Welcome to Phoenix Elite

(20:53:36) * Hoyle has quit IRC (Quit: WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!? YOU'RE JUST WEIRD!)

One of the questions we sometimes get asked now is what Phoenix Elite actually is. Since we closed our doors as a clan in 2008 (see History), the answer hasn't been an easy one but the purpose of this little info site is to answer that question! I've put all jokes aside here in order to offer a definitive, serious description of PE which is something we don't often do. I couldn't help but include that quote at the top though because it puts into words what I can't!

PE is an online community: a forum, IRC channel and collection of subsites. However, the word "community" doesn't entirely do justice to what PE is; after running for over 7 years, many members would consider us to be more like a dysfunctional extended family than anything else. We're united in many things but individual members have a wide variety of interests and opinions; being different is what we thrive on and we rarely criticise each other for our quirks. Some members, both past and present, have said PE is one of the only places they feel they can really be themselves and liked for it. It's become an important part of our lives over the years and every now and again someone new comes along and feels so comfortable that they become part of the family (we'd like it to happen more than it does though). The About page explains more about what we do with our time in PE and what the community is collectively interested in.

In the 7 years I've owned and run PE, I've had the pleasure of meeting so many interesting, hilarious and talented people here. I've also had the pleasure of being backed up by some awesome staff; from the original 2004 leadership team right up to my current partnership with Frank, they've all been skilled and dedicated. Frank, especially, has been the best co-leader PE has ever had and all our collaborations so far have turned out absolutely heavyweight.

We have members with talents covering almost every sphere of life: from programming and hacking to producing music, comics and other art forms. Topics on IRC and the forum are about anything and everything but we do have some common themes; we have several shared interests with established subdivisions for them. It works a little something like this: someone develops a new interest; shares it with everyone else; other people grow to like it and before long another subdivision is created. Not everyone necessarily likes everything but everyone fits in somewhere.

To outsiders with no experience of PE the whole thing can seem confusing and perhaps pointless -- although any member would testify that it's not! It's difficult to find new members for something as general as PE so we're a small but tightknit and active community. We don't aspire to create a monster forum with thousands of members; the bigger we get, the harder it is to maintain the tightness. We don't have any open channels for advertisement anyway so the majority of our members are here through pure fortune (or misfortune!)

If PE sounds interesting to you, we'd love to meet you. Come on IRC or to the forum for a chat! :)

Lots of love,
Elliott