat, 2016According to user skewter's reflections in 2016, the troll attack was allegedly so severe that users would request people not to use the word "hai" in their posts for sometime "upwards of a month" afterwards.
==== Kit Stealing and Kit Saving ====
Kit stealing clans were a controversial form of RP on the forums in which users of kit stealing clans would go around to other clans and post stealing their kits. This typically violated roleplay etiquette as the users having their characters stolen were usually not asked. This was often countered by kit saving clans, who would target the kit stealing clans to steal back the kitten characters.
Inspired by the aforementioned kit stealers and kit savers, groups dedicated to other actions towards kit roleplay characters started such as kit hugging, kit washing, kit styling, kit scaring, kit ghosting, etc.https://wcrpforums.com/thread/87621/list-kit-ing
===== MegaBoneClan =====
One prominent kit stealing clan was MegaBoneClan. It was eventually banned from the Forums, so no one could restart a new version. A description of the group's history is as follows:"It all started back in the September of 2009. MegaBoneClan, also known as MBC, or Mega BoneClan, was created by a member called Thundersky. MBC was a very unique Clan considering it was the first kit-stealing Clan. Kit-stealing, now very popular, is where members would steal roleplayed kits from Clans, now adoption centers and other places too, on the Forums. Many other Clans emerged from this with the same activity, and kit-stealing has never truly worn away, it has become a popular trend. Other notable kit-stealing Clans included RevengeClan(RC), RisingEvilClan(REC), and DarkFountainClan (DFC). MBC is also different considering it was the first, and also the only actual Clan to be banned as a whole. The moderators have outlawed it due to the result of many "flame wars" (Defined if you need it) because the Clan would bully or insult other Forumers and even members of their own Clan, mostly the newer ones. The main reason it was banned though was due to "ban-hopping". This is where a member would get around being banned simply by creating a new account. And also it was mainly a chat thread more than anything else instead of roleplaying. Many times before other Clans have tried to "reincarnate" the Clan. Notable Clans are RisingEvilClan; a Clan that was MBC's rival and many flame wars were held, RevengeClan; who they roleplayed many wars with in the 2010's, ~MidnightRose~; a member whom was banned (I think) and caused many flame wars, Tha Pants Family; a group they were allies with in 2012 after both were banned, MegaSkullClan; a reincarnation of the Clan created by Willowcloud in summer of 2011, A Scattered Clan; another reincarnation of MegaBoneClan created by Graydawn shortly after the clan was banned. Deleted and Graydawn refused to make it, so MSC was made, A Clan Forgotten: another reincarnation of MegaBoneClan, created in spring of 2012 by Kindledflame." --Brightspirit of Windclan, 2016
===== SavageClan =====
SavageClan was another prominent kit stealing clan on the Forums."You all know them - some of you might even fear them. SavageClan, one of the oldest, most well-known Clans on the entire forums. SavageClan is solely a kit-stealing Clan, with focus on bringing a good name to kit-stealers while keeping the forum hobby alive. SavageClan has been rebuilt twelve times, as of 4/24/14, and first started to come about when kit-stealing started getting attention on the forums. For a period of about two or three years, kit-stealing was every forumer's favorite form of forum entertainment, and it generated a lot of other kit-_______s. Everyone wanted in, and it wasn't very hard to find a good community to join. I myself was a member of SavageClan for a while. Eventually, due to unfortunate circumstances, kit-stealing began to die. Recently, a community has, however, sprung up in an attempt to bring the forums into a new era of kit-stealing." --cocokat, 2016
==== OOTS Weddings ====
OOTS Weddings were a series of roleplay events held by the Omen of the Stars community on the Forums. These roleplays allowed users to "marry" a character. Before the events would take place, claiming threads would be posted for users to claim their chosen character (each user had to have a unique cat to marry). Eventually, these events got so popular that users had to start marrying non-Warriors characters since such a large percentage of the series' cast was claimed.
==== Joe S - Moderator Controversy ====
User "Joe S - Moderator" was one of the forum's moderators who was involved in a controversy. Joe is believed to have been fired after an unprofessional confrontation with a user in which he reportedly stated that "heads will roll." Another moderator was later asked what had happened to his account, and they informed users that Joe had left. After this, people started saying that Joe had been "french fried."
