I remember back when gbatemp had GBA roms, that was a while ago.
I believe I initially discovered GBAtemp somewhat circuitously. Initially when I first started watching the developing GBA emu scene, there was another website that had started out very early on in the scene, and was fairly strong about posting good releases of GBA roms on a regular basis. I'm not sure if I can name it as I'm too lazy to see if it's still around and providing downloads. (Last I checked, it had devolved into a dead-link, outdated, ad-filled site, but it could have come back.)
EDIT: Okay, as far as I can tell, it's not still around, it was GBAetc
Anywho, I was very loosely involved in the message boards for the forementioned site, which at some point went down with the entire site for some reason. As a result, two different members ended up jumping on this opportunity, and created forums on their own as successor forums. I believe the names they used were "Leon" and "CrazySka".
I don't remember how official either board was, just that the 2 seperate names were rearranges of the original site's name. Leon, when he created his board advertised that he was looking for moderators, so I volunteered to manage the GBA Emu scene board. As I moderated, I noticed that more and more of the games posted seemed to be linking back to GBAtemp. After discovering it, I began regularly browsing it as it would frequently have the most current releases and was very reliable.
The two competing message boards faded into obscurity when an official one came back, and unrelatedly but around the same time, GBAtemp eventually decided to drop rom releases and focus on the message board. I remember being very disappointed and figured that I probably wouldn't end up browsing around here much longer. Yet, I created an account anyway, just in case I "needed it".
And I have needed it. Whether to just keep in touch with news from the scene, to see what old members are up to, to the invaluable help it was when I finally got around to buying my first and so far only flashcart (an EFA 256 mb, like 3 years ago).
And while I've been little more than a lurker since creating this account back in '02, long having lost the time required to post on boards, the tenacity, strength, and professionalism that this community has grown into continues to amaze me.
The fact that a website like this has stuck around so long is not only a reflection on it's creators, but on all of you as well. Congratulations GBAtemp. Here's to this year, and all the ones after that. 
like a 250 dollar kit back when DDR4 was Intel only
