Purple Elephants Moving Forward (WHY???)

*leaps in dramatically*

I HAVE ARRIVED!!!

Hello there. :D My name, if you don’t already know, is Mattskywalker. I’m so excited to see the new NaNoWriMo website!!! I wish everyone good luck this November!!!

Of course, the Teens forum just wouldn’t be the Teens forum without this thread. If you’re new, you might be wondering how the heck we’re on Part 76 ½. Rightly so. See, this thread started in June 2010 and has been going on ever since. This part has the ½ on it because our last thread on the last forums was only about half-filled by the time the new website came. We’re a large, diverse group of people all united here because of a single interest: my own girl problems. That’s how it all started. One might call us a clique, which would be partially true; the only difference is that we welcome anyone and everyone who wants to join in.

We have had some troubles in the past (arguments and so forth), but we’re still here. And we are alive and happening!!! Trust me, this group is probably one of the most epic Internet groups out there.

Sound scary? Think we’re just plain weird? Well, no one has to join if they don’t want to. But if you’re interested, keep on reading!

~*~*~*~

Hello, Purple Elephants! If you’re already a member, welcome back! If you’re new, please read all of The Lowdown before posting so that you can have a pleasant experience while you’re in this “little” family of ours. Please know that everyone is welcome here.

THE LOWDOWN:

My name is Mattskywalker, but you can call me Matt. This is one of my many nicknames I’ve acquired online. You may also see me referred to as Mattie, Maffle, Matizzle, or Prince Matthew the C-Word. If you’re curious, the c-word is “cute” and it is forbidden on this thread to use this word to describe manly things or guys.

I am the creator and president of the Purple Elephants (my title is President Bull Elephant Matt), but we have many other staff members as well.

-Vice President: Lady_Warrior
-Official Cappuccino Provider to the Vice President: Sarcastic_R_Us
-Welcoming Committee: Sarcastic_R_Us (with apprentices Tassel and WhiteRaven93)
-Secretary: Lauriloth
-Treasurer: alexe3831
-Official Chat Room Protector: WhiteRaven93
-Minister of Birthday Celebrations: BlueGonfalon
-Bartender: Lectin Gaezat
-Supreme Evil Ruler of the Universe: kittycat88
-Official Post Counter: BlueGonfalon
-Court Jester: GallifreyGirl
-Master of Spammy: werewolfwithwings
-The Irish Hobo: The.Irish.Hobo
-Queen of Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice: Evangaline656
-Official Pizza Delivery Guy: the dude
-The Irish Hobo’s Representative: JesusLover
-Official GIF Giver: broadwaybound1000
-Lady’s Parlour Maid: Emgem2000
-Official Unofficial Lurker Person: Autumn Zephyr
-Official Cookie Hander-Outer: Addy Silver
-Official Treat Giver-Outer: Elle Mae
-Official Taco Hander-Outer: I am Here
-Ridiculous Maker of Ridiculous Words that Substitute “Cute:” Swiftflame
-Bearer of Awesome: Stasi
-The Unofficial Teller of Completely Useless Information: Hi-5_Girl
-The Infamous, Bloodsucking, Demon-Possessed Chupacabra: dantheman2
-Registered Crawdad Wrangler: blaundry

Feel free to ask for your own title!

Now, to business!

First of all, Purple Elephants (PE) is not as intimidating as it looks. We’ve been around for a while, yes, but we’re very friendly. Yes, we do post quickly but it’s often not that difficult to keep up. We use bold to highlight important things, so make sure you at least read bolded words if you’re having trouble keeping up.

This group started back in June of 2010 when I experienced some girl problems. I was repeatedly being called the c-word. A girl I didn’t know but whom I saw often looked at me repeatedly (I think “stared” is a bit of a strong word). I eventually developed a crush on the girl, whose name was Catherine, and sought to talk to her and become friends; due to many factors, I was never able to for months. Also, I suspected a good friend of mine, Abby, might have a crush on me. Things are better now, though. I am communicating with Catherine over Facebook, and hope to get to know her better in person. Even though the initial point of this thread has deteriorated somewhat, Purple Elephants continues. It is now a place of organized chaos where you can just come to have fun and talk with others.

Now, the name was inspired by kittycat88 back in Part 1 and Part 2 was the first time we used it. We have a branch called PEAS (Purple Elephant Agency Spies) which works to take over the world (not literally), and we also have some inter-thread clans:

-The Awesome Clan
-The Whovian Clan
-The Whedonite Clan
-The Ludinivalis Clan
-The Massena Clan
-The Merlinian Clan
-The Ninja Clan
-The Potterlian Clan

If you wish to join one, feel free to ask!

On this thread, we have a lot of inside references or jokes. Some examples are frying pans, “EFIT” instead of “EDIT”, Sarcastic_R_Us being a guy (she isn’t), the c-word, etc. If you don’t understand a certain reference, ask about it!

Some basic rules of the thread is NO SWEARING, NO INSULTS, NO SUGGESTIVE MATERIAL, and NO HEATED DEBATING. It’s fine to state your opinion, but arguing is not allowed.

