Feel free to contribute other information you know, and I'll edit the OP to include it. We're probably missing quite a few details, so every little bit helps.
Existing RequestsThis section contains dates that are unknown and have been requested in order to be included into the timeline.
DatesTimeframe when the Pathos event(s) occurred, to understand when the meme of 'Everyone is Pathos' developed.
First Slaves to Armok 1 release.
Release dates of Toady One projects not seen below.
Creation of first MLP thread.
Creation of first Penguin thread (apparently within Various Nonsense. Archaeology thread indicates some may have access to this board still.).
Creation of the Interboard Battleship (apparently within Various Nonsense. Archaeology thread indicates some may have access to this board still).
Exact dates for creation of various boards.
The days for entries with a
next to them.
Sort ThroughInformation in old Archaeology Thread needs to be sorted through into one post.
Forum TimelineJune 20018 - Toady One's profile is created. Estimated date forums go online. In the first week, there were only four profiles total.
16 - First post by Toady One. This implies that the forum had a different host before this point, so he may have made posts in the first 8 days that we can't see anymore. Alternatively, they may have been in Various Nonsense.
April 200215 - Threetoe makes his account on the forums.
July 200218 -
This post is the first of Kurtulmak, the third moderator of the Slaves to Armok board. As it is within the thread of his introduction, this may indicate it is either a secondary account of a regular at the time, or Kurtulmak is a trusted friend of Toady One.
March 200330 -
The apparent announcement thread for the first edition of Liberal Crime Squad.
February 200428 - Final bugfix update of
WWI medic is released.
May 20044 -
Last thread of a Toady One release of Liberal Crime Squad known at the current time.
August 200426 - Final release of the original
Slaves to Armok.
31 -
Toady announces a return to working on the 'Dwarf Game', as Dwarf Fortress was referred to before its release.
August 20068 - First edition of Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter 2: Dwarf Fortress is released. This event could mark the start of the Second Era of the Bay 12 Forums.
September 20066 -
Early Spambot Thread, during a time Toady would edit posts by Spambots rather than flat out deleting them.
10 - Final bugfix update of
Kobold Quest is released.
13 - Jifodus, the man who's been lurking on the forum for five full years of his life, makes his account.
November 200610 - The Boatmurdered Succession Fortress begins.
March 20076 - The Boatmurdered Succession Fortress ends.
16 -
Discussion of save format is launched by Erasmus Darwin. This effort allows for the creation of the various utilities made for Dwarf Fortress.
June 20072 - The game of Mafia is first brought to the forum in
this thread by 4bh0r53n.
November 20078 -
This thread chronicles the first attempt to create a 3d visualizer for Dwarf Fortress.
13 - First post of Nist Akath.
December 20071 - The
What's going on in your fort? thread is created by Redwick.
March 200820 -
This interestingly named thread potentially indicates the first date of the DF Community Games and Stories board. At very least it showcases how links used to look back in 2008.
May 20087 - The first
Hall of Legends thread is created by Jamini.
June 200830 - The forum software is switched from ultimatebb to simple machines. The forum conversion is also when all of the non-post related statistics started being tracked.
July 20081 - First Bay 12 Games report in the Announcements board is posted.
August 20088 - The Dwarf Fortress wiki is announced to have been created in
this thread by Senso.
22 -
This thread by Immortal is the current first known Roll to Dodge game attempt on the forums.
September 20081 -
Multiworld Madness, considered by some to be the Magnum Opis of the Roll to Dodge board before Einsteinian Roulette, is started by Sean Mirrsen.
- The Roll to Dodge subboard is created.
October 20088 - The
mermaid farm thread is created by Randy Gnoman. The horror reaches all the way to the game developer himself, resulting in measures to eliminate mermaid farming as a relatively practical measure.
November 200827 - First currently known successful game of Mafia created in
this thread by Kashyyk.
December 20089 -
Anime Thread is created by JoshuaFH.
April 20099 - Last post before Various Nonsense was locked. Date may be the same as when the board went missing. Its prior functions were apparently broken down into the lower boards. May be considered the start of the Third Era of the Bay 12 Forum.
May 20091 - The first bit of concept art for the utility to eventually become Stonesense is posted in
this thread by Solifuge.
July 20097 - Toady posts the modern Forum Guidelines in General Discussion.
24 - Dwarf Fortress is featured in a
New York Times article by Jonah Weiner.
September 200914 - The second
Hall of Legends is established by Jackrabbit.
20 - Janet, currently known as Gunner-Chan, posts the Happy Thread, apparently while drunk or tired or on a dare or something. Circumstances are currently uncertain.
October 200912 - The
Sad Thread is created by Vlynndar.
12 - The first release of Stonesense is made after work from a small team within
this thread created by jonask84. The utility's name is accidentally stolen from an existing mod that displayed resource locations.
March 201021 - Final story post of Nist Akath.
April 2010This month plays host to the most number of topics created in a month, at 4165.
May 20109 - During the Reign of Bronze, in which the current release's Bronze Colossi proved invincible, user The Anus of Discontent managed the first recorded kill of an invulnerable Bronze Colossus by decapitating it with a thrown live fluffy wambler in
this thread.June 20107 - An individual attempts to create a clone of Dwarf Fortress on the forums and tells others to stop donating to Toady One and start donating to their project. Due to a measure of confusion over work on the project at the time the event occurred, Peterix wound up being temporarily banned.
