Nischad Utbildning
Official anniversary site · by founder Rickard Eriksson
· Varberg

30 years since Stajl Plejs Community went online. Two million had a krypin.

It became LunarStorm, the world's first social media site. Travel through thirty years, rebuild your old krypin (your profile page) and hear the anthem Underbara LunarStorm again.

Watch the anniversary film

Miss LunarStorm? Rick has built Neenya, a new meeting place with krypins, guestbooks and stamping feet.

All research and production of this site was done with AI, directed by LunarStorm's founder Rick. How it was done (in Swedish) →

LunarStorm · Log in

Welcome tebax! What was your nickname on LunarStorm?

Put your nickname up on the wall and rebuild your old krypin. No password needed.

What were you called on LunarStorm?

The Nickname Wall

 

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Reveal what you were called, however embarrassing. Only the nickname is saved.

Rick reads every nickname before it appears.

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Rick reads everything before it appears. Do not write surnames or contact details, neither yours nor anyone else's.

Log in again 18 October 1996 > 18 October 2026 · 9 min 58 s

Thirty years in ten minutes, narrated by Rick in Swedish, with English subtitles. The voice is his own, AI-cloned and deadpan, and the music is RobJon's Marsipan and Underbara LunarStorm. The walk through Lunarcave is an AI reconstruction from photos taken in 2002.

How much of a LunarFjårtiz are you? Take the quiz ›››

The journey year by year

From the BBS in Varberg to LS8 and the nostalgia. Along the way you can rebuild your old krypin, sign Rick's guestbook, answer WZUP and test what you remember.

1974–1996

Prehistory

Before the web there were BBSes. You dialled up with a modem, listened to the screeching connection sound and hoped nobody in the family picked up the phone. Narrow and nerdy, but this is where the dream of a meeting place for everyone was born.

Behind the scenes: A fifteen-year-old in Varberg starts a BBS in 1989. Modems, per-minute call charges and 16 colours. The dream: to bring in the girls and all the non-nerds.

How we talked: BBSsysopringa upp (dial up)ANSI

Rick wrote in your guestbook

In fact, it was the limitations of the technology that fascinated me.

From: A classmate's Televerket modem
1989

A classmate's Televerket modem

Rickard, 15, watches the only PC owner in his class dial up a BBS. It is the communication, not the computer, that sticks.

Read more
  • The modem came from Televerket, the state telecom; you paid per minute (local, regional, national or international calls).
  • Arvika 2024: ”my dear mother found out a few times”, meaning the phone bill.
  • He came in through music: keyboards and synths demanded computer technology (Arvika 2024).
  • Phone bills to American BBSes could break the family budget. Once the bill came to SEK 11,000. His mother would sometimes lift the receiver to hear if the modem was screaming (Framtidslöftet).

Sources: Internetworld: Med Tradera och Lunarstorm i backspegeln · Aftonbladet: Här är familjen Lunarstorm · Arvika Näringslivscentrum: Vi omsatte 100 miljoner…

c. 1989

The paperboy who bought his first computer

Rickard cycled around Varberg selling the Gothenburg tabloid GT on Saturdays and Göteborgs-Posten (GP), the Gothenburg daily, on Sundays. The money became a computer and a modem.

Read more
  • The Swedish internet magazine Internetworld, 2007: earned enough for a computer and a modem by selling newspapers.

Sources: Internetworld, 23 February 2007

1989

The first BBS

At 15, Rickard starts his first BBS in Varberg. People dial in to him, and that is the beginning of everything.

Read more
  • BBS = dial-up electronic bulletin board, a bit like teletext: ”no graphics and only 16 colours”.
  • The audience: computer nerds talking ”programming and Star Trek”.
  • The dream: to bring in ”the non-nerdy lads, and above all the girls”.
  • The logic behind running your own BBS: the callers were the ones who paid for the call (Framtidslöftet p. 17).

Sources: Internetstiftelsen: Svenska internetpionjärer · Internetmuseum: Rickard Eriksson startar communityt Lunarstorm · HN fact box (”1989: Rickard Eriksson startar sin första BBS”)

11 Oct 1994

Yipee ka ye kah: Rick's tracker song from 1994

Two years before Stajl Plejs, Rick makes music in the demoscene under the name Dwayne Wayne. The song Yipee ka ye kah is an eight-channel tracker module, made for the group Eclectic Underground on a stormy night, 11 October 1994.

Yipee ka ye kah (Dwayne Wayne, 1994), played from the original module
Read more
  • A module is a song file in which the sounds themselves, the samples, are stored together with the notes. It is played by a tracker program, and the whole song takes up just 317 kilobytes.
  • The song was made on a 486 without a hard drive, and the sound came out of a Covox: a simple sound adapter for the printer port, in mono.
  • As in many modules of the era, there is a greeting in the sample names: ”eclectic presents”, ”produced by dwayne wayne-ecl” and ”-copyright 1994-”.
  • The greetings go to Terrorizer of Reflex, Amigaspirit of Midgard, Rude Axe and Gretzky of Eclectic, Scott McPhearson of DTE, Slobo n Whale ”and my cat Sarah”.
  • The song was released with a FILE_ID.DIZ, the description file shown when you downloaded from a BBS: ”Produced by DWAYNE WAYNE For ECLECTiC underground”.

Sources: The original module YIPEEKA.MOD (8 channels, 317 kB)

Meanwhile in real life

While we sat at the computer, this happened. Pick a year.

The web
Gadgets
Music
At the cinema
On TV
Celebrities
Sweden
The world
What did it cost?
New words
More from 1974–1996 (5)
  1. Rickard Eriksson is born in Varberg. ”Young Ricky struck Sweden in 1974.” He was 22 when Stajl Plejs Community started and 25 when the server burned.
  2. RaLab, Rickard's own BBS software. Rickard developed BBS software called RaLab (RemoteAccess Laboratory) in Turbo Pascal.
  3. Military service: community radio, a newspaper and the Army's BBS. The BBS shuts down when Rickard does his national service. As a platoon leader in Halmstad he starts ”the Armed Forces' first BBS for PR”.
  4. First time on the web, at Halmstad City Library. During his military service Rickard surfs in Netscape for the first time. Verdict: boring, complicated, but you could communicate.
  5. IRC server and Java chat on stajl.ml.org. Rickard installs an IRC server with a Java client. The idea: move the BBS meeting place to the ”cool new Internet”.
1996–1999

Stajl Plejs Community

You logged in as a sötnos (sweetie) in a Java chat and got a krypin with your age, town and interests. The feet stamped when someone wrote in your guestbook. Sometimes you queued for half an hour to get in, and you waited anyway. In summer 1998 the Stajlare started meeting IRL.

Behind the scenes: 18 October 1996: a Java chat with profiles on a borrowed server in the Yellow Villa (Gula villan). Non-profit, a one-man band, sötnosar (sweeties) and a 30-minute login queue.

How we talked: Stajlare (Stajl members)stammisar (regulars)sötnosar (sweeties)StajlFlickor/StajlPojkar (Stajl girls/boys)StajlMejlDiskus

Rick wrote in your guestbook

Stajl Plejs Community was born in the Yellow Villa, then facing demolition, in the middle of the Matex car park (now Willys). The Yellow Villa hadn't been renovated since the 70s, so brown and orange dominated, along with tartan wall-to-wall carpets.

From: The Yellow Villa (Gula villan) in the Matex car park
Rickard in the Yellow Villa (file date 30 November 1999), the only known photo
c. 1996

The Yellow Villa (Gula villan) in the Matex car park

IntraSystems' office: a yellow villa facing demolition in the middle of the Matex supermarket car park (now Willys). Unrenovated since the 70s.

Read more
  • The server stood in a wardrobe, the ”server room”, in reality ”a cubbyhole with poor ventilation”.
  • Rickard lived in a cramped one-room flat on Strandgatan; he worked at the web agency IntraSystems.
  • Hallands Nyheter (HN), the local paper in Varberg's region, 2016: ”Me and a bunch of lads worked there at a development company for Ljud och bildskolan.”
  • The Swedish internet magazine Internetworld, 2000: after military service he took Ljud & Bildskolan's internet course and was hired by the school's newly started development company.

Sources: HN: Lunarstorm var 2000-talets rockmusik · Hallandsposten: Lunarstorm var 2000-talets jazzmusik

Stajl Plejs logo: white SP monogram in a black circle on orange
18 Oct 1996

Stajl Plejs Community launches

Rickard, 22, starts Stajl Plejs Community in Varberg: a web chat with profiles. The world's first social medium on the web.

Read more
  • A non-profit hobby project in the evenings: ”I had no commercial ideas whatsoever”.
  • The technology: JavaChat/IRC, Windows NT; the domain later became stajl.com.
  • The name from 1996 to 1999: Stajl Plejs Community (with a space). Not a BBS.
  • The server was at IntraSystems in the Yellow Villa (Gula villan); Rickard lived on Strandgatan.
  • The oldest surviving member account dates from 5 November 1996; 15,589 accounts were registered up to January 1999 (stajlusers.xls).
  • The krypin was the very first feature after the IRC chat.

Sources: Internetstiftelsen 2014 · GP/Hallandsposten: Så blev Sverige först i världen på internetcommunitys

2 Nov 1996

”The blue epoch”, the first designed version

The diary: tonight the first version of Stajl Plejs, ”the blue epoch”, is released on a discarded machine in IntraSystems' wardrobe.

Read more
  • Interpretation: the chat started on 18 October; the first graphical web version came on 2 November.
  • Three epochs: blue (1996), green (Stajl’98), apricot blue-green (Stajl’99).
1996

Krypin: no more ”who are you and where are you from?”

The Krypin profile standardises the first questions: age, town, interests. Everyone gets the same structure, easy to check out.

Read more
  • The purpose: to ”not have to ask every time; who are you and where are you from”.
  • Visiting someone's profile was called ”krypa in” (crawling in).
  • The krypin decorators learned HTML ”without realising they were learning HTML” (the prologue).
  • The podcast 2016: ”why couldn't people have a profile instead that quickly explains this? … and then the live chat was more or less forgotten.”
  • Rickard 2024: the profile ”formalised” the questions everyone asked in the chat (age, town, hobbies) so you could see whether someone was an interesting friend.

Sources: Arvika Näringslivscentrum 2024 · Internetmuseum: Pyntade krypin gör svenskarna till HTML-proffs · Internetmuseum-podden #7: Rickard Eriksson och Andreas Harnemo · Din bästa kollega #12: AI på jobbet med Rickard Eriksson

1996

Half girls already in 1996

Stajl Plejs attracts girls from the start. The gender split is roughly 50/50, unique on the net in 1996.

Read more
  • Stajl Plejs was deliberately built with features for women (the Jurassic LunarStorm document).
  • Mitt i 2016: the strategy was to attract the girls first, and the boys would follow.
  • The IT publisher IDG, September 1999: 43 % girls.
  • Rickard in Mitt i 2016: ”I created an environment that I wanted myself, a safe place you could say, which was also deliberately girly. My strategy was that if I managed to attract the girls, the boys would come too.”

Sources: HN: När Lunarstorm var internet · SvD, 30 August 2010

c. 1997

The guestbook and the stomping feet

The guestbook becomes the semi-public way to talk. The notification icon with the stomping feet makes hearts pound.

Read more
  • ”The downside of a chat conversation is that it happens right now.” The guestbook solved that.
  • Semi-public: your classmates could read what people wrote to each other (Arvika 2024).
  • 2002: ten guestbook posts per second (the Swedish internet magazine Internetworld). 2004: 53 per second (the front page).

Sources: Internetmuseum: Lunarstorm blir ett av världens första webbcommunity · Arvika 2024 · Din bästa kollega #12: AI på jobbet med Rickard Eriksson

SG’98 in Varberg (258 photos)
The SG98 web gallery
8 Aug 1998

Stajl Plejs Gathering (SG’98)

The big members' meetup SG’98, with photo series from Varberg and Stockholm. The photographers were members themselves.

Read more
  • Over 350 photos in the SG98 folders (Varberg 258, Stockholm 101).
  • The front page in January 1999 links to ”Stajl Gathering’98”.

With: Jonny ”TheQ” Johansson

Sources: stajl.com, 25 January 1999

Bjarne sketches from the Stajl days
25 Jan 1999

Bjarne is introduced: ”kjams everyone”

Stajl is rebuilt, everyone registers again and the mascot Bjarne appears: ”an apricot-coloured little blob”.

Read more
  • ”Stajl Plejs is run entirely as a non-profit, which means nobody is making loads of dosh from you surfing here.”
  • StajlRadio broadcasts around the clock, live by the users on Saturday evenings.
  • Bjarne: an 8-year-old tadpole figure from Krokom; his mates are called Fuffe, Barkis and Disco (FAQ).
  • Lindstedt (Framtidslöftet 2025): Bjarne is ”a naively designed tadpole figure drawn by Eriksson himself”.

Sources: stajl.com, 25 January 1999 · lunarstorm.nu/faq (2016)

Meanwhile in real life

While we sat at the computer, this happened. Pick a year.

The web
Gadgets
Music
At the cinema
On TV
Celebrities
Sweden
The world
What did it cost?
New words
More from 1996–1999 (23)
  1. The customer's giant server that never arrived. Rickard talks a customer into buying an oversized server for a ”small intranet”. Stajl Plejs moves into it.
  2. The chat bomb: Stajl's first marketing. If the chat was empty, there was a button that posted a tempting line in other web chats around Sweden: absolutely do not click here. People clicked.
  3. Windows NT ”freaks out”. Stajl runs on Windows NT, IIS and ASP. When the traffic grows, NT freaks out, and there is no money for expensive servers.
  4. The green epoch: Stajl’98. A new design: ”button green, pixelly and full of personality”. The first beloved Stajl look.
  5. The oldest screenshot + StajlRadio. The oldest dated image of Stajl Plejs Community. At the same time StajlRadio starts, with a chart, Spanarn and wzup.
  6. StajlFika: the members meet IRL. One of the first physical meetups: Stajl members have fika (coffee and cake) together. 41 photos survive.
  7. Stajl Plejs moves to stajl.com. The oldest Wayback snapshot: stajlplejs.com announces ”Stajl Plejs har bytt adress till http://Stajl.com” (Stajl Plejs has changed address).
  8. ”Your strawberry on the navel” *schwoosch*. Stajl.com promises: ”In 14 days the new superfast Stajl Plejs premieres! … *schwoosch*”. The Lunar tone is born.
  9. The apricot blue-green epoch: Stajl’99. A new colour scheme in apricot, blue and green: ”a place that was entirely our own”.
  10. ”Marsipan”, the official Stajl song. Robert Jonsson composes and sings ”Marsipan” (Marzipan), Stajl Plejs Community's own song. It was sent with e-cards.
  11. Thirty minutes to log in. The server can't cope. Logging in takes up to half an hour, and people wait anyway, to write ”heeey what u doing?? :D:D”.
  12. The crossroads: shut down or become a company. The pressure gets too great for a one-man band. Rickard asks his employer to go all in, and LunarWorks AB is founded.
  13. StajlBot and the chatbot in the IRC chat. The IRC chat had StajlBot, which you could give commands, for example to leave a message for someone who wasn't logged in. There was also a chatbot that learned from everything the members wrote to it.
  14. StajlRadio: jingles and Saturday live shows. The web radio StajlRadio gets jingles in ”hello”, jazz and metal versions, produced by Robert Jonsson.
  15. Iceebear and HobbeN find each other on Stajl. On 13 May 1999 Iceebear and HobbeN meet in the community. Seventeen days later he is on the train to Borås, and at New Year they get engaged. The first love story from the site in the press.
  16. IRL’99 in Tvååker, ”Sweden's biggest chat meetup”. The members' meetup IRL’99 gathers the Stajl gang in Tvååker outside Varberg, with a banner, sponsors and a memorial page.
  17. The server that burned in the Yellow Villa. August heat, no AC. The only server, holding the love lives of 43,000 teenagers, is glowing. Rickard pulls the plug.
  18. Stajl Plejs in numbers: 184,000 registered. August 1999: 17 million hits, 250,000 sessions, 29,000 active members and 184,000 registered since the start.
  19. IDG: ”Stajl Plejs ska bli internationell mötesplats” (will become an international meeting place). The plan goes public in an article from the IT publisher IDG: Stajl will be rebuilt as LunarStorm by New Year, with new servers, its own ICQ client, English and 288 countries.
  20. The logo and the plan for the stroke of midnight. The LunarStorm logo is drawn and the presentation written: LunarStorm.com|munity launches at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve 1999.
  21. ”On New Year's Eve Stajl changes its name”. Stajl.com for regulars: ”33,438 regulars out of a total of 266,091 registered sweeties since Nov’96”. The name change is announced.
  22. När det blåser på månen: a song for the name change. Robert Jonsson writes ”När det blåser på månen” (When the wind blows on the moon) ahead of the LunarStorm launch at the turn of the millennium 1999/2000. A song about LunarStorm as a city of its own on the net, where Bjarne is king.
  23. Christmas Day: Rickard's FAQ for the Stajl members. Rickard answers the members about the switch: why the name, that everything stays free ”just like Stajl” and that Diskus is coming back.

