What exactly does "T.T.T.P" stand for, and why is it in "exile"?

Ahem...these forums are the successor to the old GAC Forums, which are now archived here on the IAD. The main discussion board on them was the Termite Terrace Trading Post; with GAC dead, this is now the Termite Terrace Trading Post in Exile.

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What are the GAC forums, and what happened that led to their demise?

And what exactly are the GAC forums?

The GAC Forums 

Huh. Golden Age Cartoons Forums, eh? Wow, that's really cool.

I didn't know this site even existed until just a few months prior to signing up.

What are the GAC forums, and what happened that led to their demise?

Jason Todd~
As to what happened to the (once) much-beloved "Termite Terrace Trading Post", in a nutshelll, its founder and chief-moderator, the greatly-respected Jon Cooke, got married and afterwards was too busy to keep it running. Eutychus was good and kind and swooped in to save the day, but sadly a splintering was occurring with several of the contributors starting their own blogs... (And this Turtle dropped out from contributing, have had 5 eye surgeries, can see perfectly now, laughing thinking of some of the Fleischer characters with crossed-eyes) [betty] [popeye]

Sogturtle? It's been a long time since I've seen your big blue font on here!

Yes, the TTTP has had a long history, the interenet was a diferent place way back when I discovered the original forum. Many of the contributors from long ago have moved onto other things, but I'm grateful to Eutychus and everyone that the spirit lives on here.

Sogturtle? It's been a long time since I've seen your big blue font on here!

Yes, the TTTP has had a long history, the interenet was a diferent place way back when I discovered the original forum. Many of the contributors from long ago have moved onto other things, but I'm grateful to Eutychus and everyone that the spirit lives on here.

Hey Mac! Glad to "see" you and that you remember a crazy Turtle![dodo] And yeah, TTTP indeed has had a VERY long history, as memory serves, Jon Cooke founded it in 1998 (yikes, that's 20 years ago). While yours-truly joined it much, much later (1999)[flip] . Am also very grateful to Eutychus for all he's done and does.

Nevertheless, I'm glad to be a member of the Internet Animation Database. It's really nice to be part of a community that focuses on classic animation...especially considering that almost nobody my age seems to have any expressed interest in "those old cartoons".

Could it be ... could it be that the turtle is back???

Hope you can stay longer this time! It's good to have you back!

Nice to see you back, Sog.

Yeah, I remember those days of TTTP. Some were good, some were bad. I do admit, that it started to come undone near the end with some members started to rogue the forum.

Could it be ... could it be that the turtle is back???

Hope you can stay longer this time! It's good to have you back!

Thank you Brer Eutychus, tis awfully kind of you!! [mighty] (Though truthfully has been so long, don't know if a mangy-Turtle has much to contribute that would be of interest to anyone anymore...)

Nice to see you back, Sog.

Yeah, I remember those days of TTTP. Some were good, some were bad. I do admit, that it started to come undone near the end with some members started to rogue the forum.

Nickramer~
Hey, thank you for the kind words, tis appreciated![bugs2]

And YES we had an awful lot of good, good days on the original message board (1998-) and then on the Toonzone version, and even quite on few on the final GAC version. Though many of the not-so-good days were due in particular to just very a small handful of folks who were behaving in a manner which we will call "unbecoming to a cartoon-character"[flip]. Hopefully they're happier wherever they might be.

20 years?! Wow! I think I must have found the orginal forums in the early 2000s. I do remember the night I found them and there were just pages, pages and pages worth of interesting topics and fascinating research being shared. I ended up staying up late reading them and having plenty more to read through for quite a while.

It's interesting to think how much has changed in those 20 years and, regarding Golden Age Cartoons specifically, how many more films, books and information is now available. Another cool thing is that although a lot of the experts who were around in the old TTTP days may not post on this board now, some of them are now very busy in projects relating to classic cartoons and projects.

Also I forgot to say; Jason, welcome to the forums! I hope you enjoy it here!

Good to see the turtle is doing well. Sog was one of my favorite contributors on the old forum.

Good to see the turtle is doing well. Sog was one of my favorite contributors on the old forum.

Aw Lynn you're awfully kind, thank you for those very kind words! Tis nice to see you here!

(Though truthfully has been so long, don't know if a mangy-Turtle has much to contribute that would be of interest to anyone anymore...)

I'd love to see a resurgence of activity here from researchers and historians, and even those who just contributed deeper-than-average comments to discussions. Judging from the forum archives this forum used to be one where one could ask an animation history question (that wasn't something that was already common knowledge among typical fans) and have a fair chance of receiving a response from someone who would know. Not anymore.

I don't think "blogs" are to blame so much, nor the folks in question being too busy to participate, as I do the social media craze having particularly affected the classic cartoon community. Visit Facebook pages related to classic cartoons and you'll see numerous familiar names posting there regularly, including in interesting, informative discussions here and there involving animation history much like what could be found here in years past. As if Facebook is a good substitute for a traditional, open discussion forum like this one, where anyone can freely search, read and learn from the posts here, and even sign up to ask questions with no requirement to divulge personal information to the public (or Zuckerborg).

So as far as I'm concerned, feel free to contribute your latest research findings, commentary on cartoons, or the like. Heck, even share some of the animation artifacts you've collected over time (the seeming general divide between cartoon fans/researchers and collectors of animation artifacts is another unfortunate aspect of the state of things). It would be an improvement over how things are now. And who knows, maybe the presence of a certain reclusive Turtle would draw some of the others around here more often. If they have the time to hang out on social media, then they have time to contribute here.