Pull a chair up, kids, and let ol' Panagrammic tell you a tale. Let me just settle my aching bones down -- d*** this wooden leg!
Kids, please sit, you're making me dizzy with all your jumping.
Back in the day... and by "back in the day," this was when dinosaurs were commonly encountered on the interstates, mind you, and all children were respectful to their elders, and snow covered the earth, and all schools were located uphill from your home, no matter where you lived.
Ah, those were the days. Especially the part where children were respectful to elders.
You Gaians now are so secure in a site that doesn't crash very often, but let me tell, in those days it was very different. Johnny, fingers belong OUT of the nose, especially other people's noses! These were the days when gold shop releases were few and far between, and releasing new items made us so nervous that we had to sit by the servers with axe in hand, ready to intervene if the site should crash.
These were days of political upheavals, like the great Cigarette Ban (that meant that everyone started posing with cigarettes) or the great Censorship Debate (which meant that everyone started using the censored words), and by the way if we ever wanted to go meta we would make a Streisand item and then ban it.
Back in those days, gold was worth something, let me tell you. People didn't have newfangled ways of making gold like zOMG and Booty Grab; no, they had to earn it a few measly gold pieces at the time, by posting or begging or by selling their artwork on the street. Karen, stop torturing your brother with the tarantula. I would stop you if I could. D*** this wooden hand!
It is worthwhile noting that even back in the days, when gold was valuable and children were respectful to their elders and new users got only peasant clothes and were glad and there were fewer words in the English language so Word Bump only accepted "HUG", "UGH", and grunts, housing was considered out of date. So enjoy your new fangled houses, kids, because we had to make do with a housing that used a Shockwave plugin so old that it only supported hieroglyphics.
I've lost my train of thought. D*** this wooden brain!
Wait, I got a caboose back. Listen up.
Gaia has come a long way in the years I've been here.
But even back in the dawn of Gaia, there was a community. And if there is one common thread throughout the years, it has been that. We completely replaced the inventory system in the great Inventory Blackout, every file on the site has been revised hundreds of times, we've upgraded our infrastructure, we weathered through the Drop Table Fiasco, but through it all, I still see (albeit with fading eyesight) some of the same names in the forums that I saw when I first started.
So, thank you, everyone, for hanging around this constantly-changing site that we call Gaia, and I hope that you guys continue to enjoy the site for years to come.
Bob, it's not nice to taunt vampires with garlic.
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