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Rick's guestbook

A hug, a greeting or just a hi, remember me? Write in my guestbook just like back then. I read every post before it appears here.

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2000–2001

LunarStorm is born

On New Year's night 2000 Stajl became LunarStorm, and Bjarne kjammed (hugged) everyone. You wrote *kjamiz*, had TÖS or GRABB in your profile and answered WZUP. Underbara LunarStorm was on repeat, LunarTour came to town and soon half the class had a krypin.

Behind the scenes: At the stroke of midnight 1999/2000, Stajl Plejs Community becomes LunarStorm. A launch party, Bjarne, all cosy and huggy. From 27,000 to 950,000 members in just under two years.

How we talked: *kjamiz*fiffa å moffaLunare/LunarStormare (LunarStorm members)gosig (cuddly)supergosig (super cuddly)TÖS/GRABB (girl/boy)

Rick wrote in your guestbook

I sat there on my own and pressed the button at twelve o'clock. It was the most boring and at the same time the most fun New Year's Eve of my life.

From: LunarStorm is born at the stroke of midnight
The ”Lunarstorm Radio” player, a Winamp-like skin
c. 2000

”Underbara LunarStorm” and the members' remixes

Robert Jonsson's acoustic tribute becomes LunarStorm's anthem. The members make dozens of remixes: dance, garage, acid.

Read more
  • Composer and singer: Robert Jonsson.
  • 13 unique recordings in the archive: XclaX (Claes Rosén), Moorisha, DJ Payami, Clubmaster7, Rkay, Beatforce and others.
  • Rally-Lasse, the character from the comedy show Rally on Sveriges Radio P3, the national youth channel, features on the song. Released on streaming services on 25 February 2025 (ROJO Records).

With: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson, Medlemmarnas remixare

LunarStorm in 2000 (the year series)
Aftonbladet IT, 7 February 2000: ”Recently renamed from Stajl to Lunarstorm community”
1 Jan 2000

LunarStorm is born at the stroke of midnight

While the world fears the millennium bug, Rickard presses the button. Stajl Plejs Community becomes LunarStorm, and a company.

Read more
  • ”While others shut down their computer systems for fear of the millennium bug, I sat there on New Year's Eve and pressed the button for the new Stajl.”
  • LunarWorks takes over operations on 1 January 2000. Test version from New Year, official premiere on 5 May 2000.
  • The first version was in English: ”LUNARSTORM: AHEAD OF YOU” (Aftonbladet IT, from Sweden's biggest tabloid, and the Swedish design magazine Cap & Design, 2000).
  • stajl.com redirects to LunarStorm (Wayback, 1 March 2000).
  • The English front page: ”From Day One of 2000, 40,000 members from LunarStorm’s predecessor, Stajl Plejs Community, are on the scene!” (Copyright 1996-2000 Intrasystem Interactive AB).
  • Rickard 2024: the millennium bug was ”something the consulting industry invented”, so he launched the new, untested system when everyone else was shutting theirs down.

Sources: HN: När Lunarstorm var internet · lunarstorm.com, 17 January 2000 · Din bästa kollega #12: AI på jobbet med Rickard Eriksson

The launch party, 5 May 2000 (219 photos)
HN week 19 2000, p. 9 (original scan)
5 May 2000

The launch party at Oscars in Varberg

Official premiere. Launch party at Oscars with a live band and Kee Marcello of Europe on stage. LunarStorm has almost 100,000 members.

Read more
  • The live band played ”När det blåser på månen”, Robert Jonsson's song for the launch, with Kee Marcello of Europe on the guitar solo.
  • Hallands Nyheter (HN), the local paper in Varberg's region, 2000: ”Now it's official. Varberg's internet company LunarWorks, with the community LunarStorm, is in the game.”
  • Of the 1,000 who applied, 60 members got in, plus the staff. After 11 pm the doors were opened.
  • Iceebear and HobbeN, who met on Stajl on 13 May 1999, were there as a newly engaged couple: ”Kärlek på nätet” (Love on the net).
  • 219 photos: a LunarStorm banner on stage, a packed dance floor, staff in LunarStorm shirts.
  • The LunarStorm member RobJon (Robert Jonsson) sang. Guests came all the way from Kiruna, and FreakyJohnsson met his chat friend for the first time after a year and a half.

With: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson, Kee Marcello

RickFest, 22 July 2000 (131 photos)
1 July 2000

LunarTour rolls out across the country

The summer tour LunarTour visits bars and festivals (Värnamo, Saturday 1 July) with live bands and LunarStorm shirts.

Read more
  • The same summer: Streetball in Oskarshamn (45 photos) and RickFest on 22 July (131 photos).
  • TV4 Halland, local news from TV4, Sweden's largest commercial channel, 20 July 2000: ”IT-staden Varberg” (Varberg, the IT town). LunarWorks has international ambitions.
  • Klick!, 31 July 2000: ”SWEDEN'S PHATTEST COMMUNITY … the gang behind the site have a habit of throwing all sorts of parties.”

With: Kjell ”Mozzungi” Sallén

Sources: lunarstorm.com, 19 October 2000 (LunarTour mentioned)

The servers for LunarStorm 3.0 (9 August 2000)
SvD, 21 August 2000: ”I Sveriges femte största samhälle bor bara unga” (Only young people live in Sweden's fifth largest community)
20 Aug 2000

LunarStorm 3.0 and the address lunarstorm.se

”*beep* The new LunarStorm 3.0 is here!” A new server park, a new menu system, a new address and Bjarne who ”fiffar å moffar”.

Read more
  • Server photos from 9 August 2000.
  • Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), a national daily newspaper, 21 August 2000: 215,000 registered, ”Sweden's fifth largest community”; on average five members in every upper secondary class.
  • SvD: a new share issue of SEK 24 million in the spring; CEO Kjell Sallén: ”This isn't our community, it's the young people's.”
  • The front page, August 2000: ”The site is created by the lovely community phreaks Rick, lumbus, TheQ, Jay, steffoo, bornie, Fidden, EvaE, Skin and … Bjarne.”

With: Kjell ”Mozzungi” Sallén

The Bjarne doll in a Santa hat
Dec 2000

Bjarne is going to sing for the reindeer

Ahead of Christmas 2000, the front-page banner explains that Bjarne has to sleep through breakfast, lunch and dinner. He has promised to go with a big fat man with a white beard and sing for the reindeer.

Read more
  • The man was going to run ”errands in a VERY large number of places”, and Bjarne was not to be woken.
  • The text was written by EvaE and replaced a banner saying the site would be taken down on Friday 22 December.
  • The month before, a hardware swap was explained by Bjarne having to operate ”with a magnifying glass, tweezers, a screwdriver and curling tongs”.

With: EvaE

The Bjarne cuddly toy as Lucia
Rock Bjarne
10 Dec 2000

The Bjarne doll goes Lucia: Bjarne & Fuffe sing Stilla natt

Bjarne exists as a cuddly toy. In December 2000 the doll is photographed as Lucia and as Santa, and Bjarne & Fuffe record ”Stilla natt” (Silent Night).

Bjarne plays Stilla natt
Read more
  • A presentation: ”350,000 young people dig a dopey, good-natured character who looks like he was drawn by a three-year-old.”
  • The audio file ”Stilla natt, heliga natt” is dated 10 December 2000.
  • At the office's mulled wine and Lucia party on 14 December 2000, the finance officer asked who would be Lucia. Rickard: ”BJARNE OF COURSE!!!”
  • A member who played the trumpet himself protested in all seriousness against the ”cheating” in Bjarne an' Fuffe's Stilla natt.
The front page, January 2001
The server build ahead of 4.0 (61 photos)
4.0 sketches and icons
28 Jan 2001

LunarStorm 4.0: closed for a week, then everything new

After a week's closure, 4.0 opens in stages on 27 and 28 January 2001; the members wait on IRC. The CEO: ”y'all are bloody brilliant”.

Read more
  • Diary, the Graffiti Wall (Klotterplanket) and Spana already existed in 3.0. New in 2001: VÅJS (20 March), VRÅL (2 July) and MobbeGodis (10 October).
  • The survey: ”Yes, I want to see who has visited my Krypin” or ”No, because I want to check out Krypins anonymously”.
  • Friend icons: Sweet-smelling, Heart friend, Bjarne look-alike, Kissy cucumber, Snobby bastard, Wine guzzler, Old ex.
  • The site was down for almost 18 % of January 2001; the weekly statistics have a dip in week 4: ”Version change”.
  • 61 server photos from the build on 24 January 2001.

With: Jay Svensson, Andreas ”lumbus” Ödman, Jonny ”TheQ” Johansson, Kjell ”Mozzungi” Sallén, KSg Systems

The VÅJS campaign with Siemens on the front page
20 March 2001

VÅJS, with the voice of Tuva Novotny

The voice feature VÅJS goes live: your own sound clips via a premium-rate number. The voice on the answering message is Tuva Novotny. The same evening Rickard is live on Wimans on the youth music channel ZTV.

Read more
  • The launch was pushed from 6 February to 13 February and then to 20 March because the telecoms supplier was not ready.
  • Tuva Novotny was recorded on 8 March 2001.
  • VÅJSPLANKET sat under TJÖT, next to the Graffiti Wall (Klotterplanket). The launch was run together with a Siemens campaign.

With: Reid Zoller, Leon ”DonLeon” Hafström, Jonny ”TheQ” Johansson, Johan Forsberg, Tuva Novotny

The LunarMobil photo shoot, 1 June 2001
LunarMobil logos (orange/blue)
1 June 2001

The LunarMobil photo shoot

A professional photo shoot for the mobile venture: blue LunarStorm jumper and a Nokia phone. 73 pictures from a Canon EOS D30.

Read more
  • Mobile report, March 2002: 105,147 responses; Nokia was by far the first choice.

From 0 to 1.3 million

Number of members, according to the company's own figures and Rickard's emails to the staff.

0350,000700,0001.05 m1.4 m199719992001200320052007Stajl Plejs launchesLunarStorm is bornOne million accounts1.3 million

Meanwhile in real life

While we sat at the computer, this happened. Pick a year.