1. Do not double, triple, or quadruple post. If you wish to respond to multiple posters, combine them all into one post. If you wish to post again, but you were the last poster, hit the EDIT button and add to your post.
2. Please make sure your posts are not one word or one sentence. If you have a quote or a GIF in the post in addition to a word or a sentence, this is acceptable. As long as we understand who you’re talking to.
3. No “play fighting.” We understand you wanting to have fun, but having ten posts saying “*throws banana*” “*leaps over table*” is not very helpful with conserving posts.
4. We are a bit of a random bunch, but that does not mean crazy nonsense. If you want to start a conversation, go right ahead. But please don’t start it with an out-of-context quote or statement and hope someone responds.

Still with me? Great!

The “secret symbol” for PE (invented by Lady-Warrior) is ~*P followed by your name or nickname. Put it in your signature if you like!

Many of us like to post GIFs, which are moving images that can be found on the Internet and posted anywhere. If you’re a novice on the subject of GIFs, here are some brief guidelines by Sarcastic_R_Us describing how to post them:

without the spaces. If you're using a GIF right off the Internet, you just have to right-click, copy image URL and paste there. If it's on your computer, you have to go to file info or more info or something like that and it will show you the URL of the image. If you can't find it, then you can upload the photos to Photobucket or Flickr which provides you with a URL.

We have a couple of extra goodies in the PE thread as well.

-Purple Elephant Reminiscence: a special installment that appears occasionally, consisting of conversations from the old threads for nostalgia’s sake. Keep your eyes open for episodes!
-Purple Elephant Book Club: exactly what is says, started by Elle Mae. Send your title suggestions to indigowriter!
-No Purple Elephant Left Behind (NPELB): a “buddy system” thingy started by Berlin June. Once a month, every Purple Elephant is assigned a buddy to converse with over PMs (Private Messages). This is to help us all get to know one another better!
-Purple Elephant Mafia: a game we play within this thread, which is currently on hold.

If you’re still with me, awesome!

I’ve already given you the basic outline of the story behind this thread. However, the entire story is much longer and more detailed than what I’ve given you. If you haven’t been scared off yet and plan on posting here often (should you decide to join), I encourage you to dig a little deeper.

Okay, a lot deeper. How, you ask?

By reading a few more posts. If you’re satisfied with everything you’ve already read, however, you’ll be just fine! But if you’d like to be adventurous and dig deeper into our history, send me a PM. There are three very long posts which I’d like you to read: the history of our first 5 (and ½) threads, and two accounts written from my point of view that give details on the backstory of my girl problems. If you’d like to read them, send me a PM and I’ll send them to you one at a time!

If you’d like to join, just post! Your first post here should include whether you’re a boy or a girl, what you would like to be called, and a little bit about yourself. Sarcastic_R_Us, our official Purple Elephant greeter (or one of her apprentices), will give you a virtual leather club jacket, a virtual pet chicken, and a virtual pet water buffalo. Name your chicken and water buffalo (mine’s names are Englebert Humperdinck and Lenny) and wear that jacket proudly. That’s all there is to joining! Once you’ve got that jacket, chicken, and water buffalo, you are an official Purple Elephant!

Well, I think that’s pretty much it. If you decide to join, we’re overjoyed to have you here!

So, Purple Elephants, let us continue!

~*~*~*~

So, last night I went to youth group.
Catherine came.
No, victory still will not be declared, BUT...
We did establish contact!!! :DDDDDDDD
Towards the end of the meeting, I was outside talking with my friends. Then Catherine walked by, and I thought about talking to her, but she actually beat me to it! She came up to me.
She said, “Hi, Matthew!”
Inside I was all, “Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh she’s talking to me and she’s smiling she doesn’t think I’m a jerk for not talking to her oh my gosh.”
But on the outside, I said: “Oh, hi!”
“I’m sorry, but my ride’s here, so I’ve gotta go!”
“All right, I’ll see you later!”
“Bye!”
And she left.
So yeah, this is a very important step. Now that we’ve established contact at youth group, I won’t be nearly as nervous about talking to her next time! So next time she comes, the final victory will be carried out!!!!! :DDDDDDD
IT WILL FINALLY HAPPEN NEXT TIME SHE COMES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gosh, you guys have no idea how happy this make me!!!! Okay, you probably do. XD

Anywhoozle, HOW ‘BOUT THIS NEW SITE, EH??? :D

*hugs all around* I’M SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!

POST POST PLEASE I WANT FIRST POST.

I just realized there is NO EDIT BUTTON.

Oh my god. I am so sorry I totally screwed this up and broke posting conversation rules! -drags self out of thread-

Wait! Before I make another useless post I should congratulate Maffles! Maffles! I am so proud of you! Now we can both try to talk to our crushes awkwardly!

Now to drag myself out of the thread in despair and disgust for myself.

I am a bad PE. T_T

Umm...hello? This looks interesting...I popped in and almost tried to join before the new forum made it's appearance...but I didn't...so...hi?