==== The Blood Rebellion of 2012 ====
"The rule about blood in the Art Forum is this: drawings may contain blood. They may not contain excessive blood or gore. A blood warning must be posted for those sensitive. However, in the summer of 2012, Matt [a moderator] began taking down all drawings with any blood at all, even if it was an extremely low amount and there were clear warnings in both the title and the top of the thread itself. Since it was mostly my drawings being taken down, I was the one emailing the mods and, well, complaining in FAS. Over email I was told (four times during a back-and-forth conversation) that drawings were no longer allowed to contain any blood at all and that blood was considered gore. On the forums, people (myself included) began posting Warriors fanart of cats with new battle scratches covered up by smiley faces and rainbows (I think the most famous were Longtail with happy faces instead of eyes and Tigerstar with a rainbow across his muzzle). Several forumers became annoyed that we were using rainbows sarcastically as they would use them in their art and wanted to be taken seriously, and the “Blood Rebellion” slowed down, but it didn’t immediately stop, especially once people remembered that we have a scarred (not bleeding but rather destroyed) Brightheart avatar. While Matt was deleting all art with blood, Elizabeth [another moderator] was in FAQs and FAS telling everyone that there was no rule against it, which contradicted both Matt and my emails. The confusion lasted for a couple of weeks, but eventually the blood rule went back to normal. Oddly enough, I don’t know of anyone getting banned over it. should there be anything about it being me (mentioning my screenname), should I take out any mention of the writer of the paragraph being the one to email the mods, or is it fine as is" --Hollyfrost14 of Stoneclan in 2016
==== Warriors: The Umadpelt Uprising ====
Warriors: The Umadpelt Uprising was a roleplay local to the OOTS section of the forums. It occurred on 13 January 2012 and involved users of the OOTS section traveling to other parts of the website (and briefly an external website hosted by member Lilystar) to retrieve the seven sacred forum crystals to defeat the evil demon troll Umadpelt. It had two sequels: Warriors: Llama Troll Attack and Warriors: The Umadpelt Uprising 2: Journey Through Time, but little-to-no information was saved from these events. A TvTropes page was created about the event.https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Roleplay/WarriorsTheUmadpeltUprising
A final event called The Umadpelt Revolution was held on 29 October 2016 on the new forums.https://wcrpforums.com/thread/15751/umadpelt-revolution-startshttps://wcrpforums.com/thread/15756/dungeonhttps://wcrpforums.com/thread/15301/arctics-super-secret-survival-bunker?page=1&scrollTo=571912https://wcrpforums.com/thread/15260/important-announcement-umadpelthttps://wcrpforums.com/thread/15741/survival?page=1&scrollTo=571861https://wcrpforums.com/thread/15778/fountain-life?page=12
==== The Cat Killing Scare of 2015 ====
"In June 2015 mods began deleting topics were cats were killed. A forumer by the screen name of mintedstar/fur was the first to ever report of a topic being deleted in FAQs. She searched the words Cat Killing, when coupled together to see if anyone had ever asked a similar question, but there was nothing. So she asked why her new graphic novel, which had not depicted any gore or blood, had been deleted for this unheard of rule.
'No one knew. As the days went on more and more topics were deleted simply because a cat had died. Moderators were split down the middle on this new rule. Some didn’t enforce it and said it didn’t exist. Others said that cats could no longer die in stories, fan clans, or graphic novels unless it was from natural causes.'
'The forumers, as expected, didn’t like this new rule. They posted petitions and protests. The moderators had to go all the way to the head mod just to see if it was a new rule or not. The verdict? It was ruled that cats could die as long as it wasn’t gory (i.e. the same as it had been before).'
'As far as I know, no one was directly banned for Cat Killing. However, some were probably banned or suspended for causing a few arguments over this temporary ghost rule." -mintedstar/fur, 2016
==== The Warriors and Seekers Fanatic Challenge ====
The Warriors and Seekers Fanatic Challenge was an annual challenge held several times that was only available to residents of the US and Canada (excluding Quebec). It was typically held in November or December, though the first installment occurred in January 2009. Rewards for the challenge included a new avatar with a special symbol (ie stars and pawprints) as well as the ability to add an additional avatar. Users who won multiple years could have up to three avatars depending on the number of wins. At least four of these challenges were held in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.
==Closure==
The forum’s closure was announced on July 29, 2016, just under two weeks before the closure itself on August 12, 2016.
In response to the shutdown, a successor website - The Warriors Cats Roleplay Forums - was established by fans in 2016. The website mimics the visual interface of the original forums.
===Responses to Closure===
==Resources and Further Reading==
* Warrior Cat Forums History ~What we have so far by deleted member and mintedstar/fur
* WCF Memories board on the Warrior Cats RP Forums
* The Official Erin Hunter Message Boards homepage - January 5 2013 (archived)
* The Official Erin Hunter Message Boards homepage - August 12 2016, day of closure (archived)
* "What Happened to the Official Warrior Cats Forum? | A Relic of the Past" YouTube video by Cozy Camper
==References==
Category:Warrior Cats
Category:Forums
Category:2010s Forums
Category:2000s Forums