Okay, looking back at old WTTS threads, why was Oct 2018 only 3 pages, 47 posts, and nobody said anything after Nov. 29?
https://engineerboards.com/threads/oct-2018-post-exam-wait-welcome-to-the-suck.32685/page-3
That was the first version of the WttS.
Prior to April '19: During every testing administration people would start new threads to ask a questions, or rant, or whatever about the exam and the wait. It was always the same the questions or arguments being posed. The vets would bounce between the threads and try to answer the same questions that they answered six months prior... or sometimes they would just troll. Inevitably one or two of those threads would take off and become the default "waiting thread" for that administration. You can think of those threads as proto-WttS.
These were the dominant threads the session I passed (oct 2014):
https://engineerboards.com/threads/results-delayed-this-year.24440/
https://engineerboards.com/threads/39-i-mean-40-days.24388/
https://engineerboards.com/threads/could-today-be-it.24446/
https://engineerboards.com/threads/in-summary.24467/
There were a few others, a couple of which were deleted because they got out of hand. i.e.: pencil lead
https://engineerboards.com/threads/graphite-administration-troubles-joke-or-no.24455/
Ahh the memories!
Oct 2014 is the prototypic example. It was like that every six months. It was difficult for the PE candidates to track of what was going on. It was difficult for the well meaning vets to triage. It was great for the trolling though. Back then people would create a State release thread in the relevant results subforum when they got their results. People would refresh the subforum page, and assume that results came out if they saw a State had released. That's why those fake results threads got such a rise out of people.
I came up with the idea of putting together a comprehensive thread as early as 2015. But I was way too busy with work and RL stuff to write it in 2015 or 2016. And it kinda dropped off my radar in 2017 and I forgot to do it for April '18. I finally wrote it for the October offering.
I posted the thread in the "anything about the PE exam" forum right after the exam. I wanted to get the information out there sooner. But that doesn't get it as much attention as if it were posted in the relevant results subforum. Those subforums aren't made until about a month or so after the exam, but the threads in those forums tend to have higher visibility, especially for people looking for a quick answer when they're stressed.
In Oct '18 the dominant wait thread was:
https://engineerboards.com/threads/oct-2018-pe-exam-results-will-come-out.32802/which started the day before the WttS became dormant.... probably not a coincidence
In April '19 I tried again. Largely copy/paste with a few minor updates. People were more familiar with it and the convivence it offered and it's become the default wait thread ever since.