What is Nintendo Pipeline?

The Nintendo Pipeline is a website and forum dedicated primarily to the discussion of gaming, with a focus on Nintendo platforms and software.

History
Starting out on December 11th, 2006 as a simple forum, the Nintendo Pipeline has evolved over the years (Under the guidance of founder Hero) into the far larger site it is today. Now featuring a front page with reviews, previews and news, the Pipeline has become much more than a simple forum. That's not to say the importance of the forum has been minimized, of course. In fact, the forum remains the most active aspect of the site, with a total of 944 members (As of January 8, 2011), the most active of which are listed later on in this article.

The site has gone through some rough patches in its time, from changes in leadership to the outbreak of a deadly virus. Rather than weaken the community, these hardships have strengthened bonds among the members and made one of the closest-knit forums on the internet a possibility.

Forums software has changed a few times as well. From 12/11/06 - 2/13/07, NP has used Phpbb. But to broaden The use of features and accessibilities of what they can do, they changed forum software again. From 2/13/07 - 3/30/2010, NP was running off of vBulletin. But then their forum software license expired and they could no longer update with new features and necessary security updates. So ever since 3/30/2010, with the help of some donors, we have been able to move on with an upgrade to IP.Board. This forum software has quite a variety of features, one noteable feature is the status updates. It makes it similar to FB in that regard, except that FB sucks and NP doesn't.

(Past) Features
'These features, namely the Shoutbox and the front page, are outdated. The information will stay for history's sake. Unless somebody wants to re-write this tidbit into the history in a fitting way.'

One of the first things a member will notice upon registering is the forum's unique Shoutbox. This custom-made chat module allows users to engage in casual conversation, conduct a polite debate, or generally fool around. A small set of rules regarding decency and content exist on the Shoutbox, but they're far from constraining, allowing for the discussion of just about anything.

Below the Shoutbox lie the forums themselves, with many different boards and categories for all sorts of discussions. While the Shoutbox is for casual conversation, the forums are meant for longer, more in-depth discussions. There's a board for just about every subject imaginable, leading to no shortage of conversational possibilities.

The latest major addition to the Pipeline is a front page dedicated to news, previews and reviews. Sadly, the potential of this venue is heavily underutilized, with the headlines typically updated less than once a month. We can only hope that the future brings with it some more frequent updates.

(Current) Features
Regarding the old Shoutbox, it no longer exists. No other chat will be able to replace it's godlihood. However, a chat we currently have implemented is the Live Chat, which is open from 4:00p.m to 12:00a.m (midnight) EST. The reason for the time limit set is kind of unknown, but under assumption, it's to promote more posting and/or to make the chat more useable by making people want to use it while it's limited in time. So far, this hasn't really been effective in terms of getting it used more.

Another noteable feature would be the status updates. Members are able to input anything they want in them, and others are able to comment. Some could say it's similar to FaceBook, but the difference is, FB sucks while NP doesn't. So don't compare the two.

Other things to note would be the live feed for new posts which are labeled as "Latest Discussions" which are located above status's in the sidebar and only show the top 5 latest topics posted in. Other than the live feed, there are also Notifications. Any new ones will also appear in the sidebar above Latest Discussions, but only for a maximum of 10 will show. If you have more than 10 Notifications, you can click the number in the top right portion of the site adjacent to where your avatar is and go to "View All Notifications".

Staff
See Staff

Members
The Nintendo Pipeline's members may not be high in quantity, but they're certainly the tops in quality. As stated above, there are over 900 members, but only 149 of these have more than 100 posts, and only around 50 can be considered "active". Those who are active, though, are great people, and they more than make up for the relatively small population.

Below is a partial list of the top 50 users with 1,000 or more posts (Last updated January 8th, 2011). Some of the members listed have been active since joining the forum, and the majority of them still participate to this day, unlike some who post once or twice then never return.

Only ten members have ever reached at least 5,000 posts. They are:
 * Decho
 * Espi
 * Keatos
 * Lugia Dragonite Guy
 * MageLeif
 * PsychoDuck
 * Rhyme
 * Slasher
 * Titus
 * Zero