Good to know a bit more of the history of Eurobricks, since also I joined later (September 2008). I did visit EB and Classic-Pirates a lot before that date though (half a year?), just didn't bother to sign up.
I discovered Eurobricks while googling for Napoleonic minifigs (metal ones from Old Glory actually) and bumped into Bonaparte's Imperial armies thread. Since I always liked LEGO and still had my old and quite large collection, including about 50 bluecoats and a dozen or two of redcoats, I decided to start building my own Napoleonic army with LEGO as well, next to my metallic Old Glory army.