Define: long time.

I would assume this would include yourself....?

But, that's just it - even at the old Help site, I've always been my REAL self. In REAL life my name is Al and I've been often referred to as "Big Al."

In the earlier years of the original Help site, I tried opening an account as "Big Al," but the system told me there was already an account made with that name(sadder still probably by someone who didn't give a $#!t and abandoned the site for fuxboog).
So, I was faced with adding an extension to my name - "One." Then it was decided that my Avatar name would be "Big Al One."

One of the things that I noticed with the original site was that Avatars that were animated got quite a bit of attention. So, I learned about GIF images and used my Photoshop to custom build animated Avatars.
Three or four revisions later, I had created something that I could settle with on a long-term basis.
In the same tradition as my name, the Avatar was a genuine photo of me - the added bling didn't matter - the photo was really me.

And through the years, I built animated Avatars and gifted them to my friends and people who may have needed to dress-up their profile - several are still here today. Yet, other people have let theirs go.
In the past, some people kept comming back to me to make them a new one, over and over - as if it was as easy as changing a pair of underwear - not so. They are works of art which requires an undertaking at bare minimum.
Many were grateful, others not so much, but in any case I felt good when people were pleased.

But, very few people were actually themselves back then.....or even today.

Good luck with trying to bring people out of their fantasy character.

I joined the old Help website when I was much younger. I was looking for help because I felt suffocated by my parents. My relationship with them has improved tremendously since then.

My user name is Araz because my real name, Zara, was unavailable so I just inverted it. It’s not a clever nickname, but it stuck.

After the site shut down, some people added me on Facebook and we reconnected in a group there. It felt odd to see real names and faces when I knew so many of them for so long by just their avatars and aliases.

I was pretty active on the old site but I never think anyone remembers me from that time because I was so... bland. I never really caused waves, I was just kind of there in the background helping where I could and keeping my mouth shut when I couldn’t. I think that’s still describes me - just a very average person. Which is fine, it’s just who I am.

I miss being anonymous sometimes but I do enjoy the people here so it balances out.

I joined old help when I was having marital issues and suffering from depression/PTSD (which was my contribution to the marital issues)

I swear that I didn't google this site. It just showed up one day in an email...I clicked and ended up on the site. It was "DIVINE INTERVENTION" lol :)Since then, my marriage improved. My emotional state improved. I got older and my little bitty kids that were sort of hard to deal with (with the emotional issues) got older.

During the time period of the old help, I also went back to school and used help extensively while I studied. I'd have the site up and banter every now and then with the members. Many of them knew me well and knew that when I needed a "brain break" I would banter (there was a chat room). I'm still friends with many of those folks. I've met some in real life

It seems like those who I bantered with and myself were among the few adults early on. I loved being able to read about the accounts of teen angst, while sympathizing with their plights. I'm certain that seeing what some teens on here were going through helped me to be a better and more aware parent.

I haven't come to this new site often; I don't really need help that much anymore...sometimes I just vent on here because I can't yell and cuss and scream in real life. Or whine and moan. So I do it here from time to time.

My real name is Jill. I had the nickname of Jelly bean or Jilly bean throughout my life.

One of the members on this site told me once that I was not really a jellybean...I was more "spicy" and started calling me Pepperjelly. It stuck to the point that my husband now calls me "Pep"

I'm a mom of four. With an extra (we took one in). I'm pretty conservative. I stay home (sort of)... and home school my kids. I have a master's degree and two bachelor's degrees...and had the loans to prove it...but it was a waste because I never really "used" those degrees outside the home :(

My oldest just turned 18 (son); my daughter is 17; my 2nd son is 14 and my last son is 7. The girl we took in just turned 18. I have wrapped myself up in "mommyhood" to a point where it's unhealthy for me, probably. My kids say that they appreciate me and that they think it was never "unhealthy" for them. They are great/say their lives are great/say that they want to be our friends for life/are good people who respect us. I'm amazed that after my past I was able to guide children the way I did. It's my proudest accomplishment.

My husband is a cop and that worries me more and more as he ages. I suppose I'm going to have to get a "real" job one of these days.

