Not sure if any of you have had this experience, but a couple of hours ago I did a search for an old forum I used to be a member of years ago. For about two years, it was my favorite place to visit, and then it had a lot of problems staying online. I don't think I've visited there since at least late 2000.

I don't know why I bothered to do that google search, but when I did, that site came up. It seems to be back. Many of the old people still seem to be there, and the place hasn't lost its trademark personality.

So why don't I feel particualrly welcome there now?

Sure, I posted the obligitory "Damn... when did this place come back?" message, but I don't know how much I really care to go back and check up again. I find this sad. It truly was my internet "home," to the extent that an intangible slice of webspace can be one. It just made me stop and reflect for a moment about what it would be like if that happened to Stripcreator, considering that this place is in fact the one that I consider my new internet "home."

Okay, that's enough idiot babbling from me. Carry on.

I moved out of home. I live in various hostels and things, and hang around old haunts, but have no online home as such any more.

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This signature has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down.

I did that once to my first forum, an Delphi/About.com Martial Arts board. Going back, I couldn't see what I saw in it. I was pretty obsessed with martial arts when I regularly visited there.

It's hard to let someone sleep on your couch, when all they do is complain about the wallpaper.

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Dad was flammable

I was that way a long time IRL. All the places I thought were cool, the old haunts, the people... Just seemed to be a huge waste of time. As far as net.life, the talkers I've been ressied on and a lot of the places I hung out at are getting to be boring and I feel so disconnected from them. I think a lot of it is just web burnout. I've been beta testing the Sims Online. I have my founder's statue and all that.... A property, friends, a few Simolians in the bank... but I don't think I'm going to buy the game discs becuase the game is a Goddamn job. An endless loop of virtual activities that your Sim must cycle through in the endless pursuit of growing your house, finding roomies... etc.

The thing is, the interactive part of the game - all of those other players online - seldom rises above the level of an IRC room full of dipshits. I even got so bored as to check out some of the AOL chat rooms, just to see if it was the idiocy fest it was purported to be. It is. It's a shitstorm of racist, religious, jingoistic twaddle. It would embarrass a third grader. The entertainment value of that has worn out, so I give those a miss as well.

I have come to the conclusion that I am bored stupid with the internet. I think what I need is just some plain old rest and relaxation and more IRL social interaction with people whom I respect and whose company I truly dig. There comes, I think, an eventual parting of the ways for almost all things and places. This keeps us moving and alive and learning new things, having more positive experiences, and making new acquaintances, I believe. Whether or not this is pertinent to net.life, I can't say, but it would seem so.

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I wanted my half in the middle and I wound up on the edge.

I used to frequent a chatroom where I was gone for periods at a time. When I went back, I didn't quite feel like I belonged, but after a day or so I felt right at home again.

Our community was fairly close-knit, so that's probably a good reason why I never felt out of place for long.

So Drex, maybe you're just having that "I've been away for so long, I'm a newbie all over again" feeling. Perhaps if you hang around for a while, you'll feel like you belong again.

And of course, there's no reason for you to invest your energy into only one community. Even now I have contact with some friends from the old chatroom, and I feel at home both here and there (but to tell the truth, that's generally because none of you guys ever check this board every five minutes like I do).

I think in a way, both Devin and Bunnerabb are onto something. I have a feeling that my apprehension comes from both of the phenomena they have described. I guess I won't really know which it is until I've been back there for a while and see if I still do fit in.

Oh Devin, the part about only investing time into just one web community... it's more like which community I feel best being a member of, if you get what I mean.

I never used to use chat programs or IRC back then because my internet only came from school computer labs. It's only been within the past two years that I have had access from home, so that could be another part of the distance.

Theres a place that's been gone for months, but I still try every day to see if it's back. I really suck.

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Batman created by Bob Kane

Yes, dcom, you suck.

P.S. I also suck.

I too know of this, Drexle. There was an "about heavy metal" forum I used to frequent. I drew away from it because of all the lameass Korn kiddies and "METALLICA NEVER SOLD OUT!" messages. It got redundant.
I went to look through it recently, and it had regained most of it's composure, but I was really not that interested in joining back up. The guy who ran it disappeared, and there is still no one to take his place.
I have also experienced this IRL a few times. Mostly, this was because they changed, and I changed. The old stoner crowd I hung out with back in highschool. Even though I dropped out and got a GED, they all seem like complete losers now, save for a couple. All my Orlandite friends except the two who regularly hang out with me all seem like complete rubes these days. I dunno, I feel so alien in my own hometown, like I don't belong there anymore.

PS: Wirthling sucks.

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Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.

At least we can count on some things to remain the same.

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"Oh, look, a joke! How original! Thank you, but if I wanted my emotions stimulated pleasurably, I'd get a whore." - Donald B. Jones III

I can suck even when I'm 2000 miles from home. I'm in Lewiston, Idaho, visiting the in-laws for Christmas. Hmmm...I could probably make a quick drive to Eugene, Oregon, to leave a flaming bag of poop on someone's doorstep, couldn't I?

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

Let me know when you're stopping by so I can get the shotgun ready.

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

Feel the love! My, my, my... just, just FEEL the love!

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I wanted my half in the middle and I wound up on the edge.