What Keeps You Coming to Beast's Lair?

[ItsaRandomUsername]

There's not too it this time when it comes to this topic. What was it/what were the "its" that brought you here, and what about BL nowadays in this sea of alternative and mainer-streamer social media options that also boast TYPE-MOON (mostly Fate/, let's be real V: ) communities and—supposedly—discussion?

As an oldf- uh, oldhead-turned-moderator, I have a perspective hopefully worth sharing. I don't intend to make this too me!me!me!, but this is meant to be a thread all about me!me!me! (i.e. you!you!you!), I am asking for your stories, so here's enough context-mine to make this topic topic-relevant.

I originally came to BL—the previous ProBoards version, no less—for fanfics. Fanfics of an assumed higher standard, done up by a more insular and specialized fanbase focused on a particular niche media. Fanfic posting, TBE. This, in turn, introduced me to several cool individuals, many of which I'm still in contact with, some moreso than others. This comradery and associated discourse, combined with the passage of time and us experiencing of T-M's further growth and development, led to a loyalty for and accustomisation to them and this site.

Dwindling BL fanfic community? It's okay, I'd become a mod long by that point, and by that point I had investment enough in the forum to want to see it done right and thrive in its own niche, even in spite of the larger and more prominent other social media communities that also feature T-M content. Being a BL regular, to me, means you're a "real one," whatever that entails to you. At your core, you're a misfitted specialist-seeker who abhors the impersonal leviathans that the bigger sites like the Bird Feed and the Alien Frontpage are. You want a community that feels more like a community than what they are.

You want the thing you're personally here for and with a heaping plate of community on the side. Community, even, with a capital C.

You're a romantic.
You want something real.
You're a Beast's Lair Poster, by golly.

Oh, uh, yeah. I'm also still interested in T-M content and output, as well.


Anyways, HBU?

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

I got here by basically following Draconic here after he linked the Questions megathread to try and resolve an argument we were having on AO3. I lurked for a few months, then joined in July 2018. All of this was months after a friend of mine introduced me to Zero, and I basically jumped down the rabbit hole and found myself here hungering for more accurate information. I've basically stuck around here through thick and thin both for interesting and more in-depth discussion and translation of TM content, and I've grown to like and respect several users, even if I now disagree with the stance the mods take towards certain users and opinions, and no matter how I feel about those users. This is sort of a place I can keep coming back to as my interest in TM wanes and waxes, and thanks to BL, it has remained my longest-term interest after Pokémon.

- - - Updated - - -

Not to mention, I do like the JoJo thread and the people who congregate there. Most everyone's cool.

[Prix with a Silent X]

To suggest that I've been a regular for the past couple of years would be false. I have really only dropped by in moments of boredom or to update fanfics here and there. Much like IRUN, I came here to post fanfic, though by that time the fanfic community here had slowed down. I'm still primarily here with an interest in transformative work based on type moon, but the fact that I come back and sometimes make inroads to participating more fully has as much to do with the changing landscape of the rest of the internet as with BL itself. Even BL seems to have slowed down in some regard, but it is still an active forum that isn't hampered by an increasingly harsh anti-adult-content mandate that is sweeping across the internet like a plague. While some of what you fellas are into squicks me out and I don't want to touch it with a ten-foot pole, it is equally or more disturbing to me that websites that were originally meant to be 17+ are being strangled to death by various mega-corporation's insistence that everything be family advertiser-friendly while mainstream media can deal in whatever sex and murder it wants.

These changes to the internet as a whole are making communities ever more insular and it makes it harder to have a "social" experience on any social media website, and even other forum platforms have TOS rules that make it virtually impossible for a community to have sensible rules about the allowance of content specifically pertaining to sexuality. While most of my discussions are PG-13, relationships and character dynamics that may be influenced by sexuality are one of the main things I'm interested in when it comes to fiction, and it's exhausting to try and filter everything in hints and whispers.

There are few places left on the internet where you can just talk to casual acquaintances about anything without there being a prerequisite that you fit the standards of a particular clique.

While there have been times in the past that I thought some things about BL were toxic and should be better-moderated, I think the recent increase in having active moderators who actually seem interested in participating in the main topics of discussion or the forum in general is a step in the right direction. I also think banning that one thread at the end of last year has generally improved the air.

I guess there is also a strange impulse to try to give passive proof that the present Prix is less cringe than Prix of the past was, but anyone whom I'd prove it to at this point probably is either convinced or intractable.

If you like to read please read my fics???

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

I am very tempted to springboard this into another discussion about moderation here, but even I'm not that much of an ass to detail the thread this early anymore.

[Prix with a Silent X]

Without derailing I would like to say that my comments were in favor of human moderation rather than blanket bans on [insert thing here].

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

Ok, I see your point, and I don't disagree.

[Namelesss]

Ah shit, back in the old days there was newgrounds, gaia online, and other anime specific forums, but particularly there was one that caught my attention and it was breast lair. I heard about it and then lurked there a few times and that was it but it wasn't until 2018 I heard and saw the name Dullahan. That was the year where I became really interested.


Beast lair probably has to be one of the coolest forum names ever. I've seen even JP tweets about it and I think even on the TM Japanese wiki actually has a link to beast lair. I'm surprised this site influence reaches other fans who aren't even in the western world.


