TheForce.net

TheForce.Net, also known as TFN, is arguably the most popular Star Wars fansite on the Internet. Its popularity is due in large part to its longevity and large staff.

The site began in late 1996 as Texas A&M University's Star Wars Page, founded by roommates Scott Chitwood and Darin Smith. In Chitwood's own words, the site was "a few pictures and tons of text". The site outgrew its environment, however, and in August of '97, TheForce.net was born. Soon the staff numbered over a dozen loyal Star Wars fans. Eventually Joshua Griffin came onboard as partial owner, and most recently enterepeneur Philip Wise, owner of both the collecting-specific fansite Rebelscum.com and Official Pix, Lucasfilm's official venue for actor autographs, has become co-administrator of the site alongside Griffin. Also worth noting are Anthony Baratta and Michael Spellacy, the site's main techies. Keeping a behemoth like TFN running smoothly is no easy task, but you'll hear no complaints from them.

Early in TFN's lifetime, the site was the go-to resource for spoiler information on the upcoming prequel films. However, as its profile grew, and as Starwars.com started meeting much of the demand for advance information itself, the site's focus moved away from spoilers considerably and into more standard news reporting. Eventually the amount of incoming news necessitated the addition of new non-movie-specific sections, such as Books, Comics, Video Games, and Roleplaying. Of course, news is but a fraction of the content TFN brings to bear.

Features

 * Fan Films - the Fan Films section is homebase for countless fan created works of art, including many renowned short films such as TROOPS, Duality, and Star Dudes.
 * Jedi Council Forums - a testament to the vastness of TFN's readership is its discussion forums, home of - in addition to many other boards - the thousands-strong FanForce organization.
 * CUSWE (Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia) - one of the longest-running subsections of TFN, Bob Vitas' Unofficial Encyclopedia is just what the name suggests - an exhaustive database of the Star Wars universe, and one of the conceptual progenitors of the Wookieepedia.
 * Fan Fiction - an archive of some of the best Fan Fiction out there, complete with a comment system allowing authors to give feedback on their favorite stories. This is rather controversial, as the site does not allow fanfiction with a "rating" of PG-13 or above, nor anything related to homosexuality.
 * Star Wars Technical Commentaries - another section dating back many years, the TCs are written and maintained by professional astrophysicist Curtis Saxton. Attempting to translate the fantastic into the scientific, these fascinating papers have been a source of much contention among readers.
 * Expanded Universe Roundtable - a series of uncut 3-5 person chat sessions on a variety of topics, Roundtables serve as the Politically Incorrect of the Star Wars EU.
 * Ultimate Timeline - one of the most thorough chronological source listings out there, complete with every cover image imaginable.
 * Timetales - for people who crave more than just a listing, Timetales is the place to go for thorough summations of stories you've only heard about, and information on how they all fit together. Currently undergoing reconstruction.