I've been wondering at the new members that just show up and leave pretty much right after their first post. Did they realize how cancer it was that quickly or were they never planning to stay from the start? I'm really curious.

Maybe they saw that the handful of people who actually post on a regular basis have been here for years and have thousands of posts and a camaraderie amongst one another, and they felt scared to join the mix in any relevant manner.

Or maybe they saw people like Batty, OH, elph and froundland being assholes to everyone, and didn't want to risk the abuse.

This place was SUPER welcoming when I joined in 2004. Everyone was friendly, for the most part. If you acted like a bully or an asshole, you weren't glorified and imitated like nowadays, you were put in your place by everyone, because people actually cared about this place, not just using it as an outlet to get their jollies or harass people from the safety of a keyboard. But that was definitely a different age, as far as the intent goes.

Sad to see that you don't care about this place anymore.

Pfft. I wouldn't hang around if I didn't.

That might have something to do with the way of the internet in the 00's. Post-9/11 edginess has only been exacerbated since the 2010's rolled around.

In my experience, maybe like...4-5% of newcomers tend to stay around. Most are either here just to spam or post their music. Others just get a taste of it then sort of leave. The ones like us that see the heart of the place stick around. Yes, being around people that have been here for years can be intimidating but you learn it really doesnt matter. That's the nature of forums tho. This site gets a lot of traffic on Google so to expect every single search to be a promising new member is expecting a bit too much.

I've seen countless vintage threads and 95% of you people were dull, boring ****s with nothing interesting to say about anything.

There was a lot going on behind the scenes. There used to be a Facebook group. Members would interact on other platforms, much like they do today. It used to be a much friendlier place, but that can be said for the internet in general, which used to be a novelty. Now, everyone integrates it into their daily habits and it's become oversaturated and abused.

Also, eat a dick. I'm way more entertaining than you could ever hope to be.

You seem to think that the old way was better. Why did you change?

The internet was way worse back then, tbh. Before it went hard mainstream with **** like Myspace/Facebook and Ebay/Amazon, everything was super niche and skeevy as ****, and forums were mostly populated by trolls, scammers, and irrationally obsessed weirdos, without any post-memeist self awareness.

Those were the days when **** like Nigerian prince scams weren't the joke they are today, they were actually shockingly effective. And hackers had carte blanche to do whatever the **** they wanted, 'cause cops had no idea what the internet even was.

Talking to people online was awful. 90% of all interactions were just the word "penis" typed over and over, because repressed dorks couldn't get over how they could finally be rude to people without fear of being punched in the face. And even worse, people still thought "first!" was clever.

**** the og internet days.