Oh, my.
Thank you for the answers, Nacho4Sara.
This explains a lot of things I’ve come across in the &pagenum=300+ range.
And, yes, it appears you are ‘good’.
With curiosity satisfied and gratitude outflowing, wolfStu.
What a shock to see this resurected! Yeah, I’m still here.
Usually check the board daily. If I stay in the office over lunch, I surf & check the board. On weekends, I come here for a break from whatever else I’m absorbed in. Have too many other things going on to read all the threads so I don’t post much. Since the OP, there’s been quite an ebb and flow of SDMB regs. It’s been interesting watching people’s lives evolve.
Reader’s Digest version of Melingate as I recall it: Melin was a frequent poster and former moderator who got into an argument with other moderators. (Over what is very complicated to explain. It’s not completely clear to me, but if you’re really interested, read the threads where Ed Zotti posted.) Anyway, she was banned when she allegedly threatened a lawsuit or words to that effect. If it was an over-reaction or a joke, the management didn’t see the humor.
A group of posters were/are friends with Melin were upset that she was banned. Some chose to leave the boards in a show of support.
Yes, PunditLisa, Thank You again.
It’s sometimes impressive the amount of response a simple question can get in here.
Thank You, wolfStu.
My shelf life waxes and wanes. For the first 6 months that I was registered I posted many times a day, and spent a good deal of the time on this board, when I wasn’t in class or working. That amounted to a good 5-6 hours a day, although sometimes more. I visited so much that my boyfriend started to get jealous.
After Wally’s death though, I decided to take a break. My posting had been waning anyway. So I dropped out of site. No one noticed.
Now, almost a year after that, I have returned (Sans boyfriend). I have been visiting another forum, and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed the SDMB. I feel like I’m home, only home is now populated by a lot of strangers.
And they’ve made Coldfire a mod, purely an accident I’m sure. 
Aaaaah, well that explains it! I had wondered via link over to Opal’s message board and saw a bunch of names I knew but didn’t see over here anymore.
Makes sense now. Thanks for the explanation, Sara.
SinsApple,
I remember you!
and Old Broad, also!
Whom I’ve seen post now and again. Sins, now that you are sand boyfriend, you should have time to hang out with us again. (Men!)
I’ve been busy and distracted lately, and my post count definately has suffered, but I’d wager it’s gone unnoticed too. There are just so many people here!
And yes, that must have been an administrative typo to add ColdiClogs to the Mod list, but no one has fixed it yet. They are probably just way busy, and will attend to it soon.
I’m still a newbie, but I think most people post on the SDMB until the get bored by the repetitious quality of the threads or they get flamed into next week. As somebody pointed out recently (I think it was Lolagranola, I don’t recall the thread) boards are very difficult places for civilized debate. It often seems like most debates degenerate into * No, that I really said was…* pretty quickly (see the rather long “Now get off my fucking couch” thread in the BBQPit for an example, a woman made a joke about a sympathy blow, a man repeated the joke and flamed as pro-rapist). It’s also very easy to be cruel to people when you can’t see them. I’m trying to give up any form of debate because I’ve found people (probably me included) don’t read before responding. (Hi, I’m xtal and I’m a compulsive poster. Hi, xtal.) This tends to lower the quality of debate. Sarcasm and humor are also almost impossible to read, even with the use of gratuitous faces. :mad: :eek: I won’t leave the SDMB, I like Scylla’s posts too much, but I’ll stay out of the debates as much as I can.
I’ve been here since April of 1999. Not planning on leaving any time soon…
I don’t know xtal, I’ve been here at the SDMB for a long time (me love SDMB long time) and I have yet to be flamed into next week (one insult in Great Debates and that was it.) Since I became moderator another person insulted me in The BBQ Pit but I don’t count that one since it was in the exercise of my moderator duties so the insult was directed at the office, not the person.
