Howler was first hosted at howler.us.to, which first came on-line in
March 2017, then later migrated to [howler.space](https://howler.space) where it
is currently archived.
It's only purpose ever was to run a campus imageboard for N.C. State
University, and indeed that's all it ever did. The real-time imageboard
(which is a slightly-better fork of the poorly-written
[Doushio](https://github.com/lalcmellkmal/doushio) imageboard
software) was advertised across the campus using a series of posters
advertising the site. A curfew ensured that users could not access the site
unless they checked sometime from 9PM until midnight. This is another
cryptic and stubborn choice that I clung to for some time.
Originally Howler was modeled after a similar site (茶会) which imposes curfews;
this means that the site only opens at a specific time each day, for two hours only, then
closes and erases all posting history. This is a novel way to run a website and
it proved to facilitate very entertaining and fast-paced discussion during those
active hours.
When Bakesta and I first started this project in the Spring of 2017 we really
didn't know what to expect; we had some vague idea of being a "popular Internet
hangout" but some of the first posts were so weird, confusing, and really not
what we anticipated at all. But we stuck with it and we attracted the userbase
we have today by hanging up tons of posters all around campus; by the end of it we probably
designed and posted over thirty unique designs and advertisements for the site,
which were laboriously posted around campus on buildings, walls, tables,
chairs, pretty much anything you could stick tape to by your neighborhood moderation
team, 10s of 100s at a time.
The curfew we thought was so vital to the site proved to be unsustainable;
people were generally confused as to how to use the site; because people
*expected* the site to be open all the time I received several angry
e-mails about this.
Initially the only two boards are /ncsu/ (university discussion) and /swt/
(off-topic). However, a third board /yu/ (Hot spring) is warranted to post
lewd pictures (see [the first public thread on the
site](https://howler.space/archive/res/116.html)).
Howler shut down for the summer (owing to an embarrasing lack of traffic)
and vowed to re-open in August when the regular semester resumed. Before the
site is shut down, an IRC network is created and a single channel #bigtown
is opened. It's widely regarded as the best and most decisive decision ever
made regarding howler.
You can still visit [#bigtown via our IRC web client](https://irc.prettyboytellem.com).
Eventually howler did re-open, and many more people were made aware of the
site by another successful poster campaign across N.C. State. howler.us.to
is soon moved to howler.space because no-one can remember the .us.to
extension. Luckily, more than 1 out of 10 people remember howler.space so
the name is kept.
The content from bigmike.sne.jp is migrated to bm.howler.space and the two
sites are linked by a common page. Three more boards are also added to
howler: /sports/, /filo/, and /nu/; furthermore, the curfew is lifted and
posting is allowed at any time of day.
/honk/ is introduced for musical discussion and /sports/ is culled for a
lack of interest sometime in October 2017. All these boards are eventually
migrated back into /ncsu/ after we switch imageboard software in December 2017.
Several meet-ups are organized during the Fall 2017 semester. On October 25th
I organize a meet-up to eat hot wings which went well except that I, despite
the big talk, could hardly eat my share of hot wings. On November 14, the
first board game meet-up is held in D.H. Hill 2400 and it goes well with lots
of card games and pizza and cookies and fun and admin-hassling.
### Javascript Breaks Everything
In December 2017 a node.js update breaks the imageboard software; as a result
the site is re-evaluated and eventually only three boards make it out: /ncsu/,
/yu/, and /swt/; howler solely exists to provide a forum for anonymous
discussion for N.C. State and any dreams to expand beyond the university are
forfeit at this point if they were not already.
### RalEE.org
Around this time I begin writing a textboard / BBS software called
[RAL](https://github.com/yumi-xx/RAL"), so named for the City of Oaks,
Raleigh. Gradually I focus almost all of my effort on this new site and neglect
the development and growth of Howler in favor of this new project; in 2018 I
spent several months living in Tokyo as well, which did not allow me to organize
events for Howler in-person; the site coasted slowly and steadily for this
period.
[RalEE](https://ralee.org) stands for everything I've ever loved
about Internet culture and discussion; its rejection of modern web practices
was a sincere joy to program; it looks more like a site from the
late 90's, except that it is HTML5 standards-compliant and actively
moderated.
A Howler poster from mid-2018; the girl is actually from a
doujin-shi I translated while abroad
### Howlerween 2018
Sometime, for whatever reason, someone invited a lot of people on Howler to a
Halloween party at their house. This was the only party from here onward that
was not held at my apartment; I can't remember exactly what happened but it was
a lot of fun.
There were so many people crammed into this tiny living room, it was pure
madness.
