Elfwood: The Hidden Gem of the Fantasy World

Originally called Lothlorian, Elfwood was launched on May 1, 1996, and focused on amateur high fantasy art. It had exactly three members, including founder Thomas Abrahamsson. Originally, Abrahamsson would manually put up pictures sent to him by email, but Elfwood grew rapidly enough that, in less than a year, this became unfeasible. So, Lothlorian launched its Extranet in August 1997, allowing members to manage their own accounts.
In April 1998, Lothlorian expanded to include Wyvern's Library, an area in which members could post original stories. In August of the same year, the Fantasy Art Resource Project (FARP) was launched. This provides resources and tutorials for people learning to create fantasy art and fiction.
On October 26, 1998, Elfwood reached an important milestone: The 10,000th picture was added. On February 16, 1999, the 1000th member joined, and Elfwood has been growing ever since.
To help bring order back to growing chaos, the Elfwood Rules Board (ERB) was created. They became like the friendly neighborhood cop: nice, but they will enforce the rules.
The FanQuarter was opened in June of 2001 to give members a place to put their fan art. By this time, members had a lot of fan art, so they were given three months to move their stuff to the appropriate area.
To help with the addition of new material, the idea of a ticket queue and moderators was tested in January of 2002 and made permanent in February of the same year. This helps ensure that new material will stay within the Elfwood rules.
In September of 2007, Elfwood switched from being a nonprofit entity to a for-profit business. The most noticeable result of this change was the addition of advertising. Ongoing changes include the addition of a Facebook-like "Friends" system, increased size limits for Elfwood Patrons, the phasing out of the Extranet, and the addition of a discussion forum.