> I was just reading the earliest posts on the forum, because i'm tired and bored, and don't want to go to bed yet,....

I've done that myself once or twice. It sure seems as though more time has passed since the Forum went up than actually has, at least to me. What on earth was I doing before last Fall? I can't remember.

>....and wow. the forum has (sniff) grown up, hasn't it? not that i should talk, i'm all new and stuff, but some of the people i've come to see as staples of the forum weren't there at all (issachar? darien? (well, i think darien was there, but not much))....

To be precise, 130 people had posted to the Forum before I stuck in my initial $0.02 worth, in post #131. Since we're now up to 3500 posts, I tend to forget about that brief stretch of non-participance (or whatever) on my part. I haven't checked to see when Darien came on board, but it hardly matters, since he's pretty much omnipresent in the Forum by now. :-)

>....and most of the posts had actual (gasp) REASONS behind them.....

I guess so, but there's always been a considerable degree of silliness in here, too. If it makes you happy, I've been thinking about Sam's post on "Censorship" from last month, and letting some ideas on the topic simmer for a serious post sometime soon. And, hey--start a new serious post yourself anytime you want; I like it when the conversation around here takes a turn towards the literate and philosophical!

>....plus, reading about all the features that weren't even here yet at that point was kinda weird too (the only things that have been added since i started visiting rinkworks are iabbbbm (was that the right number of b's?) and the bad joke one that i can't think of the name of, what's wrong with me?)....

You said it. It's strange to think about the Forum before Classic Games, AGL, the Site Market Game, Enchanted Forest, HTBF, etc., etc. I'm always impressed by how prolific our webmaster can be--he's completed at least six or seven new projects/features in the time this Forum has been in existence. I don't think there are many web sites on which you can expect to find new content on a very regular basis when the webmaster maintains the site as a side project apart from his main job. The Sam doth not sleep nor slumber.

>... i'm not sure what the point of this post is. rinkworks rocks. i think that might be it. maybe not. oh well....

That's a good enough point for me. :-) RinkWorks absolutely rocks. Feel free to call little old me a "staple" anytime you like, too.

Iss "yeah, we've got that" achar