The web
Gadgets
Music
At the cinema
On TV
Celebrities
Sweden
The world
What did it cost?
New words
More from 2000–2001 (55)
  1. The office in the old customs house by the harbour. LunarWorks moves into the old customs house (Tullhuset) in Varberg harbour: a dog shower left over from Swedish Customs, red busy lights by the doors and the sea outside.
  2. Capital in the middle of the dotcom crash. The media companies say no. Instead a grocer in Varberg, a Norwegian shipowner, a London property man and a scout association in Taiwan invest.
  3. Hallands Nyheter: ”We will be the biggest in the world in our field”. Hallands Nyheter (HN), the local paper in Varberg's region: the goal is five million users in two years. LunarStorm is growing by 1,400 members a day, even before the premiere.
  4. The soul of the brand: the school yearbook, fluffocracy, pick-up joint. The Advisory Board votes for LunarStorm's three core words. The core: ”Relationships on my terms”. A Bjarne Happy Meal is proposed.
  5. 91,728 users, up from 26,056 at New Year. The weekly statistics: 26,056 members in week 1, 91,728 on 15 May. 10,998 new ones in the last week alone.
  6. The first wave of press: ”a super cosy community”. In spring and summer 2000 Göteborgs-Posten (GP), the Gothenburg daily, writes about LunarStorm, as do the Swedish design magazine Cap & Design, IT-Extra, the Swedish internet magazine Internetworld and Nollett. GP: ”A super cosy community”.
  7. ”The lovely community phreaks”: the crew takes shape. The front page in 2000 spells out who builds the site: Rick, lumbus, Jay, TheQ, Rude, Ken, bornie, steffoo, EvaE and more. Several of them were Stajl members.
  8. 160,000 members and 17 % of all 16 to 19-year-olds. The fact sheet: 160,000 members, over 1,000 new ones a day. Stajl.com is called ”the first web-based community in the Nordics”.
  9. Metro: ”2000-talets ungdomsgårdar” (the youth clubs of the 2000s). The free daily Metro: LunarStorm, Skunk and Dobedo are the youth clubs of the 2000s. LunarStorm is the site where Swedes stay the longest.
  10. ”People don't want to be anonymous”. Internetguiden on chatting as a way of socialising. Rickard: at least one LunarStorm member in every Swedish upper secondary class.
  11. Aftonbladet: ”Gulligt och gosigt på internet” (cute and cuddly on the internet). In Aftonbladet (AB), Sweden's biggest tabloid: from 35,000 to 156,000 members from March to June (+450 %). Rickard: the site is huggable and safe, and the world abroad awaits.
  12. Four years: ”Sweden's cuddliest online meeting place”. Exactly four years after the start, lunarstorm.se is captured for the first time: Krypin, guestbook, LunarMejl, SMS. Signed *kjamiz*.
  13. Sweden's biggest community, overtaking Skunk. MMXI, November 2000: LunarStorm 274,000 unique visitors against Spray's Skunk at 223,000. The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet wants to make a LunarStorm Norway.
  14. ”LunarStorms Himla Interna Nyhetstjafs” (LunarStorm's Awfully Internal News Natter). Rickard starts sending an internal newsletter to ”17 lovely sweeties”, the entire staff. Version 4.0 is postponed and work begins on LunarPejl.
  15. The Aspiro deal: 5 million in the middle of the crash. The mobile company Aspiro signs a deal worth SEK 5 million with LunarWorks for mobile services and webmail and becomes a part owner. The situation is ”precarious”.
  16. Targeted advertising ten years before Facebook. Advertisers can choose age, gender, town and interests and get exactly the right reach. A standard product at LunarStorm in 2001.
  17. The nicknames, the random generator and the status points. Was your nickname taken? The random generator came up with one. And everything you did earned status points, which nobody wanted to lose.
  18. Mr & Miss LunarStorm 2000. The year's most loyal LunarStorm members are crowned ”with fireworks and fence tossing”. Mr LunarStorm is Skumpa P25 from Stockholm, logged in 355 days. Miss LunarStorm is Puzzis F18 from Håbo, 348 days.
  19. LunarTröjan: 450 shirts in twelve hours. At 8 pm LunarTröjan (the Lunar shirt) goes on sale. Twelve hours later 450 shirts have been sold for SEK 100,000. After five days, over a thousand.
  20. Draw Bjarne in the steamed-up window. When LunarStorm closes for a week for version 4.0, the members get a list of things to do in the meantime. Photograph a yawning hamster and claim it is a sabre-toothed tiger. Build a castle out of semolina porridge.
  21. The little annual review: ”a whole continent”. Rickard sums up LunarStorm's first year: 520,000 members, some fifty media features and almost four logins a second, around the clock.
  22. 600,000 members, half of all 14 to 24-year-olds. LunarWorks: 600,000 registered, over 50 % of 14 to 24-year-olds and 2,800 new ones a day. But almost no revenue.
  23. 48,585 hearts in one day. The Valentine's Day cards are posted the afternoon before. In one day the LunarStorm members send 48,585 hearts, on top of the cards in the categories Kär (In love), Mysgos (Cuddly) and Vän (Friend).
  24. LunarStorm contacts the National Criminal Police itself. CEO Kjell Sallén contacts Rikskriminalen (the National Criminal Police) on his own initiative about hijacked accounts, harassment and illegal material. It is the start of a long collaboration on safety.
  25. 190,000 members against racism. LunarStorm asks its members, and 75% of the 6,050 who answer want to work actively against racists and Nazis. A word filter is built.
  26. Lunarcave, the cave beneath Societetshuset. The developers move down into “the Lunar Cave” in the basement of Societetshuset: 13 workstations. Management and support stay in Tullhuset.
  27. Pussgurka, Snobbjävel and Vinpimplare (Kissy Cucumber, Damn Snob and Wine Sipper). Twenty icons to pin on a friend: Sweet-smelling, Square, Cooling, Babe, Biker, Party pal, Film freak, Drinking buddy, Heart friend, Nerd, Artsy, Bjarne look-alike, Silly fave, Email pal, Kissy Cucumber, Neighbour, Damn Snob, Wine Sipper and Old Ex.
  28. April Fool: the internet tax. The front-page ticker claims that all surfing will be taxed from 20 June and that a family of four will pay SEK 300 to 900 more a month. All of it made up.
  29. SPÄM #1: the members’ magazine in your inbox. The first issue of the SPÄM member newsletter goes out to 510,000 LunarStorm members: a funny-face contest, LunarMobil and a sneak peek at LunarPejl. Issue 2 is opened by 359,811.
  30. Internet guru Howard Rheingold meets LunarStorm. Howard Rheingold (The Virtual Community) meets the founders of LunarWorks in Stockholm (“VERY interesting!”) and then interviews LunarMobil users.
  31. “Remember the SuperStajlare?”: the seed of PRO. Rickard and CEO Kjell Sallén sketch a paid membership for dedicated LunarStorm members: more status, a fast lane and a stamp of authenticity. The model: the SuperStajlare of the Stajl days.
  32. From 71st place to 4th. The Swedish internet magazine Internetworld’s Top 100: LunarStorm is Sweden’s fourth best site, after Pricerunner, Aftonbladet (Sweden’s biggest tabloid) and Spray, and “by far the best community site”.
  33. LunarTour 2001: from Visby to Malmö. The summer tour visits Visby, Pite Havsbad, Gothia Cup, Storsjöyran, Kungsträdgården and Malmöfestivalen, partly together with the Swedish Cancer Society’s SolaSakta.
  34. LunarMobil and the VRÅL prepaid card. Its own mobile operator on Europolitan’s network: a SEK 295 starter pack with SMS services linked to the site. It went so-so.
  35. The time zone cheat. A tip does the rounds: change time zone in your settings around midnight, update your krypin again and get the day’s status points one more time. Once for every time zone where the clock strikes twelve.
  36. IRL’01 at Karlstorp campsite. Support “kidnaps” Karlstorp campsite in Halmstad. 192 LunarStorm members from all over the country meet IRL, that is, in real life.
  37. Krypin becomes hule. Ahead of the launch in Denmark, LunarStorm is translated into Danish. The krypin becomes hule, Tjöt becomes Sniksnak and Spana becomes Flirt og fjas. Anyone who has forgotten their password is greeted with “Har hunden spist dit kodeord? Fortvivl ikke!”
  38. Competitors at the same table. Rickard and Kjell Sallén sit down with Skunk, Humla, the police, BRIS and Save the Children when the BUSIT network for children’s safety online is formed.
  39. LunarMarknad opens in Stockholm. Vilhelm Schottenius builds up the sales department in Stockholm. The job ad is sent out, targeted, to LunarStorm members aged 20 to 30.
  40. The servers move to Stockholm. Over one weekend in September, the entire server park moves from KSg Systems’ data hall in Gothenburg to Stockholm. Sunday afternoon: “Full speed.”
  41. lunarstorm.dk launches. The licence to Tele Danmark (TDC) is announced to the press in early September. On 17 September lunarstorm.dk opens, with a campaign in the Danish Big Brother house.
  42. DigDis and WZUP: young people have their say. With the research company Cint, LunarStorm builds the opinion forum DigDis. The WZUP questions become a PR tool: 75,742 answers about the tabloids.
  43. Bjarne’s own krypin. The mascot has a krypin of his own. In autumn 2001 it has 22,532 visits, 1,710 guestbook entries, 819 LunarMail messages and 2,708 friend requests.
  44. The coffee maker on the web. brother builds a web page showing the coffee maker’s status in real time, so nobody has to walk to the kitchen in vain.
  45. Three times bigger than everyone else. October 2001: 619,173 unique visitors and 1 hr 39 min per person. Skunk has 80,798, Humla 34,235.
  46. MobbeGodis: logos and ringtones. LunarStorm starts selling mobile logos and ringtones with Cellus. SEK 100,000 in the first month, and a Halloween special doubles the revenue in a single day.
  47. LunarStorm on Aktuellt: 1.1 million viewers. SVT Aktuellt, the main news programme on Swedish public television, runs a report on LunarStorm in front of more than 1.1 million viewers. Also SVT’s regional news Västnytt and the children’s news programme Lilla Aktuellt in autumn 2001.
  48. LunarStorm USA, a licence across the Atlantic. LunarWorks grants LunarStorm USA, LLC in New Jersey an exclusive licence to run LunarStorm in the USA. What happened next is not clear from the sources.
  49. The crew jackets: nicknames on the chest. LunarCrew orders jackets with LUNARSTORM on the back and sleeve and their Lunar nickname by the breast pocket, some 25 of them in Varberg and Stockholm.
  50. WZUP: Nokia, 69 per cent. Which mobile would you most like to have? 87,488 LunarStorm members answer. Nokia gets 69 per cent, Ericsson 17, Siemens 5 and Sony 3.
  51. Who is Jürgen?. Thousands of LunarStorm members get guestbook entries from someone called Jürgen. You can’t reply, can’t block him and can’t find him. Support is drowning in questions.
  52. The Advent calendar with your own Santas. In December 2001 the Advent calendar shows, every day, Santas the members have built themselves in Tomtelyzern, with links to their creators’ krypins.
  53. A new board, and Hans Eriksson becomes CFO. Hans Eriksson moves from the board to the job of CFO. The AGM elects Gunnar Mårtensson as chair, with Peter Åsberg (Coca-Cola) among others.
  54. Christmas wish 2001: a new computer. What would you most like for Christmas? 62,838 answer. A new computer wins with 19 per cent, ahead of a mobile phone (17) and nothing electronic at all (15).
  55. “Full”. The site is so sluggish that a cap is introduced: when too many people are logged in, the rest are told “full”. The same evening the staff have their Christmas party.

Remember what they meant? Guess, then flip the card.

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Stajl Plejs & LunarStorm

Before Stajl Plejs

Two years before Stajl Plejs, Rick made music in the demoscene under the name Dwayne Wayne.

  1. Yipee ka ye kahDwayne Wayne (Rick) · 1994
    Length 2:10
    Credits

    An eight-channel tracker module, made on a stormy night on 11 October 1994 on a 486 with no hard drive.

    • Music: Rickard ”Dwayne Wayne” Eriksson
    • For the demo group Eclectic Underground

Stajl Plejs

  1. StajlRadio-jingelRobert ”RobJon” Jonsson · ca 1999
    Length 0:15
    Credits

    StajlRadio broadcast Saturday live shows from the members.

    • Produced by Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson
  2. MarsipanRobert ”RobJon” Jonsson · 1999
    Length 3:53
    Credits

    The official Stajl song. You could send it along with the Stajl postcards.

    • Music and vocals: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson

LunarStorm

  1. När det blåser på månenRobert ”RobJon” Jonsson · 1999
    Length 3:40
    Credits

    Written for the launch of LunarStorm at the turn of the millennium 1999/2000. Played live at the launch party at Oscars on 5 May 2000, with Kee Marcello from Europe on the guitar solo.

    • Written by Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson
  2. Underbara LunarStormRobert ”RobJon” Jonsson feat. Rally-Lasse · 2000 · on Spotify
    Length 4:09
    Credits

    LunarStorm's anthem and the starting point for the members' remix contest in summer 2000. It plays via Spotify, so Robert Jonsson gets paid when you listen.

    • Music, vocals and guitar: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson
    • Intro and choir leader: Rally-Lasse
    • Synth: Anders Kvarna
    • Choir: some fifty LunarStormers
    • Producer: popedh, Maestro Studios

    Listen on Spotify

The remix contest, summer 2000

Just over fifteen members got the song's tracks on a CD-ROM. Nobody got paid. Here they get their credz.

  1. Underbara LunarStorm (dance-remix)Clubmaster7 · 2000
    Length 3:32
    Credits
    • Remix: Clubmaster7 (Fritte_CM7 & DreamJay)
    • Music: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson
  2. Underbara LunarStorm RMXXclaX · 2000
    Length 4:00
    Credits
    • Remix: XclaX (Claes Rosén)
    • Music: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson
  3. Underbara LunarStorm (short dance rmx)Moorisha · 2000
    Length 3:30
    Credits
    • Remix: Moorisha
    • Music: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson
  4. Underbara LunarStorm (Remix)DJ Payami · 2000
    Length 3:47
    Credits
    • Remix: DJ Payami
    • Music: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson
  5. Underbara LunarStorm (A Different Kind of Space remix)AcidDj xtas / Psychonauten · 2000
    Length 4:08
    Credits
    • Remix: AcidDj xtas / Psychonauten
    • Music: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson
  6. Lunartune1 (Underbara LunarStorm remix)DJ Delphi · 2000
    Length 4:47
    Credits
    • Remix: DJ Delphi
    • Music: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson
  7. Underbara LunarStorm (Eurocoder Mix)Rkay · 2000
    Length 3:20
    Credits
    • Remix: Rkay
    • Music: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson
  8. Underbara LunarStorm (Laidback Garage Mix)Rkay · 2000
    Length 3:21
    Credits
    • Remix: Rkay
    • Music: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson
  9. Underbara LunarStorm (radio edit)Beatforce · 2000
    Length 4:14
    Credits
    • Remix: Beatforce
    • Music: Robert ”RobJon” Jonsson

The members' own

  1. LunarStorm e mitt andra hemZalza feat. Lookagain · 2001
    Length 1:58
    Credits

    Dedicated to “lunarstorm crew”.

    • Zalza feat. Lookagain
  2. Inget liv, vi har LunarBaso & Aldenfalk
    Length 3:18
    Credits

    Self-mocking rap about logging in, decorating your krypin and waiting for something to flash.

    • Baso & Aldenfalk
2002–2006

The golden years

The years when everyone was there. You checked the visitor log, put make-up on your krypin, wrote your diary, lajved from your mobile and got PRO to stand out more. Your mood was Happy as the sun, the guestbooks ran hot at 53 posts a second and one in four had dated someone from Lunar.

Behind the scenes: “Seven days from bankruptcy”, then PRO and a cake for 100,000 customers. Sweden's best website, an entry in the NE encyclopaedia, 53 guestbook posts a second and 80% of all young people.

How we talked: PROPabloWZUPLajvSpana (check out)puzz (kiss)

Rick wrote in your guestbook

An angry Bert Karlsson rang me and asked what this LunarStorm thing was, and how on earth something like that could knock his dansband off the top of the chart.

From: The LUNARPARTY album
The most common words in the guestbooks, 2002
28 May 2002

Kisses, hugs and =)

TheQ counts the words in 250,000 guestbooks: 6.6 million words. After du, jag and det (you, I, it) come e (is), puss (kiss), =), då? (then?), kram (hug) and helgen (the weekend).

Read more
  • “puss” 18,803 times, “=)” 17,825, “då?” 17,486, “kram” 17,075 and “helgen” 11,116.
  • Further down: JÄTTE (HUGE, 3,978), *ler* (*smiles*, 3,277) and KÄRLEK (LOVE, 2,645).
  • “otur” (bad luck) and “minst” (at least) ranked high too because of chain letters: bad luck if you don’t forward this to at least ten.
  • A guestbook entry averaged 147 characters, about the length of a text message.

With: TheQ

LUNARPARTY, the compilation album from 2002
5 June 2002

The LUNARPARTY album

The compilation album LUNARPARTY (named after the site’s most popular chat room) is released with Bonnier Music and enters the compilation chart at number one in its launch week. Bert Karlsson calls, and he is not happy.

Read more
  • The members voted for the winners of the demo contest.
  • Photos of the record (EXIF 2002-05-15).
  • The working title was “LunarHits”; on 4 March Rickard suggested the name LunarParty, after the chat room.
  • 17 hits and three demo songs voted in by the members. The release was pushed from 3 to 5 June after the power cut in Kista.
  • Number one on the compilation album chart on 13 June 2002. Campaigns on NRJ, in the Stockholm metro with Åhléns City and on Gothenburg’s buses.
  • Bert Karlsson rang Rickard and asked how LunarStorm could knock his dansband off the top spot.

With: Bonnier Music, Vilhelm Schottenius, Bert Karlsson

The PRO logo
16 Sept 2002

“The baby is now called Pro”

The SuperLunar idea from 2001 is dusted off in the middle of the crisis and gets its name. Klas Karlsson becomes project manager and the spec arrives the next day.

Read more
  • The project was picked up again in August 2002.
  • The PRO team: Klas Karlsson (project manager), Jay Svensson (spec and Supersmink), Jonny Johansson (payment), Jesper Friberg and Fredrik Werneholm (graphics), Joacim Åstedt (tech).
  • One Wednesday evening in October: a brainstorm in the Cave with beer, cider and pizza to fill PRO with content.

With: Klas Karlsson, Jay Svensson, Jonny ”TheQ” Johansson, Jesper ”Rude” Friberg, Fredrik ”Akhkharu” Werneholm, Joacim ”Joe” Åstedt

4 Nov 2002

PRO launches: 100,000 payments in three weeks

VIP beta on 22 October, rumours in chain letters, and on 4 November PRO goes live for SEK 10 per 30 days. 100,000 payments in three weeks.