In all honestly, I'm really jealous for not knowing about this forum sooner and TM in general. I'm surprised and happy out all the threads that exist on here is that there is a TM MEME thread.


Til this day, I still don't know how this site works.

[pinetree]

I enjoy Servant creation and the flow of conversation forums bring and this is the best place for both.
The community is pretty great too.

This forum is half the reason I got into Type-Moon again after giving up on FGO earlier this year.

Frankly, I'm still baffled this place exists. An active forum in 2021? And one entirely dedicated to a single franchise? Crazy.

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

This is a fandom that still relies heavily on specialist fan knowledge, and that plus the community of regulars has kept us afloat.

[Petrikow]

I like forums.

Ultimately both reddit and discord has mostly usurped their kind, but both of these have features I do not enjoy. The sturdy nature of a forum and its discussion facets makes it better for serious and considered discussion.

I also like organizing things, but I'm sure most people have noticed that by now.

[Mattias]

I came for the fanfics originally. I joined to take part in a CYOA (and because the BL 2.0 shift ruined all my previous bookmarks). I stayed because the golden age of Type Moon was happening with a new anime to talk about every year it seemed. Even as Fanfics slowly died and we ran out material to adapt I stayed around for all the other parts of the community. Talking about odd anime, cool videogames, the ludicrous amounts of movies I see. Or current news back in the before times.

[TomPen94]

I came here cuz I wanted somewhere to talk about TM stuff. Back when I joined I was really into another forum, but it didn't have a section dedicated to TM stuff. I had gotten into it recently and was really eager to talk about it online, and this nrvnqsr website kept popping up on multiple occasions.
I wouldn't consider myself a true regular of this place, especially in 2016-2020 when I basically ghosted it, but I did always come back here because it just felt like the right place to talk about this stuff. Over the years I did branch out from just the TM threads here, but that's still my main appeal of this site.

New forms of community based discussion boards like Reddit and Discord are very erratic to me. I think it gets hard to trully connect with the community at large if they get too big. I did get into a TM Discord server recently, but I only participate in a few channels and I feel I can't keep up when a topic of discussion blows up there. It's hard to know someone in there, I feel like that's easier here. Building the image of the person you're talking to and getting a better grasp on them.

[Five_X]

Do we keep coming back to Beast's Lair, or does Beast's Lair keep coming back to us?

In any case, I came back to write niche fanfic.

[ResidentSeagull]

Feel free to disagree but I always found Reddit and Twitter to be breeding grounds for toxicity and bullshit. Partially because of their size, partially because of their mainstream appeal.

That's why I came here. I heard about Beast's Lair here and there, and the day I checked it out I kept lurking, until I made my account of course. The Nasuverse is probably the only franchise that I am currently actively keeping up with, and this place is small, but I think that fact contributes to its charm. People here know their shit and even when that's not the case its still pretty entertaining.

Even though I don't actively participate in a lot of discussions here I still find myself coming back because it is legitimately interesting and fun. I was never the type of person to be interested in the "community", but I still recognise the importance of being connected to people with similar interests, taking into account their opinions to challenge my own and keeping up to date on the news. This place is ideal for me in that regard, I suppose.

[Nihilm]

After I joined I've basically never left even if I almost never look at the forum now.

[Snow]

In any case, I came back to write niche fanfic.

Same. I want to write some very specific stuff then go back to sleep.

[Nobody]

I liked the Stay Night VN so much I wanted to nerd out about it with other people. Heard this forum was T H E place for it so I lurked then made an account. Which was a bad idea cause I was fresh out of high school and new to interacting with anime fans. My god.

I also find forums much more chill and less cringy than reddit and twitter, so unless some really heinous shit happens I don't think I'll ever really have a reason to leave. Yeah current TM doesn't really hold a lot for me and I don't know a lot of the people here, but the cool thing about forums is that I can still manage to talk to some people anyways. The extrovert in me eats that shit up.

[Five_X]

Same. I want to write some very specific stuff then go back to sleep.

I told myself the same thing and now I'm a regular poster again, it's a curse.

[Reign]

I like the feel of forums over reddit or discord. Discussions can be more longterm and I think that creates a better sense of community.

[Wyvern]

Fellowship, mostly.

I came here because I read a Quest that really spoke to me. It had a genuine feeling that it could have been the real thing, and made me feel like, if I were part of it. Part of this place, maybe I could have learnt to write something like that. I feel... like a sham most of the time? Because I learnt of Type Moon through FGO, which seems to be a big time taboo over here when it comes to new members.

I wanted to learn more.

I wanted to experience more of this world that seemed to be so interest and alive and well... mysterious. It was so romantic for an aspiring writer like me, who can only ape others, and badly at that, to create things. And well, its been years, my interest has wax and waned, I've left and come back. But I think that I finally managed to create something here. Something in this wide universe of stories made by fans that I feel others have enjoy and I feel could really belong and stand up in its own feet as an enjoyable read.

I can't say I'm as good as the one who brought me here.

In fact, I feel like I barely moved from where I started.

So I guess that's why I keep coming back. To remind myself that there's still a road ahead. And to see how far I have come each time.

Sounds kinda silly, no?