Leaderboard

OB was the last forum-based internet community I was a part of, I think; since then, I've been involved with a small, close-knit game streaming community for several years now. And although there's something about message boards that I miss, an itch that remains unscratched, every time I find a new one that I think I might like to take part in, I'll sign up, browse the boards, look for a thread I might like to participate in, and... eh. I just kinda lose the motivation to participate. Is it because message boards used to be more or less the only way to be social online, and now that need is filled by a newer generation of shallower, more immediate social networking services? Is it because I found OB in my more vulnerable teenage years and I just don't need that kind of community in my life anymore? Is it because OB back in the day really was just a lot more lively and special than these other places I've tried out since then? I dunno.   Maybe we don't come back because observation has taught us that nostalgia is a siren song, and if we try to rebuild the special thing we once had we'll only find that we can't just reach into the ether, grab the spark of meaning that once imbued it, and shove it back in again. I'm different, you're different, the world's different, and they can't ever be the same again.   But that's just what observation has taught us, and sometimes observation is wrong. Like AmbyCakes referred to (excuse me, AmbyCakes. Almost forgot all the old post styling conventions!), the magic of forums is asynchronous communication. It's actually not a big deal for us to get back togetherâ??no commitment, no co-ordination, no planning. Just gotta hop on, make a post, and hop back off until someone else replies. We like to think that "life got in the way", but you know what? Most of us are probably twenty-somethings with ten or a hundred times better internet connections than we had back in the day, and desk jobs with plenty of hours to slack off during. And yeah, we've all changed, but guess what else: most of us have probably become way cooler and more interesting than we used to be. Because guys, I love you, but have you gone back through any old threads lately? A lot of that **** we posted back then was pretty cringe-worthy. I don't really want to be an anxious teenager talking about the Matrix again. I'd rather be an adult talking about the Matrix.   And I'd rather hear about the new things you guys are into, too, and the interesting lives you led when you were away from OB. Did you guys know Sara got married? Ok a lot of you probably did because of Facebook, but isn't that cool?! We should talk about stuff like that.   I think forums probably ended because they stopped being what we thought they had to be: our online homes. Maybe this one can live again as something else: our online neighborhood bar (yeah, you know what that is before you even click). A place that doesn't fill our deep emotional needs, it just greets us with warmth, familiar faces and good conversation whenever we feel like popping in.   And if, like Boo expressed, we wanted to do this somewhere without the ostensible focus on anime, maybe we could goad Tony into re-establishing Orange Lazarus; that was the real cool kids' club anyway.