Been around since the Old Yeller days. Had a few usernames over the years, a couple of which got banned for reasons easily identifiable by anyone with a cursory understanding of how a civilized society works, and a couple where I just kinda forgot the password.
The drafts of unquantifiable things were my favorite threads to track, even when I wasn’t participating in them. The hardest I ever laughed at content here was a drafter recapping his attempt to print out his research for the Russian Bride Draft on a printer at his workplace, which drew a little more attention than he’d hoped, but I’m glad he went for it because it made a great story.
For all the discussion we had here about a certain Lakers shooting guard who drew a lot of attention and opinions, I never would have guessed pretty much everyone here who participated in those discussions would outlive the player we spent so much time arguing about.
BTW - it’s probably safe to mention this now… there was one season of NBA Playoffs in the late 2000s when Bill Simmons was reading the FFA NBA threads daily. A colleague of BS reached out to me as it was happening, pointing to specific phrases and sentences used in Simmons’s columns that were also used in our discussions here as proof. There were several. One that comes to mind was Cavaliers fans organizing to sue Mike Brown for coaching malpractice, a turn of phrase only found in FFA before it showed up in a Simmons column about a week later. There were others. Can’t recall all of them, but one that also was clearly a lift was one about irrational praise of Trevor Ariza.
The collective knowledge hive mind of this place was a valuable resource before the rise of social media or widespread explainer content on the Web. There were many times when I would search this place for information about a purchase I was looking into or a place I was going to go, and then after remembering the search function’s usefulness I’d just start a thread asking about it. Thanks to all who shared their expertise.
Shout out to the entrepreneurs here. I’ve started a few successful businesses, eventually selling one that sped up my leisure life stage considerably. I remember one specific conversation about entrepreneurship here where I was skeptical about one guy saying you should be able to explain 50% of what your startup does in two words and 90% of what it does in five words. And when he successfully did both with Google as an example, I adopted the strategy. Helped a lot. In a few months I’ll start working for someone else, for the first time in years. More on that in a moment.
Many years ago, when my wife was told she had breast cancer, I started a thread here about it because I was scared and couldn’t figure out how to express it to others close to me. There was a really cool outpouring of support and information, both from people who had lived it from my spot or worked on the treatment side. My daughter was really young at the time, and one guy out of nowhere offered to send a bunch of children’s books so we’d have some extra ones to read. There were some really good ones in that package, too.
BTW, after a slow start, my wife beat it. She’s so far removed from it, she doesn’t identify closely with being a cancer survivor. It was something that happened a long time ago, doesn’t really shape who she is today. It’s not something we talk about much or recall often.
I don’t think I’ve knowingly met other FBGs in person, but I have talked to a few on the phone or otherwise communicated with away from the board. There was one where I saved the guy’s phone number in my phone but didn’t remember what his brick-and-mortar name when saving it, so I saved him in his Contacts as his FBG username. Which did not go over all a long time later, so amused by the handle I kept it in my phone that way… and my wife and I had a fight and she went through my phone and was livid, asking “who is [FBG username that without context looked like I was hiding the identity of a side piece]?!?” and trying to explain it was someone from FBG that I’d called about [work-related incident from a few years prior]. It’s funny now. It wasn’t at that moment.
Anyways, next life chapter is expatriation. After an extensive, disappointing, disheartening college search of upper tier USA colleges somewhat derailed by Covid, my daughter took a gap year and is now a student at London School of Economics. I doubt she will live in the United States again, I support her decision, and I think it’s so amazing that a person I helped create is off having such a big adventure right now. Looking forward to catching a match at Selhurst Park next time I visit.
And my wife and I are in the process of moving to Vancouver, where I’ll work for someone else for a while to justify our existence there and see if it’s a spot we think we could enjoy while we grow old together, and my wife will continue to be self-employed working remotely. We have some relatives we’re close to who have lived in Vancouver for decades, have been recruiting us to move there once the nest emptied. And we always enjoyed our visits there and other spots we’ve been to in British Columbia. Maybe it’s not the most cost-effective choice for a late-in-life move, but money is just a social construct.
As some of you knew or figured out, I’m neurodivergent two ways: I have ADHD and I’m on the autism spectrum. I’m thankful for formats like message boards and where people like me who fumble a lot when trying to talk can arrange the words in order on the screen and make edits onscreen when they aren’t, and for formats like social media where people like me who don’t naturally have empathy don’t stand out among other social media enthusiasts in moments of low sensitivity.
And on the Dog Or Stranger question? I voted dog. It’s about calculating the probability of which being contributes the greater good to society and saving that one. Since 99% of dogs are better than 99% of people, I’m saving the one with four legs. If you drown because of this decision, my condolences but the math is on my side.
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. He truly is a great dude.
