About Granaboard

What is Granaboard?

Granaboard is a Grandia II social site that provides a set of Grandia II-related archives for fan-made items such as fanfics or fanart, as well as an open, off-topic social forum, with an open set of rules for the Grandia II community and its "neighbors". The Granaboard is also the only Grandia II website that hosts adult Grandia II contents. Granaboard is non-profit.

Granaboard history

Granaboard was created in mid-2001 to cover the social needs of a group of people from the GameFAQs Dreamcast Grandia II message board. The very deep plot of the game, as well as its exquisitely developed characters, gave, and still gives, a lot to talk about. Hence, posters in the GameFAQs Grandia II board became regulars and started to know each other. Subjects other than Grandia II-related arose, so did moderations, since GameFAQs does not allow the off-topic posting in the very least. The community gave up on requesting a social board in GameFAQs after realizing the GameFAQs owner was not going to create it (such boards usually seem to be reserved for games that run on Sony machines only, especially if called "Final Fantasy"). Also, the very restrictive terms of service of the site frustrated its members for not allowing them to have a friendly conversation or a mature discussion.

A GameFAQs member known as Wiseman (mrwiseman in GameFAQs) then decided to find a free message board provider as similar as GameFAQs as possible, and set up a website which linked to it. The site was named "Granaboard", and gave the Dreamcast Grandia II board regulars the opportunity to talk about anything, with far more relaxed rules and a better atmosphere.

The Granaboard was soon more than just a message board, with the addition of a Fanfic Archive to host Grandia II fanfiction. After that, archives for Grandia II fanart, Grandia II theories, Grandia II FAQs, Grandia II goodies and member's videogame-related articles were added, and the site will keep growing as member contributions increase and the maintainer has enough time to work on it.

When the original message board provider (Accesboards) closed, Eiko and her husband Fizzy kindly offered to host the message board in their server Hottub.org, and later, the whole website was moved too. The Granaboard Message Board was hosted there for about a year.

However, in October 2002, the board was moved to a free provider (Hostboard) because the rules the Hottub.org owners wanted to impose were turning the Granaboard Message Board into another GameFAQs, which is exactly what the community wanted to avoid by using the Granaboard services. It was the Granaboard's most difficult decision to date giving the circumstances surrounding it, and the harder path of independence was taken having in consideration what would be best for the vast majority of board in the long term. The new message board had to be built under heavy time constraints, and despite some initial speed issues, it has turned out pretty well, and now the new Granaboard Message Board is freer and more enjoyable than ever.

Ten months after, the Granaboard website was moved off Hottub.org. As of today, the Granaboard website and message board is completely independent from Hottub.org, and it is ruled by Wiseman exclusively.

In October 2003, the Granaboard Message Board received the Hostboard.com Board of the Month award in recognition for the activity and atmosphere of our board.

Achievements

• In a year of existence, the Granaboard went from a simple link to a free message board to a complete Grandia II fan site.

• The Granaboard main page reached around 10000 hits in that year, with a strong increase in audience during the last months. It is now getting about 10000 hits every semester, and at the time of last updating of this document, it accounts around 47000 hits. Those are the hits of the Granaboard main page only, without adding those of its subsections or the Message Board (which are probably over a million).

• The message board is one of the most active Grandia II boards, if not the most active, and the majority of its members are here to stay: they do not leave in two months, as happens in most other boards.

• The Granaboard Grandia II archives are the only ones of the Internet that host adult contents (namely hentai fanfiction and fanart), so, it is thanks to this site that some unique Grandia II fan-made items are available to the world. (Many of the other items are too Granaboard exclusive.)

• The site is also rather popular in web searchers like Google and web directories like Open Directory. The message board is getting better every day, and it really looks and feels like a community of good friends with shared interests.

The people behind Granaboard

• Granaboard founder, maintainer and moderator: Wiseman

Miguel Pérez (Wiseman) is a 23 year-old guy from Spain. He created the original Granaboard and now Proto Omega. He likes Xenogears (favorite game), Xenosaga, Grandia II, and RPGs in general, as well as other games, anime, manga, science, nature, and, of course, girls ^_^. You can contact Wiseman via email: granaboard -@at@- gmail -.dot.- com .

• Granaboard moderator: Nevan

Nevan Phillips (Nevan) is a 14 year-old guy from South Carolina. He joined Granaboard during the Hottub era. He likes Halo (favorite game), Goldeneye, Red Faction, and FPSs in general, music, politics, science, reading, and, of course, chicks.

• Granaboard moderator: Xellos

Joshua Bowers (Xellos) Is a 17 year old guy from Maryland, USA. He's beena round since the end of the Accessboard.com era. He likes Xenogears (Favorite game), Grandia games, and most games outside of racers, especially RPGs, anime, computers, and girls XD.

The Granaboard maintainer wishes to say thank-you to all the Granaboard members and contributors that made this site possible. Special thanks go to GeoCities, for hosting the website; Hostboard.com for hosting the message board; and Game Arts for making one of the best games ever, if not the best: Grandia II.