Here's a history lesson that I've only shared with a few people. This is basically elaborating a tad on bosk's post.
dt.net/bb was run by Itch and Balrog... er, Borlag. If I remember correctly, Itchy got fed up and the forum basically imploded because of differences between the community and the administration. The plug was pulled, so we were all left to find various safe havens to reside at. It was at this point that Thalagyrt stepped up to provide the servers and domain name for dtf.com. Over the course of my tenure as a poster, I befriended Thalagyrt. We talked on a regular basis and shared guitar chops back and forth on the then-popular stickam chat sessions frequently filled with myself, Thal, Nick, and Jen.
One night Thal came to me with an idea. He proposed an idea of dropping any association with Dream Theater, as they were rarely the focus of the forum. I, and I assume a few others, eventually persuaded him that it would be a good idea. It was on that night while we were still in our AIM conversation that fiveeightforums.com was born.
I never told anybody this because there was a backlash that none of us imagined would happen. The community was split right down the middle. On one side, there were the posters who enjoyed the laid back style of fiveeight, where the band could be freely criticized. On the other hand, there were users angry at the association drop and the apparent "hijacking" of the forum by Thalagyrt. Thus, dreamtheaterforums.org was born.
I never told anyone that I had a part in this because I didn't want to be shunned by the community that I loved. There were some very valuable members who post solely on fiveeight that I still miss to this day. That being said, I love THIS community the most, and now, at this point in time, I am proud to have taken part in its creation, however small that part might have been.
Happy birthday, DTF.