Nostalgia in an Online Community

[MorseCodePython]

Real life takes precedence over online. Sometimes people get bored.

Whatever the reason, online communities tend to fall apart. However, it is one of the greatest feelings in the world when you come back to a forum after being gone for over a year and finding the old regulars still posting; wouldn't you agree?

[SurlySeraph]

I enjoy that, yeah.

I occasionally get nostalgic for great old threads, and look them up and read through them. Huge time waster, but sometimes very enjoyable.

[Haruki-kun]

I wouldn't know... I don't think I've ever left this place.

And I've got no other forums.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Years and years I was part of a text MMO called Sharune, not there from the beginning but I was there for years and years. To the point where I was considered a game veteran. At one point they closed it down for renovations, and kind of missed the expected date by... about 4 years. They came back after some community prodding, and I joined, feeling the great nostalgia of the game that raised me through adolescence. It's kind of died again, less than a decent amount of activity and I go back in every now and then just to wander around, see familiar names and take in old memories.

[thubby]

what is this, get all squishy about oots month?

[Player_Zero]

Stagnation is to be feared more than life itself.

Luckily I am as ever-changing as the stars.

[Lioness]

I agree with this sentiment.

However, it's pretty bad when you come back after even just a couple of months and find the place overrun with little conversation, and all of the old posters gone. This happened with one of my other forums, and is the reason I only visit very infrequently. It's just not as fun.

[Haven]

I just went and checked an online community I hadn't been to in a while and found that people were making references to characters of mine I hadn't thought about in years. It was really heartwarming.

(Also, I looked at some posts from a few months ago on the forum I hang out at most and it reminded me how it's gone kind of downhill lately :| )

[Shas aia Toriia]

I get nostalgic all the time. Seems like the entire past was the good ol' days, even if I hated them.
Maybe I'm just becoming depressed? :smallconfused:

[Trobby]

For me, it's...actually a little sad.

Most of the people in the community that you knew when you first joined will have left, and those that remain may remember you fondly, but you know that the community has changed, and you have changed too, but not in the same way, and you can never again say that you are in that community in the same way. Sometimes, you can never really go back at all.

Though there is the wonderful and happy occasion where you return to a community, and just the right mix of old friends, new blood, and ripe topics make you feel right at home.

Heh...it makes me feel a little bit old to admit that I've experienced both of these feelings for different communities. ^^;

[arguskos]

Looking back at happier days in the online communities I've been a part of just reminds me of what I've lost due to my own stupidity. It does little but remind me that I used to be so much wiser than I am now, by a vast amount, and that there's a reason I don't post too terribly much anywhere ever. :smallsigh:

[Solaris]

Heh. Just last night I was a-trawlin' for info on an old Zoids site that died a while back, MMM. I hadn't liked the site much and left around the same time Mac Nad Vatra did, but just seeing all the old familiar faces brought me back to the 'good old days'.
Then I went and trawled my old game, MC:CAN. Talk about nostalgia.

[Dispozition]

I get nostalgic for the old RB threads these days, but not overly so. I also get nostalgic for a lot of the old avtarist stuff that used to go on when I was still active, but hey, that'll never happen again :P

[Katana_Geldar]

The longer you stay, the harder it is to leave some online communities. I have been on one since 2003, I suppose I will have to leave someday or post less frequently, but still...

It is sad though to see people you have known on there for so long leave.

[Alarra]

There was a forum that I used to be a part of, I was a mod, more active there that I ever have been here (and that's saying something, since I used to be really active here), went to meetups with people from that board well before I started doing that with people here (even though I joined this board first). I went back to look at it the other day, wanting to reconnect with old friends, to find it gone. I was very sad.

It also makes me sad at times to think about the fact that the vast majority of the people that I talked to and considered friends when I first joined this board are gone now.

[Haven]

I just found some old online RPs from 10 years ago...good grief.

How bad is it? There's a summary of it somewhere, which begins with this:


message to whomever made this storyline: I hate you I hate you I hate you! Grrrrr

[Lupy]

Town, on this board, seems to go in cycles.

The people who founded it were long gone when I joined in 08. The group there before the group I was in tried to come back and didn't mesh at all, so they left. Then everyone in my group left, and new people came. We all tried to go back, didn't mesh, and left.

