MikeyG suggested I post this just so you all understand where I was coming from in leaving and maybe in the hopes that you'd understand me better.

About 2 years ago when I first started coming to stripcreator, I was a pretty pathetic, shallow, naive kid who had ideals that he couldn't stand for, opinions that were offensive and unrefined, and a manner that pissed off everyone on the board. Perhaps the same way I do now, but then it was for different reasons.

2 years ago we had itsclark, Dexx, ladyj, chicka, boorite, bunner, andydougan, gabe billings, wirthling, fuzzyman, drexle, kaufman, kajun, Bigevildan, crabby, and lara7 all routinely making intelligent yet funny posts. It was a very different time. The reason I pissed them off was because I was just plain stupid half the time, and made childish comments that exposed my lack of self-esteem. I got severely bashed by a lot of regs, and with pretty good reasons. However, as time went on I feel like I got a lot better, and managed to carve out a niche for myself here.

Slowly, all these regs disappeared and began to leave, taking with them the comic and adult sophistication that made stripcreator a proactive and, albeit crude, but good, a worthwhile community with plenty of positive interaction. I couldn't use any of these words to describe stripcreator today. Except for crude.

At any rate, I stayed because I really enjoyed talking with bunner and boorite, and even some of the more promising newer members, such as MikeyG, choad, chooby, and kitty, even though they were all initially disgusted by my now-permanent, consistent cloak of fundamentalist conservatism. But even the good times had with these grew more and more infrequent and instead all i seemed to see was a select group of posters berating me and flaming me in a unified manner. True, I dished out plenty, but most of it was in jest and I felt like every insult I gave was either justified or at least halfway comedic. What I took for it was retarded and childish.

So, seeing as the ends did not justify the means anymore, I truly stopped participating on the board, irrelevant as it is. And irrelevant as it all was, I did grow and learn alot from some of you, and managed to really break out of the cliche image others now have of me. I am still homeschooled, was sheltered, and believe alot of staunch, traditional things. However, I'm no longer unsure about my opinions, offput with expressing them, nervous about other people, disturbed with the idea of speaking in public, or anti social. I've grown past the site, and from what I can tell, there's nothing left it has to offer.

I just thought you'd like the closure.

What do you have to complain about?! You're the father of Chicka's child!

n00b

I'm glad that chapter of my life is finally closed.

yup, me too

Wait, your cloak of fundamentalist conservatism is now permanent? Meaning you are and always will be a fundamentalist conservative?

Anyway, I saw no harm in you at all, Nate. You started off criticizing mine and millions of other people's way of life, and eventually though you did not adopt this way, you accepted and tolerated that. It's an achievement that I can honestly say very few people can claim.

Now, besides that, I usually only joke on people if I like them in some way. If I don't like you, it's not joking you get, but my wrath. Nate was fine by me.

So Nate, why the fuck did you delete your comics? I will never understand that. What if Picasso shredded every painting he made? What if Van Gogh burned all his painted canvases? I mean, granted, none of us are Van Gogh, but who the fuck knows who will like your work somewhere down the line? Nate, NEVER do that again, I implore you.

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my comics were genuine shit... it seemed like a good gesture of finality

Nate, I love you for this post, wether I agree with you or not, I at least understand you.

Nice to see that SC's youngest regular can be more mature in his leaving statement than the oldest one.

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So Nate, why the fuck did you delete your comics? I will never understand that. What if Picasso shredded every painting he made? What if Van Gogh burned all his painted canvases? I mean, granted, none of us are Van Gogh, ...

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So Nate, why the fuck did you delete your comics? I will never understand that. What if Picasso shredded every painting he made? What if Van Gogh burned all his painted canvases? I mean, granted, none of us are Van Gogh, ...

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If this is a trick to get me to lop off my ear, forget it!

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but who the fuck knows who will like your work somewhere down the line? Nate, NEVER do that again, I implore you.