11 - The
Rage Thread is created by nenjin.
14 - cbpye discovers the first recorded Adamantine Spire worldgen error in
this thread. Sadly, it appears most images of this event have since succumbed to time.
July 20106 - The Fuedalism thread, created by Aqizzar, is born on the General Discussion board and is eventually
moved to
Forum Games and Roleplaying when it changed to a popular map making game.
September 20106 -
Out of Context and Funny Quotes thread is created by Derm.
October 201008 - The board to the original Slaves to Armok: God of Blood are locked due to the amount of necroposting upon the board.
20 - The
WTF Thread is created by Akura.
December 201026 -
Roll to Roll to Dodge is created by Gatleos.
Janurary 20117 -
Second My Little Pony thread is made by Sowelu. It is eventually locked due to a combination of behavior of the posters skirting close to what got the first thread locked down and a link to a page detailing a meme also containing a nude image in a thumbnail.
March 201121 - Toady posts the modern Moderation Log in General Discussion.
April 2011Most number of new members in a month at 3301. This influx could be considered as the start of the Fourth Era of the Bay 12 Forums.
26 -
Apparent first use of 'Derm' to represent enmass destruction by a player is made in the Roll to Roll to Dodge thread.
July 20114 (?) - Dwarf fortress is induced into the
Museum of Modern Art.20 - The third
Hall of Legends thread is created by Monk12.
August 201113 - The first
Dwarven Child Care thread is created by Girlinhat.
21 - Last post in the Multiworld Madness RtD.
October 201121 -
The Third My Little Pony thread is created by kaijyuu.
November 201118 - End of the third My Little Pony thread. Due to events at its end, the creation of a dedicated My Little Pony topic becomes banned.
28 - First currently known
Christmas Giveaway created by webadict.
December 20111 - An attempt to make a Bay 12 Romhack is chronicled in
this thread, created by USEC_OFFICER. A surprising amount of progress is made, with a test version having been released at some point in the thread.
28 -
First known thread of Meph's Masterwork Dwarf Fortress mod is made. The released version of the mod at that time is currently unknown.
February 201219 - Forum goes down for an alarming period of time. A portion of the reactions at the time are found in
this thread.April 20122 -
Einsteinian Roulette is created by Piecewise.
4 - Japa takes over chief control of the Stonesense project.
20 -
Second Penguin Thread is created by kaijyuu.
May 02, 20122 - Second Penguin Thread ends.
August 201221 -
This thread was created by Haspen to focus the signature flag fad. The OP references it having been triggered earlier, but the trigger incident is currently unknown.
September 20124 -
This thread, created by Barbarossa TSG, marks an attempt to map Bay 12 membership data. Results were not too surprising and the map eventually fell to memes.
October 201212 - An IRC channel for the lower boards is created and is advertised in
this thread by kaijyuu. Conflict with the older Bay12 IRC, which had apparently split off from the main community years ago, developed for a time. The IRC is apparently still active.
November 201229 - Dwarf Fortress is announced to be included in the Museum of Modern Art.
January 201317 -
The Warrens of Oric the Awesome illustrated suggestion game is launched by freeformschooler.
February 2013Number of new members per month drops back to the levels before 2011. This date could mark the beginning of the Fifth Era of the Bay 12 Forums.
March 20137 - The one and only
DPRK Thread, forum sensation and one-time Europol Thread refugee camp, was created by MetalSlimeHunt. The thread's creation pertains to threats of war made against the United States of America by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on March 7th, 2013.
April 201321 - Then number one poster Toonyman is bypassed by GreatWyrmGold.
June 201312 - DF Modding board is given multiple sub boards. A few of those created are eventually folded into other subboards.
August 2013Largest quantity of posts within one month at 105732.
February 2014 - Einsteinian Roulette grew to the point that it was granted its own subboard on the Roll to Dodge subboard to contain it.
April 201428 - The Descan thread created by Descan, and the fad apparently dies a week later. Some avatars from this fad have managed to survive to the present day.
This is believed to be the trigger post. This fad resulted in a counter thread
the Union of Static Self-Representations to be created by Comrade P..
30 -
Bay 12 Posting History thread is created by My Name is Immaterial.
June 201415 - GreatWyrmGold is permanently banned from the forums. A minor attempt to have him reinstated is created, but it rapidly dies.
July 20142 - The Things that made you Laugh Today thread is created.
7 - A record-breaking 2427 users are online at the same time as a result of the release of DF2014.
August 20143 - grisha5 returns to the forum and a cult forms around the poster in
this thread. It was eventually locked by Toady due to a portion of the cult editing wikipedia articles to include grisha5.
February 201512 - Rage thread locked and topic is banned.
April 201527 - The
Bay 12 Games Patreon is created.
September 20159 - LordSlowpoke is permabanned after it is found that the website url that can be input into the forum profile had the url as a highly racist term. Some individuals left the forum for a time, including Gunner-chan, who locked the happy thread until derivatives wound up popping up.
February 20167 - The fourth
Hall of Legends thread is established by NAV.
May 2016 - GreatWyrmGold is finally surpassed by another poster, IamanElfCollaborator.
June 201628 - An effort to create a timeline of the Bay 12 Forums begins with this thread. Prior events listed upon this sheet are a result of forum archaeology by various members. Dates after are a result of adding new details as they come up or are posthumously considered as significant enough for an addition.