Read more
  • PRO: the make-up editor, the visitor log, status figures in gold, photos in Kollage.
  • Rickard: “from that week Lunarstorm has been a profitable company” (IW 2007).
  • The prologue: “the whole advertising industry’s jaw dropped”.
  • Rickard in 2014: 30% of Sweden’s young people paid every month. Freemium usually converts 5%.
  • Rickard to management on 5 November: “Lads, maybe we’ve soon created the Internet’s only killer app.”
  • Jonny Johansson saw in the hourly statistics that PRO was spreading by word of mouth and suggested they stop advertising: “People are probably more willing to pay if it’s somethin’ ‘secret’”.

With: Klas Karlsson, Jonny ”TheQ” Johansson, Jay Svensson, Jesper ”Rude” Friberg, Joacim ”Joe” Åstedt, Mikael Josander

Sources: Internetstiftelsen 2014 · Teknikfreak: Lunarstorms julklapp · Internetworld 23 February 2007 · Kapitalet #40: Svensken bakom världens första sociala nätverk

The NE entry Lunarstorm
28 June 2003

Its own entry in Nationalencyklopedin

The Swedish national encyclopaedia NE writes about “the little site from Varberg”. For Rickard the biggest confirmation: a website in the encyclopaedia.

Read more
  • NE: head office in Varberg; “launched in January 2000”.
  • Rickard (Hallands Nyheter, the local paper in Varberg's region, 2006): “A silly thing, but still a confirmation and one of those things that make you run twice as fast.”
  • LunarStorm also became a question on Jeopardy.
  • As early as 6 Feb 2002 LunarStorm was mentioned in NE's article “chatta” (to chat).

Sources: SR P4 Halland 2016-01-08 · SR P4 Extra 2016-08-19 · Aftonbladet 2006-10-27

LunarPejl: the mood icons in front of every alias in “Inne i värmen”
26 Sept 2003

The mussel, the cloud and the toilet roll

The answers to the mood icons in LunarStorm 5: Semi-social was a mussel, Grumpy a cloud, Gaming a game piece, Flirty a pair of lips and Busy a toilet roll.

Read more
  • Rick wanted the mood's name to show when you hovered the mouse over the icon.
  • On 1 October the text “Happy as a sun” was added for the sun.
  • The mood picker arrived with LunarStorm 5 in October 2003.
  • In LunarPejl the mood icon showed in front of every alias in the list “Inne i värmen” (In from the cold).
Donna, sketches
15 Jan 2004

Pablo and Donna

Pablo, the members' stage for their own creations with mentors, opens at 4 pm. The dating service Donna follows the day after. Konsument treats everyone to cake.

Read more
  • Pablo was received best; Donna was later paused pending a relaunch.
  • The Swedish internet magazine Internetworld highlighted Pablo when LunarStorm was again named Sweden's best community in June 2004.
  • After a creative train journey it was proposed that the new sections be named like streets: London St., Barcelona Ave. and Madison St.

With: Klas Karlsson, Annelie Demred, Jonny ”TheQ” Johansson, Mårten Forslund

LunarStorm 2004 (the yearly series)
4 March 2004

“Right now 53 guestbook posts are being written every second”

The start page: every week a million people gather, average age 18. The mood picker: Happy as a sun, Semi-social, Grumpy, Flirty.

Read more
  • The add-on services Pablo and PRO; “Become a LunarStorm member”.
  • Moods: Happy as a sun, Semi-social, Grumpy, Gaming, Flirty, Busy.

Sources: lunarstorm.se 2004-03-04

c. 2004

5,000 weddings and almost as many Lunar babies

A couple meet through a Lunar diary, meet IRL in 2003 and marry on Midsummer Eve 2004. In total around 5,000 couples have married thanks to the site.

Read more
  • The prologue: “the 5,000 couples who met on the site and got married” and “the almost as many Lunar babies”.
  • The Swedish Internet Museum (Internetmuseum): StajlPlejs in the exhibition Nätromans (Online Romance).
  • The survey was done in 2003 to 2004 as a large questionnaire with around 30,000 participants (Rickard on P4, Swedish public radio's local channel, 2016).
  • Hallands Nyheter (HN), the local paper in Varberg's region, 2016: a couple from Varberg and Piteå who started writing to each other on the Graffiti Wall (Klotterplanket) as 14-year-olds married in May 2016.

Sources: HN 2016-01-09 · Aftonbladet 2006-10-27 · Internetmuseum: StajlPlejs (Lunarstorm) · SR Förmiddag i P4 Östergötland (full interview, Rickard's SoundCloud)

26 Dec 2004

Tsunami night: Daniel and 100 unanswered posts

543 Swedes die. On Boxing Day the youth leader Daniel logs in to the forum “Någon i andra änden” (Someone at the other end) and sees 100 unanswered posts. The next day priests are on call around the clock.

Read more
  • Daniel was a youth leader in the Church of Sweden and had started the forum “Någon i andra änden” in spring 2004, to be where the young people were.
  • On Boxing Day he logged in and saw 100 unanswered posts. He rang round people he trusted, and the next day there was a rota covering the whole day and night.
  • At first the posts were about missing relatives, then more and more about grief. According to the 2005 schools leaflet 300 posts an hour came in during the first two weeks.
  • The priests had their own symbol in their krypin, so the young people could see they were genuine. “I don't think we were quite prepared for that”, said Daniel.
  • 17, then around 30 priests, psychologists and youth leaders were on call until four in the morning.
  • On 29 Dec management donated SEK 50,000 to Save the Children, passed on the Red Cross fundraising number and gave away all ad space from 29 Dec to 2 Jan. The front page: “Du kan också hjälpa” (You can help too).

With: Daniel och prästerna i ”Någon i andra änden”, Hans Eriksson, Johan Forsberg, Sofia Myrevik

Sources: NYT: Online community takes Sweden by storm

Make-up icons/smileys
4 Feb 2005

Sminkeditorn: a generation learns HTML

Jay Svensson's Sminkeditorn (the make-up editor) arrives with PRO 2 after a whole night's work, the single most important feature in the revenue rocket PRO. The first Lajv about PRO 2 appears after 12 seconds, and by February 76,000 have upgraded.

Read more
  • Sminkeditorn was invented by Jay Svensson and was the single most important feature in LunarStorm PRO.
  • Krypin colours could be bought for SEK 10 via SMS (Realtid 2005).
  • The Swedish Internet Museum (Internetmuseum), 2015: “Pyntade krypin gör svenskarna till HTML-proffs” (Decorated krypins turn Swedes into HTML pros).
  • PRO 2 cost SEK 25. Rickard joked that a thousand people had already “converted from Christianity (PRO) to PRO 2”.
  • Staff tested the editor in their own krypins from the end of January.
  • Danish LunarStorm had a “SminkeGenerator” as early as 2002, and PRO had “Supersmink” from the start.

With: Johan Sjögren, Jay Svensson, Klas Karlsson

Sources: Internetmuseum: Pyntade krypin …

17 Sept 2006

“Thank You For The Music”

At the tenth anniversary party, Rickard makes up his mind. In his blog he says thanks: 75+ employees in Varberg, Stockholm, London and Copenhagen.

Read more
  • The blog post on 2006-09-17: “75+ employees in Varberg, Stockholm, London and Copenhagen”.
  • The same day he wrote about the IRC server on Strandgatan “exactly 10 years ago”.
  • The prologue: leaving was “relief. Pure, lovely, almost physical relief.”
  • The podcast in 2016: “on the 10th anniversary I felt that now I'll make an exit … and at the same time I got a good offer too”. Several “talented Lunar people” left within six months.
  • P4 Östergötland, Swedish public radio's local station in Östergötland, 2016: “at the tenth anniversary I quit and sold. I felt it was enough.”

Sources: Arvika 2024 · Internetmuseum-podden #7: Rickard Eriksson och Andreas Harnemo · SR Förmiddag i P4 Östergötland (full interview, Rickard's SoundCloud) · Din bästa kollega #12: AI på jobbet med Rickard Eriksson

The records

397,820unique visitors in one day, 16 December 2004
46,866logged in at the same time, one Thursday evening in March 2004
1,172,179Pejl messages on the first day, October 2003
78 %percent of all 13 to 20-year-olds every week (2004)

A real company

Revenue in millions of Swedish kronor (SEK). Lighter bars are estimates.

0255075100≈42000≈11200124.5200238.2200350.1200471.1200590.1200679.12007≈432008≈432009≈372010

Meanwhile in real life

While we sat at the computer, this happened. Pick a year.

