It was born in the off season on the old DC.com and it was truly an organization who's time had come. We didn't go off the rails, there weren't any, we were toddlers with the rails off our playpens.
Rob Phillips, fresh off his trip to the islands for the Cheerleaders calendar shoot had strained an eye and it was half shut which was not lost on me, was assigned the thankless task of Topic of the Day. Not only did he not enjoy that task, he quit it after the PJG attacked every Topic he posted and created our own with thought provoking thread titles like "Random Thoughts" or my personal favorite, "This thread is about nothing at all". We did 8 pages trying to define nothing and could never agree on nothing. But we agreed to ;proceed anyway.
We were so poised for posting anarchy that Streetwise, known then as G2, posted three simple words that set us on a tangent some are still on, "I like bacon". We had a 100 page bacon thread with photos to make you drool. Of course, most of us were already drooling idiots.
Most of our mods were members we'd known before the dark side engulfed them and they were having too much fun to shut us down and we were actually nicer towards each other when not discussing the Cowboys, particularly Romo. So, they just left us to our own devices as long as matches weren't involved.
DE, it was a great time and you would have enjoyed it, except for moderating it. My first day on that site, a member told me to stay on topic and I thought 'hell, I am on topic, my topic'. I came there to share what was on my mind, just so happens there were usually several unrelated things on my mind, that others could relate to. If an idle mind is the Devil's playground, he'd leave my jungle gym shaking his head.
Man, what a great time and a great bunch of people and if not for that off the rails experience I do not think we get to know one another as we do and the support was terrific. And that is how I became an addict to these forums.