shannon2007

Introduction

Over the years there have been many attempts to lay down the history of the CMS – thats Championship Manager Stories for the uninitiated (Later to become FMS, but that just sucks so badly). Actually there haven't really, but such was the impact of the CMS on the CM forums at one point, that there really should have been. Of course people in the present always argue that the 'glory days' of any given society or structure lie in the past, and they are sometimes right and sometimes wrong. In this respect though as far as what is now termed FMS (Football Manager Stories), the golden era does indeed lie in the distant past and what remains now is but a meagre shadow of something that once shone for all too see.

Many things made the Golden Era what it was, and not just the quality of story telling. In fact if truth be told, the quality of writing on the forum peaked after the Golden Era ended. That early period of the forums history was made not simply by a bunch of stories about various football clubs, but was formed by the huge diversity of personalities that emerged, some good, some not so good but all in their own way contributing to the fibre that made the CMS great and, if not always so in every respect, mostly fun to be a part of. CMS was created indeed for people to display their natural writing talents, and dare I say it to keep such nutters as who could actually build a whole fantasy universe around a text based game away from the main forums. And yet it would be wrong to simply look at the stories and assume this was the history of the CMS. It was oh so much more than that.

The actual founding of the CMS forum is clouded in mystery. Oh, daresay someone knows when the forum came into being but no-one alive today actually remembers it and if they do they simply don't care enough to tell anyone about it. But pre-history is irrelevant because the actual time that the CMS became a relevant force is much more important, and that would probably be dated in the months and days before the actual structured, properly moderated forums that we grew to know and love came about. The forum had become chaotic, that much was clear for all to see. Even those of us who were not actually officially about in those dark days know this, for it used to be that the whole forum was available to be viewed before the evil Duffy and his minions decreed that it be wiped and with that wiping virtually destroyed a community. But that was in the long distant future.

Whether the forum had become chaotic or not is probably not worth bothering with semantically. It was probably true that from its original inception the forum had always been what we would now look back on and term as chaotic. The rise though of certain individuals who actually wanted to have a stories forum based on stories, and some trivial drivel that was being posted inevitably meant there would be a clash of idealogies and that someone somewhere would have to sit up and take notice. Of course there wasn't really a clash of idealogies – its not like there people advocating a different way to run the forum that was viable but more like a growing group of disgruntled writers who actually wanted the CMS to be for what it was intended. And with every group, there needs to be leaders, people who will stand up for what they want, and will be willing to die for their cause. And thankfully, there were those who indeed were willing, if not to literally die, at least face the possibility of being banned for daring to question the 'powers that be' who for whatever reason had seemed quite happy to allow that status quo. Without these brave people, the CMS might well never have grown to become the cult that it undoubtedly was, and who knows where we might all have ended up. Some, probably, in jail or even dead.

That though is probably overstating the case.

A little.

shannon2007

The Revolution

You should never start a sentence with 'because'. But screw that.

Because I wasn't actually around in the earlier part of 2000 when the CMS revolution was taking place – and when I was around I couldn't have given two hoots about a forum that was most assuredly filled with egotistical bastards – I can only decribe the revolution that created CMS as it came to be, from my memory of those ancient texts that at one point were freely available for all to see but now have been hidden in the depths of antiquity. It will be therefore that some of this early history will not be entirely accurate. But then – and you should also never start a sentence with 'but' – this is not intended to be an indepth moment by moment, blow by blow account of the last seven or eight years. That would be crazy and ultimately extremely boring. No, this is merely an account of my particular memories, and as such will be slanted and often inaccurate – but then so is usually the case with history and at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. The gist of what happened is still the truth, albeit that perhaps it is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

It so happened that CANPRO was a moderator of the early days of the CMS. Now there may well have been other moderators at that time but for some reason CANPRO sticks out in my mind as he appeared to be an utter ******. This is probably very harsh, but I am basing this belief of things that were said on the forum the attitude some people appeared to have towards this guy. If memory serves me right, the other moderator of the forum was Reddiablo, and although he had his faults, he did enter the annals of CMS legend simply because in the UCMS (Ultimate Championship Manager Story) – which we shall come to later on – the players named their pre-season tournament after him. Reddiablo, as fate would have it, was also Dutch. Yet although these two, and perhaps others, were allegedly moderating the forum, it clearly was not being done right particularly in the eyes of that certain section of the forum mentioned earlier who wanted to be able to write stories in peace without the constant barrage of drivel and abuse that seemed to be the daily diet of the forum at that time.

