Hi y’all! It’s been a pretty exciting July, with the plot suddenly jumping into action in DawnClan and the stricter style of leadership beginning to ruffle feathers in SunClan. In order to help this along, a Planned Events section was added to the history page to save members from wading through often confusing pages of the Plot Planning Page and trying to figure out what is going on if they get behind. MoonClan’s spies to NightClan and SunClan are beginning to settle in and the NightClan patrol that will be aiding a cigarette-caused fire in DawnClan has been started.

As I’ll be starting college this August, if you have any suggestions for how to improve the website, don’t hesitate to send them in now. I don’t know what my schedule will turn out to be, so these next few weeks might be the last chance I have to create any new features for a while. Keeping with that theme, expect a lot of page cleaning and other updates over the next three weeks.

Thank you to Riversoul for suggesting this month’s topic: the history of the website. Of course, I couldn’t even begin to cover all of the changes this website has undergone in the past seven years in one short blog entry, so if you’re interested in something I skipped over, I can answer any questions in the comments below.

Silverwing introduced me to the warrior novels and while I didn’t care for them at first, before long I couldn’t get enough. I started roleplaying in the summer of 2008 and quickly dragged her in with me. We spent that summer and fall roleplaying on the same website, which, as far as I knew, was one of the only five or six interconnected roleplays that made up the entirety of warrior cats roleplaying. Around the winter of 2008-2009, the owner of that first roleplay left and the website quickly fell into disrepair. Silverwing and I grew frustrated with the lack of updating and rule enforcement and decided, on a whim, to make a website of our own.

On Jan 16th, 2009 we published Warrior Cats of the Forests with only one original clan, MoonClan, and showed it to our friend Wolfshadow. She brought in another friend and for the first few weeks, it was just us four. Over time a few other members joined, but rarely were active or stayed for long. At this point, the website was still very simple: a few threads, one clan page, the art and video pages, member’s page, and the Character Updates Page (just called the guestbook at that time), and, of course, the forums. There was no planned plot, all of our roleplaying was devoted to the day to day lives of MoonClan’s ten to twenty cats.

By 2010, a whole new wave of members joined and the plot was suddenly jump-started with BoneClan making their first clear appearance. We added pages for loners and BoneClan/RiverClan, and changed the look of the website to something similar to its current appearance, just with a blue color scheme instead of a brown one.

Around the time of Sharkstar’s death, Silverwing made the decision to leave the website to put her increasingly scarce free time toward other interests and I took over ownership of the website on my own. A few months after she left I took on my first team of administrators, including Waterdrop and Sunken. The website grew steadily for another two years, with members coming and going. Hawkstar’s War was fought during this time, ending in the creation of NightClan. StormClan was merged into MoonClan, returning the website to having only two clans.

During the winter of 2012-2013 the number of members had begun to drop as those first two waves of primarily real-life friends began to move on to other hobbies. As my schedule grew busier, I began to have trouble keeping up with the website and decided to change up how things were organized. In order to keep the pages up to date, I instituted an aging system that is very similar to the one we use today, expanded the types of updates included on the Character Updates Page, created the month-long seasons that we use today, and started including ceremony lists in the Monthly Meows. In order to compensate for the lack of members, the number of allowed characters was raised and DawnClan was created.

By early spring, roleplaying was noticeably slowing down and Sunken and I began to advertise on other roleplaying sites for the first time. Progress was frustratingly slow; it seemed that for each member we were recruiting, two old members were leaving the site. For the first time in its history, the possibility of the site simply dying of inactivity began to loom.

Just when we were beginning to accept that the WCF’s best days were behind us, we were slammed by a sudden wave of members in June 2013. However thankful I initially was, I quickly began to feel overwhelmed by the growth. While in the past I’d been easily able to read every post and knew every character pretty well, the forums and Character Updates Page were flooded with new entries and for the first time, I felt like I wasn’t able to keep up with everything. The rules were expanded and at the end of that summer, our first team of moderators was built to help Sunken, Waterstar, and I manage the website. An information and history page were added, with much of the same content that they still hold today. By this point, the website had settled into its current look, only changing the color scheme for a brief time around the winter holidays.

