The serious thread

This is also what I assumed.

Perhaps, as I said, in time. When I can be sure my orifice will be treated with the reverence and respect it deserves.

Brief history:

This thread is where DeVore announced the creation of TCN and the Thunderdome.

Both fora started out with very high signal:noise ratios. Here is an example of the better kind of early Thunderdome thread, where flame wars from another forum were moved there to be continued, often with the main culprits completely unaware that their precious thread had moved or that the Thunderdome was where flaming was mandatory. Note the change in forum tone in the last 10 pages or so, when some idiot dragged the thread up after 3-4 years, and you'll see why I no longer bother with the place. Here is an example of a TCN thread. It was always a very strange and chaotic place. There was never such a thing as a typical TCN thread.

Both fora underwent changes a few years down the line. For whatever reason (I stopped paying attention to Thunderdome when the sodomy insults became the norm), the Thunderdome ended up having moderators and a charter, and became a simple insult forum. TCN ended up with pretty much no moderator and a bunch of users who thought they could ignore the charter and do as they pleased. That's about the time the reputation of TCN went downhill from one of the most interesting places on the site to the Forum For Special Snowflakes. That finally ended with the appointment of myself and Tar to help out SMAK, who just isn't around very much at all these days.

Part of the reason for the slide was because amp stopped caring and left. Now, amp was just about as oldskool as they come. He knew internets. He knew funny. He certainly knew silly. He wasn't the first moderator of TCN, but he was the longest-standing, and his unique brand of insanity and ruthless iron-fisted tyranny allowed the place to thrive. TCN was very popular during his reign and several spinoff fora arose from it, some of which are still going strong.

Some say he went mad. Others that he saw the massive influx of new users over the previous years, and was sickened by their stupidity and lack of creativity. To this day, the true reasons for amp leaving are likely known only to amp and a few of his trusted admin friends who aren't going to talk about it.

Regardless of what caused it, this thread is his final public comminication with the people of Boards.ie. He spammed it over several fora, as well as moving a vast amount of TCN threads to other categories, seemingly at random. After that, he just disappeared. The only people rejoicing were muppets.

Alas, amp really has disappeared. If he wanted to come back, he would be here, and things would be very interesting indeed. He did a lot of good for this website. He was never cowed by whiny bleating people with inflated senses of entitlement, and he never compromised his own values. Boards.ie would be a far better place with more users like him. Maybe someday he'll come back, but until then he'll stick to his guns and follow his own path.

Somewhat. I wasn't really there at the time because, well, I thought all the newbies were ruining the place, so I guess it didn't affect me much. Thus I'm probably biased but I still see more of the crazy/good as oppoed to the crazy/bad.

Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't do something similar myself at the time. I think it's a shame both that amp left, and that he left in the way he did.

Most of them are probably moderators now.