Damn, I've said so much here. Please bear with me Wi/Ht? with this uber long essay of mine regarding this forum. Get yourself a cup of tea, coffee or whatever whilst reading these long-ass posts of mine. :)
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At 5/22/08 09:47 PM, gfoxcook wrote: There have been plenty of members who have disappeared off the face of the earth. That doesn't make me regret electing them, but Bahamut is certainly doing more right now than they are... right now... isn't he?
Indeed. Many of those members are no longer here, but myself, I don't intend to disappear anytime soon. Not if there's people who've been backing me up since I started posting here. Seriously, if it weren't for the very nice Wi/Ht?'ers from late 2004 'till recent, I wouldn't be here now.
In the beginning, I saw these stat threads and was curious about them. I wondered if I was on any of them, but no luck at the time. The two lists I looked up to were D0GMA's Elite Guard Rank List and ShittyKitty's NG Total Listing. I didn't fully understood your 10k pentalist at the time, but whilst lurking this forum, I had a look at the Level Up Lounge. Before posting, I wanted to check the place and see what the NGers were posting.
A few days later, I made my first NG achievement, which was writing 100 flash reviews. I posted it in the LUL and although assuming no-one would care, I mentioned it anyway. When I was seeing congrats list makers at the time congratulating me for it, I was surprised and happy. I appreciated them mentioning me and I continued to post more achievements that I came across. Then, I started making my own congrats lists and have been doing so since. No-one was mean to me about making them and I felt really confident. I thought this forum was a nice break from the Newgrounders in general (as in the whole site, not the shitty forum) where you'd expect people trying to be all hardcore and attack you for the smallest reasons.
Because of the very nice people in this forum, I felt very welcome to this forum and when I discovered the Regulars List, I noticed people were voting for me and I was like "Wow, they appreciate me that much?" After finding out what the Regulars List was about and how the regulars would recognise potentials more, I felt I had to help out more in threads where users ask questions. With just posting in the LUL and list threads, to me, that didn't seem enough. While I rarely help out users in their threads nowadays, I have helped out a lot of people in this forum in the past and I'm proud of that.
I will admit, I started to help out less when Afro_Stud dominated the forum by helping EVERYONE out! However, that didn't mean I'd lose my loyalty to the forums at all. I was still happy to come here, participate in current subjects and supporting list threads. I was still willing to come here regardless of how little I was helping out with users asking questions.
And that's another reason why I'm glad to still be here. I really enjoy supporting list threads that regulars, members and others make every week, fortnight, month or so. When I was still inexperienced, I was amazed at all these lists. I did think to myself "Damn, they must put in a lot of effort to make these lists." and of course, some lists were automated, but the manually-done lists, those I wondered even more. Without the support from users such as myself, some of these list makers would have given up making them long ago. Making those lists without anyone supporting them would have been a waste of time.
That is one of the reasons why I still visit this forum: The stat lists. They were what I looked up to when I first came here and I still like 'em. I wished to continue supporting these lists, even though two of my favourites have been dead for three years now (i.e. D0GMA's EGRL and SK's NGTL). Now in a newer generation, we have Casualty's NG Log, which I like very much since I can log my stats daily, see how I did the previous day and sometimes, look at where I'm ranked with other NG Loggers for almost any kind of stat. The NG Log reminded me of SK's NGTL, but not pulling so much data from the site, so there's been no bitching from Wade about it.
D0GMA's EGRL, I miss that list also, but I still appreciate the Top 300 B/P updates that were made by absent, Denvish, Afro_Stud, life and now Afro_Stud again. While they only show the top 300 B/P'ers and not every single Elite Guard user like D0GMA's EGRL did, it was still good enough for me.
The 10k pentalist (or rather 2x10k pentalist when I got my first 10k stat) was another list I looked up to and I was glad that the list continued even after the thread thread incident. Of course, the list was reduced from 1x10k to 2x10k, but for having to do it manually, it was reasonable. Unfortunately, the last ever gfox update was in last March and before that, a 15 month gap in-between. Luckily I'm going to start updating the pentalist at the end of May assuming there's no server problems and myself and Casualty get the site sorted out in time.
A few years ago, I never imagined myself doing these lists. I never thought I could make any list updates, despite my decent knowledge in Excel/OpenOffice Calc. Myself being the one who'd run the Wi/Ht? Regulars List was something I never thought would happen. I just assumed Xiivi was going to keep running the list no matter what and of course, I was wrong about that. He stopped making the updates in late 2006, which resulted in the death of the Regulars List.
A few months later, there was another Wi/Ht? Member election. There were a good amount of potentials at the time and I wondered if I was going to make it then. I had some doubts that maybe I'll have been a vote too short to becoming a new member at the time. I didn't want to build my hopes up incase I ended not being a member and feeling hugely disappointed. Fortunately for me, I was elected to a member. Of course, I was pleased that I got in the Memberlist and was very proud of it. It just showed I was still appreciated in the forum and was appreciated enough by the voters to become a new Wi/Ht? Member.
When I became a member, I didn't make any plans to leave the forum a few months later like some appeared to have done (not saying they did it deliberately, but when some of them became members, they left shortly after). I wished to kept supporting the forum as I always did before the member election. The reasons why I stayed and am still here is because of the awesome posters such as yourself, gfox, and also the fact that I wanted to keep supporting the stat threads and the LUL, which I've been posting in since December 2004.
To me, the Wi/Ht? forum is my e-home. Never have I found a place on the Internet that's been so great to me. The users I've met here have to be some of the nicest people on Newgrounds, and that's why I'm still here. The fact that you all have been so great to me over the last few years and the amount of interesting discussions I've come across in all the big threads is why I'm still here. I still enjoy the amount of discussions I participate in this forum. That's why I can't leave anytime soon. I'd hate to move on, leave you all behind and never come back. I wish to continue posting in the Wi/Ht? forum and take part in the greatest discussions on this site.
Another thing about this forum is the support I've been given here. Some examples are when I first started posting here, when I had a feud with the Star Syndicate regarding my first flash and several other problems with them and of course, the support I've been given from gfox and NEVR on my member election just now. If this was in the General forum, it would have been a completely different story. You'd only get the idiots mindlessly bashing you for no apparrent reason. The Wi/Ht?'ers are the complete opposite of them and I appreciate that very much.