And also, it will be very WT-centric.1998-1999
I'm pretty sure that DM's first boards were on Bravenet, and they were famous for going down quite a lot (hey, DM is quite famous for that in a lot of its eras!). There was also a bit of emailing going back and forth between DM's earliest members. In the time period shown above, there were a lot of "Silly Stories" being posted - these were generally "one-shot" style stories that would be over and done in a single dash of silly. I should note also that in the beginning, and for quite a few years, DM was a combination of "community" (or just OOC) and "roleplay". I'll get to the infamous Split of RP/Community later on. But yeah, in the early days of DM, nobody had to actually be a novice (I think this was probably only for 1998 and maybe some of 1999, I dunno). They just got raised straight to Aes Sedai, or Asha'man, or Warder or whatever they wanted to be.
1999(?)-2001
During this era, DM moved to a set of boards that really were quite unique, at least of all forums I've ever seen. I still kind of miss that style of posting, even though it wasn't particularly practical (a single thread would become a long - sometimes VERY long - string of posts that took up an entire page, rather than one thread just taking up one "line" so to speak. Anyway, the boards were quite unique to DM, with each 'starter' topic having a particular rectangular block icon next to it (still have a soft spot and a bit of a hankering for all those lovely icons). I guess I associate those style of forums with my glory days at DM, too, so no wonder I have a soft spot for them. I was very sad to see them go.
BUT, I probably should talk about other stuff. And yet I don't feel the desire to. hehe.
I will say this about the forums between 1999 (I think)-2001. They crashed fairly often, and we did have to resort to visiting the DM temp forums quite often. I miss those little guys too! Damn Yuku "revolution" of more recent years!
In this era, there were just Orgs, plain Orgs. So the White Tower Org had both community and RP halves to it, though really it was all combined in one, with some people only participating in OOC threads and others mainly being RP. Some of us were involved in both, and liked it that way.
2001-2002
So, yeah, the Split. And the move to new boards. I can't really remember when the move off the "fancy and yet impractical old boards" happened, but I think it wasn't too far from when the Split happened (just not sure which came first). So, it was decided that DM would be split right down the middle, so that people who just wanted to be at DM for the community of it could post without having to be drowned in RP planning posts, etc. And people who just wanted to RP could stick to that "side" and not get bored by all the community blathering.
It was rather sad for the rest of us who loved both sides of DM, and there was rather a huuuuge uproar from a lot of the DM community. Naturally a fair few people stormed off into the sunset (so to speak) claiming they would never return. Some probably actually DIDN'T ever return, but I'm pretty sure most of us drifted in after a time, lost leaves on the breeze finally floating back down to earth where we belonged.2003-2005
I for one remember drifting back into the Community side of things probably in 2003 sometime. Possibly near the start. I had no clue what I was doing, and admitted it in public. I also signed up for a mentee (or maybe Kathana or somebody suggested that I do so, to help me get acquainted with how the Community worked since the Split?). So, I nabbed myself a mentee, and it sure did help me out in learning the new ropes. I think my mentee was SaidinIncarnate at that time. I was quite involved with the Community from this point on, from 2003 to 2009. And sometime in 2003, with the current MoN on LOA, I was asked to step in as temp MoN. Eventually I became the "real" MoN, and stayed that way a few years. But anyway, that's totally irrelevant to the "larger history" of DM, so I'll shut up now.
2006-
Except now I'm going to start talking again. So. 2006. Pretty sure this was yet another year with a major upgrade of boards, or maybe it was late 2005? But DM's current earliest posts are at 2006 so I think it was 2006. Gee, are you enjoying my expert knowledge of DM's history here? Yeah, thought so. Anyway, this was when we moved to the fancy new "poo brown" boards we still have today, though I have no doubt they're not the same version today as they were then. The Green Ajah at that time was devastated to have to move off our deliciously pretty green forums to poo-brown ones. All the Ajahs had beautiful boards housed on Kathana's Age of Legends domain, but it was time to bring all external DM-affiliated forums into DM proper.
Aaand, that's where we are today. I think for a while there were Discussion Groups and Interest Groups or something. Gosh, I can't really remember. But now it's just...well, I shouldn't talk about it now 'cause I'm hardly ever there, but I'm sure someone can clarify how it all works.