I didn't want the site to shutdown without a chance to say good-bye. I guess I'm one of the "old-timers". I remember back in spring of 1998 when the old FASA-Trek mailing list buzzed with news of a new Star Trek game soon to come out. And the super-duper active LUG-Trek mailing lists which followed. We had lots of fun coming up with new ships, campaign ideas, new rules, adventure seeds, etc. This guy Don kept obsessing about the Drama Die if I recall correctly. And the LUG-Trek folks, especially Ross Isaacs, used to hang out with us too - they'd answer questions, true, but they'd also participate. And then some enterprising lad collected many of the best posts and ideas onto a website - named trekrpg.net, but it was accessed by some web address like iconnect.com/mappin or something like that.
In time message boards were added to this site - I wasn't sure they were needed - after all, we had a good community on the mailing list. But the message boards soon proved to be my favorite feature on the list - easier to find old posts, keep threads on topic, etc. I liked it so much that I volunteered, along with Owen, to help moderate things. People always think back to the "old days" to how things were better - whether it be in politics, sports, or message boards. To be honest, there were plenty of problems back then - flame wars on homosexuality, Starfleet marines, conspiracy theories from red water fowl who was convinced the administrators and moderators were out to get him.But it was always fun. The energy level waxes and wanes, just like any board, but its always been a place I liked to visit.
I don't seem to be as much of a regular as I used to be - I seem to have turned into a "Silent Bob" type.
Though I didn't post as much, I did still visit regularly - and enjoyed many of the threads I saw. I especially enjoyed Aslan's Ultimate Trek thread - I love the concept in comics and would love to try it in Trek some day (another thing which has changed - my current group is a D&D group - I'm finding myself in Trek withdrawl!) When I did run a Trek game, I got some awesome ideas from these boards. I had to forbid one of my players from reading some of the threads here until after I ran adventures based upon them!
To be honest, I enjoyed the political threads. Like everyone else, I too overreacted on occasion, for which I apologize to all. But for the most part, I enjoyed the debates. I especially liked talking with people who I disagreed with yet still respected - heck I enjoyed that more than talking with people who I agreed with. I've never met them, but I'd love to share a beer (or beverage of their choice) and hang out with folks like C5, Aslan, either of the Hunters, Evan, and many others - I doubt we'd ever convert each other, but we'd have a blast - and we'd be able to talk about Trek when things got too intense... (And for the record, every once in a while people who disagreed with did get me to change my views - not often, but it did happen!
I do hope that someone pickes up the boards - I'd hate to see the history go away. I'd love to say I could do that, but I know I couldn't - which makes me all the more amazed - and grateful - that Don did it for all those years. Thanks Don, Doug, all fellow-moderators, and all the members here for making this such a fun place.
I also find my current .sig especially appropriate for these last few days...
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