A Letter to KH-Vids

Dear KH-Vids.net,

I'm not sure how to begin such a personal letter. It's been so long since I've been in contact with you that you've probably forgotten me. That's okay. I forget about you, too. But just when I start to think life's moved on and everything's changed, the warm embrace of nostalgia never fails to pull me backward in time. It could be an old song or a dusty book cover. Perhaps the sun sets a certain way and it takes me back to an autumn evening from my adolescence. There are triggers everywhere that connect us with who we were and where we've been. That's what brought me back here today, but it's not only with rose-tinted glasses that I write you this fond letter. I want you to know, before I go... what you really meant to me.

I wasn't the most popular kid back in 2005, but I was hardly an outcast. I kept up with mainstream art for the sake of conversation, but I had my own interests that most suburban white kids in America considered "nerdy." Anime and manga weren't exactly underground phenomenons, but Japanese culture also wasn't something you talked about with everyone. That's what made forums so special. The internet was crazy, and we'd finally found a place we could belong no matter where we lived: a message board.

At least I had. I was obsessed with Final Fantasy, and by extension, Kingdom Hearts. My first all nighter happened when I rented KH1 from Blockbuster. I remember when my dad upgraded our internet to DSL - what did I do first? I downloaded Deep Dive so I could finally see it with my own eyes instead of recaps and screenshots. Yeah, I loved Kingdom Hearts. As an avid user of KHInsider and other popular KH communities, kh-vids.net was on my radar within days of its conception. I was one of the first users to ever sign up for kh-vids.net near the tail end of 2005 (member #4 if I remember correctly)... a whopping 16 years ago. I'm 29 now, for reference.

Quickly, I realized this was the community for me. With other diehards like Cin and Mish, we built this website into one of the greatest online communities of the time. It was the wild west, with kids who were barely teenagers running around as moderators, a Spam Zone that moved at lightning speed and a group of friends so close they spent most of their time not posting on the forum talking on MSN privately instead.

We were so close, all of us. So close that I wrote a Battle Royale fan-fiction (circa 2006-2007) which included 42 of our forum's most active, prolific members and killed them all off - an act that, ironically, brought us even closer than we were before. One user, named Mari, adapted it into a manga. Soon, people were writing their own fan-fictions and role plays were popping up everywhere. The KH-Vids Song was released. We weren't just a community - we were so much more. We were the high school of the internet. While I was a part of many other forums at the time, none came close to the entertainment and joy that the kh-vids.net community brought me. All I wanted was to give that joy back. What other forum had their own theme song that catalogued the users and history of the site? Was this site even really about Kingdom Hearts to us anymore? Perhaps not...

For anyone wandering back from those crazy years of 2005-2009, who might stumble upon this thread wondering if anyone still remembers you or the times you had here: I want you to know I miss you. To everyone else who believes kh-vids.net is as special to them as it was to me, thank you for letting this site carry on the way it did. There are so many times in passing that I think about how this website shaped me, and I know I'm not the only one. I found so much incredible anime, manga, films, games and books thanks to the wonderful people here. How did I have so much time? It's like I lived a lifetime on here - my post count definitely suggested so. Now that all those threads and random discussions are forgotten and only the highlights remain, it seems like it all happened in a second. And that's life, really. It flashes by and by the time we look back, the moment's gone and we only remember specific parts. We better treasure them.

I wish I could go back to when getting home from school and logging on to kh-vids was all I could think about. This place was my second home. It was another world, another life. Truth is, I always felt like I could be more vulnerable talking to the friends I made here than my friends in the "real" world. They don't really know you, right? So how could it hurt? And with that shared mindset, we all shared our lives with each other. And sometimes it did hurt, but it was mostly incredible.

Life's a funny, little thing. We live our own story that means so much to us. That's why I wanted to write this letter to you, since you're such a big part of it. I want you to know that at least, for this one guy, you made life better. Not just better, though. You gave me purpose. That's how much I cared about this website and the friends I made. No other website, forum, social media platform or chatroom of any kind has replicated the bonds and connections I made at kh-vids.net.

To see the forum still up in the year 2021, even if inactive, is a testament to what Deathspank created. This website is a time capsule for a specific group of people - us. We will always remember, and perhaps even come back from time to time to have a look, if only to let that wave of nostalgia crash over us so we can feel as cozy as we felt when we first huddled in front of our televisions to explore Destiny Islands.

