I apologize in advance for the unorganized thoughts. I've been volunteered to make this post soo here goes.
10 years on LI/IB..what's it been like?
To me, this place will always be LI, sorry but it sounds too weird to call it IB lol. I'm trying to change my ways.
I joined when I was 15 years old, however I noticed everyone was older than me, so I went and introduced myself as a 16 year old (I later had someone delete that post for me) .
How I arrived here...
I used to be on a different Islamic forum, and I noticed the people were moving here. I think it had only been active for a few months when I arrived.
Honestly, there was nothing like this place. It was very warm and welcoming.
AND DID YOU KNOW there was never a brothers' super secret forum?! This was actually so hilarious because the brothers one day created a thread and started to post their Quran recitations and they would basically tell us (girls) that we weren't allowed to listen to them , even though they were public. At that time, out of respect to them, I hadn't listened. Seriously! But eventually the bro's section was made. boohoo.
To me the environment was very much sisterly/brotherly, and now I miss them all. Even the ones I hadn't gotten to know that well. I love them for the sake of Allah, and I hope that they know they were the best brothers/sisters I could have had at that very critical time in my life. I say critical because I could have been doing what other teenagers were doing, but I was addicted to Islam and the people that made me feel it's beauty.
Ok so for those who are still fairly new, the colors for our usernames were ugly...once we figured out that they can be changed, we basically started a war and it was EPIC. sorry for those that missed it. I think we just used the polls actually. It's all blurry now. Guys, I'm getting old. So we went through a period where our name colors were changing, until we came to this happy medium.
What else...
Man, the marriage posts we'd get...and we were mostly single at the time.
I was offered Mod position a few times...I respectfully declined at such a prestigious title. Oh that reminds me, a new member joined once, his name was "Mr. Butt" or something along those lines. Me and a sister Mod at that time were on MSN were all like "OMG that is so disrespectful", and she was about to ban the poor fellow when he informed her that "Butt" was an actual last name...Man that was embarrassing. I blame her though, she's desi :P she should have known.
When people would post in the Introduction section, some of us had our lil special greeting. There was Nasheed girl, who'd post a nasheed for the newbies. I'd give em a million smilies, others were more simple, but still iconic, and members would asked to be banned from the forum when they couldn't handle their schooling/work cuz of the LI addiction.
Ask me anything else that you'd like to know, there's so much I don't know where to start/end.
What have I learned from alllll of this?
Honestly, I've rewritten this part more than once...I don't want it to be too personal, but I don't want it to be too simple...all I can say is LI was a big part of my journey to Islam, to amazing friendships, and to knowledge. I think for each one of us it was different and we had our own special experience.
I feel really blessed because NOW it's difficult to find a group of people like the ones that were here during that time for a teenager still trying to figure life out. It's very easy to get lost in the traps of shaytan. I'm not saying that everything was perfect, but the people you surround yourself with and that you love often have a lasting impact on your life, and i'm glad mine was positive.
LI grew up with a lot of us, and it began to change as we were changing, and its a lot less active now..and maybe it's because of the new social media, but I also think its because we're all grown up with lives, jobs, and families. I see someone I know post, and it doesn't feel like the same someone I saw posting years ago. We've matured, we understand our boundaries, and it's much more formal now. Some of that charm is lost because we're all not as active as before, but...from time to time, I like to come here just to see if this place is still alive and reminisce.
Congratulations for your 10 years in LI... I mean IB (I too feel its LI). I am a bit younger member here (only from November 2006, a little less than 9 years). But now this is your party time!
*runs around the kitchen thread collecting sweets and cakes*
It's nice to be able to say in IB age, that I am a month younger than you, and I am only 66. It has been an interesting experience over the years. and I have found everyone to be very welcoming.
In the spirit of continuing on our journey through life.
Insightful food for thought in your post. I do hope in these coming months and years we can get more of the younger generation to feel that experience .
Masha'Allah the good this forum and so many others have done.
I joined this forum on my other account in January 2007*. I was 17 years old and a non-Muslim, subhanAllah.
By the July of that year Allah swt had opened my heart.
Subhan'Allah. So surreal to be replying to this thread. At the beginning I was at highschool in my final year and posting from my parents living room nervy as about the Islamophobic stigma they both seemed to carry so I'd generally post long after they were in bed - and right now I'm posting as my own children are in bed as it's the only moment of 'chill time' I get.
*I think I changed the username and can't even remember what to. Not that I'd expect to even remember the password.
Last edited by aflawedbeing; 10-19-2015 at 01:09 PM.
It's nice to be able to say in IB age, that I am a month younger than you, and I am only 66. It has been an interesting experience over the years. and I have found everyone to be very welcoming.
In the spirit of continuing on our journey through life.
Eric
Greetings Eric,
Yes you are one of the ones I'll always remember. Even the nonMuslims have their own unique qualities, we are all individuals after all but it was nice to know that you were able to put up with us Muslims for all these years haha. In reality thought, i'm glad to have learned more about other religions as well as my own.
Insightful food for thought in your post. I do hope in these coming months and years we can get more of the younger generation to feel that experience .
Walaikum asalaam
That would be nice inshallah...it's so strange though, that I cannot connect much to the Muslims that I now know compared to the ones I used to know. I do wish more people had my experience, it was a very special one. I'm still friends with a lot of the sisters I met on here, and I actually found an MSN convo the other day on an old USB where I was basically begging a sis Mod to deactivate my account for the sake of my education
format_quote Originally Posted by aflawedbeing
Masha'Allah the good this forum and so many others have done.
I joined this forum on my other account in January 2007. I was 17 years old and a non-Muslim, subhanAllah.
By the July of that year Allah swt had opened my heart.
Subhan'Allah. So surreal to be replying to this thread. At the beginning I was at highschool in my final year and posting from my parents living room nervy as about the Islamophobic stigma they both seemed to carry so I'd generally post long after they were in bed - and right now I'm posting as my own children are in bed as it's the only moment of 'chill time' I get.
I loved reading your experience, thanks for sharing. I hope others would share theirs, even if they have not made it 10 years. And mashallah so you're 25 now with kids?? mashallah tabarak allah. May allah preserve your youth ameen.
**** 10 years ago, I was playing with Pokemon cards.
You didn't just write but made us feel the past 10 years of IB lol Keep it up.
What's LI ?
LI stands for Load-Islam. That was originally what the forum was called. It was actually connected to another site or section that had anasheed and articles, and fatawa, but I think it was bought by someone else. I don't know the actual shenanigans of forum business lol I just remember I'd happen upon it a few times, I don't know how popular that part of it was.
This thread has jogged a few thoughts on the recent comments of slow activity here.
Maybe quite a lot of topics have been covered in the past that we see similar topics come up again and the energy to re-state the case over reduces.. plus, the newer and fresher topics more scarce..
I joined towards the end of the bright debates and quite a few of the older members started to become silent.
Maybe I should look deeper into the archives and dig up some old and interesting topics.
I miss quite a few of the old timers.. (and I haven't been a member that long)
As long as my heart does beat, I shall live, not lie
For when my heart does stop its beat, with truth, I die.
Pain and hardships allow you to grow spiritually Alhamdulilah so smile when a so called calamity befalls upon you.
Alhamdulilah Allah swt is the greatest.
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