Kyla dear, your hug was one of my best take-homes from the Octoberfest.
I’m with Kyla on this one too.
I think it is definitely different. But not worse, or better. Just different.
Eh, things change. I don’t mind hanging around here even though I don’t generally have the same interaction I had, say, a year ago.
A lot of new people. That’s cool. I don’t mind being a member of the “old guard”, for what that’s worth. As long as I’m not forgotten, it’s all cool with me.
What Jack said.
After more than two years, the same parade of threads pops up, and I find myself wondering why I post to the ones I do. But I guess I like being part of something different to the rest of my life, a 24-hour community, even if it’s no substitute for the real world.
I don’t know exactly how to say this, so bear with me.
The quality of a relationnship is not, in any way, determined by duration. Sometimes something special happens, but it cannot be sustained. Friendships don’t have to be 'for life" to be important, signifigant, worthwhile, and valuable. If you have a good friend, whose company you enjoy a great deal becuase you share all sorts of things with them, that is a gift. And, if after a few years that friendship seems to have waned becuse of time, because of shifting interests, because of something you can’t even put your finger on, that is a bit sad, but it in no way invalidates what went before, or taints it, or anything like that. This is just what life is like.
However, I think it is important to watch how you talk about that old friend. It isn’t really cool to go around saying “me and Joe used to be good friends, but then he changed, and he isn’t so cool anymore: I dunno, he’s just different.” It’s not just Joe that changed: it’s you, too: growing apart is a mutual activity. ANd just because you don’t find anything worthwhile in Joe anymore, Idon’t think it’s right to assume that that means there isn’t anything worthwhile about Joe anymore, or that Joe’s new friends have a lower=qulaity friend than you did. People (and message boards) change over time. Sometimes they grow apart. But it’s about becoming different, not declining.
I od want to say, though, that I heartedly agree with ** Ruffian** about changing screen names: it is the only administrative policy that I have ever had any sort of problem with. I do think that allowing easy screen names has vastly decreased the feeling of community, becasue I simply can’t keep track. With the exception of people changes like Stoileda–> Stoid and SPOOFE bo diddly to SPOOFE, I haven’t retained any of the changes, and, for me, at least, the people who changed screennames suicided their old identities.
Oh man, I hope I didn’t imply that I thought the SDMB was declining in any way. Perhaps I didn’t express it well, but what I meant to say was exactly what you just said, Manda. i.e., that both the board and I had changed, neither for worse. Just that we are both different now.
I want to thank everyone for their reflections on this topic. It’s really helped me explore how I feel about the whole thing.
I went to a Dopefest last night and met some new Dopers. It really gave me the motivation to come to the board more often to check them out and meet more people. I think that connection one gets with other’s here is the best thing about this place. I mean, hell, I met my fiancee here ferchrissakes! 
What kyla said hit home, too. I couldn’t ever walk away completely from the board. It’s a part of me. Thanks again, all.
I can’t explain it either, Demo. It’s just different. I find fewer and fewer threads that peak enough interest in me to open, let alone participate.
I’ve been on the SDMB since the old AOL days. It’s depressing how fast the old regs are disappearing from the board.
I’ve felt the same way. I spend most of my MB time these days on the Unaboard. I come here, post a little, keep up with the threads I posted to through e-mail notification, and then, when those threads die, I don’t wander through again - sometimes for a few weeks. Like Mauvaise, I no longer really care what I miss.