I have a feeling that the old-timers feel that it has changed somehow on a very basic level. Has it?

More young'uns.

How were the topics different?

I'd like to say less bitching, but that might be the golden patina of nostalgia.

I'd say SR4 gave some people a single target to focus their bitching.

It was a controlled level of childish behavior, as opposed to being childish for its own sake.

And, yes, I am casting aspersions.

I seem to recollect back when I first joined there were a lot more topics about 'how do you interpret these rules' or 'how do you do this', a lot more stuff on house-rules. A lot less complaining about SR4 (except in jest). Seems like a lot of our non-troll crazies didn't hang around for very long, but that might just be my poor memory.

Master Shake was mad crazy trollish.

Yeah, but he was never here for very long. He'd just show up, troll a thread, then vanish.

Polaris also hung on for a decent amount of time before he finally got sick of being demonstrated wrong.

Just never ask yourself "WHAT WOULD XENA DO?"

(Though I keep thinking I'll wake up and find that posted again…)

~J

Every tenth thread was "invisibility/invulnerability?"

Funkenstien wasn't a troll; an abrasive asshole, sure, but always genuine (which was why we always knew who he was, despite the name changes). Polaris and Master Shake were not him, nor were they each other, as near I can tell.

I took a lot of time off from the interweb and its been a really long time since I seen any of those guys, so I guess I misremembered.

There were less posts by emo samurai. And I guess I would like him to write less again, not nothing, but not dominate by volume also.

I miss some of the old posters, even if I seldom liked their style or opinions, and wrote so at the time. Dr. F, Laughlyn, the long chain of very expressly gay (what were their names again?) ...

Fair enough... Wait, no way.

I WANNA SEE A LOUNGE GRRR

I actually enjoy a good flamewar, if only because the other person is inevitably slower than my rapier wit.

If I could get one person to return to regular posting, it would be Doc Funk. It's probably better for his blood pressure that he isn't here, but I miss him.

~J

Cool, which ones?

I think we were hashing out the rules and experimenting with house rules more - but it was dealing with the more complicated stuff, like how targetting worked with astral perception. Now there are more basic rule questions and "pimp my character" threads (although to be fair, the majority are looking for feedback on how coherent their backstory is and whether they have made any major mistakes or omissions - not too many of them are trying to create the perfect combat machine. And the ones that are usually get all of the weaknesses of their botched min-maxing pointed out to them). There were still plenty of min-maxing experiments back then, too, although they were more theoretical than practical - they were number-crunching monstrosities, not characters intended for play.

There are some posters I miss, but some I don't. I think I am so tolerant of Emo because he actually seems kind of mild after Chad H, Crazy Elf, lorg, and others that I remember (uh, not to cast any aspersions on those fine gents or anything ). The Lounge was actually pretty fun for awhile, but I think shutting it down was the right decision - the flaming was getting out of hand, and I can see how it was becoming a big headache for the mods to deal with.

I think the forums are still going pretty strong. They have always had long stretches where all of the questions seem banal, but then a batch of more interesting threads comes along.

Banal? My questions are banal? :.(..

I know what banal means, which is why I was all insulted and shit.

Huh? I don't get it. And the "insulted and shit" part was ironic.

Then recognize its use in other places.