What did you love about 'old' TGC?

[General Ceel]

I know that right now its just Danster and Ceel hanging out, and speaking personally, I don't want to always live in the past. But as this latest attempted revival of TGC is still in its infancy, I find myself feeling nostalgic. With that in mind, and to do my part in populating this forum, I want to know what you loved about the old TGC?

[Danster]

I loved how easy it was to get involved. There were always plenty of open threads in The Battleground that you could jump into without feeling like you were intruding, and generally it would have moved on a good few posts between visits which meant that you'd always have something unexpected to come back to. Once we got rid of the complicated fleet-building rules, it also became pretty relaxed from a rules perspective so you were not having to get caught up with timeline issues and worry whether you'd broken one of the community's five hundred rules.

There were some fun moments in chats as well, and in the 2020 revival, in Discord.

[General Ceel]

^ I remember working very hard to try and keep the bar for entry very low. We would occasionally have rules gradually creeping in an attempt to regulate away problems that emerged. From time to time when I'd be out exploring other communities I'd come across places with a tightly regulated character and story approval process. If that's what they wanted then fine, but that kind of community was not for me.
.........

In the past decade a narrative about TGC has seemed to emerge that paints our entire history in a negative light. I tend to think this narrative grew pervasive because a number of people who are still actively part of star wars role playing were in fact the ones creating the negativity in the time of TGC's decline. But my memory of TGC is different. Sure, we had some rough patches, even in our "golden era." But TGC memories are overwhelmingly positive.

I loved the lighthearted fun, the fast pace, and the 'sense of place.' TGC, and the factions, were little more than code on a computer. But they felt real, and with the proper application of colors, banners, avatars, signatures and a little imagination they became 'real.' In my head, TGC always looks like Naboo and Otoh Gunga.

The internet is so different today. The technology has lead to a lot of great things, but the increased population and the rise of cookie cutter social platforms/profiles makes it all feel a bit less personal. The level of anger, hate, snark and trolling is off the charts. I know that some people still manage to create thriving communities around their sites/groups/channels... but it also feels like you have to be "cool" to have success. When I set up TGC I was a teenager with a lot of free time and a desire to work hard. It eventually lead to success. It just doesn't feel like that works very often anymore. I have a youtube channel with nearly 4,000 subscribers, and yet a community has never developed around it.

[Danster]

I loved the fact that every visit, as you waited for that page to load, you genuinely didn't know what you were going to get. For sure, it would look the same, but who had replied to your posts and what they'd said was a complete unknown and always unique. Just what had happened in the 24 hours since your last visit? It created a sense of anticipation and excitement every visit.

[General Ceel]

At our peak, for several hours each day, you could fresh your browser and always find new replies. Sure, the internet works that way now on these huge networks. But we did it in our self contained little community.

[Danster]

I remember the days when you'd be involved in three different RP threads. You could literally spend all evening taking it in turns to reply to each. By the time you'd posted a reply to the third one, there had been posts in the other two threads. You'd spend an hour or two just in three RP threads.

[General Ceel]

It was great, easy and free. All it took was a bit of imagination. No fancy hardware or software necessary.

[Danster]

Yep, even a clueless then 14-year-old like me could conjure something up. Now you can't create anything like that without knowing at least a little code.

[General Ceel]

Ezboard was the best of both worlds at its peak when you had the network of accounts and they handled the web service, but you also had access to a combination of stock layouts and customizable code to personalize your site. Stand alone message boards existed first, and still exist now as pretty much the only message boards... but they never really bothered to solve the problems that made them inconvenient. Meanwhile, Facebook and the like made everything set in stone, with your only customizations being a banner and a profile pic.