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He's right.

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my comics were genuine shit... it seemed like a good gesture of finality

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Dammit, now my half of our tag team series makes no sense! I actually thought it genuinely brought out the best in you to have someone to play off of in making strips.

Anyhow, whatever you do from here, have fun with it and keep growing.

Nate, I-

Damn, I'll miss nate.

thats not me..

I would of been nice to nate if he wasn't so homophobic.

It's ok boinky, I accept you even though you are gay.

Thank you, but I'm not gay. I just don't think it is wrong to be gay.

denial

It's ok boinky, I don't think any different of you! ;)

Except now he's more attracted to you than ever.

someone once said: "departures are the saddest when the departer is misunderstood." okay, i think i just made that up just now. nevertheless, i always thought you were pretty cool. i never really understood why so many people seemed to hate you, but it never really mattered to me. byebye nate, and like MikeyG said, if you ever come back i'll be glad to see you again. i'll keep your room just the way you left it.

The fall of the house of SC began around the time Dcom and Nate arrived, although Dcom managed to be less crap due to the fact him and Dexx managed to BORE THE REST OF US RIGID BY CONSTANTLY TALKING ABOUT CODING.

After that, various shit gimmick accounts showed up and some of them actually stuck around long enough to be regs.

Theres not much of a community in a bunch of kids who shout Wangs and Dongs, and think a punchline is a group of people sparring with Tyson or Lewis. Most of the older members have gone, and i sincerely doubt the younger members who are here now will be here in 2 or 3 years time.

The nature of the internet and life itself is that people eventuall move on and leave their legacy to those they feel capable of carrying it on. I doubt theres many people here will produce stuff as good as Gabe, Bunner, Wirthling , Dougan , Obijo or any of the other people i genuinely find funny here.

Ahh what do i know, im just a Perm ....

Fuck, I am so sick of old regs saying that they were so good! I'm not saying you aren't, but I keep on hearing it all the time!

You guys should all feel honoured, that's the first time in his nearly 3 years of being here that Kevin_Keegan's_Perm has ever used punctuation in a post.

Huzzah!

If the quality of the forums has degenerated, why does the responsibility fall on those who used to keep the forums of higher quality (if this was in fact the case). For those around, complaining (who obviously know what higher quality conversation would be) why aren't you starting some or engaging in any [higher quality conversations]?

And don't say all the teenagers are drowning you out, I don't believe it.

Honestly Maak, I understand. It is extremely difficult to have a conversation around here anymore. I came a little more than a year ago, and the old SC was taking in its final breath. I don't enjoy surfing these forums as much as I used to, and the IRC chat has become one big weird mess.

However, I don't think the site will go to waste if people start treating others with a bit more respect.

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Honestly Maak, I understand. It is extremely difficult to have a conversation around here anymore. I came a little more than a year ago, and the old SC was taking in its final breath. I don't enjoy surfing these forums as much as I used to, and the IRC chat has become one big weird mess.

However, I don't think the site will go to waste if people start treating others with a bit more respect.

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You guys should all feel honoured, that's the first time in his nearly 3 years of being here that Kevin_Keegan's_Perm has ever used punctuation in a post.

Huzzah!

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For those around, complaining (who obviously know what higher quality conversation would be) why aren't you starting some or engaging in any [higher quality conversations]?

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I'm an antisocial dork who doesn't know how to start a conversation with anyone

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I'm an antisocial dork who doesn't know how to start a conversation with anyone

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Same here. We should get together and ignore each other sometime.

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Honestly Maak, I understand. It is extremely difficult to have a conversation around here anymore. I came a little more than a year ago, and the old SC was taking in its final breath. I don't enjoy surfing these forums as much as I used to, and the IRC chat has become one big weird mess.

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But I've said the same thing to evil_d at least once, I'm sure of it.

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If you guys want to change stuff about Stripcreator all you have to do is email me or post about it in Regarding Stripcreator so either myself or a moderator can look into it.

