gone for me, anyway. things got so diluted as more and more people showed up that cool folks either left the site or formed their own insular communities (hello, sports board!). i give him credit--he tried to, ahem, "bridge the gap" for a lot longer than i did. he did everything he could to keep this a real community, but its sheer size overwhelmed everyone. success, like everything else, has its unintended consequences.

oh, well. i can tell my kids i played laser tag with the roots, and that they cheated like bastards. that's worth the whole thing.