While I do feel posting here a month after the last post is a trifle close to nechromancy by the new thread age standards... Nonetheless I shall try to say my piece.
I don't feel like a 'leper' but I do still feel quite lost in the new forum. I always liked the fact that the threads ran long, and the topics had a chance to grow and mutate and become far more interesting, and often hilarious, before they reached 50 pages and got cut. Conversations were easier to play out without a chronological 'enddate', and since threads now END at the last post, new threads are often started days later, with no way to keep track of what was previously said.
I also desperately miss the 'Angst' corner. Yes, there was drama there (that was the point) and some of it was intense, but it was also cathartic to have a place to simply explode in text... Knowing you would have sympathy and empathy from intelligent friends. While I appreciate the efforts to create 'advice threads', most of the time I don't need or want ADVICE... I want to say "X really sucks and I hate it" and someone else can say "I know how you feel" "Feel better" "hugs" or some other heartfelt plattitude that helps get me through the day.
I know the place got ruined by people with too much drama. I know at least once I lost my head. I also know that what's done has been done. Probably for good. Probably forever. But I miss the old Macs. I miss my friends, and there's a void in my online social life where the old bar used to be. I miss the fun, the wackiness, and the way a thread could wander through twelve distinctly different subjects before it lost steam.
Like I said, what's done is done. I don't expect that what I'm saying will really affect a change, and I'm not deleting my account and running away. but I just had to say I miss the way it was. This place doesn't feel like home anymore, it feels more like a hotel... You're welcome to visit, just make sure your thread checks out on time.
That's all I'm going to say. Please don't take this to mean I need to get banned.