The web
Gadgets
Music
At the cinema
On TV
Celebrities
Sweden
The world
What did it cost?
New words
More from 2002–2006 (98)
  1. The hardware upgrade: server romance. New hardware in the server hall, photographed by the staff. A month later: “Sthlm v8”. 90 pictures of love for metal.
  2. How did you find LunarStorm?. WZUP asks how everyone found their way here. 64 per cent were tipped off by a friend, 8 per cent via an email from a friend and 4 per cent via ICQ. 3 per cent have been around since Stajl Plejs.
  3. LunarShow at Palladium in Växjö. Valentine’s Day: Rickard, lumbus, TheQ, Rude and Fredrik Werneholm show LunarStorm to about a hundred young people in Växjö. Grrl Tech is launched the same evening.
  4. “865 000 kompisar träffas på Lunarstorm” (865,000 friends meet on Lunarstorm). The Swedish internet magazine Internetworld visits Lunarcave: 33 employees, 8 logins, 10 guestbook entries and 2 LunarMails. Every second.
  5. One million accounts and visitors. March 2002: over one million registered accounts and, after MMXI’s correction, 1,004,000 unique visitors in a month. That is 47% of all 12 to 17-year-olds.
  6. Det Stora Internetpriset 2001 (the Great Internet Prize). BitoS names LunarWorks the winner: LunarStorm has “brought the Internet into teenagers’ bedrooms”. The prize, an obelisk of melted-down monitor glass, is presented on 4 June.
  7. Paid registration is stopped. Everything is ready to charge new members. At the last minute management backs down: voluntary paid services first. The decision paves the way for Kolla, Lajv and PRO.
  8. RajRaj, the party tracker from OLW. LunarStorm launches the party tracker RajRaj, sponsored by OLW. First week: 157,298 unique visitors. The contract required 60,000 a month.
  9. Sweden’s Best Site 2002. The Swedish internet magazine Internetworld’s Top 100 names LunarStorm Sweden’s best site. The Swedish news agency TT and the national dailies Dagens Nyheter, Dagens Industri and Svenska Dagbladet write about it. 2.4 million visitors a month.
  10. The chain letter that would crash the servers. A chain letter urges everyone to log in at the same time, at 9 pm on 22 June, to test the servers and force the crew to buy better ones. It is Midsummer’s Eve.
  11. IRL’02 in Halmstad. The IRL’02 members’ meet in Halmstad is organised by Föreningen IRL (the IRL Association), memorable among other things for the condom tent. Rickard is there.
  12. Modem or ADSL?. What internet connection do you have at home? ADSL 37 per cent, modem 24, LAN 8, cable modem 8 and ISDN 2.
  13. KOLLA: LunarStorm on your mobile for everyone. The SMS remote control KOLLA is released for all operators. After nine days 50,000 have linked their mobile to their Krypin, by October 120,000.
  14. The WORD! button nobody knew about. A member reads the source code and finds a button that isn’t visible yet: WORD!, to press when someone has written something good. He emails Rick and asks what it is.
  15. Vilhelm Schottenius becomes acting CEO. Kjell Sallén steps down from the operational CEO role after three years. Marketing director Vilhelm Schottenius takes over: live on revenue, not venture capital.
  16. P4 Halland: “Mötesplats med tvivelaktiga besökare” (a meeting place with dubious visitors). Racists and neo-Nazis have used the site. On P4 Halland, Swedish public radio's local station in Halland, Rickard talks about the safety department and how the members themselves uphold the rules.
  17. “Seven days from bankruptcy”: the crisis autumn of 2002. August is one of the worst results ever. On 13 September the CEO asks management to prepare a worst case, and the hosting provider Genuity goes bankrupt.
  18. The general election on LunarStorm. The parties each get a Diskus forum to run. Göran Persson and SSU’s Mikael Damberg write on the Social Democrats’ Krypin, and the Swedish news agency TT, the tabloid Expressen and the national daily Svenska Dagbladet take note.
  19. One in a million: a million visitors a week. Gallup/RedMeasure: 1,005,009 unique visitors in one week. During the media storm the week after, LunarStorm climbs to 1,075,325 and overtakes Passagen.
  20. LAJV, the SMS wall. Lajv launches: send a text for SEK 3 and appear live to everyone online, filtered so you don’t see messages from people much older or younger.
  21. The internet is no babysitter. Rickard writes a letter to parents and teachers with practical advice. It goes out as a LunarMail to all members aged 8 to 12, to print out and take home.
  22. Extraordinary general meeting and a new board. At CLS’s request a new board is elected. Kjell Nilsson (CLS) becomes chair and the director of education Robert Bengtsson represents the founders.
  23. Alf Svensson knew the answer. On Lilla Aktuellt, the children’s news on Swedish public television, the party leaders are tested on internet questions. Christian Democrat leader Alf Svensson is asked which site you can’t download music from and, with a little help, picks Lunarstorm.
  24. DreamHack: a fast lane for the LAN crowd. LunarStorm sets up its own “fast lane server” for DreamHack visitors in Jönköping. The crew is on site and a webcam shows “LunarCrew live”.
  25. Aspiro’s shares are bought by management. Aspiro, under reconstruction, sells its stake in LunarWorks to members of management and a private investor. 2.7 million unique visitors a month.
  26. Cake: 100,000 PRO in gold lettering. 100,000 active PRO customers. The Varberg crew celebrates with cake, charged to the Consumer department, on condition that it is decorated with “100 000 PRO” in gold lettering.
  27. Guldmusen: Rickard nominated for IT Person of the Year. Rickard is nominated for IT Person of the Year at the Guldmusen (Golden Mouse) awards.
  28. RunarStorm? No thanks.. Runar Søgaard wants to call the forum on his new site for Christians in Sweden RunarStorm, and asks for permission. The answer is no. There will be no RunarStorm.
  29. 21 guestbook entries a second. Rick writes the texts for the live counters above the login. Right then, 21 guestbook entries are being written every second and 245 LunarMails every minute.
  30. Sweden’s biggest polling institute for young people. 132,002 young people answer about a war against Iraq. Over 70% say no, among young women about 90%. LunarStorm’s surveys become press releases.
  31. 80% of all 12 to 24-year-olds have a Krypin. 1,092,000 members aged between 12 and 24. 26 employees, 20 in Varberg and 6 in Stockholm. The grown-up world doesn’t understand a thing.
  32. Kollage, the photo album in PRO. After a test with 6,000 members, the Kollage photo album becomes part of PRO. A month later 27,000 people have uploaded 137,000 photos.
  33. Over a million a week, second in the KIA index. In week 15 LunarStorm has 1,039,335 unique visitors, second in the KIA index after Aftonbladet, Sweden's biggest tabloid. The email signature: “a million unique visitors a week”.
  34. April Fools': LunarCrew Collector Cards. On 1 April 2003 members get collector cards featuring the LunarCrew: strength, agility, kindness and power. Power Cards: Andreas, Jay, Jonny and Rick.
  35. 12,000 name ideas for the magazine. Members get to name LunarStorm's print magazine and send in 12,000 suggestions. Top five: LunarNews, lunarbladet, Lunarstorm, LunarNytt and Lunar.
  36. The celebrity chat built for Göran Persson. The celebrity chat feature is built so that Prime Minister Göran Persson can chat with the LunarStorm members. It never happens, but the tool stays.
  37. Researchers discover LunarStorm. Umeå researcher Daniel Skog interviews users: the krypin makes people open up. In total 48 theses and studies in DiVA.
  38. Number five on Ny Teknik's power list. The engineering weekly Ny Teknik ranks the 50 people with the most power over the future of IT and telecoms. Rickard comes fifth, ahead of TeliaSonera and the venture capitalists, among others.
  39. Next step: community on the TV sofa. Ahead of the board's strategy meeting Rickard proposes that LunarStorm move into digital TV: first the desktop, then the mobile and then the sofa.
  40. The day every guestbook was empty. The guestbook has grown to several hundred million posts and gets a new database. Suddenly everyone's guestbook is empty, with a link to the old one.
  41. Debut, the print magazine that got one issue. With the Bonnier publisher Bonzoo, LunarStorm launches the magazine Debut: 76 pages, SEK 29, 100,000 copies. It sells poorly and is put on ice in November.
  42. Anna Lindh and “3 girls”: 100,000 condolences. The day after the attack on Anna Lindh, the front page honours her and two other young people killed the same week. Members write over 100,000 condolences.
  43. The youth referendum on the euro. 600,000 members under 18 get to vote by post via LunarMejl. On election day 183,702 young people vote: 70% no, 26% yes and 4% blank.
  44. LunarStorm 5: new look and Pejl. LunarStorm 5 and the instant messaging service Pejl launch after a day's delay. On the first day 1,172,179 Pejl messages are sent.
  45. Trick or treat: the creepiest krypin. At Halloween 2003 members put Halloween make-up on their krypins and compete for the creepiest krypin.
  46. Young people on the outside: LunarStorm in a government inquiry. SOU 2003:92 is presented at Rosenbad. Young people outside school and work were given a voice on the problem via LunarStorm. The site is mentioned in twelve places.
  47. lunarstorm.dk is saved. The board wants to close the Danish site. Members protest with petitions and on youth TV, and on 14 November the site moves to its own servers.
  48. A hundred discussion bosses on paper. The member editorial team receives a paper protest list from 100 discussion bosses. They want all talk about the day's WZUP gathered in its own discussion forum instead of flooding theirs.
  49. “Someone at the other end”: priests on call. Daniel, a youth leader in the Church of Sweden, starts a support forum on LunarStorm: priests, youth leaders and psychologists answer young people who are struggling, bound by confidentiality and with no sales pitch.
  50. Schools block it, Rickard says basketball court. Ludvika blocks LunarStorm in its schools, where 75% of pupils are active. Rickard: blocking it is like taking away the basketball court.
  51. Chat with LunarCrew. Rickard wants the crew to answer members directly again, not be a distant elite. Every week a chat opens where anyone can ask.
  52. Record: 46,866 logged in at once. One Thursday evening 46,866 members are logged in at the same time and traffic reaches 291 Mbit/s, levels the tech team had not expected until the end of the year.
  53. WZUP: question of the day. The daily poll WZUP is answered by up to 150,000 people a day. The Melodifestivalen question (Sweden's Eurovision selection) gets 124,963 answers.
  54. The April Fools' joke the founder didn't know about. The 2004 April Fools' joke claims the EU requires a personal internet code, and every LunarStorm member gets an incomprehensible code. Rick is somewhere hot as hell and has no idea.
  55. LunarStorm on your mobile: wap.lunarstorm.se. After a beta with 10,000 users the WAP site opens officially. Free in April, then SEK 10 a month. Three weeks later 27,000 have tried it.
  56. The Guldägg plaque. At the Guldägg advertising awards at China/Berns, LunarStorm receives the Guldäggsplaketten, the jury's special prize: a reach bigger than the commercial TV channels TV3, Kanal 5, MTV and ZTV combined.
  57. Klubbar: 50,000 clubs in a month. Klubbar (clubs) soft-launch one evening in April. Members start almost 50,000 clubs, and the biggest is an anti-bullying club.
  58. “Gratiswebben ett minne blott” (the free web a thing of the past): SEK 38 million and a profit. Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), a national daily newspaper, holds up LunarStorm as proof that people will pay online. 2003: SEK 38 million in turnover (+55%), profit SEK 6.5 million, SEK 16 million from members.
  59. New CEO: Hans Eriksson takes over. Vilhelm Schottenius leaves after almost two years as CEO. CFO Hans Eriksson becomes acting CEO on 1 June and then permanent.
  60. A billion page views a month. May 2004: 1.039 billion page views, almost as many as microsoft.com. With 50 servers against Microsoft's 950.
  61. Trampolin and Guru. The upper secondary community Trampolin (with a forum for every upper secondary school) and Guru, a competition for the best krypin made with Coca-Cola, launch the same week.
  62. The visitor log goes PRO. Who has been checking out your krypin? From autumn 2004 the visitor log is for PRO members only. The suspense grows.
  63. A university course on LunarStorm. Umeå University's course “Digitala kulturer och strategier” (Digital cultures and strategies) is held in the club DigitalaKulturer on LunarStorm, opened by researcher Elza Dunkels.
  64. Hitta allt. A search log from autumn 2004 shows what the LunarStorm members searched for. By far the most common: “hitta allt” (find everything), 7,414 times.
  65. Web Lajv. Lajv can now be sent straight from the web: four Lajv messages for SEK 15. Web Lajv quickly outgrows SMS Lajv, with 3,000 to 4,000 a day during the November half-term.
  66. The Stop button. The industry's shared Stop button for reporting inappropriate content launches, with LunarStorm as the initiator. The Swedish news agency TT spreads the news.
  67. The new PRO and record month November. New PRO page, new icon and payment via 0900 numbers in three tiers. Sales are “fantastic” and November becomes the company's best month: SEK 5.6 million.
  68. 1.2 million unique a week. Week 49: 1,207,967 unique browsers. Week 50: 1,257,922 and 279 million page views. Daily record on Thursday 16 December: 397,820.
  69. RIP the chat, 1996 to 2004. The web chat and the Java/IRC chat close: few users and too expensive to modernise. Rickard writes the obituary.
  70. Record day: 46.7 million page views. Just before Christmas LunarStorm sets a record with 46.7 million page views in one day. The fifth anniversary of the name is approaching.
  71. Five years: a 48-hour anniversary. Five years since the name change. Over New Year's Eve: an anniversary logo, a campaign page about the history that Rickard writes himself and a free web Lajv for everyone.
  72. One in four has dated someone from Lunar. Looking back at 2004: member activity +50%, over 40% pay for something, and one in four has been in a relationship with someone they met there.
  73. The board says yes to LunarStorm UK. Rickard, the finance director and the CEO present the plan for a British launch. The board is unanimous and applauds spontaneously, for the first time.
  74. Rheingold: nothing in the world compares. In the article “LunarStorm: Sweden’s Youthful, Increasingly Mobile Virtual Community” Howard Rheingold finds no equivalent anywhere in the world among young people.
  75. Friends 2.0 after a 57-day countdown. A counter on the start page counts down 57 days. Members guess everything from a shutdown to Bjarne's comeback. The answer: Friends 2.0.
  76. Annual accounts 2004: SEK 50.1 million and sights set on London. Turnover rises 31% to SEK 50.1 million. The headlines the same day: “Lunarstorm växer så det knakar” (Lunarstorm is booming) and “Nu blir Lunarstorm brittisk” (Lunarstorm goes British).
  77. Registered office in Stockholm and a holding company. The AGM moves the company's registered office to Stockholm and makes LunarWorks a holding company, so that operations abroad can be run in separate companies.
  78. The first brand advert. A full page in the entertainment magazine Nöjesguiden, the first time LunarStorm buys advertising for its own brand. In the autumn the campaign “Personligheter” (Personalities) follows, featuring members.
  79. “Every week 1,200,000 lovely people gather”. The start page: Sweden's biggest site for dating and friendship. 247 million page views and 1.2 million unique browsers a week.
  80. LunarStorm at Hultsfred. LunarStorm is media partner when the Hultsfred festival turns 20 and sells a record number of tickets. The crew blogs live with artist chats and photos.
  81. Green Day ahead of Bonka Bäver. In summer 2005 members vote for their own music chart. In August Green Day lead with Holiday.
  82. Sweden's biggest blogging service: 231,000 diarists. LunarStorm's diary is the country's biggest blogging service. One in ten Swedish young people blog there regularly.
  83. Rickard becomes “Brand Manager”. In his email signature Rickard goes from editor-in-chief via “Brandman” (Swedish for firefighter) to Brand Manager: the brand, the redesign, the UK site's front page and the advertising.
  84. Gunvor.se: music to download. The music shop Gunvor.se opens together with the survey Äger, Duger, Suger 2 (Rocks, Will Do, Sucks) at Café Opera. The deals with the record labels are negotiated during the autumn.
  85. “Så blev Lunarstorm hyperkommersiellt” (How Lunarstorm went hyper-commercial). Coca-Cola, Arla (Kastrull), OLW (RajRaj) and Pressbyrån. 360,000 unique a day, 80% of 15 to 20-year-olds every week.
  86. LunarStorm UK opens in London. LunarStorm.co.uk launches at 4 pm. An office in London, its own promo films, but it has taken a year from idea to launch.
  87. New York Times: “Online community takes Sweden by storm”. The NYT calls LunarStorm an “accidental media titan” with a youth audience three times bigger than MTV's in Sweden.
  88. New LunarHQ at Monark. LunarStorm leaves Tullhuset and Caven and moves into Monark's old tool department: around 940 m² newly renovated, with room for the whole Varberg gang.
  89. Ungt val with Aftonbladet. LunarStorm and Aftonbladet, Sweden's biggest tabloid, start Ungt val (Young Vote) ahead of the 2006 election, with a big vote in May. The joint press release goes out on 8 December.
  90. Alice Babs and LunarStorm. The schools leaflet “Några ord om LunarStorm” (A few words about LunarStorm): Rickard compares it with Alice Babs, the “Riksslynan” (national hussy) who became a royal court singer.
  91. The peak year 2006. Biggest on every measure: 1.6 million unique visitors a week, 90,000 to 100,000 logged in at once, 56 minutes a day.
  92. LunarStorm on TV: the advert and Wimans. LunarStorm's 2006 commercial (directed by Daniel Chilla, Masterplan) and a sketch on the TV programme Wimans.
  93. Annual accounts 2005: SEK 71 million and SEK 15 million profit. Turnover grows 42% to SEK 71.1 million, profit reaches SEK 15.1 million. 15.2 billion page views and 98 million user hours.
  94. “Everyone I hang out with is on Lunar, even my mum”. 63 employees, 375,000 users a day, 1.4 million a week. Rickard himself logs in 5 to 10 times a day.
  95. Mörtstedt bids 170 million. Property billionaire Sten Mörtstedt, already the largest owner, bids SEK 170 million for the rest of the shares. He wants to go to Europe, the USA and China.
  96. LunarStorm is sold at a valuation of SEK 350 million. Mörtstedt takes the majority. The option scheme gives the staff a tidy sum.
  97. Sweden's best community 2006. The Swedish internet magazine Internetworld names LunarStorm Sweden's best community, ten years after the start.
  98. The 2006 redesign. A new Swedish design on the .aspx platform with Flash 7: “puddings you have to meet”. The sketches were already done in December 2005.
For the 20th anniversary Rick drew a 20 out of feature buttons. Now it is a 30, with the same buttons and the same hand-pixelled typeface. Press a button and remember. What you have ticked off glows orange.

Do you remember all 111?

Every single feature from Stajl Plejs in 1996 to LS8 in 2011. Open, remember and tick off.

0 of 111 · Open a feature and press ”I remember!”
Krypin1996

Remember your krypin? The very first feature after the IRC chat: your own page with your age, town and interests.

In 2002 visitors spent an average of 14.5 minutes a day in krypins. 199,861 dropped by on a single Wednesday.

Presentation1996

Remember the presentation, the first page of your krypin? There you wrote about yourself, and gave it make-up until it blinked and scrolled.

In September 2001 the presentation was limited to 20,000 characters, because some applied so much make-up that the pages got sluggish.

Guestbook1997
Guestbook on LunarStorm

Remember the stamping feet? Someone had written in your guestbook, by far the most used feature on the whole site.

In 2002 visitors spent 22.4 minutes a day in the guestbooks. In 2004, 53 posts were written every second.

Diary1998–2006

Remember the diary? Every second the latest entries were gathered on the Diaries page, a brilliant place to find new people.

In 2005 the Diary was Sweden's biggest blogging service: 231,000 wrote regularly. 34 million entries in total.

Curious about (Nyfiken på)1998–1999

Remember “Nyfiken på” (Curious about) on Stajl Plejs? There you peeked in on other Stajlare and fixed up your own page under “Mig själv” (Myself).

Photo1999

Remember waiting for your photo to be approved? Without an approved nuna (mug) you didn't show up on Nunor.

In 2003, 250,000 half-approved pictures were cleared out. A new photo within three months cost SEK 15.

20 questions2000–2003

Remember 20 questions? Chain-letter questions in your krypin, like whether you eat the broccoli stalk or what you keep under your bed.

Got its own tab in February 2002 and was removed with LunarStorm 5 in October 2003.

Cool facts (Balla fakta)2000

Remember Balla fakta? The tick-box questions about what you were like as a person. Fill them in and you got status points.

In autumn 2001 Balla fakta got its own page, and many thought they had lost 10 status points.

The notification icons2000

Remember the icons in the top left? The feet stamped, the bottle spun, the pen wrote and the heart beat.

In autumn 2000 the icons became animated. The animation stopped after 15 seconds, to spare the servers.

Prylar (Stuff)2000

Remember Prylar? The krypin's own file and link archive, where you uploaded pictures, songs and funny files.

The higher your status, the more stuff you could upload. Prylar 2.0 (2004) added bookmarks: 1 MB, or 10 MB with PRO.

Roots (Rötter)2000

Remember Roots? You entered your schools and classes and found old classmates, flirts and faves.

Two weeks after launch 10,095 schools had been added, by December over 12,000. 2004: 0.44 million users.

Status / status points2000

Remember status points? Everything you did earned points, and nobody wanted to lose them. With PRO the numbers glowed gold.

A published WZUP question gave 20 points, the LunarParty album 15 and the VRÅL card 15. The Status page arrived in 2001.

Friends2000

Remember the friends list and the beating heart when someone wanted to be your friend? You even chose what kind of relationship you had.

Friends 2.0 arrived on 15 March 2005 after a 57-day countdown. Members guessed everything from a shutdown to Bjarne.

The visitor log2001

Remember the visitor log? It showed who had checked out your krypin, unless they had chosen to look anonymously.

Members first got to vote on it in WZUP. From August 2004 the visitor log was PRO only.

Smink (make-up)2001

Remember putting make-up on your krypin with <BOX> and <LINK>? LunarSmink taught a whole generation a little HTML.

In autumn 2001 SPÄM #3 went out with a course in LunarSmink. The <LINK> command also worked in Lists.

Lists2002

Remember Lists? Four top lists of your own about anything under the sun. The best ones ended up under TYCKA (Opinions).