There were no doubt quite a few people who really thought they could moderate the forum properly, but two people in particular stood out from the crowd and it is, perhaps unfairly on the other personalities involved, these two people with whom we credit the founding of the CMS as we came to know it. silver_blue – yes the lower case is correct – was perhaps the less vocal and more reasoned voice of the forum, whereas Raptor appeared outspoken and on the verge of hysteria, but both guys were quite plainly seeing the need for proper moderation and declared so openly on the forums. Of course as you can imagine this did not go down too well with the so called powers that be, moderators on forums such as these can often be very touchy of people being critical of them, even when such is ultimately and genuinely truthful. It became quite clear however that something had to give. Either the forum would be re-moderated or those speaking out would be banned and happily in the end common sense prevailed.

The person who claimed the credit for creating if you will the 'modern' CMS was Silverfox, a high ranking moderator of the day and ocassional contributor to CMS in the future. Indeed, Silverfox even became a member of the UCMS. The contribution of individuals can often be overstated but it is probably largely true that Silverfox made a huge impact on the forums and if he did nothing else of note on his time on the forums he would have made at least one sensible and correct decision by bowing to popular opinion and having both silver_blue (no relation) and Raptor appointed as CMS forum moderators and the CMS had been born. The appointment of two people who would go on the become Living Legends of the CMS did not, of course, immediately creat a forum of peace and harmony but virtually any commentator of the period would agree that without the verve and drive of these two individuals the forum would never have gotten near what it eventually became.

This is not a history for pointing fingers and finding fault though, and whilst some people since then have soiled their reputation by various acts, nevertheless these shall remain discreetly hidden when the histories are written, at least for the time being. The CMS had been created and although few really knew it at the time, a growing, thriving and dare I say it loving community of friends and enemies was about to be unleashed on the world at large. It is very doubtful if they were really ready for that.

BarryLFC

But just a little.

BarryLFC

You really shouldn't talk about Raptor's soiling issues in a public forum though.

BarryLFC

Are you going to mention how the collapse of the forums was brought about primarily by Duffy vetoeing Raptor's attempts to make us all-powerful moderators?

shannon2007

Well that may come up, if I remember it. Actually probably will was a pretty important turning point in CMS history

shannon2007

Proposing the Plan

In attempting to write a history of anything, there is always the thought of what angle to take. For a history of a forum such as ours, it is always more difficult for the question should be asked, should we detail every story, every individual and the answer would most obviously be – no. It would take way too many words to even come close to doing justice in such a way and so what I intend doing is breaking the history down in to edible sections. We will look at the stories that made the headlines, the writers that made the groundbreaking stories, the events that shaped the forum and of course behind them all the personalities that went to create those people and events. In every great play there are stars, and there are people behind the scenes whose roles may not be considered that important – I mean what the does a keygrip do? - but they are nevertheless there and in our case, even though the role they played is minor they deserves a mention.

I will therefore attempt to describe the various personalities and how they fitted, or attempted to fit into the whole mesh of the CMS community. Future parts of this history will deal with the stories, the events, the UCMS and its spinoffs and there may well be overlappings here and overlapping there. But it all adds to the word count and that can never be a bad thing. Unless of course the writer is Bagpuss. In trying to make some sense of it all I will be looking to have various sections and label them as thus;

The Bad; The Good; The Legends;The Ultra Legends; Remarkable Stories; Rubbish Stories; Controversy; Capitulations; The UCMS; The Spinoffs; The Meetups; and of course and not forgetting the awards and perhaps some other sections as and when I feel the need or discover that I have missed something or someone one out. Many of the personalities, stories and events that are described will have little meaning to the batch of new writers, and that in a way is quite sad. Yet hopefully in transcribing this piece of prose, those who want to learn where they came from, what the background was to this once great community will see that there was indeed something here once to be proud of and perhaps, who knows and one can always hope, perhaps will inspire them to greatness of their own. And for those of who remember, fondly or otherwise, our time here a chance to once more walk along memory lane. For the forum has moved on now, and those of us who once called this home have found new pursuits to follow, but the footsteps are there for all to see and, if possible, attempt to emulate.