That's quite a life story :)

My name is actually Lano and I am actually a Komodo Dragon from Komodo in Indonesia. I have never hidden this fact and have always been extremely open about being a lizard with people. Not many Komodo Dragons have the ability to type and I think it's important to bring my voice to the table on all things internet.

I found help because I was feeling sad and I literally just typed "help.com" on a whim and booyah, there it was. I get sad and go on the internet sometimes in response. I find it cathartic.

That's what this site does for me...distracts me from my sadness or let's me blow off some sadness-steam.

Im just a human. At least I think.
Nothing to brag about

Well, Yorick, I'm pretty impressed by your turnout. I don't remember you being as outspoken in the past as you have recently been.
It's good to see you relaxed.

Slash, as much as I love slash, you will always be big Al to me.

It weirdly bothers me that people are using different usernames on here than they did on the old site.

I can't remember what my very first username was on the old site, but I didn't have it long til I changed it to my current one.
The JN part was from being school age and people calling me Joe Nuts.
I've been married and divorced since joining here, but have been able to keep JN even when my real name changed since that was from an old nickname.
I no longer have contact with anyone from my old life that created that name, but nostalgia makes me keep it.

It's probably 15 yrs since I joined help, and life has changed a lot over those years.
I'm not a social person so the friends I made here meant a lot to me.
It's sad that not all of them made it over to this new site.

Aww - love you lots J.N. It won't be long, and I'll be back to my usual name and Avatar.💋

❤ good! I don't like change.
Love you too 😘

i still have the same username as i initially started "tricky". My name is Serge and have been member of help.com since 2006. I use to live in Lebanon, recently moved to Canada and became a Canadian :)

Help.com has been a major influence in my life, since i was able to exchange a lot of ideas with people of different background and school of thought.

I cant remember why I joined, but mostly cause I was lonely and anti-social and was looking for help. Even as a young person, I enjoyed helping as well, that's what kept me coming back, it was a really great community initially. Before the rise of trolls...

Congrats to you for becoming a Canadian citizen! That is awesome. How close are you to Padre in Exceter?

Thank you! Am in Toronto. Didn't know Padre is in Canada :)

Hi im Jess. Been coming on help since age 15. Im now 28. Found it by typing help into google. I used to get facial tics and it drove me round the bend. I was desperate for some help and thats how i found it here.

I used to get bullied alot and had family problems at home. Some physical abuse.. had a nervous breakdown when i was 19. Had problems with my mam. Those are resolved now. Didnt talk with parents for about 2 years and they didnt know where i lived. Its all resolved now. Body decided to get sick and lost fiance and job and house (rented) Had another breakdown last year cos didnt get care i need.

I think im pretty transparent to be honest. I sometimes do the odd anon post but its cos i dont want anyone to worry and then go and tell anyone over on fb that theyre worried about me. Just incase I ended up with the wrong kind of help. The authorities have failed me and abused me multiple times and can be really scary to think about having it done again. People can have the best intentions but hurt by accident cos this illness i have is so poorly understood and hard to understand.

I dont expect people to understand all that stuff tho. I think i may have abit of ptsd cos of the professionals and the lack of support i have had since becoming ill has left me fighting for my life at times. Ok i best stop or may trigger myself. Im so silly. I wouldn't want to hurt anyones feelings by saying that though. But anxiety. Yeah lol

I think my facial tics were made worse from the bullying.

... anyway I loved being here and it helped me learn how to interact with people better. I always struggled to know how to talk with new people. Seeing how others interacted helped me to learn how to do it.

I used to have terrible confidence and spend hours online trying to find out what was wrong with me because I truly believed that no one in the world cared about me. I self harmed to find out if anyone really loved me.

Coming here opened my eyes to knowing that people do care. When I contributed my words people praised me and said i spoke wise words for my age. They built my confidence up. Seeing others talk about their problems helped me to feel more able to talk about mine. I used to keep it all to myself but this place was safe for me. I had to do it all in aecret though behind my mams back. She was worried incase i came across someone like a pedo.