I bet the cycle is older than I know.

[Moff Chumley]

I hate online nostalgia, because no matter how long I'm part of the community, I never get to be part of the in-group. :smallmad:

Oh well...

[SurlySeraph]

Oh yes you do, ya ridiculously knowledgeable musician you. *tacklehug*

[Mr. Mud]

I hate online nostalgia, because no matter how long I'm part of the community, I never get to be part of the in-group. :smallmad:

Oh well...

Same here, chumbucket. But don't worry, we'll make our own circle :smalltongue:!

[Shikton]

Oh yes, nostalgia. I'm very nostalgic about an old multiplayer program called Mplayer where I used to hang out. Spent all night chatting and playing the occasional session of BG2 or even dueling in events for both scripted, hacked and vanilla avatars. That was awesome. Suddenly GameSpy came along and consumed it, making everyone quit playing BG2 online because the community just wasn't that good.

Good thing is that I still keep in touch with people I met there, and I've even gone to different countries to visit them :) Who said online friends aren't real friends? They should be shot. Or maimed.

Other than that I used to hang out at the Suikosource.com boards, but they went downhill and are now useless. Bah.

So now I have this board that I enjoy browsing, though I'm probably not the most active one in the bunch. I still appreciate this place, and will miss it if anything ever happens to it!

[SuperMuldoon]

I have super online community nostalgia. I used to frequent a Jurassic Park message board back when I was in high school (inGENnet) and it was a great community. The board is long gone now, but I still am on the lookout for any of the old members. I've tried to find a board where I could be so enmeshed in the community, but have yet to find it. While this board is great, I feel like theres so many different groups it's hard to know everyone. Also I don't think I post enough to really be known. :smallfrown:

[Katana_Geldar]

I used to post on swirve.com a lot, then they turned it into a paid service and the mods got testy.

[Hell Puppi]

I used to be part of a guild on Ultima Online for years. I quit playing and a couple of years ago looked up their forums. It was dead but our old rivals (we always vied with them for the most members on the server/shard) were still going :smallfrown:.
Of course there had been a lot of drama right after I left, apparently, so I can't blame the guildmasters for leaving. It's an odd little online world.

[Haven]

Town, on this board, seems to go in cycles.

The people who founded it were long gone when I joined in 08. The group there before the group I was in tried to come back and didn't mesh at all, so they left. Then everyone in my group left, and new people came. We all tried to go back, didn't mesh, and left.

I bet the cycle is older than I know.

Man, the funny thing is that I was PMed (and I think I deleted it and/or it was on the account I lost the password to) to join when it was just starting up and for some reason I thought it was just a spambot or people being picked at random or something so I didn't.

What could have been, what could have been.

[starwoof]

A few years ago I was part of a DnD group on this very board. We were all in multiple play-by-posts with the same group over the course of a year or so. We were all pretty good friends. It makes me really sad that a) all those posts are gone, and b) that most of those members are gone/I haven't talked to them in ages.

A little while ago I found a play by post OOC thread that I took part in and read through all 30 pages. Then I PMed the DM about how much I missed it and how fun it was. She hasn't been active here in a long while though.

There's nothing like nostalgia to make one feel kinda sad, but happy at the same time.:smallconfused:


EDIT: I used to be a big poster guy over at a forum called The Waaagh!, but I left after I got some falsely earned infractions (someone got into my account, somehow). I went back a while ago and found the place completely changed, and nobody I knew around. Sad.

[Anuan]

I originally came onto the internet communty thing in 2003, on Furcadia. I made a LOT of friends on there. One of them is now my roommate. I've got varying levels of contact with some of my best friends from there, but some of them I barely, if ever, see...:smallsigh: I miss it a lot, even though at that point I was going through a lot of family and personal problems.

[Moff Chumley]

Same here, chumbucket. But don't worry, we'll make our own circle :smalltongue:!

A circle of lazy nerds who can't be bothered to meaningfully interact with each other! Best! Idea! EVER! :smalltongue:

[Malachi, the Lich King]

It also makes me sad at times to think about the fact that the vast majority of the people that I talked to and considered friends when I first joined this board are gone now.

Aye, one of the reasons I only check these forums every few months or so.