Hello there!

I am here to introduce myself, my name online is Johto Times, and while I am new to the forums, The Pokémasters is a website that I have known since I was a young teen in 1999 or 2000, and very likely the first Pokémon fan website that I visited online. I would sneak onto the website during lessons in school and learn all about the latest Pokémon news. Sadly I never joined in with the community or interacted with any of its users outside of that. I do recall the website going down and being unable to find it again, which was likely when the place went down for a while back in the early 2000's. Learning that this place was not only online, but had been resurrected by its original owner, with members who continued to be a part of the community throughout the years that followed, shocked me. I knew that I had to visit and see it for myself to believe it. I was saddened to hear that the original owner has disappeared again, and the team who ran the site back then are no longer around. I wish I could tell them how much I appreciated the website and community they created, and how much excitement I had visiting it when I was younger.

Pokémon continued to be a big part of my life, and over two decades later I run a Pokémon newsletter that celebrates that late 90s and early 2000s era that I have such fond memories of. I truly hope that someday I can write something to pay tribute to this website and community.

Sadly, it does feel like i've joined here just as everyone has finally moved on. I guess we all got older, didn't we? The memories we had of the past are replaced by families, careers and other commitments, and our childhoods are forgotten. This was a hard fact that I had to come to terms with recently, but this is the reality. Regardless of whether that turns out to be true or not, I am super thankful that I was able to discover this place, and get some help in signing up here from the Discord community.

I look forward to meeting some of the users here, and learn about their time with The Pokémasters and what the place has meant to them. If, somehow, the original admin and team see this message, please reach out to me so I can thank you personally!