Gone but not forgotten...

[Boone]

I love this crazy world wide web we 'live' in. We meet some pretend people, some personas, and once in awhile, make real friends and forge bonds that transcend the anonymity of the internet. This place has brought many of us together for over a decade. It's an incredible thing really.

But there's one aspect of the web that I hate. It makes me sad. And I don't think there's anything that can be done about it.

People disappear. We've lost two folks in the past year who were long-timer members to BGO, as loyal to the site as they come, and prolific posters and participants. It's the nature of the web that when folks 'vanish', it may go unnoticed for an extended period. Folks chalk it up to real-life getting in the way, someone 'taking a break', or it just goes unnoticed.

Suddenly, after months of no posts from guys who, previously, posted every day or every couple of days for a decade. They aren't 'taking a break' - they're 'gone' with a capital G.

Unless a member really has gone out of their way to reveal themselves on the site, who they are, what their real name is, where they live, etc... there is literally no way to track someone down, determine what happened to them, confirm they have passed away, or to officially say goodbye. It's as if their association with this community never happened. And although some might find it trivial, I think for most of us, discovering we will never again hear from a good friend we made here, it stings.

Of course, some of us have pursued real life friendship and connection with members. Certainly, if for example Boone heads to that great 5 O'Clock Club in the sky, I'm fully confident one of my surviving buddies here will alert the masses, and probably start a 'Boone - hot or not?' poll in my honor. But man, for those guys that maintain the veil of member anonymity (which of course is absolutely a personal choice), it's truly a bummer that we will never know what happened, or even if something DID happen. We will just have to assume.

So. Two things. For God's sake, if you love this place, remember that it's highly likely this place loves YOU. Let your family know that, should something happen to you, there's this little internet site full of passionate WFT fans who would want to know what became of their beloved friend. And secondly, take care of yourselves people. We want to cheer, bitch, moan, and pontificate with you for as long as fate allows

I won't call this a 'Memorial' thread - but I did want to provide a place to remember the fallen, the missing, and the vanished.

 

[Boone]

Fear The Spear

'FTS' as I referred to him, joined BGO on Sept 28, 2010. His last known log-in was almost a year ago. Prior to his sudden disappearance, I remember reading Fear talking about some kind of dispute he was in with someone local to him. He seemed quite worried about it. Fear posted on BGO nearly 20,000 times during the decade he spent with us.

He called himself 'BGO's Official Resident Tech Dummy', and God love him, he lived up to that self-imposed moniker often.

What I remember about Fear is that he was always generous, kind, and had a quirky sense of humor that could be so offbeat, folks would frequently believe he was messing with them. But he didn't have that in him. Just a very good guy.

Wherever you are out there Fear, we miss you brother.

 

[Boone]

Posse Lover

Joined BGO August 25th, 2011. I continue to hope he will pop in here any day now, but PMs and emails from me have gone unanswered for several months. I don't think he'd mind my sharing this - but PL was a quadraplegic from an accident he had experienced in his 20's. The fact that he was an active member of this community and rarely if ever felt the need to alert his friends here of that fact, it speaks to what kind of person he is. Many of us got to know Posse through our contests here, as he was an avid BGO Ballers and NFL Pickem player. Many a time, hospitalized, he would reach out to me and ask me to enter picks for him - which I was always glad to do.

I'm ashamed to admit that, despite the fact he lived just 20 miles from me, I never made an effort to meet him in person. That's my loss. He recently made some cryptic comments regarding recent health crises. I'd love to believe he's okay and that he'll pop in and tell me to get his username out of this thread.

I hope he does. We miss you brother.

 

[MikefromOH]

Come home, fellas. The lights are on, and the ears are ready to be burned

 

[Om]

Thanks for this, Boone. It's easy to go all cynical and coarse in public about real life ... it's much harder to speak truth.

And for the record ... hot.

 

[Neophyte]

Nice, brother. And a needed dose of humanity.

And yeah...probably hot.

 

[Beetlejuice]

Fear's situation has left a pit in my stomach for a long time. I talked to him on a very deep personal level behind the scenes for a really long time. One day he messaged me this panicked message. We messaged back and forth for a while, he was convinced people were after him, but the story didn't add up and sounded like some con artist screwing with him and he was overreacting. But he was genuinely scared, and never logged in again. I've always worried about him, and have come to accept that there was probably a whole lot more to the story that he never mentioned. I often wonder if the whole story could've helped me give him better advice, and I've always hoped that nothing happened to him, because he was a good ass dude.

 

[McD5]

I hope those two are okay. I also miss a poster named Oldfan from years ago.