It's a good thing I saved my reply the last time I answered this question.
Alright, August 2001 is when I first had the idea. It was inspired by a line I read in a Gilbert Morris book. I don't exactly remember the quote, but it did get me thinking about anime and how could I bring that area of my life under God's control. I had been on the internet for some time now and I was aware of little "cliques"; basically just small sites with a list of names. That's what CAA originally started out to be, a huge webring of Christian anime fans. For the first three months, it was very slow--there was only one other name on the list besides mine, and that was from my shinto-dabbling friend who felt sorry for me. Like the pilgrims, that "first winter" was pretty hard on me, and I nearly gave up on the idea. But for some reason (hindsight is a wonderful thing) I kept it alive. Slowly, word got around and more people joined. That next february or so, we had enough members to consider creating a group at MSN Groups-a small, free and very basic forum. Again, I cannot emphasize how small we were back then--there were maybe at tops 10-15 people that posted frequently. Archan (Josh) was the member I felt the closest to, so I made him assistant manager for when I was gone/busy with school work to help keep an eye on things. Shortly before that, Gypsy joined and brought along with her Aaron and Shatterheart (though under different names). When I was on a break from CAA, a fight broke out and Shatterheart made a very, very bold stand for what he believed was right. When I returned, I was taken aback by his post--just the confidence, the biblical-based argument, and the humility with which he said what he did. I immediately emailed him and asked if he would consider joining the staff with me. Thus, Shatterheart is the oldest staff member. ^^ After that, somehow we ended up talking to each other on the chat built in, and then I got to know Gypsy and Aaron really well too (we ended up becoming friends outside of CAA and to this day remain closer than siblings).
So we stayed at MSN, slowly growing day by day. We had lots of good memories tied up in that place, sort of like the couple that looks back fondly on their first apartment. No, it wasn't perfect, but it was home. Gypsy joined the staff too as we got bigger. By Christmas 2002, we had really outgrown the msn groups forum and were considering a forum like the one we have here. Shatterheart and I spent countless nights trying to upgrade the forums to “ikonboardâ€