The oldest NUFC fans forum on the web

Like the club we dedicate this site to, Newcastle-Online.com is the result of an amalgamation between two Newcastle fan sites - Howaythetoon.com and Toon-chat.co.uk - which were both closed down in October 2004 for a breach of fixtures copyright law.

Both sites were large communities at the time with a combined membership of over 3,000 Newcastle fans prior to the merger and had existed in many previous incarnations throughout the years, namely as Nufc.nu and Toontastic.

All in all the history of N.O as we affectionately refer to this site as, dates back to 1996 in one form or another and is the oldest surviving Newcastle supporters forum on the web, and today, the largest gathering of NUFC fans outside of the actual match.

Not bad considering it started out as a newsgroup, kept going by a core group of like minded fans, some of whom can still be found today on the forum or as contributors to the main site.

With over 2,500 active forum members, a team of 10-15 contributors who write for the site and help maintain it as well as a readership of 30,000 plus visitors per day, we are the primary source of Toon news, views and discussion for Newcastle United supporters the world over. A global platform for Magpies to have their say on all things Black & White.

History of Newcastle-Online.com

The history of the site is quite sketchy but we understand it started out as a newsgroup first and then when the club discovered the web around 1996-97, they opened a forum of their own for fans which saw the newsgroup become obsolete, really.

The club though, eventually closed their official forum for whatever reason (probably legal reasons) and from that two forum’s were created by fans, for fans. Toontastic and Nufc.nu - but it was a site called ‘Comminicata’ that started it all off.

A forum that didn’t last long however, closing in 1999. Members of that forum who had joined it after the official one closed, then set up Nufc.nu while over the Internet browser, the finishing touches to Toontastic was being applied. The two springing up in between 2000 and 2001, respectively.

Nufc.nu had a turbulent life, forever getting hacked and having it’s bandwidth limited but ownership changed hands in 2003 and the forum quickly become a full site reporting on NUFC news and match reports as well as providing fans with a message board. In fact the site changed beyond all recognition and become ‘Howaythetoon.com’.

Toontastic also had a up and down existence, that too falling victim to hackers and bandwidth limitations. Like Nufc.nu Toontastic also went through some changes as well, becoming ‘Toon-Chat’.

After years of struggle, both sites were closed down in October 2004 however along with a host of other fansites, for publishing fixtures. But you can’t keep a good dog down as they say and after an e-mail between the two respective owners of Howaythetoon and Toon-Chat, it was decided that the two would merge.

And here we are today, bigger, better and stronger.

Our friends Toon Ale supplied us with the domain name ‘Newcastle-Online.com’ and also gave us some web space to get us up and running (for which we will forever be grateful) and while the merger hasn’t been easy nor without it’s complications, it was the best thing that could ever have happened to the two sites.

N.O has been a huge success, growing daily and we owe many people a lot of thanks, some whom are sadly no longer with us, some who have disappeared off the face of the earth and of course YOU LOT who have stuck by us and make this site what it is.

The spirit that has kept this site alive since the very beginning despite all the crap we have had to put up with over the years is immense and will make sure this site will always be around in one form or another for many years to game regardless of ownership.

Today we have no real problems, the site is hosted by a cracking set of lads, Toon supporters who have been an unbelievable help and we’ll be in a position soon to pay for it all and to spend some much needed money on the place. The only problems we have is those legal eagles who hover over our site like vultures, but we’re used to this now and they are but a few, we are thousands and thousands.

Stick around, we have many plans for the site which we think will go down well with the Black & White faithful.

Were you an original member of this site from the very beginning, of either Nufc.nu or Toontastic, perhaps even Communicata? If so we’d like to hear from you so drop us a line.