Smultron (Wild strawberries)2002

Remember Smultron? There you saved the loveliest guestbook posts so they didn't vanish when old posts were cleared out.

In July 2003 Smultron grew from 10 to 30 slots, at the same time as you could start seeing whether your posts had been read.

Latest on the shelf2003

Remember Latest on the shelf? It took over the spot from 20 questions when LunarStorm 5 arrived in autumn 2003.

Hot2004–2005

Remember the Hot tab? There you showed off your latest record, magazine and side job.

Closed in January 2005, internally marked with a “memorial service”.

Mood2004

Remember the mood picker? Happy as the sun, Semi-social, Grumpy, Gaming, Flirty or Busy.

The Blog2006

Remember when the Diary became the Blog in March 2006? Not everyone liked the switch, and a protest club started right away.

At the switch, 638,376 accounts had written a diary, 273,782 in the last month alone.

Clips2006

Remember Clips? The video presentation in your krypin, so the webcam finally had something to do.

Sponsored by Logitech. When the video feature launched, the members made the ads themselves: twelve films for TV and cinema.

Gallery2007

Remember the Gallery? Party pics or ego shots: photos and video clips could suddenly be shown to everyone, for free.

Arrived when LunarStorm bought into Bilddagboken in 2007, replacing the paid album Kollage.

StajlMejl / LunarMejl1998

Remember LunarMejl? Your own inbox on the site, and the bottle that spun when something new had arrived.

On Stajl it was called StajlMejl, and there was GrattisMejl (congratulations mail). In 2002 two lunarmejl were sent every second.

Postcards1999
Postcards on LunarStorm

Remember the postcards? Christmas cards, Valentine's cards and Halloween cards, many drawn by the members themselves.

Stajl sent “Marsipan” with e-postcards. In autumn 2001 there were 31 Halloween cards, and thousands of card ideas came in.

Guestbook themes and icons2002

Remember putting make-up on your guestbook post with a cool theme or a little icon?

Lajv2002

Remember Lajv? A text message for SEK 3 and your line appeared live for everyone online. Perfect for showing off.

Filtered so you didn't see lines from people much older or younger. Lajv came back in analogue form on the Lunar20 cruise in 2016.

WORD!2002

Remember WORD!? The button for agreeing with a post in Diskus or in someone's diary.

Luxury Lajv2003

Remember Luxury Lajv? For SEK 10 your lajv glowed golden yellow for 21 seconds.

Released in May 2003 without any announcement at all.

Pejl2003

Remember Pejl? LunarStorm's own instant messenger, like ICQ and MSN but with your Pejl friends from the site.

1,172,179 pejls were sent on the first day. Required Flash Player 6 and an open port 8080.

Web Lajv2004

Remember when you could lajv straight from the web? Four lajvs for SEK 15.

Quickly grew bigger than text message lajvs: 3,000 to 4,000 a day over the November half-term. Everyone got a free one on the fifth birthday.

Comments2008

Remember the glowing speech bubble? Someone had commented on your gallery pictures or your blog post.

The chat (Java chat and web chat)1996–2004

Remember the Java chat? It all began with a chat in 1996, and rooms like #LunarParty and #mysgos lived on until 2004.

The compilation album LUNARPARTY (2002) was named after the most popular chat room.

Diskus1998

Remember Diskus? You discussed (diskade) in Diskus, and the pen wrote when someone had replied to your post.

In 2004 there were almost 1,000 diskuses. Before the 2002 election each party in parliament got one to run.

Graffiti Wall (Klotterplanket)1998

Remember the Graffiti Wall (Klotterplanket)? One line to show you existed, or to find someone who thought like you.

In 2000 the wall existed nationally, regionally and locally. In 2016 it became a real plank wall on the Lunar20 cruise.

Spana / Search1998

Remember Spana? The search engine for new friends and long-lost classmates. To spana (check someone out) became a verb of its own.

Hitta folk (Find people) became SPAN in January 2001. In English it became “Go on the Prowl”.

A moment in the spotlight2000

Remember A moment in the spotlight? Suddenly it could be your picture shown to everyone, in the middle of the night or on a Tuesday.

At least one couple who met through the spotlight in 2000 later got married.

The Slate (Griffeltavlan)2001

Remember the Slate? Every school class in Roots got its own graffiti wall.

Nunor2001

Remember Nunor? The most recently logged-in girls and boys with an approved photo, for anyone feeling a bit flirty.

English LunarStorm first called them Mugs. Nunor lived on in LS8 too.

TJÖT / TJAFS2001

Remember the TJÖT (Chatter) button? It gathered the chats, the Graffiti Wall (Klotterplanket) and the VÅJS wall from 2001.

In the menu in version 4.3 (2002) the button was called TJAFS. Danish LunarStorm called it Sniksnak.

Chat with LunarCrew2004

Remember when you could chat directly with LunarCrew? Once a week anyone could ask questions.

Donna2004

Remember Donna? LunarStorm's dating service from January 2004.

The working name was Flörta (Flirt). Donna opened on 16 January at 10 am, the day after Pablo.

Clubs2004

Remember Clubs? Members started almost 50,000 in one month, and the biggest was an anti-bullying club.

The first official club got an O stamp in May 2004. In 2004 the clubs had 0.71 million users.

Trampolin2004

Remember Trampolin? The sixth form community with its own forum for every upper secondary school and a homework A&E.

Other suggested names were Grymnasiet, Håltimmen (the free period) and Rökrutan (the smoking corner).

Mr & Miss LunarStorm2000

Remember Mr & Miss LunarStorm? The year's most loyal LunarStorm members are crowned with fireworks and fence-tossing.

The winners for 2000 had logged in on 355 and 348 days of the year respectively.

Twin2000–2001

Remember Twin? The site dug up someone who was just like you.

The April Fools' jokes2001

Remember the April Fools' jokes? The internet tax in 2001, the LunarCrew trading cards in 2003 and a made-up EU ban on nicknames in 2004.

DigDis2001

Remember DigDis? There you rated everything from energy drinks to broadband, and the reviews showed up instantly.

Built with the research company Cint and first tested on 20% of the members.

The Advent calendar2001

Remember the Advent calendar on LunarStorm, with a door and a competition every day in December?

Jürgen and PAUL: the Christmas games2001

Remember Jürgen, who wrote in people's guestbooks and hacked the front page in December 2001? The year after came the Christmas game PAUL.

Bits and bobs (Krimskrams)2001

Remember Bits and bobs? Goodies for LunarFreaks: WinAmp skins, desktop wallpapers and the official Lunar song.

Members could make skins and wallpapers themselves and show them off under their nickname.

Navel fluff (Navelludd)2001–2003

Remember Navel fluff? Funny links, pictures, films and sounds tipped off by the LunarStorm members every day.

Started as BÖS. Navel fluff caretakers picked the tips. Paused with LunarStorm 5. In Danish: Navleuld.

Playzone2001

Remember the games on LunarStorm? Hangman, anagrams, word bridge and Balloonshooter, right in your browser.

The code contains Flash games like Hangman, Anagram, Wordbridge, Wordmaster and Friendy, plus an esports section.

The Santalyzer (Tomtelyzern)2001

Remember the Santalyzer? You built a Santa out of LunarCrew's eyes and noses, and the Santa got a krypin of its own.

Contest of the week2001

Remember Contest of the week? Pick-up lines, funny faces and “13 rätt” (the football pools), with mobiles and Nintendos up for grabs.

The winning pick-up line in 2001 was about someone who had been running around in your head all day.

WZUP2001

Remember WZUP? The question of the day that popped up when you logged in, and then you could see what everyone else thought.

At most 150,000 answers a day. The Melodifestivalen question (Sweden's Eurovision selection) in 2004 got 124,963 answers. The archive has about 400 questions from 2001 and 2002.

Hottest krypin (Läckrast Krypin)2002

Remember the Hottest krypin contest in 2002? County finals, a national final and a super tough logo in the winner's krypin.

RajRaj2002

Remember RajRaj? The party tracker where you posted party pictures, sponsored by OLW.

The first week brought 157,298 unique visitors. The deal required 60,000 a month. In 2004 came photo postcards with speech bubbles.

100 words2003

Remember 100 words? Short texts by the members. Every weekday one of them was put in front of hundreds of thousands of readers.

From 2005 the programme Frank on Sveriges Radio P3, the national youth channel, read members' texts aloud on the radio.

Browse (Bläddra)2003–2004

Remember Browse? Pressbyrån's magazine section on LunarStorm.

Full beam (Helljus)2003

Remember Full beam? The Sunday column on the front page, written by a member and illustrated by an artist.

Jobba (Work)2003

Remember Jobba? Where you rated your summer job or side job and learned about working without going off the books.

Kastrull (Saucepan)2003

Remember Kastrull? Arla's food section with recipes, which you could even get by email.

Weekend at last! (Äntligen helg!)2003

Remember Weekend at last!? An entertainment contest every Friday. The first one featured Broder Daniel.

Guru2004

Remember Guru? You voted on other people's krypins, from OK to GURUKLASS (Guru class), with top lists by county and municipality.

Developed with Coca-Cola. The Guru of the year won an internship at an advertising agency.

Anniversary cam2004

Remember the fifth anniversary? For 48 hours you could record a seven-second clip with your webcam.

Pablo2004

Remember Pablo? The stage where members showed their own creations (texts, pictures and music) and got advice from mentors.

The working name was Skapa (Create). Pablo opened on 15 January 2004 at 4 pm, and Konsument treated everyone to cake.

Battle2005

Remember Battle under TYCKA? Part of the tolerance campaign with the Living History Forum (Forum för levande historia).

Backgrounds and icons2002PRO

Remember the PRO backgrounds and the extra icons? Suddenly your krypin had wallpaper.

In 2003 PRO got sports logos in the make-up: handball, floorball, basketball and Allsvenskan (the top football league).

Gold numbers and status line2002PRO

Remember the golden status numbers and the little notice line at the top of a PRO krypin?

From February 2003 PRO customers got two status points a month and could choose gold-coloured status.

LunarStorm PRO2002–2007PRO

Remember PRO? SEK 10 for 30 days by text message, and your status turned gold. Everyone knew who had it.

100,000 payments in three weeks. The staff celebrated with a cake decorated with “100,000 PRO” in gold lettering.

The New Guestbook2002PRO

Remember the New Guestbook in December 2002? PRO customers got it first.

Gift2002PRO

Remember that you could give PRO as a gift? Two months for SEK 15: to your sweetheart, your mate or yourself.

Quiz2002PRO

Remember Quiz in your krypin? You wrote up to 20 questions about yourself and saw how well your friends knew you.

The working name was Friendfinder. With at least 5 participants your quiz could be shown to more people.

Signature and notepad2002PRO

Remember that PRO gave you your own signature and a notepad in your krypin?

Supersmink (super make-up)2002PRO

Remember Supersmink? With PRO you got lots more tools to jazz up your krypin.

Kollage2003–2007PRO

Remember Kollage? The photo album in PRO, where pictures could be commented on and themed campaigns made the front page.

A month after launch, 27,000 members had uploaded 137,000 photos.

Pejl+2003PRO

Remember Pejl+? Extra Pejl features for PRO customers, and a product of its own for SEK 20 for three months.

The Dice and the Note (Tärningen och Lapp)2003PRO

Remember the Dice and the Note? Extra features that cost money for a long time, until Rickard suggested they should be free.

New PRO2004PRO

Remember New PRO in November 2004? A new icon, a new page and three price levels. And the site's best month ever.

In November 2004 LunarStorm had sales of SEK 5.6 million.

PRO 2 and the Make-up editor2005PRO

Remember the Make-up editor? With PRO 2 anyone could build a stylish krypin without knowing the code by heart.

Jay Svensson built it in one night. According to Rickard, the single most important feature in PRO.

Club Lunar2007PRO

Remember when PRO disappeared in December 2007? Everything became free, and Club Lunar took over with exclusive offers.

Texts from the site2000–2000

Remember that you could send free texts from LunarStorm? Three a day, until the feature closed in December 2000.

The Remote control2001

Remember that you could write in guestbooks and on the Graffiti Wall (Klotterplanket) by text message? The Remote control turned your mobile into a LunarStorm member.

Text GÄST (guest) plus a nickname to 17000. Nothing new? Then the site replied *buäääh*.

LunarMobil and VRÅL2001

Remember VRÅL? LunarStorm's own prepaid card. The starter pack cost SEK 295 and your texts were linked to your krypin.

Sold in DinSko shops. Recruit a friend and you got SEK 100 in call credit.

MobbeGodis2001

Remember MobbeGodis? Logos and ringtones for your mobile, and in 2002 audio postcards too.

SEK 100,000 in the first month. A Halloween special doubled the revenue in one day.

KOLLA2002
KOLLA on LunarStorm

Remember KOLLA? The text message remote control that linked your mobile to your krypin, on every network.

After nine days 50,000 had linked their mobile to their krypin, by October 120,000.

LunarStorm on your mobile (WAP)2004

Remember wap.lunarstorm.se? LunarStorm on your mobile: free in April 2004, then SEK 10 a month.

Three weeks after launch 27,000 had tried it. From June 2005 it was free.

StajlRadio1998

Remember StajlRadio? Stajl's own radio channel, round the clock. On Saturday nights the Stajlare broadcast live themselves.

Had a chart and the show Spanarn. Robert “RobJon” Jonsson made jingles in hello, jazz and metal versions.

LunarStorm KLUBB and SKVAL2000

Remember LunarStorm's own web radio channels in 2000, KLUBB and SKVAL?

VÅJS2001–2002

Remember VÅJS? You phoned in and recorded your presentation, a guestbook post or a scribble in your own voice.

The voice on the answering machine was Tuva Novotny's. Your krypin got the tab VÅJSAT.

LunarRadio2002

Remember LunarRadio? Hear new music before it played on the radio, and vote for the top 5 of the week.

Required RealPlayer. The first test was on a Saturday night in February 2002.

Videokalas2003

Remember Videokalas? Music videos on LunarStorm for SEK 15 a month, under the new Skoj (Fun) button.

Volym2003–2005

Remember Volym? The music community with news, forums and a feature for showing off your record collection.

In February 2004 members' record collections were topped by Evanescence's “Fallen”.

Gunvor.se2005

Remember Gunvor? LunarStorm's own shop for downloading music, opened in autumn 2005.

The Chat bomb1996

Remember Stajl's first marketing? If the chat was empty, a button posted a tempting line in other chats.

The front page (Löpsedeln)1998
The front page (Löpsedeln) on LunarStorm

Remember the front page? The start page with news, contests and Bjarne's adventures, the first thing you saw when you logged in.

In 2002, 233,184 people read the front page on a single day. In April 2004 the new front page arrived with twelve boxes.

Fiffa å moffa2000

Remember FIFFA and MOFFA in the menu? Bjarne explained: fiffa happens indirectly, moffa happens live.

Help and LunarCrew2000

Remember the Getting started guide and the Questions & answers diskus? Knowledgeable members and LunarCrew helped new rookies.

From 2003 Safety was open at weekends. In 2004 the help page was called “Instruction manual for rookies”.

Settings2000
Settings on LunarStorm

Remember SETTINGS? Optional details, mobile settings, photo, Balla fakta and the block button.

Online right now2000

Remember the “online right now” number in the corner, and the marker that showed if someone was logged in?