So thank you, kh-vids. For all you've done for all of us.

Take care, old friends.

- Roxas


P.S. To anyone reading this who wants to help me build a new community based off memories of how incredible kh-vids is and was, message me and I'll send you a link to my website.

 

Beautifully written. We weren't super close, but I'll never forget our lengthy conversations about Box Car Racer, blink-182, +44, and Angels & Airwaves.

 

MERGE THE ACCOUNTS

 

All bands I still listen to daily. I'm so glad you remember those conversations.

Lmao, does my original account exist? I noticed the forum software migrated from vBulletin3 to xenForo... I'm probably seriously dating myself when I say that. Figured everything got deleted or something like when we initially moved to vBulletin3 early-mid 2006.

And feel free to add me on Discord. That goes to anyone reading this who remembers me. You might need to remind me who you are though, but please reach out. CatLikeThief (hashtag) 8003.

 

Oh my god, wow. A month late, and I don't know if you remember me at all, but I remember reading the whole Battle Royale fic (and its subsequent sequel), and -- was it you who wrote all that music, including the KH-Vids song? I had all that stuff on my phone for years.

I wasn't really popular on the site yet prior to you getting banned, but at that point I followed a lot of the people who were. It was a little heartbreaking to come back to such an inactive forum after so long, but like, nothing lasts forever, right?

God, I was 16 or 17 when I last posted on here. That was almost 10 years ago.

 

Crap I'm extra late. This letter really is beautiful and perfectly said. I remember all of the above. I'll never forget this place. ❤️

 

Haha, yes! And I still have the song, so let me know if you want me to send you a link!

 

He is risen.

 

It is done.

 

I don't think you and I ever interacted until today on Discord. That's probably because when I became regularly active in June 2011, once I got into the swing of things, you had already been banned. I didn't know that right away because I never even knew of you before that, but I had noticed there were a lot of banned users, some of which used to help me when I was only in the Code Vault around when I first joined.

You seemed to be a banned user who was talked about a lot, and I remember reading somewhere your ban was because you had posted nudes of yourself, potentially because you were drunk? However, I'm not the kind of person to go off of hearsay, so not stating that as fact, as it could be totally wrong, as you would have been underage then. Or it could have been nudes in general from an adult site. Not sure. It's just what I remember someone saying here. Or, rather, something along those lines. I don't remember exactly what it was that I read, just that it was along those lines, which is I'm not 100% sure on whether it was specific ones or general ones.

In any case, welcome back!

 

I never did that and didn't first drink until long after I was banned, but those are hilarious rumors. I don't remember why I was banned but it was likely a staff dispute. Some of us didn't get along. But I don't want to taint the Roxas lore if the stories are that good, so if anyone asks yeah it was nudes.

 

That's why I hate rumors. I would never spread or contribute to them. It's also why I made it clear that I wasn't saying it as fact. :) Just curious. Certainly makes for an... interesting story, I guess.

Now, remember, now that you're back again, that means you must also give us your soul again. ;)

 

we could always consult the lore

 

Holy ****, that's amazing. I have no idea who wrote this but it's hilarious. "The avatar of the banned wonder."

EDIT: I've read a bit of that Wiki, and while it was a fun walk down memory lane but there was some real trash in there lol. Like RoxasvsRiku was an admin before Misty. I'm talking to her right now and we're both picking things apart lol. I remember writing a "History of KH-Vids" before I left and it almost feels like bits and pieces of that inspired this.

 

That's where I read it. I remembered it completely wrong, then, as that said nothing about nudes, just a sock in that area. Either way, it's false. I don't think I even believed it then, as it evident by the fact that I couldn't even remember it correctly.

There are tales on me, too. Some exaggerated, some just false.

 

The fact that this place has a wiki, a song and a Battle Royale fanfiction really speaks to what it meant to people lmao

 

Based

No idea if it was you or someone else, but there was definitely someone who got banned for posting a video of them running around their house or something like that with only a sock covering their schlong. It was the infamous cock sock

 

Don't make me tap the sign.

 

Can confirm, this happened. The images are seared into my brain.