For all the complaining that the forums have gone downhill, almost nobody seems to raise actual issues as they happen. Do you have a problem with a particular thread or user? Raise it. I'm willing to listen, and there are some very good moderators who are willing to listen as well.

Without that sort of feedback, the best we can do is try and weed out the worst offenders, which doesn't seem to be the stuff that's getting most of you down.

I personally do feel that things have been getting more and more juvenile on here and as that happens I become less and less interested in developing and maintaining the site.

My canning IRC is an attempt to head off some of the extra childish behavior that's been going on. I'm willing to do more to clean up the forums, but I can't do it without input from the better users around here.

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The fall of the house of SC began around the time Dcom and Nate arrived, although Dcom managed to be less crap due to the fact him and Dexx managed to BORE THE REST OF US RIGID BY CONSTANTLY TALKING ABOUT CODING.

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This will probably alienate some of the younger users on here, but I really did breathe a sigh of relief when the forums were (temporarily) accessible to donors/invitees only. It meant that conversation didn't degenerate into moronic drivel and childish pettiness. Humour was actually something real, rather than somebody saying 'wang' and everybody else laughing (well, not quite everybody...) As a general rule, unless it's a particularly ingenius pun or an original joke, sexual humour of the "oooh, he said boobies!" variety isn't funny.

I know I'm not an "old reg" because although I joined in 2001, I didn't contribute to the forums at all until around the end of 2002. However, I have enjoyed my time here, by and large, and I would prefer to see certain forums restricted to a select group of users. Call that authoritarian if you will, but it would seriously cut down on the mindless crap which masquerades as entertainment in the majority of forum threads these days.

Any comments?

Sometimes I post mindless crap. Sometimes I post semi intelligent stuff. I do the best I can, and I think my childishness is good natured, and I didn't know anyone had a problem with it.

As for the topic of this thread: I have had many a good conversation with JrnymnNate. I've also disagreed with him A LOT. I'm going to miss him nevertheless because he kept me from talking to myself and talking to the wall. We also had a lot of common interests that I didn't share with anyone else on here, and sometimes it's those common interests that are so uncommon that you want to share the most. I'm glad he was here to brighten my days, but if he feels it's time to move on, I'm not going to be the one tugging on his pant leg to come back.

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I would prefer to see certain forums restricted to a select group of users. Call that authoritarian if you will, but it would seriously cut down on the mindless crap which masquerades as entertainment in the majority of forum threads these days.

Any comments?

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I was having some good conversations with Nate in IRC. It's one thing to think you know what a fundamentalist or Pentecostal Christian believes, and it's another to actually ask and talk about it. I'll miss that.

Have the boards gone downhill? I really have no idea. I suppose that it's possible. The earliest people to make a home here (I'm counting myself among them) probably found their way by quirky Google searches or links from other cool, lesser-known sites, or by personal acquaintance with Brad, or referral from another early user-- in all those cases, "cool" persons, which is to say, our idea of "cool" persons, which is to say, people like ourselves.

As more and more users come and the site gets bigger and bigger, more people find it just by accident, and the overall profile resembles ourselves less and less. Noise creeps in. The center cannot hold. Things fall apart.

It's just like any scene that becomes popular. Actually, it's like just about any social phenomenon. Name one thing in history that wasn't ruined when a bunch of people who didn't understand it got hold of it. ("Ruined," that is, by the standards of whoever started it.)

Certainly, persons like ourselves ("cool people"), too many to name, still show up all the time. But so do a lot of jerks.

Don't worry. This is the cycle of life. Birth, growth, decline, decay. After that, birth again.

In answer to Chi's question: The easiest way to limit a board to a select group is to put up a board and invite people there. A departed user named Descolada and I threatened to do this some time back with a site called "Felch the Red-Assed Baboon," but he wandered off, and I was too lazy to keep it going. Still, there's nothing stopping any of us from doing up a forum of our ownse's.