The online marker vanished for a while and made a comeback in March 2001. Stajl’99 had a list of “Girls online right now”.

Recruiting friends (värva)2000

Remember that you could recruit friends to LunarStorm? Everyone you had recruited showed up in your krypin.

In spring 2000, 19,741 members joined through the recruiting feature.

Block2001

Remember Block? If someone was nasty you could make sure the meanie couldn't reach your guestbook or your mail.

From 2004 blocking covered the whole krypin. The English version called it Block Idiots.

Full house (Fullsatt)2001

Remember the message “fullsatt” (full)? When too many were logged in, the rest had to wait outside.

SPÄM2001

Remember SPÄM? LunarStorm's newsletter, named after the thing everyone hated, and still opened by hundreds of thousands.

Issue 1 went to 510,000 LunarStorm members in May 2001. Issue 2 was opened by 359,811.

The nickname randomiser2001

Remember when your nickname was taken? Then the random generator made up a new one for you.

Quick search2001

Remember Quick search? Type Bjarne.2 and you went straight to Bjarne's guestbook.

Some letters were hard-coded: q gave TheQ, l gave lumbus and j gave Jay.

The VIP site2001

Remember the VIP site? There test pilots got to try the new LunarStorm before anyone else.

ANMÄL (Report) and the Stop button2002

Remember the ANMÄL (Report) button? LunarStorm Safety handled the reports, anonymously if you wanted.

In 2004 LunarStorm took the initiative for the industry's shared Stop button.

Name change2003

Remember when you could finally change your nickname? SEK 15, and no more than once every three months.

LS82010–2011

Remember LS8? LunarStorm version 8, built from scratch in 2010, with a wall, nunor, a gallery and a 100% hug guarantee.

Old members could import their LunarStorm account. A closed beta with 2,000 invitees in February 2010.

WZUP22 March 2001Question 1 of 17

Hate speech against ethnic groups breaks the law, and it spoils the lovely good vibes too.

Would you consider helping to prevent it?

From LunarStorm's WZUP archive and surveys.
2006–2010

After Rickard

Your krypin was still there and the feet still stamped. The members made the commercials themselves and some started the fan club RickFans. But more and more people logged in to Facebook instead.

Behind the scenes: The founder leaves at the top. A new owner, Lunar Group, Bilddagboken. And then Facebook. PRO becomes free and the visitors dry up.

How we talked: Club LunarGalleri (gallery)

Rick wrote in your guestbook

I remember when Lunarstorm became a word of its own in Nationalencyklopedin. That was amazing.

From: “Here is the Lunarstorm family”
27 Oct 2006

“Here is the Lunarstorm family”

Aftonbladet, Sweden's biggest tabloid, meets couples who met on LunarStorm. 400,000 visitors a day; 72% of all 15 to 20-year-olds are members.

Read more
  • “In autumn 1996 he created the world's first internet community, Stajl Plejs.”
  • A couple from Sundsvall met through her Lunar diary, met IRL in June 2003 and married on Midsummer Eve 2004.

Sources: Aftonbladet: Här är familjen Lunarstorm

2007

“We want you back!”: the RickFans fan club

Members write “We want you back!” in Rickard's guestbook and start the fan club RickFans.

Picture from Internetworld 2007
23 Feb 2007

With Tradera and LunarStorm in the rear-view mirror

The Swedish internet magazine Internetworld brings together two founders who have moved on: Rickard and Tradera's Jonas Nordlander. On open development and night duty.

Read more
  • Management took turns on night duty for safety; product development happened in open forums with the members.

Sources: Internetworld: Med Tradera och Lunarstorm i backspegeln

March 2007

1.2 million: 636,000 girls and 564,000 boys

Official statistics Q1 2007: 86% of all 12 to 17-year-olds are on it. 1.37 billion page views a month.

Read more
  • 363,300 unique visitors a day, 23.7 million visits a month, 20 minutes per visit.
  • Company name: LunarStorm Sverige AB, Stockholm.

Sources: lunarworks.se statistics Q1 (pdf)

13 Dec 2007

PRO scrapped, “Club Lunar”

All PRO features become free. The front page becomes minimal: “1571 Online just nu” (1571 online right now). Willingness to pay has dropped, says the CEO.

Read more
  • CEO Staffan Forsström: “We can see that the willingness to pay has decreased as more players, including international ones, have entered the market.”
  • The front page links to BitoS Etiska Råd (ethics council) and “Föräldrar & lärare” (Parents & teachers).

With: Staffan Forsström

Sources: Teknikfreak: Lunarstorms julklapp · lunarstorm.se 2007-12-15

Christmas party 2008 at the office with the LunarStorm mural
28 Nov 2008

Unofficial Christmas party at LunarStorm

The office in 2008: a big LunarStorm mural, a Christmas buffet and a tree. The gang gets together, officially or not.

Read more
  • 44 photos, 13 selected.

With: LunarStorm-crewet

When everyone moved to Facebook

Unique visitors per week.

0350,000700,0001.05 m1.4 m20022004200620082010Overtakes PassagenRecordThe shutdown

Meanwhile in real life

While we sat at the computer, this happened. Pick a year.

The web
Gadgets
Music
At the cinema
On TV
Celebrities
Sweden
The world
What did it cost?
New words
More from 2006–2010 (9)
  1. Mr LunarStorm says goodbye. In the middle of a record year, the founder leaves day-to-day operations. The CEO, head of product and CFO all leave the same autumn. Per Dahl becomes acting CEO.
  2. The video campaign: the members make the ads. When the video feature launches, the ads are made by the members themselves: 12 films for TV and cinema. One of them, “Keinanen P16” on MTV, was made by 16-year-old Marcus Keinänen Sandgren.
  3. Rickard starts LBS Science Park. After LunarStorm, Rickard starts SciPark in Varberg and gets a house, a family and children.
  4. LunarStorm buys 40% of Bilddagboken. New CEO Mikko Ollinen and a new board. LunarStorm buys 40% of Bilddagboken for SEK 4 million and makes the gallery free.
  5. UK and Denmark close. The British version attracted too few users and is shut down along with the Danish one.
  6. Lunar Group: all of Bilddagboken and Tyda. The parent company buys the rest of Bilddagboken and 57% of Tyda and becomes Lunar Group. The same year Wyatt Media Group is born.
  7. “Varberg: Lunarstorm for sale”. SVT Halland, Swedish public television's local news: LunarStorm is for sale. In June the front page shows “8120 Online just nu” (8120 online right now).
  8. Rickard launches Totiki me. Rickard's new company releases Totiki me, which gathers all social networks in one place. He predicts the end of the big communities.
  9. The collapse: from half a million to a hundred thousand. Last week of 2007: just over 500,000 unique visitors. The same week in 2009: just over 100,000. WZUP shrinks to 10,000 answers a day.

Question 1 of 10

When did Stajl Plejs Community go online?

2010–2012

LS8 and the end

In summer 2010 the news came: LunarStorm is closing. *KJAAAM*. The radio called it the virtual youth club of the 80s kids, shutting down. The successor LS8 never had the same life, and in the end came “We're taking a break..”.

Behind the scenes: 8 August 2010: “*KJAAAM* Lunarstorm is dead, long live LS8.” The successor falls silent and the domains eventually point somewhere else.

How we talked: *KJAAAM*LS8Vi tar en paus.. (We're taking a break..)

Rick wrote in your guestbook

The revolution my generation sees in Facebook and Twitter today already happened ten years ago.

From: LS8 in closed beta
Feb 2010

LS8 in closed beta

“LunarStorm version 8” is tested by 2,000 invited users. The Varberg company Emya builds a new LunarStorm from scratch.

Read more
  • LS8 was run by lumbus and TheQ, two of the first members of LunarCrew.
  • Hallands Nyheter (HN), the local paper in Varberg's region, 2010-02-21: “När Lunarstorm var internet” (When Lunarstorm was the internet), a big retrospective.
  • Rickard was running SciPark at the time.
  • Marcus Keinänen Sandgren, who made the commercial “Keinanen P16” at 16 in 2007, was member editor at LS8.

With: Emya, Marcus ”Keinanen” Keinänen Sandgren, Andreas ”lumbus” Ödman, Jonny ”TheQ” Johansson

Sources: HN: När Lunarstorm var internet · Feber: Hejdå Lunarstorm!

5 Aug 2010

“The 80s generation's virtual youth club closes down”

P4 Sjuhärad, Swedish public radio's local station in Sjuhärad: young people remember how almost the whole class was there. The media strategist: Facebook pulled the friends over.

Read more
  • Brit Stakston: “perhaps you're not good and fast enough to anticipate the users' needs.”
  • “The predecessor to Lunarstorm was formed in 1996, but in 2000 the site got its current name.”

Sources: SR P4 Sjuhärad: 80-talisternas virtuella fritidsgård stängs ner

8 Aug 2010

LunarStorm closes. *KJAAAM*

“Now we're closing Lunarstorm … *KJAAAM* Lunarstorm is dead, long live LS8.” After just over ten years, the site goes dark.

Read more
  • The farewell text: “After just over 10 years, it is time to let the memories take over and bid farewell to an era in Swedish internet history.”
  • Members could import their presentation, gallery and blog to LS8.
  • Members' diaries, guestbooks and Kollage pictures disappeared with the site. The prologue: “The teenage identity of two million Swedes. Gone.”

Sources: lunarstorm.se 2010-08-12 (the farewell page) · LS8 2010-10-19: “Den 8'e augusti 2010 stängde vi ner sajten” · SvD 2010-08-30 (“Den 8 augusti i år stängdes Lunarstorm”) · Internetmuseum-podden #7: Rickard Eriksson och Andreas Harnemo

Oct 2012

The domains point to Hamsterpaj

lunarstorm.se and ls8.se start redirecting to Hamsterpaj. In the book draft: “In 2012 LunarStorm went dark for the last time.”

Read more
  • Trivia 2012: the Christian Democrats urged their representatives to meet voters on LunarStorm, two years after the closure (the Swedish news site Nyheter24, 2016).

Sources: Wikipedia sv: Lunarstorm · Nyheter24 2016-08-17 (the KD anecdote)

Meanwhile in real life

While we sat at the computer, this happened. Pick a year.

The web
Gadgets
Music
At the cinema
On TV
Celebrities
Sweden
The world
What did it cost?
New words
More from 2010–2012 (6)
  1. “What happened to Lunarstorm?”. Rickard in the local paper Smålandsposten: at most, 300,000 people a month paid for something. The decline: fragmented surfing and people's own blogs.
  2. The closure is announced. Wyatt Media Group: LunarStorm closes this summer and is replaced by LS8. From 1.6 million unique visitors a week to 100,000.
  3. “Zuckerberg biggest, but Eriksson first”. A portrait in Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), a national daily newspaper: “Mark Zuckerberg in Palo Alto is without doubt the biggest, but Rickard Eriksson in Varberg was first.”
  4. Nyheter24 buys Wyatt Media Group. The group behind the Swedish news site Nyheter24 takes over LunarStorm, LS8, Bilddagboken and Tyda. LS8 pauses as early as June to July.
  5. LS8 falls silent. The successor LS8 goes inactive during autumn 2011. According to a fact box in Hallands Nyheter (HN), the local paper in Varberg's region, the Swedish news site Nyheter24 shuts down LunarStorm in October 2011.
  6. “LS8: We're taking a break..”. The front page announces that LS8 is paused “due to lack of engagement”. The break becomes permanent.

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Did you meet your first love in a discussion forum? Make friends for life in a club? Laugh at a diary you still remember? Tell us! The best memories become part of the anniversary.

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2012–2026

The afterlife

But the memories were never switched off. Members built the nostalgia site Stajlplejs, P3 and the papers asked “remember?”, and for the 20th anniversary the LunarStorm members went on a cruise with the Graffiti Wall (Klotterplanket) and Bjarne on board. Now it is 30 years ago. What was your name?

Behind the scenes: Nostalgia sites, documentaries on Sveriges Radio P3, Lunar20 at sea, Bjarne moonwalking. And now 30 years since Stajl Plejs Community, 18 October 2026.

How we talked: Vad hette du på LunarStorm? (What was your name on LunarStorm?)kjamizå (and)tebax (back)nunor (mugs, profile pics)Glad pjosk!

Rick wrote in your guestbook

Every new generation gets questioned by the adult world, and we became a bit like the 2000s version of jazz music, rock music and video violence.

From: “LunarStorm was the rock music of the 2000s”
HN, 10 Aug 2016 (facsimile)
9 Aug 2016

“LunarStorm was the rock music of the 2000s”

Ahead of the 20th anniversary: the local paper Hallands Nyheter (HN) and the regional daily Hallandsposten on the Yellow Villa, Bjarne, kjamiz and Rickard's wordplay “å” and “tebax”.

Read more
  • Rickard says he coined the Lunar language: kjamiz, å, tebax.
  • The Hallandsposten version has the headline “jazz music”.
  • HN, 10 Aug 2016: the Lunar language (kjamiz, å, tebax) is Rickard's own work: “I love playing with words.”
  • The web headline “the rock music of the 2000s” is a shortening of Rickard's comparison with jazz music, rock music and video violence.

Sources: HN: Lunarstorm var 2000-talets rockmusik · Hallandsposten: Lunarstorm var 2000-talets jazzmusik

Sveriges Radio picture 2016
17 Aug 2016

20 years: “Absolutely the world's first social medium on the web”

Swedish public radio's P4 Östergötland and P4 Extra interview Rickard ahead of the 20th anniversary. He talks about the BBSes and about being called an idiot.

Read more
  • P4 Extra: “So basically what you do on Facebook today, people did twenty years ago on Lunarstorm.”
  • The good party host: “If someone's sitting there a bit quiet … maybe you can pair that person up with someone else.”
  • The Swedish news site Nyheter24 and the local paper Motala & Vadstena Tidning (MVT) the same day: the cruise and the book plans.
  • Rickard: “There are still more than two million people who grew up digitally on Lunarstorm … in much the same way that older generations associate the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. You feel a kind of warmth.”
  • According to Rickard, the nostalgics are aged “26 to 38” (2016).

Sources: SR P4 Östergötland: Lunarstorm firar 20 år · SR P4 Extra: 20 års-jubileum för Lunarstorm · Nyheter24: Lunarstorm fyller 20 år, så ska det firas · MVT: Lunarstorm har återuppstått · SR Förmiddag i P4 Östergötland (full interview, Rickard's SoundCloud)

Group photo from Lunar20 2016
The free daily Metro, 14 Oct 2016 (facsimile)
Mitt i Östermalm, 11 Oct 2016 (facsimile)
15 Oct 2016

Lunar20: the cruise on M/S Birka

A 20th anniversary party at sea on 15 to 16 Oct: the Graffiti Wall (Klotterplanket), Lajv and Diskus in analogue form, a LunarParty, nunor and Bjarne handing out hugs.

Read more
  • Departure Saturday 15 Oct at 18:00 from the Stadsgården terminal, back 16 Oct at 15:45 (the contract).
  • Over 2,000 registered interest on Facebook; the goal was 500 guests. Booking code EVLUNAR20.
  • 65 “nunor”, the participants' mobile photos, were uploaded during the evening.
  • Two members celebrated 15 years of friendship that began on the Graffiti Wall.
  • The plan: a book and a TV documentary about “the Swedish community miracle”.
  • Rickard in August 2016: about 2,500 had registered interest in the Facebook event and 7,000 had visited the event site. Hence the campaign video “2500”.

