This is something I’ve been meaning to type up for a while, but have just been too busy, and with the addition of the blog, I thought it would be a perfect time to do so.

As some of veterans probaly know, the Linkin Park Projekt is a result of MachineShopSpot.net, however, only few of you around when the site was reallyborn. So, and some of you FortMinorWorld vets may have to help me out, here is my account of the origins of the Linkin Park Projekt.

It all began way back in early 2006. Spin Doctor and HipHipFoundry decided to start up a fan site for a new hiphop act that was coming out, as Spin Doctor had just been to their show in Australia, and was a big fan of the album. Who was this new hiphop act? Why, none other than Fort Minor. The site: FortMinorWorld.com. At the time, I was a pretty big Linkin Park fan, and had recently downloaded the first single, “Remember The Name”, off of HipHopFoundry, and loved it instantly (still my favorite Fort Minor song). I bought the Special Edition, and to this day it is still in the first slot in my CD Changer. Then one day, as I logged on to HipHopFoundry, I noticed this thread. It was annoucing the new site, Fort Minor World. I immediately jumped at this as a chance to start up a web site, and so I joined up and posted that I was interested in a moderator position (see my reply in that thread, #4). That day, I got an IM from Spin Doctor, and he offered me a postition on the staff, and I of course accepted. I had never been a moderator before, as I was only just starting to become interested in forums and online communities of the like. He taught me the basics, and I learned all the rest pretty quick. The other moderator of the first FMW staff? Why, none other than the lovely Streets, aka Darth Peanut. At first she was not active, because of school I believe, but once she got active, we became quick friends. Some other early members of Fort Minor World who are current members of the LPP include Creep Show Host aka DJ Devil, Azk aka Praya, and Oscum Guy.

The first contest was a referral contest, and the winner got a signed copy of the Rising Tied. I won that contest, but have still not received my prize. Spin Doctor said he forgot to mail it the first time I asked, and then from there I kept getting more excuses, so I just gave up on asking. Whether or not he really had a signed copy for me, I’m not sure. But thats not important. Oh, and another thing I remember. When the site first opened, Hahninator got on us about some spelling errors Spin made. Now me and him chat almost daily. Funny how that works.

The continued to grow over the next couple of months. Some key members, such as LPryane & LPSoldier joined during that time, and every was going pretty well. Then, couple months in, if I remember correctly, a new admin joined. Who was that admin? His name was Xquisite, but you may know him as Shay. He was helping Spin Doctor run his “Hood Playa Network”, as Spin Doctor had left the HipHopFoundry Network, and was starting up his own. Shay brought valuable knowledge and community network experince to the team, and he is probaly the reason why FMW & MSS had such good page ranks on Google (I know you did more than that, I just don’t remember, or they were done on the back end). However, Jes and Shay did not get along too well, and that led to some arguements. But they were able to talk it out, and no longer butt heads (if they ever did butt heads, again, my memory on that is poor). Eventually, Shay and Spin Doctor had a fallout, and then Shay was no longer admin. It was around that time that I was promoted to Super Moderator, and Jes was promoted to admin. I was then promoted to admin shortly thereafter (I dont remember the occasion).

Then one day, we got a new member. His was Pliskin (didn’t think I would remember huh lol). He soon proved to be a very valuable member, active, and talented with graphics and raps. Today, you may know him as Noxious. He was quickly made moderator, and proved to be a very important member of the staff. At that time, we were undergoing some “drama”. Praya, who was then a super moderator, was leaving and coming back, and Noxious was almost begging me to make him Super Moderator. Finally, I did. But not shortly thereafter, Noxious got fed up after arguing with someone (Don’t remember who, may of been Jes), and asked me to remove his moderator position. I did, but then a short time later he came back and asked for his spot back (imagine if he didn’t do that).

Around the summer of last year, we decided that we needed to change our site name, as the Fort Minor project was begining to slow down, and if we wanted to keep the site active, we would have to change accordingly. Many names were suggested, but eventually we choose MachineShopSpot.com, as we thought we could capture the most new members by being dedicated to Fort Minor, Styles of Beyond, Holly Brook, and Linkin Park, who at that time were not doing anything. We were able to change our name, but our site url remain fortminorworld.com, as Spin, instead of transferring the data to the domain, just forward machineshopspot.com to fortminorworld.com (Lol Nox STILL has fortminorworld.com linked in his signaure at FMMB). So for months we went with our name as Machine Shop Spot and our url as fortminorworld.com. Then finally one day late last year I spent a hour chatting with the host of the site fixing it.

Over the next couple moths MSS got pretty active, and I made a name for myself by providing sometimes the only rip of interviews or other appearances. Noxious designed our first real and updated layout for the site, which many of you may remember. Eventually though, activity began to decrease, and we hit our first slow time since the site opened.

But, then one day late last year, as I logged on to MSS, it wasn’t there! I quickly IM’d cen3 aka skip (who knows Brad Delson’s dad, who owns BandMerch.com), the host of the site, and asked him what was up. He informed me that he and Spin had broken off business relations (I won’t go into detail, as its complicated and probaly shouldn’t be posted). In the end (*it doesn’t even matter*), I decided to go and switch to MachineShopSpot.net, to save the site. In that process, I also become the new owner of the site. Eventually however, as site activity slowed down worse than before, myself, Jes, and Adam realized that it would probaly be better to switch to Linkin Park based site, as the new album was on the way, and that would attract the most fans. So I bought the domain, and the rest as they say, is history!

Even though today I dont really like Spin Doctor, and run a rival hiphop site (OUU…he runs HipHopSphere), I would like to thank him for giving me that moderator spot, because if he hadn’t, LPP probaly wouldn’t exist. Also, thanks to Nox, Jes, LPSoldier, and everyone else who I’ve met since then, who’s made all my hard work worth while.

Feel free to recall fun memories from FMW/MSS, or to point out any mistakes I made in recalling it, or to add something.

On a side note, there may be a major, and I mean major, addition to the site this week or next week, but I can’t tell you what, as it’s not for sure. Feel free to guess.

Thanks, and here’s to y’all for making LPP kick ass,

-J

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 9:23 pm and is filed under The Linkin Park Projekt, LPP History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.