(NOT A STORY)Chars31 Info
This is speculation and all best guess, but I think I left Chars31 FOR GOOD, around the time I was 14 or 15, so late 2003, to early 2004, which is also when it's user base began to drastically drop, and would, to the best of my knowledge, become a ghost town as of 2008/2009 completely, save for some of the nostalgic people who were curious about it's state. Very similar to the state it is in today.
A few main factors to this(And I mention this in why I am speaking on this topic in the "What is this about?" section). We grew up in the information age. In the early 2000's there was a gap between Social activity and Video gaming activity. Games were getting much better and longer too, and multiplayer was expanding to greener pastures(e.g. gamecube SSBM, etc.), whilst almost everyone and their grandma, now had an email address, and was aware of MSN messenger. Myspace would become huge a year later, and obviously facebook replacing it after that around 2008. Chars31, much like Blockbuster, dialup internet, analog signal and many other relics, were so successful, because they fulfilled a need of their time, which like everything, became obsolete. Once these needs dispersed into different sectors, there was really no reason to log onto some now archaic platform, when you can use 3 platforms that are twice as efficient.
Assuredly, by the time I was 15, the very last time I logged onto Chars, it was only to talk to other teenagers that I had known there for years, and only because we didn't have each others MSN info or email addresses, and there was no "country wide calling unlimited" for landline phones. There were no more fights, it was all a social space, you would get on to talk about real world issues and interests only, from that point on.
A few main factors to this(And I mention this in why I am speaking on this topic in the "What is this about?" section). We grew up in the information age. In the early 2000's there was a gap between Social activity and Video gaming activity. Games were getting much better and longer too, and multiplayer was expanding to greener pastures(e.g. gamecube SSBM, etc.), whilst almost everyone and their grandma, now had an email address, and was aware of MSN messenger. Myspace would become huge a year later, and obviously facebook replacing it after that around 2008. Chars31, much like Blockbuster, dialup internet, analog signal and many other relics, were so successful, because they fulfilled a need of their time, which like everything, became obsolete. Once these needs dispersed into different sectors, there was really no reason to log onto some now archaic platform, when you can use 3 platforms that are twice as efficient.
Assuredly, by the time I was 15, the very last time I logged onto Chars, it was only to talk to other teenagers that I had known there for years, and only because we didn't have each others MSN info or email addresses, and there was no "country wide calling unlimited" for landline phones. There were no more fights, it was all a social space, you would get on to talk about real world issues and interests only, from that point on.