Sources: Nyheter24 2016-08-17 · Företagshistoria: Lunarstorm 20 år! · Sweclockers: Puzz, kjam och smajl: Lunarstorm fyller 20 år · SR Förmiddag i P4 Östergötland (full interview, Rickard's SoundCloud)

The picture series for the blog (22 pictures)
The picture series for the blog (22 pictures)
The picture series for the blog (22 pictures)
29 March 2020

The blog series “The world's first social medium on the web”

Rickard writes LunarStorm's history on his blog, with 22 pictures. In August the Facebook group “Jag var med på LunarStorm” (I was on LunarStorm) gets a new cover.

Read more
  • The Stajl logo recreated as a vector (stajllogo.ai) the same day.
Rick in a cap and headphones in front of a studio microphone, ahead of the radio interviews on 16 October 2026
16 Oct 2026

Rick on Radio Aftonbladet and P4 Halland

Two days before the 30th anniversary, Rick talks on Radio Aftonbladet, the tabloid's web radio, and P4 Halland, Swedish public radio's local station in Halland, about Stajl Plejs, the guestbook, *kjamiz* and how AI built the jubilee site. Listeners send in their old nicknames.

Radio Aftonbladet, 16 October 2026, about 08:10
Förmiddag i P4 Halland, 16 October 2026, about 11:15
P4 Halland's news segment: 30-årsjubileum för Lunarstorm, 16 October 2026 (1:07) · Sveriges Radio →
Read more
  • On Radio Aftonbladet, Rick explains that he was called Rick, R-I-C-K: he was first and could pick whatever name he wanted.
  • Listeners sent in their old nicknames, including Extreme Tiger Girl, Leffe Number One and Grym-Ellie. One of the presenters was Lindis80.
  • Rick made up words like *kjamiz* and fiffa å moffa, partly to avoid computer words and abbreviations.
  • P4 Halland interviews Rick in the studio in Varberg, a stone's throw from the old customs house (Tullhuset) where LunarStorm had its office.
  • The average visit to LunarStorm was about 42 minutes, roughly as much time as we spend on social media today, but back then in one long visit.
  • One of the biggest moments was when Nationalencyklopedin wrote its own entry on LunarStorm: then it was validated by the adult world.
  • P4 Halland sums up the interview in a news segment of its own: at most LunarStorm had 75 employees and a turnover of SEK 100 million, and the jubilee site was built from 47,000 old emails and some 100,000 files.

Sources: Sveriges Radio: Förmiddag i P4 Halland (16 October 2026) · Sveriges Radio P4 Halland: 30-årsjubileum för Lunarstorm: Störst när vi kom med i ordboken · Aftonbladet: Radio Aftonbladet (16 October 2026)

Hallands Nyheter, Friday 23 October 2026: the front page “De tog internets mittpunkt till Varberg” and the spreads on pages 8 to 11, “Lunarstormgrundaren: Vi var ju faktiskt först i världen”
17 Oct 2026

Hallands Nyheter: The story of Lunarstorm, “We actually were first in the world”

Ahead of the 30th anniversary, Hallands Nyheter (HN), the local paper in Varberg's region, tells the whole story, from the villa slated for demolition in the Willys car park to Tullhuset, with the people who founded, built and ran LunarStorm: Rick, lumbus, TheQ, Kjell Sallén and Vilhelm Schottenius.

Read more
  • Rick says one of the keys was thinking about the viewer: why should everyone have to ask who you are and where you're from, when you can create a profile and say it there?
  • In the Stajl Plejs days it could take half an hour to log in, because the server was so overloaded. That made Rick realise there was something here that didn't exist anywhere else.
  • Car parks in Varberg had Lunar written on them, and it became the tourists' big selfie thing. Few knew that LunarStorm was based right there.
  • lumbus remembers that for a period around 8,000 new members joined every day, and that you could pick the clothing style “Ullared” (the famous bargain department store) in your profile.
  • TheQ met his girlfriend on Stajl Plejs. Their daughter was born in 2001, so they were among the first to have a Lunar baby.
  • Rick on the train journey: “I work at Spotify and got interested in programming because I sat decorating my krypin on Lunarstorm.”
  • In the print paper the article only appeared on Friday 23 October, with the front page “De tog internets mittpunkt till Varberg” (They brought the centre of the internet to Varberg) and four pages inside, where a fact box presents five key people in LunarStorm's history.

With: Andreas Ödman (lumbus), Jonny Johansson (TheQ), Kjell Sallén, Vilhelm Schottenius

Sources: Hallands Nyheter: Historien om Lunarstorm: ”Vi var ju faktiskt först i världen” (17 October 2026, paywall)

Svenska Dagbladet, Sunday 18 October 2026, page 17: “Lunarstorm changed their lives: More taboo to meet on the internet back then”
18 Oct 2026

Svenska Dagbladet on the Lunar couples who met on LunarStorm

On the 30th anniversary, Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), a national daily newspaper, writes about everyone who fell in love on LunarStorm. According to a survey Rick did in the early 2000s, there were already around 5,000 married Lunar couples back then.

Read more
  • SvD meets a couple in south Stockholm who started chatting on LunarStorm when they were 16 and 18 and are still together: “We're eternally grateful to Lunarstorm.”
  • The couple remember the guestbook, the message in a bottle and the Graffiti Wall (Klotterplanket), and that meeting someone on the internet was more taboo back then.
  • Rick says LunarStorm was built for girls first and foremost, from the colours and the graphic design to what the features were called. In the end, about half the members were women and half men.
  • LunarStorm turning 30 makes Rick feel “bloody old”.

Sources: Svenska Dagbladet: Lunarstorm fyller 30, de möttes på forumet: ”Tacksamma” (18 October 2026, paywall)

20 Oct 2026

P3 Morgonpasset talks LunarStorm

Two days after the 30th anniversary, David Druid and Linnea Wikblad talk about LunarStorm on Morgonpasset i P3, the morning show on Sveriges Radio's national youth channel: about nicks, krypins, anonymity before Facebook and which community you belonged to.

Morgonpasset i P3, 20 October 2026, about 07:49
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  • The presenters read about the jubilee site in the Swedish advertising and media magazine Resumé and muse about a LunarStorm for their own generation, instead of today's dating apps.
  • “I'm called Wintergirl16 even though I'm 14, because I want some room to grow.”
  • On LunarStorm you were anonymous behind your nick. It was only with Facebook that you got a profile with your whole life on it.
  • The orange-apricot graphics with touches of mossy turquoise bring back memories, as do the profiles with poems, song lyrics and patterns made of brackets and quotation marks.

With: David Druid, Linnea Wikblad

Sources: Sveriges Radio: Morgonpasset i P3 (20 October 2026)

Still from SVT Halland's feature: Rick in front of a montage of old LunarStorm pages and Stajlplejs NostalgiWatch the clip on SVT (1 min), in Swedish →
23 Oct 2026

SVT Halland: The founder brings Lunarstorm back to life with AI

SVT Halland, Swedish public television's local news, makes a video feature about the jubilee site. Rick has had AI compile 47,000 emails and thousands of pictures, and on the site you can type your old alias, leave a message in the guestbook and build your own krypin.

Read more
  • The feature is just over a minute long, with nostalgic sounds and Rick talking about LunarStorm and the time travel on the jubilee site.
  • “My idea was that everyone would hang out digitally”, says Rick about the time when he started programming what became LunarStorm.
  • The article comes with a small glossary of nostalgic words from the site: krypin, Bjarne, gästbok (guestbook) and lajv.
  • Marcus Alakangas and Casandra Hallberg made the feature. Ten years earlier, in 2016, SVT Halland marked LunarStorm's 20th anniversary.

Sources: SVT Nyheter Halland: Grundaren väcker Lunarstorm till liv med AI, nostalgiresa (23 October 2026)

Meanwhile in real life

While we sat at the computer, this happened. Pick a year.

The web
Gadgets
Music
At the cinema
On TV
Celebrities
Sweden
The world
What did it cost?
New words
More from 2012–2026 (34)
  1. The memorial page on neenya.com. Rickard publishes LunarStorm's history, FAQ and the linslus (camera hog) gallery on neenya.com/lunarstorm, later lunarstorm.nu.
  2. Rickard moves to Motala, for a while. Long after the closure, Rickard lives in Motala for about eight years. That is why the Östergötland press covers the 20th anniversary.
  3. Facebook turns ten, and P3 remembers LunarStorm. In a column on Sveriges Radio P3, the national youth channel, LunarStorm is called “the Swedish Facebook of its day”, where we built a whole persona around strange usernames.
  4. P3: “Lunarstorm went to its grave, but Hamsterpaj lives on”. Rickard and Hamsterpaj's Johan Höglund on Sveriges Radio P3, the national youth channel, about the death of the Swedish communities: the acquisition boom, text messaging and broadband.
  5. Swedish internet pioneers. The Swedish Internet Foundation (Internetstiftelsen) interviews Rickard in its series on Swedish internet pioneers. Nine minutes on BBSes, Stajl and 30 percent paying.
  6. LunarStorm at the Internet Museum. Sweden's first internet museum opens, with “Lunarstorm blir ett av världens första webbcommunity” (Lunarstorm becomes one of the world's first web communities) on its timeline.
  7. “Vem vet mest?”: the warm-up begins. The quiz video “Vem vet mest” (Who knows the most) and the Facebook page “Jag var med på LunarStorm” (I was on LunarStorm) wake up the old members.
  8. The nostalgia site Stajlplejs opens. Ordinary LunarStorm members build a tribute site with all of LunarStorm's features and call it Stajlplejs. 3,100 members in five days.
  9. P3: Brownish orange and ice blue. On PP3, a programme on Sveriges Radio P3, the national youth channel, Rickard tells how the colours and the iconic profile pictures came about. The same day the satire show Tankesmedjan pokes fun at the comeback.
  10. The Internetmuseum podcast: LunarStorm meets Skunk. In the podcast from the Swedish Internet Museum (Internetmuseum), Rickard and Skunk founder Andreas Harnemo talk about the pioneering spirit of the 90s. Later: a 54-minute video interview.
  11. SVT Halland: “20 years since Lunarstorm was born”. SVT Halland, Swedish public television's local news, runs a feature on the 20th anniversary. The video has been removed, the text remains.
  12. Sweddit becomes Swedditstorm. Ahead of the 20th anniversary, the moderators restyle Reddit's Swedish forum r/sweden in LunarStorm style. The users respond with *fnizz* and krypin nostalgia.
  13. “Rickard Eriksson still breathes social media”. A portrait in Hallands Nyheter (HN), the local paper in Varberg's region, 20 years after the start.
  14. Nyheter24 sells Bilddagboken and Hamsterpaj. The heirs are sold on by the Swedish news site Nyheter24. Who owns the LunarStorm brand today is unclear.
  15. Kapitalet: “The Swede behind the world's first social network”. The business podcast Kapitalet devotes an episode to Rickard: from the BBS and the Björn Borg server to PRO and 1.2 million active users. “The world's first social network.”
  16. “The good party host”: Rickard on P4 Halland. On P4 Morgon i Halland, the morning show on Swedish public radio's local station in Halland, Rickard explains the success: he was never a computer nerd but an amateur social anthropologist who studied how people meet.
  17. Rickard moves home to Varberg. After about eight years in Motala, Rickard moves back to Varberg, the town where it all began.
  18. Göteborgs-Posten: What it was like to use the internet in 2000. Göteborgs-Posten (GP), the Gothenburg daily, looks back at the web in 2000. Rickard talks about the modem, the guestbook and why young people today want content to disappear.
  19. Podcast: “We were 10 years ahead of Facebook in everything”. Rickard on the podcast Kommunikation med Svensson & Mattisson about LunarStorm as a forerunner. The audio file has since been removed.
  20. Göteborgs-Posten: “How Sweden became first in the world with internet communities”. A big retro feature in Göteborgs-Posten, the Gothenburg daily, and in the Halland papers Hallandsposten and Hallands Nyheter: at most 75 employees, about 50 communities that followed and lost guestbooks.
  21. 25 years: Bjarne moonwalks. The day before the 25th anniversary, the jubilee film is published with a newly animated Bjarne: moonwalk, gym class and sleepwalking. LunarStorm 2.0 is sketched out.
  22. The Guldägget award plaque turns up at the pawnshop. The Swedish advertising and media magazine Resumé chases the story: the plaque was pawned in 2016 and bought at auction for SEK 875 by a collector.
  23. LunarStorm on TV4, probably Nyhetsmorgon. A segment on TV4, Sweden's largest commercial channel, highlights LunarStorm: “if Lunarstorm had come about in Silicon Valley, Facebook wouldn't have been called Facebook.”
  24. Stajlplejs Nostalgi pauses and comes back. After eight years, the fans' tribute site closes in January 2024. But it comes back: from 2025 it opens as events, and in 2026 more and more people find their way home again. Over 40,800 registered.
  25. “We turned over 100 million, then I sold and quit”. A half-hour interview in Arvika: the BBSes, the profile, the guestbook, the financing and the decision to quit at the tenth anniversary party.
  26. Epilogue: from social media to AI. P4 Halland, Swedish public radio's local station in Halland: the LunarStorm founder now teaches companies to use AI. Social media was “just a small detail in history”.
  27. “Underbara LunarStorm” released on streaming services. Robert Jonsson officially releases “Underbara LunarStorm” (Wonderful LunarStorm) via ROJO Records, 25 years after the original.
  28. Framtidslöftet: LunarStorm in internet history. Urban Lindstedt, who visited the customs house (Tullhuset) in spring 2000, highlights LunarStorm and Rickard in the book Framtidslöftet and discusses the site on the podcast Historia.nu.
  29. The book about LunarStorm: the prologue is written. Rickard writes the prologue to a book about LunarStorm: the server that burned, the PRO miracle, the tsunami night and the members.
  30. LunarStorm in popular culture 2026. The comedy collective Charken stages the revue “Lunarstorm i ett vattenglas” (Lunarstorm in a glass of water) and Felmarginal releases the song “Lunarstorm” (Sep 2026).
  31. Neenya: the LunarStorm feeling comes back to life. Rickard builds Neenya with krypin, guestbook and stamping feet, “spontaneously vibe-coded over a weekend in June”.
  32. 30 years since Stajl Plejs Community. On 18 October 2026 it is 30 years since Rickard started Stajl Plejs Community in Varberg. The jubilee site opens.
  33. Dagens Media and Resumé: Web classic Lunarstorm rises again. The day after the 30th anniversary, the Swedish media trade magazine Dagens Media and the advertising and media magazine Resumé write about the jubilee site: the timeline, the jubilee film with Rick's AI-cloned voice, the walk through Lunarcave and the answers to old mysteries from 47,000 emails.
  34. Hallands Nyheter on the couples who found love on LunarStorm. Hallands Nyheter (HN), the local paper in Varberg's region, meets two couples who found each other in LunarStorm's chats, in Kinna in 2001 and in Skåne in 2006. One couple celebrates 25 years this year, the other is married with three children.

Thanks for being part of it. *kjamiz*

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Share your memories with #LunarStorm30

Do you really miss LunarStorm?Rick has built Neenya, a new meeting place with a krypin, a guestbook and stomping feet. Come in and say hi.Want to log in for real again?Stajlplejs Nostalgi still has the krypin, guestbook, Lajv and the Graffiti Wall. Built by members, for members (in Swedish).