Although the world of the Star Wars geek is very much lived out through the medium of a computer terminal, there have been some characters that have ‘made a mark’, so to speak on the community.
At this point I would like to reflect on some of those characters.
If ever there was going to be a matriarch of the message boards, it was definitely natesmama.
Now, some of you may be thinking that there may be others who fit that bill and rightly so–Yodafn, Prin, Glensgirl to name a few–but NM, as she was affectionately known, was one of the first female ‘SW geeks’ remembered for her interaction within the message board world, having one of the most successful chat threads of all time “The Place”.
Continuing on from the times when the boards were just coming out of their anarchic stage into the more moderated and uniform state of rule abiding, The Place was one of the many, many chat threads that survived and was received by all as the place to chat. NM regularly chatted with the many frequenters of The Place; and her calm, measured approach to the bickering and the fact that she welcomed new people into the fold, endorsed her role as the affectionately regarded ‘Matriarch of the boards’.
I am quite fortunate to have NM as a Facebook friend. Seeing pictures of her and her children often makes me smile. I was chatting with her when she was just Nate’s mum, and now she has a whole brood!
But I’m sure that in the times that other people have spent on these message boards, frequently or occasionally, they will have their own memories.
For me, another hero of the day was Stroup.
Every time I think of him, I see him and The Dark Moose joyfully jesting with each other, even to the point where DM created a game called ‘Stroupball’.
We all joined in, making rules and DM giving us a running commentary on who had scored and how the 5th Hoof came into play should anyone badly tackle him, and Stroup himself always ending up on the winning team, or changing the rules, etc.
I say ‘always’. I think it was just one night of silly banter, but that night sticks in my head. Funny guys, legends of old, and Stroup no longer able to come and play, due to his growing family.
