the immediate predecessor of the board

[J W Buchanan]

I only read my own posts.

[Matthew_S]

I've been out of touch for a bit and then I return to see this thread, hurtling be back through the years (4+) to when I joined that first board.  So so many of the threads I started got Zero replies that I just started deleting them at some point, but anyway. 

Here is a link to one that sparked a lot of interest, for better or worse.  Some things change, some simply do not.

http://www.friendsoftom.com/board/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=fotboard;action=display;num=1054419886

[bookem_dan-o]

I like Purple Shirt's tofu recipe thread.

[Stan]

I've been out of touch for a bit and then I return to see this thread, hurtling be back through the years (4+) to when I joined that first board.  So so many of the threads I started got Zero replies that I just started deleting them at some point, but anyway. 

Here is a link to one that sparked a lot of interest, for better or worse.  Some things change, some simply do not.

http://www.friendsoftom.com/board/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=fotboard;action=display;num=1054419886

 Huh. I'd forgotten B_Buster's trollish start. Well played, sir.

[John Junk]

Please tell me the Suicidal Sathington threads got nuked somewhere down the line.  I never wanna go back there again.  SathingTron is doing just fine nowadays.

[Sarah]

This board is now fit for family consumption.  Well, pretty much so:  four posts with naughty names remain, though their contents have disappeared, and I can't vouch for the purity of all the legitimate posts.  The order of the posts is also a tad kerflooey, because I didn't know how to reorder them in descending chronological order (Jason?).  Still, it's an improvement.

I now feel rather dirty.

[John Junk]

Nice work, Sarah!

[Grimlock]

This board is now fit for family consumption.  Well, pretty much so:  four posts with naughty names remain, though their contents have disappeared, and I can't vouch for the purity of all the legitimate posts.  The order of the posts is also a tad kerflooey, because I didn't know how to reorder them in descending chronological order (Jason?).  Still, it's an improvement.

I now feel rather dirty.

As a copy editor, it must have pained you to delete so much sparkling, delightful prose.

[Sarah]

And as a lover of truth, it broke my heart to deny people access to all the important sites linked.  But my devotion to the show is such that I overcame my resistance and sacrificed access in the name of fidelity to the spirit of the board.

At one point I was bored enough to keep track of how the spammers introduced their wares.  With one exception

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.
Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.

the hooks fell into two categories.  The first seemed to involve an attempt to make the reader feel sorry enough for the poster that s/he would check out the sites.  Examples:

I feel like a complete blank.
That's how it is.
I can't be bothered with anything recently.

I just don't have much to say lately.
Eh. Not much on my mind lately. 

More or less nothing seems worth doing, but oh well.
I just don't have anything to say now. 

Hello,
I need help

The second, far more common introduction resorted to flattery, presumably on the reasoning that readers would be so thrilled at the random praise they'd immediately put the URLs to use:

Hi guys,
I found so much useful things here.
Thank you.

Hello,
I love this site.
Kisses, Lisa

Hello!
Excellent site, but most of messages here are not related to its contents...

(This is my favorite, particular since the message in which it appeared was about as irrelevant to the site as you could get.)

I really find this site very interesting, and it gives people a pleasure time!
I really appreciate the creators of this website!

This webpage loads very fast
What hosting provider do you use?

Hi!
I'm shocked how cool this wesite is!

What a cute site you have here.
I can tell that you have put a lot of time and work into it.
Great job!

Kiss you!
I think this is the best site in the net I have ever visited!
Really, very nice site.
I check it regularly!

Site - very comprehensive and meticulous from all points of view, it’s good!
Just excellent website, I'm sure! 

All in all, a depressing experience.  It was a relief when I decided to clean the most heavily spammed board by moving all the relevant posts to a new board instead of deleting all the spam (about 94 pages worth).  That was peculiar, too, as I worked my way through several years of FOT banter, but at least it mostly wasn't soul-destroying.

[Omar]

Great work, Sarah.  It was fun to check out this gem again (from 3/21/06):

"He basically goes on and on about what happened on the show. I'm pretty sure this guy is going to go nuts and kill Tom." -- Jeff_T on Omar.

[Jason]

Thanks Sarah. Did you corect all the bad spelling and grammar too?

[Sarah]

Thanks, Sarah. Did you correct all the bad spelling and grammar, too?

I resisted the urge.

I just reviewed my inbox on the old board and came across this note from tommert, about which I had forgotten:

(No subject)     on: Feb 9th, 2006, 10:12am
sarah, i love you

Took me quite by surprise at the time.