### Howler becomes the Party City
Things really pick up in 2019 for the site; we begin hosting routine
house parties at my apartment. At first I got a kick out of calling them house
parties, as we have never had a Howler party in a house ever; we tried but
never succeeded in finding a free house.
These parties extended naturally from a little New Year's Eve bash we threw that
year in the same apartment. That New Year's Eve party arose from a somewhat
annual Spring Break beach trip the year before. The feeling in that little
house in Atlantic Beach living with 10 or 12 friends for a whole week was
really, really fundamental and formatory me; I was organizing Howler at the time
and I think a lot of that feeling and emotion left a mark on the site. Anyhow
the things we got into at the beach house are a different post entirely.
Eventually we were having these Howler parties on an almost regular basis;
nothing really planned, just a bunch of friends getting together and hanging
out, watching movies etc.; I now recognize this period as an exemplary showcase
of the *optimal* niche for communities like this. 10 or 15 people who would have
never known each other otherwise, crammed into this tiny space and watching
movies together as if we'd known each other for years now.
That's all, I realized, that I ever really wanted out of this project.
A poster advertising a showing of Cappadonna's Iron Fist
Pillage, one such movie we watched together
Over the next summer I worked in San Francisco and picked up a DJ controller in
Berkeley for really cheap after work one day. I started playing around with it
really late into the night on the weekends and decided that it'd be really fun
to play a DJ set when I got back home in August, in addition to the usual party
things we did. That first party was a great success and I learned a lot about
DJ'ing, but unfortunately I do not have any record of that night except for a list
of the songs I played and this really cool poster:
A poster for the first party in Fall 2019
The format of this one was similar to the parties we'd held in the previous
Spring, except with live music this time around.
The first person to play a set with me was Bakesta (DJ'ing under the moniker
*Bushmaster*) while I DJ'd under the name [DJR3](https://DJR3.org/) (derived
from the [tiger YAMATO track R3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwyJxGxUJtM)
from Beatmania IIDX). I believe the first time he went by *Bushmaster* was that
Howlerween set (below) he played, consisting mostly of 90's jungle and UK
garage.
A poster on my front door for Howlerween showing our DJ set times
The Howlerween event was a massive amount of fun; hellbaby brought a truckload
of dry ice and we had some really, really weird visuals up on a TV in our living
room while we were playing music.
Soon we decided to start streaming our DJ sets. Because Bakesta and I put a lot
of work into making this all happen, we kind of wanted a record of it, I guess.
We had each gotten pretty good at mixing by then. We streamed most of the
remaining DJ sets via [twitch.tv](https://twitch.tv/DJ_RThree). This was a very
involved process and required careful planning on behalf of everyone working
behind the scenes. If there were degrees or certifications in OBS we would both
have them by now.
Screenshots from some streamed DJ sets featuring me and Bakesta
### The End of Howler: One More Final: *Thank You*
Virtual Party
The decision was made sometime in September to shut down the site on May 9th
2020; the date was a little arbitrary except that it was a Saturday and
corresponded with the weekend after my last final exams. Instead of letting the
site slip silently out of existence, I wanted to celebrate the time we had spent
together by throwing one last party the night that we shut down for good.
However (and unpredictably) we were not at liberty to host an in-person party,
as many of us were quarantined and scattered across the country as the
university gradually limited on-campus operations due to the pandemic and
eventually transitioned to a completely online delivery for the remainder of the
term. Keeping this in mind, we decided to host the final event entirely online.
A number of platforms were tossed around but we eventually settled on Garry's
Mod for its extensibility and the multitude of tools, models and maps that have
been created for it in its 15-something year history. I created a new server
[club.howler.space](https://club.howler.space) to be our virtual club for this
event in Garry's Mod.
*Club Howler is a virtual streaming stage that lets people
experience music together. It's a virtual cocktail bar, it's a digital music
festival, it's a livestreamed experience.*
For the facilitation of the party I rented out a cluster of nodes in the Google
cloud platform and furiously wrote Lua for 1.5 months (most of this work made it
to [my Steam
workshop](https://prettyboytellem.com/writing/2020/Apr/My%20Steam%20Workshop.html)
Under the hood, my OBS setup for the night was nightmarish; we livestreamed
Bakesta's handcamera and music from his place in New Bern to my apartment in
Raleigh which was a treat to add to the stream. I'm glad everything worked out
the way it did.
I'm also super, super thankful for everyone who came out that night; I'm glad we
were able to get together and chat (in voice and text) even when we couldn't
party it up in person.
Watch the last party:
