The Island Hotel, lost but never forgotten.

Okay, so here's something you may not know about me. You know those forums where you can go online and discuss your favourite TV show with other passionate fans? Well once upon a time, I was part of the Yahoo7 Lost message boards community, and I'm damn proud of it.

Now, I know what you are thinking, and yes, it is a very nerdy thing to do. Well guess what? I am a nerd, so deal. Looking back on it, remembering how many hours I must have spent discussing Lost and chatting with my friends, I do cringe a little. But by jeez, it was a lot of fun while it lasted.

The island hotel was was a thread in the 'Theories' section of the Lost forums, created by Tim (howyagoin666), where people could come on and discuss any topic they wanted. It was awesome! I met so many of my friends there. Tim, Paulo (lostbaggage), Kaylee (frekklz_08), Abby (emile_de_ravin_fan), Kelly (bubs_luvs_kelly), Brandon (nitro_phnx), Rach (Kezrach), Micro (micro_lost), Kyol (studzy8) and many, many more. We spent hours upon hours of our time there discussing Lost and other non Lost related subjects.

The island hotel was a wonderful, wonderful place. And the stuff that went on there was crazy. Like when Paulo started to like Abby (like, seriously like her). He had never even seen a picture of her before. There were randoms who started abusing us for being geeks, like "jazz_the_bear". There was some chick that wanted to be my "message boards girlfriend", and of course, there was the ongoing battle with our rival, the Island Retirement Village.

The IRV was a thread where the older members of the Lost message boards community got together and did pretty much the same thing as us. In fairness to Rach and the gang, they started the IRV first, and my word they did a fantastic job! The IRV revolutionised the way threads were set up, just like the way Lost revolutionised television. Every member of the boards wanted to create their own thread where they would get thousands upon thousands of posts. The IRV was the original, the god of all threads.

Well, I'm very, very sad to say that, after 3 years of hard work and dedication, on the 28th of April, 2009, the island hotel finally closed it's doors for good. 15,243 posts was the final count, more posts than any other thread that was ever created on the message boards. Sadly, the IRV was closed too. The two giants of the message boards past, build upon three years of dedication and determination, blood, sweat and tears, suddenly and silently came tumbling down. Never again will they cast their mighty shadows over the Yahoo7 Lost message boards, all that is left of them are distant memories.

This post is dedicated to all those who put so much of their time and determination into the island hotel and Island Retirement Village. They meant so much to so many. Lost, but never forgotten.