Hello, and welcome to Kingdom Hearts United. I figured it would be with best interest to let everyone in on the history of KHU. And, the entire story of this place starts out with a little something called Proboards...
The whole idea for this website started when a friend of mine wanted to have his own website. I decided I'd help out a little bit and eventually we co-owned a forum on proboards.com --> http://kmhearts.proboards43.com ( The forum remains there, but, it's now empty. I've not deleted because of the nostalgic effect and whatnot. Anyways, back to the story XD )
I (Shore) originally went by 'Sora' and my friend went by 'Cloud ~'. For a while we had no visitors, no hits, no members, no anything except an empty forum. So we did what anyone would do and pretended to be extra members on our forum. We also advertised on other sites pretending to be someone else saying we found an awesome KH forum that people should check out. Eventually we had a few members, and Cloud was so happy. But, I wanted more. I kept advertising and worked on new codes as I slowly tought myself how to use them and make them. It was in the middle of this that Cloud~ left us forever and asked me to keep the reasons private. They still are to this day.
After he left I was pretty much on my own and willing to keep the forum going, and by this time there were only about 50 active users on the forums. I promoted a few of the loyal members to staff and began work on the new look for the forums. As time went by the layout was completed (and still remains on the proboard forum today. However, the original banner has been replaced by a 'lower' quality version.) and many were very impressed at what I had done with my new skills.
However, that wasn't enough. I wanted to keep the forum growing and by this time I was tired of being hosted under a free server so I decided to start work on a website which could have it's own forums. Around that time I switched the name of the site/forums from kmhearts to Kingdom Hearts United. After that the first version of the website was released and hosted under freewebs.com
We still had a forum under proboards, and that was what really got to me. But, there wasn't much I could do about it seeing freewebs didn't support forums at the time (and may not still). I decided a more improved look to the website itself would have to attract members (whether or not this was the right move at that point I am still unsure).
A few weeks later I released the new website and members, again were impressed at how my new skills in web design had payed off. Even though the new website should have been labled V2 it was not. I continued to call it version 1 simply because the first version wasn't much to look at and it wasn't up but for a matter of weeks.
Sometime later someone who went by Raz contacted me asking to affiliate with me. I said yes and KBW (www.keybladewar.com) became our newest affiliate. At the same time I changed hosts from freewebs to anet-hosting.com which offered the use of forums, php, etc. Now we were talking. I released the new forums, and moved off of the free server.
After the move, however, nearly all of the active members were lost. I attempted to get them back via emails, and whatnot, but all was for nothing. I did get a few, but they soon left as well now that the forums were inactive.
With the loss of the activity on the website I decided a new look, again, might be a good idea. Around March 20th, 2007 I started work on another layout; a layout that would look more professional. I still wasn't necisarily a 'pro' but I had sure devoted some time to learning more in the field of Web Design. I worked hard using the only version of PhotoShop I could get my hands on: PhotoShop Elements 5.0. It worked well enough to fit my needs at the time and in no time I had created the entire template. No more than 1-2 weeks after starting the project I was finished and released Version 2 on the first of April. It was a big hit and everyone seemed to love it! I was very happy with my work.
As time went by, I picked up new affiliates, dropped some of the unreliable older ones and we began to grow. Around the time we had averaged around 100-200 hits a day someone contacted me offering a position on a network. We accepted and began to contribute to (My Final Fantasy Network). Things were going great and continued to look up for KHU.
Around October, 2007 Kingdom Hearts United had started to fall in popularity as I was engulfed in school work and a job outside of that. As things cleared around November the same year I started hard again on the website. Kazaf, owner of FF13.us and FF-XIII, (two of our affiliates) decided upon my request to make a new template for the site. I couldn't find it in me to create it myself and I needed help. He replied and said he'd lend a hand. Only one day later he had finished, and gave me all the files. I was so impressed, and I still am to this day with his efficiency.
And that is where we are today. The current layout is thanks to Kazaf, and we are continuing to add more and more content with every passing moment in the KH Community. We hope you will come back and check up with us as often as you can!
A few weeks later I released the new website and members, again were impressed at how my new skills in web design had payed off. Even though the new website should have been labled V2 it was not. I continued to call it version 1 simply because the first version wasn't much to look at and it wasn't up but for a matter of weeks.
With the loss of the activity on the website I decided a new look, again, might be a good idea. Around March 20th, 2007 I started work on another layout; a layout that would look more professional. I still wasn't necisarily a 'pro' but I had sure devoted some time to learning more in the field of Web Design. I worked hard using the only version of PhotoShop I could get my hands on: PhotoShop Elements 5.0. It worked well enough to fit my needs at the time and in no time I had created the entire template. No more than 1-2 weeks after starting the project I was finished and released Version 2 on the first of April. It was a big hit and everyone seemed to love it! I was very happy with my work.