Now i have so many online friends and have so many carsa and gifts from poorly online friends and i joke with her, "you dont know who youre talking to" ;)

I guess to some extent you have to be careful. I was extremely lonely when i was younger. The last couple years ive come to think i have aspergers and it answers all the questions ive had all my life.

I loved coming here to help others. It felt like thats what i was made for. When i used to try search what was wrong with me, i sometimes used to do the quizzes online. Mental health n stuff.. n random teen ones ect. One was the personality test. I got INFJ and every time since i alwayd get the same and its me to a tee :) it describes me so so well!

It makes me happy. And im in the very rare small numbers of people who have this type apparently. I feel like it sometimes. For me it feels like loads of people misunderstand me and who i am. I think that being this type, being an aspie and then having a poorly understood illness is really a bad combo 😂😅

Help dot com really helped me. I believed that everyone in the world were horrible and cruel.

My parents used to fight. Dad used to hit us. Lots of family problems.. mam used to drink and pass out... then at school id get bullied and when my friend changed schools i spent almost all my time on my own. The only one i felt cared about me was someone who did not care about me and only wanted his own way with me.

Help helped me to see that there is some goodness in the world. And not everyone are cruel. And people do care.

Hi. I'm Southern-comfort, later shortened to Soco. I guess you could call me an original Help member. Jeff invited me to join and I became the 31st one to sign up. I did not know it at the time but Jeff was the creator of Help.com. Through the years I have made many friends and I suppose a few enemies too. Life is like that. Humor has always been my forte but it has been my bane as well. People think I am mocking them. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Anyhow, happy New Year everybody. See you in the funny papers.

Well, I've always been Willy, way back to the old Help site and, because people were always asking about my willy, I exercised my mutant power and became BigWilly! Totally fukkin cool, eh? That's me in my avatar, with my recently deceased dog Coco, 16 years ago when I adopted her from the SPCA.

Im so sorry. Coco was your world

As was Roxy before her, but I have a new girl, Miel, being flown up from Mexico on the 13th who's going to be my new companion; moping doesn't cure ****shit-all & gotta move on or die bitter.

😢 RIP coco, sorry for your loss, I know how much you loved her.

I know its been awhile since you made this post but Im just seeing it and I was on the old help years ago and here now, so..... :)

I found the old help in 2010 I think and at the time was looking for relationship help, typed some variation of that into google and old help was one of the first sites listed in the results. At the time I remember it being much different, very busy and full of all kinds of people from everywhere. I remember the front page would move constantly at times with people posting on just about anything. I did make a few friends but didn't come on enough I guess to become well known or remembered or get close to many people. I did meet someone on here in 2011 and we got very close. We even made plans to be together although we lived over 5000 miles apart! It didn't end up happening unfortunately, still a big regret of mine, but I have managed to keep in touch with them over the years at least and it was a great experience and I can thank this site for that.

Anyway, I am now 34 and have 3 kids. I've had a long-time on and off relationship with their dad and that has usually been the source of my personal problems, if I ever do post about them. When I posted before, I usually tried to keep it light and ask for advice on easier issues though. :) My main job and concern in life is being a good mom and a good person, standing up for others and helping them when I can. I hope to see this site pick up soon! No one's here!!

This is the dude on my profile pic in case anyone wonders about it and this song seemed appropriate for the post :)

https://youtu.be/oq7rvFFIpxk

@lirou Welcome back. It took the old site time to gain momentum. We are reborn but still in our infancy. Everybody that cared about the site never lost hope. I pray you don't either.

Thank you soco! I know I wasn't super memorable but I remember many of you and it was a true time warp coming back here and seeing the same people and avatars from 10 years ago. I dont know if anyone remembers Kalen? We lived in the same area at the time but lost touch after awhile. I used to talk to Agape Lion quite a bit as well. I hate to randomly drop names but I haven't seen either of them here yet, don't know if I'd recognize them if I did. Thank you for the welcome back :)

You mean have it reappear on the home page? I don't believe so.

What about copying the link ans reposting the link and asking people to make their comments on thw link rather than the new post?

@Yorick no idea but it cant hurt to try

Hey, I remember you! 🤭😉😘

Hahahaha

Yep :) ;)