post canceled wtf
edit again: all the links are broken and I don’t know what the hell happened so … guess I’ll go save all these pages and rehost them myself? why is this happening
For a while, the Maximum Ride fan forums were hosted directly on the official website, maximumride.com. Without getting too into the tangled history of changing domain names, those forums existed for approximately two years, from early 2005 to late 2007.
Though the archive is incomplete, some pages are cached on the Wayback Machine, and I went through to pick out some that I found interesting. For the most part, only one page of each thread was saved, though for a few, two or three pages made it. Please note: the Wayback Machine tends to load slowly, and almost all the images are broken. That’s normal.
The search I used to do this is here [link]. Since Tumblr now no longer reliably indicates links, I have bolded all of them.
edit: I forgot that Tumblr also forcibly redirects all links, which breaks Wayback Machine links. You will have to copy + paste the links into a new tab, or Tumblr will, again, redirect you.
The main page of the general discussion board. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20051105001043/http://www.maximumride.com:80/forum/viewforum.php?f=1&mark=topics&sid=50d598866258973843c8cfe10f9353d5 )
“next one”. One of a number of threads from the middle of 2005 about whether there would be a sequel, and what it would be called. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20051105000119/http://www.maximumride.com:80/forum/viewtopic.php?t=80&view=next&sid=41be070703cbd54d63248f0e69a7f916 )
“will there be another?”. Another speculation thread. In this one, one user speculates that the title of the second book will be “Maximum Ride: The Search for Truth”. Titles changing before the book hit the shelves was a recurring thing – it happened with MAX, and probably with another of the later books. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20051106074146/http://www.maximumride.com:80/forum/viewtopic.php?t=253&sid=f368db9fccc6b2e744d9c570a6729d04 )
“Max Ride #2”. By August 2005, other rumors are that book 2 will be called School’s Out Forever. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20051106095539/http://www.maximumride.com:80/forum/viewtopic.php?p=192287&sid=50d598866258973843c8cfe10f9353d5 )
“Powers”. MR fans had a good track record of guessing upcoming plot twists. Here we see a then-BNF post “i think the voice that you may be talking about with max has something to do with the chip in her arm.” Spoiler alert: she was right. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20050519161935/http://www.maximumride.com:80/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2327& )
“happy ending?”. Accurate guesses here: the flock will find their parents; Dr. Martinez will be related to Max. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20051103154500/http://www.maximumride.com:80/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57&start=15&sid=50d598866258973843c8cfe10f9353d5 )
There’s at least one more thread in the archive where someone attempted to guess what the flock’s powers would end up being, but it didn’t make it into my list of threads to post, so I’ll come back later.
“I found the institutes website(Progress:None)”. This was the one big forum project I remember. The site popped up a login form requesting a username and password, but that’s not reflected in the archived version. (If you have 10,000 US dollars, the domain is for sale!) ( https://web.archive.org/web/20051104234456/http://www.maximumride.com:80/forum/viewtopic.php?t=927&start=0&sid=50d598866258973843c8cfe10f9353d5 )
“I found the institutes website(Progress:None)”. Page 68 of the thread, and it’s turned into a chat/casual RP thread. But if you scroll down, one user crossposted the link to unfiction.com, then an active ARG-solving site. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20051106095317/http://www.maximumride.com:80/forum/viewtopic.php?p=190639&sid=50d598866258973843c8cfe10f9353d5 )
The thread on unfiction, where someone uses whois data to find out who owned the domain. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20170709045747/http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=183993 )
Surprise! It’s an advertising agency!. The slideshow of their work shows content I forgot about until now. I’m not sure if this news ever percolated back to the forum, and unless someone has other backups of the forum, or was there and remembers, I can’t tell you. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20160509075916/http://www.conceptfarm.com:80/work/james-patterson/ )
There you go, the highlights reel. Not featured: a whole bunch of fanfiction + RPs, chat about JP’s other work, “hi guys I won’t be online for a while”.