Yearning for the good old BEST YEARS glory days.
It's been quite some time since my BEST YEARS imdb mates occupied these boards. I'm talking about folks with names like Cairo-5, cwente2, turtletommy, the ubiquitous jackboot, hobnob53, homer_parrish, hilaryjrp, and all the others (you know who you are). We used to populate this board with deep and provocative conversations, which put more modern movie boards to shame ("Which is better, THE DARK KNIGHT or MAN OF STEEL?), while containing some of the the best writing imdb had to offer. But thanks to imdb discarding threads after a a couple of years, many of us have given up. What's the point of spending a 1/2 hour bringing your A-game and burnishing your argument if it's going to be trashed in the near future? What are we, newspaperman?
I miss those days. I miss coming home from work and seeing what my fellow fans had to contribute, especially to some provocative idea I posted ("Clarence Merkel, the film's real hero" or "Yes, Mr. Milton"). Even more, I loved going back and re-reading four year old threads. That never failed to re-ignite my memory and imagination. I didn't even mind going back and cleaning up a grammatical mistake or a sloppy thought, even if the "Post edited" sign marked it as such (of course, jackboot busting me for using "bespeckled" when I meant "bespectacled" had to be left to posterity - Actually, I respect the writer more when I see "Post edited," it shows the writer is conscientious).
These days when I post a message on a board, it's usually a marginal idea I can cover in a paragraph; and maybe or maybe not, I'll check in on it the following day. On occasion, I go to one of the old gang's profiles to see where they're posting, but for me, this board was where the action started.
Now I come back here once every couple of months to see what's going on, but, unfortunately, the thrill is gone. Maybe I'll post something next month, maybe I won't. Maybe it's a case of "life goes on," so we must move on, too, but I loved the BYOOL boards, or as I tried to get fans to call it, 3JRHFTW. Maybe it's suffering from hardening of the arteries.
Thanks, gang, it was great while it lasted. And, thanks, imdb, you've turned your site into something the internet is quickly becoming: Disposable information.