My story will, likely, be a bit unique. I was actually someone who browsed, from time to time, POTN. I'm not sure if I ever even registered there. I just enjoyed looking at the photographs. Thinking about it right now, I feel like I have an unhealthy obsession with photography given the fact that I've never done it and probably won't be doing it anytime soon. Actually, that's not true. I rented a camera one time, and pretended to be a photographer at a sporting event but the photos came out terrible and I decided now was not the time, but I digress.
When POTN closed down, I followed the photographers to another forum that had a focus on photography, again just to enjoy looking at all the photos. Somehow, even though I didn't visit the site enough, I remembered Levina's name from the site. Maybe has something to do with her being the leading poster there?
Anyways, because I have a background in forum administration, I also frequent the XenForo forums regularly. While there one day, back in late November (the 27th actually, which turned out to be ironic later), I come across a thread where Levina was somewhat explaining her "situation". Mainly just asking if there was anything that can be done. I wasn't aware that she had the knowledge to start up a forum on her own, so I sent her a DM on XF and offered to partner up with her to create something new. She rejected my offer, saying that she just wanted to take some time and that she was considering starting something on her own. After what had happened to her, I fully accepted and respected her decision to go at it alone rather than with a partner.
Exactly one month later, on December 27th, I was (again) browsing the XenForo forums and I came across another post by Levina that sounded like she'd started up a new site. So, again, I sent her a DM asking her if the site was open to the public yet. At the time it wasn't, but she opened it up so I could register to have a look around. We talked back and forth for a bit and she explained some problems that she was having, and why she was having them. Because I felt like she'd been wronged, and because this is something I'd seen many times during all my years as a forum administrator, and because I don't like it one single bit, I offered to help her out in any way I could...it's quite possible that some of you are here because of part of the help I offered her.
So, yeah, that's the long version of how i found this place. Short version: Levina invited me...