I just checked - I am member 96175. I guess I am not a real oldtimer, but I have been here for quite a while. I started reading here in the fall of 2008 after I saw
this video where the forum was mentioned. In contrast to many other people I didn't come here because I actually needed a flashlight. I just found all the information very fascinating. During that time LED lights were becoming sufficiently bright for many tasks because of the Cree XR-E. People made a big deal about having R2-binned XR-Es which were slightly brighter than the Q5-binned ones. After maybe 6-8 weeks of reading I decided to buy my first modern LED light - a Fenix TK-20. I still own it. This is interesting because it was the first officially neutral tinted led flashlight from a manufacturer. It had great influence on my preference of color temperatures and tints. I continued to read a lot during the next year, but never really felt the urge to write something myself. In the fall of 2009 I bought my second led light - a Jetbeam M1X. It was my first "really bright" light with about 450 otf lumens. In retrospect I regret buying it because it had a number of technical downsides. My technical knowledge was limited back then compared to now. I eventually
replaced the led with a neutral one and sold the light around two and a half years after buying it. In these first few years I was mainly interested in led lights. After 1 1/2 years of reading I decided to join the forum and also post my thoughts. It has been five years now (over six of reading). Two years later I joined the German TLF Forum where I am much more active. There my interest in modded, fully optomized lights was sparked. My collection grew much faster after joing there. Although it is still quite small compared to those of many others (around 10 quality lights).
Two years ago I got interested in hotwires and really wanted a custom, regulated one for myself. Druing that time I read a lot of old threads on the topic and eventually aquired all the parts for
my own light. A timeless classic compared to many LED lights.