Tribute thread - 20 years ago today!

on that fateful morning, a poster with the moniker Pirdboop went on a profanity filled rant for many posts. Due to the holiday, the posts stayed up for a good while.

So the whole thing got unplugged because one guy was acting a fool one single day?

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that’s kinda hilarious.

I think there was already some minor grumbling from some of the elders about the Water Cooler having a number of discussions that were not “professional”. But the thanksgiving spew was so over the top that it prompted some immediate draconian measures that killed off the water cooler.

Where is @Jables to tell us this isn’t the greatest thread in the world?

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I was there on Compuserve. Those were the good old days before fences.

Then I thought that was shut down, maybe the SOA tried introducing their forum which died a quick death since they required non-anonymity. I recall a few iterations trying to find forum software before the admins settled on phpbb. Somehow we were communicating with each other. I don’t recall how. The rebel site took off. The desert died. …Space Lobster, He who must not be named, flash mob at the reef, … DWS, here we are.

I never went to the exam subforum. (yes I’m that old and once I finished with exams, I never looked back)

Wasn’t the flash mob at the reef egged on by those wacky CAS refugees?

And the Fair thread.

Did anyone ever use Flashchat at the old AO? I popped on there once or twice, but it seemed like not much was ever going on.

yes, a lot back in the day! We even had a meetup in Chicago centered around people who hung out in flashchat in 2006. It became less popular in later years though.

Ah. I didn’t join the AO until 2015 I think, so I never saw it in its heyday.

yeah, at some point the next next new number one thread in the reef and also social groups replaced flashchat.

Do you not remember doing a Pathfinder adventure with . . . some others . . .?

I do remember that actually! That was fun. But it was scheduled fun. I was curious if people just “hung out” in flashchat. Sounds like I missed that era.

I didn’t really like having to always be “on” in flashchat. felt like the expectations were too high there. my own insecurities. I liked social groups and the next next new number one thread better in that regard.

I had my first shot of alcohol ever at that flashchat 2006 gathering in Chicago.

I was a late adopter of alcohol consumption.

I’m sure someone pulled down and saved the Fair thread during the AO death throes. It lives.

I went on flash chat a few times. Social anxiety extends to online. Drinking helped with that tho.

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Yep, flashchat was good for a casual evening of low-stakes socialization.

i think me and jfg are saying that we had social anxiety even in flashchat, low-stakes or not.

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Fair enough, just speaking for myself.