As mentioned in
this post a few weeks ago, in honour of Charlton Life's 15th Birthday I'm trying sort out a collection of the best or most memorable threads and posts from the site. The list below isn't exhaustive, as I've not been able to track down some of the posts suggested, let alone wade through all the various takeover and protest threads to work out which ones are which, but hopefully this is a good start.
Site Stuff
In the early days of the site, there was more than just the forum. There were regular blog posts from a number of different contributors, some funny and some serious, as well as a picture gallery of Charlton related photos. Unfortunately as the site became more popular, the infrastructure supporting it couldn't always handle the load, so it became necessary to move to a new platform, and so the blogs and the gallery were no more. However, you can still access some of them via
web.archive.org, although it can be a bit hit and miss. I have a particular soft spot for
@AFKABartram's occasional forays into song, such as his "Dead Ringer For Love" inspired
take on Steve McLaren's treatment of Darren Bent, or the Bonnie Tyler style
response to our managerial woes in late 2008. Alternatively, you may enjoy his suggestions for
how Darren Bent could up his media profile or the tales of
his application for the Charlton manager's job pre-Dowie, and then
the Palace manager's post vacated by Dowie.
The
Gallery Archive is divided into different collections, many of which only have partial thumbnails archived, but you can access full size pictures for a few of them, some of which I've included below.
(Derek Hales, Brown & Bergkamp © Steve Bridge, the Che Hales flag picture is uncredited in the archive)
As far as the forum goes,
the oldest existing post still has some useful tips, although some of the site functionality has changed along the way, so we may need to sort out an updated version. And if you haven't already read
How to manage email / pop up site notifications it's a good idea to do so, to avoid joining the ranks of forum members who've plaintively wailed "Why am I suddenly getting bombarded with emails from Charlton Life?"
Retrospectives About Big Games and Major Events
Discussions of major events in the club's history are fairly common, particularly when big anniversaries come around, so there may be other threads that I've missed, but these should give you a flavour.
Leeds Play Off Final (May 1987)
The Battle of the Bridge (May 1988)
The Valley Clean-up (March 1989)
The Valley Party Election Campaign (1990)
Unfortunately a lot of the images from these posts have been lost due to background changes on the site.
The Back To The Valley Game (Dec 1992)
The 1st Charlton Sunderland Play-off Final (May 1998)
Memorable Games As They Happened
Yeovil in the rain (Nov 2009)
Promotion at Carlisle (Apr 2012)
There's a video of the celebration on the pitch
in this comment. Sadly most of the other photos in the
Pitch Invasion pics thread seem to no longer be retrievable.
The Cardiff 5-4 match (Nov 2012)
2019 Play-off's - Doncaster 2nd leg
The 2nd Charlton Sunderland Play-off Final (May 2019)
Comments
PART 2:
Major Events Off The PitchThe Post Premiership Decline & The Spivs
I have massive holes in my memory for this period, so am not sure where to start with this. Any suggestions gratefully received, (preferably with links to the threads concerned).
The Duchatelet Years
This isn't as comprehensive as I'd like - I need to track down the initial takeover thread and some of the other protests, including the Belgian ones, and there may be other stuff I've forgotten.
East Street Investments
I'm not sure about the best threads for the early stages of the ESI project, so most of this is Shenanigans based. There are other threads about specific characters or events that we might want to include, but these should give you a fair overview
The Sandgaard Era
PART 3:
The Social Side of Charlton LifeOrganised Lifer Away Days
The 2007 Charlton Life Charity Match
I'm not sure if there's a single thread where the idea originated from, and there are a lot of posts coordinating the various aspects in the run up to the day, but this should be a reasonable reflection for those who weren't around at the time.
Supporting The Upbeats
I think it's safe to say that Charlton Life's link with the Upbeats has often been one of the nicer bits of the last 15 years. I've not tracked down all the Upbeats Day threads, but have included a few below.
Inspirational Stories and the Lifer Community Rallying Round
These threads are largely Members Only as they involve personal details about the posters concerned.
Sometimes Things Stray Into Not Safe For Work Territory
Or It All Gets A Bit Silly...
In recent memory "I'm not who I say I am" and " I got locked in the car park" both gave me a good chuckle
:-)
The strange work colleagues one also had me in bits. Completely forgot about the man trousers one... Found myself reading it just now and clicking lol only to discover I had already lol'd it.
My favourite threads on here are always the threads where people are asking for advice or help, as well as those that go off on a wild tangent.
The football is secondary, which being a Charlton fan is for the best
Only joking ali, great bit of work there and will certainly take some time getting through it.
The two comments from Danny Addick and O-Randy-Hunt still have me in stitches whenever I read it
https://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/49668/advice-needed-cant-ask-the-wife/p1
https://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/76425/the-weird-stories-thread/p1
You can wear it when you are coaching kids and shooting anyone caught talking to your mum. ;-)
for putting this together 👏👏
I see what you did there
@paulie8290 & his highlights is still 1 of my favourite threads
https://charltonlife.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/61621/hair-highlighting-tips/p1