I'm Silvia Grace; you can call me Silvia, Grace, or just whatever you want, pretty much. =) I'm female (uh, yeah...that seems pretty obvious haha XD ), I'm 17, homeschooled, Christian, and I love reading, writing, playing and listening to music, singing, animals, etc. Can I join? =) It gets a little lonely sometimes 'round here when you're new...

I am slightly intimidated.
Hi! I'm Devin. I'm a guy. I'm an art student (photography and creative writing, but this is my foundation year, so I'm mainly in drawing classes- gag me- and composition classes). I'm a performance/slam poet, a circus freak, and I wish I could play drums.

Yeeeeeeaaaah I wated for 5 hours for this to finally arrive xD (after 7 days it looks like I'm PE addicted, already o.0) And Because there is no efit button you'll have to learn to live with my typos, I'm sorry.

I LOVE THE NEW SITE! It's beautiful. And everything's so blue! And did I mention it's beautiful? ;)

And Matt, that is awesome. Congrats! ^_^

WEEEEEHHHHH! New Forums! XD We have survived the forum wipe!

*waves* Hey Silvia and Devin!

Matt, good job!!

Yay, amazing new site! And the Purple Elephant thread is back!

Congrats, Matt! That's awesome! :D

We have no efit button? What is this madness? O.O

And apparently no forum sigs either. :(

Anyway, hi!

oh yeah, forgot about that : GOOD JOB MAAAAAAATT (I don't know why, but I'm really happy for you)

OH NO WE CAN NO LONGER EFIT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! D:

I also heard we don't need to stop threads at 500 posts. That was a Drupal feature. Now that we're on Rails, this thread will go on FOREVER. AND EVER. AND EVER.

...

Or until the next wipe.

@Maffles: I am so happy for you. YAY! :D She did it, you did it, we have some CLOSURE! *dramaticness*

@Lady: We could always do new threads anyway, for old times' sake. /sarcasm

@Whoever-has-authority-on-titles-and-stuff: I'd like to claim the title of "The Unofficial Officiating Half-Elf, Half-Timelord" if that's fine. I highly doubt that's already taken. :)

@Arbor: LOL. If they wouldn't delete them, I would tell matt to do that! xD Okay, maybe not...but yeah...

Glad to see so many people around! Now I need to find myself a good, defining profile pic. Since that's what people will identify me with now, rather than my name...

PURPLE ELEPHANTS *licks*

Oh... erm, hello, newbies. *looks around awkwardly* Welcome to our... humble abode... We're all completely normal here... >.>

Guys... guys. I think I have a halo. *looks at halo with shining eyes* *pets*

Silvia and Devin! We are glad you have chosen to join our circle of amigos. No, I do not speak Spanish. And yet, if you remove the sombreros you have suddenly found upon your heads... you may find a surprise inside.

You look at one another in confusion, shrug, and remove the mysterious sombreros to peer inside. Peeking up at you, you see a purple leather jacket, a chicken, and a water buffalo. Scratching your head, you ask yourself the only possible question that could occur to you in this moment... How did they all fit inside the sombrero?

Welcome! You are now Purple Elephants. Leave your jacket out for the cleaners on Thursdays, and name and love your chickens and buffalos. For example, my chicken is called Enrique Jocelyn Shrödinger of the Argonauts, and my buffalo is called Joe. (What? I just renamed my buffalo because I couldn't remember his name? Would I do that?) Please enjoy yourselves! We are a happy family/community/place/thing, and we're thrilled to have you!

Guys. Remember when I said my world was collapsing? ...that was like a single drop of water splashed out of a swimming pool. Right NOW, that's like someone picked up the swimming pool and dumped it on my head. THE AXIS OF MY WORLD HAS SHIFTED. *tries not to hyperventilate* It's probably good, though. I'm just. Panicking. Okay.

Welcome to NaNo 2011, Elephants!

TASSEL. Tassel. We can be halo-buddies together. *points at own halo proudly*

I really was looking for a nice, defining profile pic, but then I saw Miguel and burst out laughing and knew HE had to be there. At least for a little while.

Oh no, Tassel! What foul beast has come and dumped out your swimming pool? (that is such an awesome mental image.)

My chicken shall forever be known as Libertine, and my water buffalo as Vaughn. I'm sure we'll get along famously.

WE CAN NO LONGER SEE OUR BARS! D:

YES! Lady, our halos shall live on together in infamy.

(Does anyone know if these threads are permanently threaded like this? Or is there a setting to get them to show up in order of posting?)

Devin, nothing BAD has dumped out my swimming pool. Just... lots of... new possibilities. Appearing. I'll tell you all once I'm more sure of what is happening.

Cheers. :D

Oh!! Do I get to keep the sombrero, too? Haha it'd be perfect to store all my books in! It holds so much! XD

* puts on purple leather jacket * ^_^

I shall name my chicken Jacqueline and my water buffalo shall be known as Miguel. * pats Jacqueline and Miguel * ^_^

* is glad to be accepted * ^_^

*gives Alice a look*

Whaddya mean, why do I care? I CARE!

@Tassel: They're working on it. They're also working on the EFIT buttons, and hopefully our wordcount bars show up by Nov 1. Check out the Tech forum. ^__^