shannon2007

The 'Bad Boys' - An Introduction

It is perhaps being slightly cruel to label a particular group within the community as 'bad boys' and indeed it may even be argued that attaching such a label is highly subjective. You could point the finger at many people over the years and claim they have been 'bad boys'. HD, Bozz, Charnley, Peacemaker7, Maollelujah - hell you could even include Raptor in that if you take into account his plunge for moderaticity and claim that as he was defying the powers that be, the leadership of the forums, this indeed made him bad. It would though, be stretching the point too far, and in looking at 'bad boys' the main characteristic will be not that they were in fact opposed to authority but purely that their way of integrating into the community was such that it went against, on the whole, the grain of said community and caused them to be viewed as annoying little buggers. At best.


Yet although all of the above, and indeed some others who also may not 'make the list' have to some extent been what could be described as disruptive, nevertheless they are no considered on the whole to be 'bad boys' and indeed their overall contibution to the community has either been totally forgotten or they have been lynchpins that held it all together and these people will either appear in another section – or be omitted all together for being the nobodies they were really were. Life is full of nobodies and it is only the elite few who ever make a lasting mark on any give community so being a nobody really is nothing to be ashamed about. Honestly.

Perhaps as well people may wonder, well if such people existed that caused mayhem and chaos in the forums, that threatened at times to totally disrupt the community with their often inane and childish behaviours, why commit them to a historical narrative in which their deeds will be remembered for all time, when there are other people who played a role, but who for whatever reason get overlooked. Isn't that a bit unfair and does it not even constitute encourage such unwelcome behaviours? Well actually, no.

Imagine history without Genghis Khan, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler – Tony Bliar. These people are not the kind you would invite to dinner, assuming you want to remain in polite society but there is without doubt they have made an impact on world history and indeed without these people world history would not have been anywhere near as colourful as it is. Which is fine, if you like that sort of thing and deep down a lot of people are fascinated by the 'evil' side of human nature even if they themselves claim never to be able to carry out such attrocities or behaviours. Even if they are fooling only themselves.

And there is another reason why so-called 'bad boys' should get a mention. History is generally subjective and written by the winners. The impact certain people have had in these forums may well not have been greeted with universal approval by the 'enlightened' majority, but they nevertheless has an impact and sometimes that impact has helped, for whatever reason and probably without there even intending it to be so, shape the structure of the community and even at times bonded it together in a feeling of mutual contempt for the person who would dare bring disruption to our peaceful equilibrium. We will then have a look at some of the 'bad boys' of the forum and find out if they really were all that bad, and see what their impact was on our way of life. And what better place to start than with everyone's favourite naughty little boy, Jack J@cko O'Sullivan........

Shermanez

Keep up the good work! :thup:

It's been a long time since I last typed that. It's difficult to think of the amount of hours I used to spend on this place. I'd only just discovered the Internet when I first registered (I was 15, iirc) and the enthusiam everybody on the forum had for sharing stories about a game they loved just steamrolled. I still log in every now and again to see what is about but it's rare I play the game so my attention to the stories has drifted (though I think I was always a bigger fan of the stories than the game itself).

A proper history of CMS will be great reading and will bring back a lot of good memories. It's funny but often during less than interesting lectures at Uni I'd come up with ideas for stories. Even this week I was in Gibralter and actually scribbled down a basic plot on the drive home (I had to hide it from my girlfriend and mates, obviously! They thought I gave it up a long time ago).

shannon2007

Hi Gino

I only hope I can do it justice. When you think about it, there is actually so much to write and for most of us around in those years of what seems long ago now, it was almost -perhaps rather pathetically in some people's eyes - our way of life :o

Who know mibbe one day we'll see the various personalities all come back and write some new stuff - well we can always hope