Can I just say...
KNEEL BEFORE ME, SON OF JOR-EL!!!
Ahem. Sorry, had to get that bit over with.
I "joined" the online tickling community in the late summer of 1999, slightly more than a year before Scott ever started the embryonic TMF.
The most prominent one of the sites of ye olde ticklinge timez that I remember was "Tom's Adult Tickling Site", run I think, by someone called Tom Hawkins. I remember it had a section with what looked like electronically produced magazine pages, showing articles and photographs of renfaires. Or to be more exact, the displays at renfaires in New Jersey put on by Kujman. To say I was hooked would be an understatement. It was hook, line, sinker, rod, shooting stick and copy of Angling Times.
The main attraction of that place, was the chat room, which meant us ticklephiles could actually interact with each other. It wasn't until I got here that it really took off though and even then it took me over six months or more to start using the boards. For ages I just used the chat room.
How was that Tom's site?
