Community:Hyrule.net

Hyrule.net was founded by Dustin in December 1998. Hyrule.net was once one of the most popular Zelda sites on the internet, however, due to periods of inactivity, the site dwindled severely in popularity. The site was known for one of it's unique features: The Zelda Chat Network (TZCN), which allowed Zelda fans from any site to come together and chat about Zelda. Hyrule.net also gained a great deal of popularity by giving away various prizes such as a Nintendo Wii, a Master Sword replica, and other various prizes with donated money and sponsorships.

History
1998 - Hyrule.net was created and launched and quickly gained popularity. Combined with The Zelda Chat Network, the site's traffic grew and became more well known. The chat network at the time connected to the DALnet IRC network in the channel #zelda. Hyrule.net offered exclusive walkthroughs and media content which was much less common then as it is now.

2003 - Due to a severe lack of time and funding, the site was shut down and replaced with a forum. The abrupt fall of the site and lack of involvement from Dustin severely damaged the site and ended with a very inactive forum.

2004 - Dustin posted a note at the top of Hyrule.net asking if anyone was interested in running a site on Hyrule.net as volunteers. Several responses were received. After choosing one, Dustin outsourced site updates and development to a third party and the site began to regain popularity. As the domain name was very well known online and had high search engine ranks despite the forum failure, visitors flooded in quickly.

2005 - Dustin discovered possible misuse of advertising funds and the agreement between Dustin and third party ended. Dustin completely redesigned the site and created a new Hyrule.net from scratch in a matter of weeks. This was named Hyrule.net 2.0. my.hyrule.net also launched, filling a need for free Zelda fan website hosting.

2006 - Many interactive features were added to the site such as the 'Deku Tree' game which allowed visitors to earn Rupees, the site's currency, by clicking on an image and exploring it. Other interactive features such as quests, bug catching, and more have been implemented or are on the way. The Arcade was soon opened and has increased in popularity. my.hyrule.net migrated to MyHyrule.net to provide more pleasing user URLs and additional features. Free MyHyrule.net email addresses provided, powered by GMail.

2008 - Hyrule.net celebrates it's 10th birthday on December 30th, 2008, reaches their goal of 5000 members on this date, and Dustin reveals Hyrule.net 3.0.

The Zelda Chat Network
The Zelda Chat Network (TZCN) was launched along with Hyrule.net to create a place where Zelda fans at any website could come together in one place to chat. The philosophy behind it was many individual website's chat rooms are often empty and lack visitors, but by creating a centralized chat room for multiple websites to be a part of, a more active chat could be formed.

TZCN currently connects to the IRC network located at irc.hyrule.net. Visitors are welcome to connect through the Java-based interface or directly to IRC using an IRC chat client. Visitors may register their name and even create their own personal chat rooms.

Despite its support among multiple Zelda fansites, it is still dwarfed in size by the chat rooms of Zelda Universe and ZeldaInformer.

MyHyrule.net
MyHyrule.net was founded by Dustin around 2005. It allows Zelda Fans to create your own free website with free hosting. Originally user URLs were in the form of my.hyrule.net/(sitename). However, they have since been upgraded to include (sitename).myhyrule.net by user demand. Users are also given the option to acquire one free Gmail-powered @myhyrule.net or @zeldafan.net email address when using the service.

ZeldaFan.net
ZeldaFan.net was founded by Dustin in December 2006. It allows members to post and maintain artwork, galleries, blogs, and create their own site in the form of sitename.zeldafan.net. ZeldaFan.net is part of the Hyrule.net network. Users can get one free @zeldafan.net or @myhyrule.net email address powered by GMail.

Hyrule.net Network

 * Hyrule.net - The Main Site
 * ZeldaFan.net - Zelda Fan Content Site
 * myHyrule.net - Free webhosting for Zelda Fans

Moderating Team
Administrators
 * ArcticFire
 * Dustin
 * Itu
 * Tappy

Moderators
 * Adr990
 * Cat Girl
 * Chef Nonsense
 * eyeoftruth
 * Ganondorf333
 * Gingerlink
 * Knuckle
 * SirJoshizzle
 * Taco_Ninja
 * True Gamer
 * Zuzu