Several comments-

+I'll miss Nate. I found him to be very pleasant and respectful. I didn't even know that he was conservative. It didn't come up. Of course, it takes a lot to make me argue on the 'net because I've got a lot of filing I could be doing. Anywho, as I told bunner, onward and upward. Best wishes.

+Man, I can only hear how great the old guard was so much before I start to wonder if maybe they were better. Maybe they were. I can say that I've read most of the old regs comics and they were pretty freaking funny...but I can't compete with the past. I've got a lot of respect for most of those guys and it meant a heck of a lot to me when some of the regs put me down in their favorites (which is silly, I know) but the best way I know to fight crap is by making quality. I make an effort to make whatever I'm writing on this site to be funny, insiteful, or to further the discussion (not always effectively, admittedly). The best thing I know for weeding out crap is to make something better and holding the site up to a higher standard. This may not seem as fun to other folks but to make someone who I respect laugh sincerely is pretty freaking cool.

+Someone mentioned earlier the idea of deleting the star system and I agree. It's just something else to cause feelings of superiority. I loved getting up to 5 stars but not at the expense of throwing it in someone's face.

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If you guys want to change stuff about Stripcreator all you have to do is email me or post about it in Regarding Stripcreator so either myself or a moderator can look into it.

For all the complaining that the forums have gone downhill, almost nobody seems to raise actual issues as they happen. Do you have a problem with a particular thread or user? Raise it. I'm willing to listen, and there are some very good moderators who are willing to listen as well.

Without that sort of feedback, the best we can do is try and weed out the worst offenders, which doesn't seem to be the stuff that's getting most of you down.

I personally do feel that things have been getting more and more juvenile on here and as that happens I become less and less interested in developing and maintaining the site.

My canning IRC is an attempt to head off some of the extra childish behavior that's been going on. I'm willing to do more to clean up the forums, but I can't do it without input from the better users around here.

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The point of the star/feedback system was to try and force you guys to give feedback on users that I could use as a guide on which users to weed out (because again nobody raises these issues).

It works pretty well for that, the users with a few votes and no stars are generally bad ones so it's made it easier for me to monitor people and guage the Stripcreator reaction to a user.

I agree that it's added a level of politics here and I don't much care for that, but I'm not sure what specific examples everyone's talking about.

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This will probably alienate some of the younger users on here, but I really did breathe a sigh of relief when the forums were (temporarily) accessible to donors/invitees only. It meant that conversation didn't degenerate into moronic drivel and childish pettiness. Humour was actually something real, rather than somebody saying 'wang' and everybody else laughing (well, not quite everybody...) As a general rule, unless it's a particularly ingenius pun or an original joke, sexual humour of the "oooh, he said boobies!" variety isn't funny.

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I would invite you, jools. You coo'. You coo'.

Nate, I am sorry if I was ever a dick to you (as recently as the other night). I honestly have no problem with you and I enjoyed the few music talks we had in IRC.

As for KKP's comment way up in the thread, about the site going downhill, I dunno what to say. I joined here six months ago or so, and I've enjoyed it. I think there's enough new funny faces to replace the old funny faces that have left. But if we make them feel like they can never compete with the old guard, then few people will join or stay for fear of being an eternal n00bie. I still feel like a newb in a lot of respects.

Inflatable, I'm sorry if I was ever a dick to you... wait, no I'm not.

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I think there's enough new funny faces to replace the old funny faces that have left. But if we make them feel like they can never compete with the old guard, then few people will join or stay for fear of being an eternal n00bie. I still feel like a newb in a lot of respects.

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Yeah, I'm about the same vintage as UnknownEric here, and I still feel like the uber-n00b.

Perhaps because I've done some pretty assy things.

I've been around about 2 yearsish and I don't feel "ubber n00b-ish". Maybe I'm just to full of myself.