I don’t want to cause mass wailing and gnashing of teeth, but…
I noticed (with my beady little eye) that the OP was from September of 1999, a couple of months before I even arrived here. When I got here, Melin was a well-known regular. The “Melingate” I’m familiar with took place sometime early in 2000, and involved…well, I don’t actually remember all of the things it involved, but it seemed to be the only topic of discussion on the board for a good week. Threats were bandied about, mods were incensed, and the happy world that was the SDMB before that day was irrevocably torn asunder.
From the averted looks and warding hand gestures made by some regulars above, it’s clear that there was an earlier “Melingate,” sometime in the summer of 1999. And, again, we can tell that the happy world that was the SDMB before that day was irrevocably torn asunder
Now, it looks to me as if Melin has a strange and wonderful power: she can embroil a board in massive controversy, and she does it roughly every six months. I’m wondering if anything earth-shattering has been happening over at Opal’s, since it seems to be due right about now. Has the happy world that was that board been irrevocably torn asunder?
(And was there a yet previous “Melingate,” in the misty halcyon days of AOL, when moderators lounged on clouds in the land of Steve Case and sipped nectar from fluted vessels?)
(Sure, there’s a good chance I’ll eventually regret this post. But a man’s reach must exceed his grasp, or else what’s a heaven for?)
::waves arms frantically:: I’m still here! My computer broke and I have to wait for it to be fixed under warranty. 
Thanks for making me feel noticed Aenea. Sans boyfriend, yes . . . but I still have the last semester of my degree to finish up. Not that I’m happy about being so busy. And yet, I still have spent atleast three hours or more a day on the site since I rejoined last week. I need ta set some priorities dammit!
Oh, and I’m sure the administration will take care of the slip-up with Coldfire soon. Don’t understand how that ever occured. I’d alert them, but I’m sure they know.
OldBroad: I’m glad your still around here. I like your cynisism and pluck.
Everbody, don’t forget that your Phobia is always near.
Member 636.
The members seem to go through the following stages:
- Lurker.
- Shy poster.
- Post till you drop.
- I’m not opening another one of your favorites posts. You open things that are new. You also remember the topics that were hot and throughly discussed. This is the point of the decline in your postings.
- You come and lurk, but don’t post alot.
I still see many of the original people posting. I just don’t see them post often.
ChiefScott was kind enough to bring me along. I met some wonderful people along the way. Left a couple of times, but returned because, where else on this computer do we get so many laughs? And believe it or not!! I have learned a few things. One being, every 10 days you must turn this thing off so you can cut the grass!!! 
Posters do seem to go through a cycle, of posting a lot/lapsing into lurker mode for a bit, and then coming back on strong.
I mostly keep the GD, but occasionally drop in on IMHO and MPSIMS. GQ is actually pretty fun, but I hardly ever get there, same w/BBQ Pit.
A note advice from a long term poster (don’t let the post count fool ya): develop a thick skin, and don’t let the regs. bully you around. If you post an opinion in IMHO or share something pointless, and a reg. jmps you, tell 'em to fuck off. Standing up to a reg. is a quick way to earn respect.
If you inject mindless drivel into a GD, expect scorn and ridicule (and rightly so!) but don’t take it personal. GD kinda operates like the British Parliament, where one side grumbles and harasses the other while they’re trying to say something.
Just slower than RL.
There’s a lot of smart people here. There even more who aren’t, but think they are. There’s a lot of good people here, as well, regardless of IQ/experience.
Many left after Melingate (II? III?), some left after Opalgate (II, IIRC; but I don’t remember what the first was all about), some just get tired and go looking for greener pastures (mostly from GD, I think)
I was intrigued by this, as Melin’s banning took place just two months before I registered, and I vaguely recalled hearing something about it at that time. What a soap opera. I’ve never seen the board so vehemently polarized over anything, which is most likely a good thing.
Oh, great. I come in here and find I am now inextricably linked to Melingate. That’s the last time I try to play SDMB historian…
Can’t I just be remembered for flirting shamelessly with Medea’s Child?
Altho i have been lurking for a while, I don’t know from “melin”. I just got a new home computer, so decieded to actually POST- have “lurked” almost a year, maybe.