To cope with the sudden influx of cats into the three clans that existed at this time, SunClan was created. While registrations slowed after a while, at the end of that summer I decided to close registrations for the first time. While that August registrations were only closed for short periods of time, as time passed registrations were opened less frequently.

At the beginning of 2014, the dedicated chat and advertisement boxes were created, the maps were expanded to include many of the landmarks we have today, and the adoption system was smoothed over and became actually useful for the first time. Plot planning became a more inclusive affair, with different blog entries created solely for the purpose of putting the plot together. In March, we had our first clan demographics overview.

While the plot moved more rapidly than it ever had in the past, 2014-2015 proved to be a relatively stable period for the website. A few small organizational changes were made, largely behind the scenes, and the guides became a much more prominent part of the website. By 2016, the website’s growth had slowed until the number of members was held fairly constant. The History and Information Pages were reorganized and a Help Page was added, alongside a number of small changes surrounding the appearance of the website.

MoonClan

Medicine Cat Apprentice: Angelpaw (Early August)

Apprentices:

Palekit, Rosekit, Radiantkit, Ivorykit, Pitchkit, Solarkit, Whitekit, Melonkit, Iciclekit, Demonkit, Dancingkit, Russetkit, Lionkit, Shatteredkit, Hollowkit: Early August

Honeykit, Wolfkit: Mid August

Inkeri, Vali, Hoth: Late August

Warriors:

Pandapaw, Turtlepaw, Warriorpaw, Jackalpaw, Embla, Leif, Brand, Geri: Early August

Sharp-paw, Sunpaw: Mid-August

Spottedpaw: Late August

Elders: Cricketchaser

Deaths: Melodychant

NightClan

Medicine Cat Apprentice: Iciclepaw (Early August)

Apprentices:

Peregrinekit, Wrenkit, Iciclekit, Wildkit, Pinekit, Lavenderkit, Thistlekit, Stark-kit, Zephyranthkit, Blazingkit, Rainingkit, Lilackit, Sergalkit, Murderkit, Ravenkit: Early August

Torn: Mid August

Freki, Tove, Dagrun, Bryndis, Jerrik, Hildr, Jari, Sylvi, Eira, Hall, Foresti, Kirk, Rania: Late August

Warriors:

Myvarr, Sunpaw, Thayvarr, Lostpaw, Wolfpaw, Weaselpaw, Masonpaw, Heatherpaw: Mid August

Driedpaw, Jaggedpaw: Late August

Deaths: Ebonyclaw

DawnClan

Medicine Cat Apprentice: Cloudpaw (Early August)

Apprentices:

Warmkit, Covekit, Ylva, Tyra, Sven, Dag, Cobaltkit, Muninn, Silverkit, Springkit, Palekit, Emptykit: Early August

Ashkit, Apricotkit: Late August

Warriors:

Maskedpaw, Koipaw, Dancingpaw, Survivingpaw: Mid August

Fluffypaw: Late August

Elders: Seraphgaze, Eveningrose

Deaths: Badgersplash

SunClan

Apprentices:

Bubblekit, Claykit, Blank-kit: Early August

Violetkit, Mediankit, Arachnidkit, Grandkit, Scrape, Snakekit, Fox-kit: Mid August

Warkit, Ivykit, Tungestenkit: Late August

Warriors:

Pearlpaw, Lionpaw, Amethystpaw, Burntpaw, Jaguarpaw, Aurorapaw, Mustangpaw, Eveningpaw, Littlepaw, Morningpaw, Desertpaw, Lambpaw, Agatepaw, Jadepaw, Hurricanepaw, Viperpaw, Reedpaw, Ravenpaw: Early August

Brindlepaw, Oceanpaw, Tundrapaw, Stonepaw: Mid August

Tigerpaw, Qilinpaw, Wendigopaw: Late August

Elders: Bluegaze, Piketooth

Deaths: Running-grain, Sorrelspot, Yuccathorn