[NostalgicNobody]

Hello everyone,

I saw FreeSpace pop up in a random Reddit thread, and it flooded me with memories of this forum.

I know this is a new account, but in an attempt to change my email, I got logged out of my old one, jdjtcagle. I pop in here every once in a while to see who’s still around. I’ll be turning 36 in a couple of weeks, and when I first joined this forum, I was just a young teenager.

They say my generation grew up on the web, and I had the privilege of growing up here. Back then, I was a nerdy, annoying (probably insufferable) outsider—uneducated, and theist from the Bible Belt. These days, I’m still nerdy as hell, but hopefully less annoying and a little less uneducated. I’m now an atheist—well, an antitheist, really—and it took me years to deconstruct my faith.

Some of you guys and gals were already “old” back then (you know who you are!), and I have fond memories of things like Kazan launching FSO multiplayer, Derek Smart’s attempt to buy the IP rights, the infamous religious discussions, and Anon getting banned over 30 times.

I’ve been thinking about all the great people here, many of whom I have no idea if they’re still around, but who’ve shaped my life in a weird butterfly effect sort of way. Stealth got me my first copy of Photoshop, and Lightspeed taught me how to use layers. That skill helped me land a graphic design job, which eventually turned into me designing newspapers.

Anyway, I’m just rambling at this point. I just wanted to drop in to say hi and thank you to everyone. There are so many more names I can’t remember, but special thanks to Goober, Colonel Dekkar (sorry if I butchered the spelling), and Kara. You all made me feel less like an outsider, and I’ll always be grateful for that.

Maybe I should play FreeSpace for old-times sake. It's been a few decades.

[Goober5000]

Glad to see you here again, jdjtcagle.   (I copy-pasted the name, since I always got tripped up whenever I tried to spell it.)

I remember you pretty fondly, so you must not have been too insufferable.  Thanks for the well wishes.  Do check out the various mods available on Knossos.NET -- there have been quite a few spectacular releases during past several years.

And I'm very sorry to hear that you're a bit of a lost sheep at the moment.  I hope you'll find your way back.  God is still there, waiting for you.  Remember the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son.

[NostalgicNobody]

Glad to see you here again, jdjtcagle.   (I copy-pasted the name, since I always got tripped up whenever I tried to spell it.)

I remember you pretty fondly, so you must not have been too insufferable.  Thanks for the well wishes.  Do check out the various mods available on Knossos.NET -- there have been quite a few spectacular releases during past several years.

And I'm very sorry to hear that you're a bit of a lost sheep at the moment.  I hope you'll find your way back.  God is still there, waiting for you.  Remember the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son.

Hey man! I'm glad you're still around and thanks I'll definitely check them out.

As far as my beliefs go, I'm afraid I have no control over that. I didn't choose to lose my beliefs no more than I choose to love my children, it just kinda happened. I'm open to the possibility of a deity, hell, I wanted to believe at one point but I couldn't reconcile my idea of god with the (IMO) evil god of the bible. That and I'd learned to be a better skeptic and wanted to make sure I was believing in as many true things as possible and dismissing as many false things as possible. I don't believe in things I don't have evidence for and realized the bible was a huge exception for me. As someone who has spoke in tongues, it was a hard pill to swallow that I had been deceived for so long but I'm happier than I've ever been. As a cosmic nihilist I get to set my own meaning for life and that's been very freeing. Thanks though, I completely understand where you are coming from. <3

[Goober5000]

Mmm... well, the problem with being smart is that it's very easy to imagine things that aren't so.  Skepticism is good, and setting your mind on the truth is good, but do make sure you're not being misled.  There are more forces at work in the world than the ones we can see.  And "evidence" is not merely scientific.  "Evidence" includes historical evidence, documentary evidence, and testimonial evidence.

I haven't spoken in tongues, so you've got one up on me there.   Anyway, it says "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."  It does not say "if you are smart and skilled in verbal repartee".  So, my best play here is to welcome you back and treat you as I would like to be treated. <3

[karajorma]

Good to see you back jdjtcagle. If you want I can help you unlock your old account. Or you can start anew.

Maybe I should play FreeSpace for old-times sake. It's been a few decades.

I think that's a good idea.

[NostalgicNobody]

Good to see you back jdjtcagle. If you want I can help you unlock your old account. Or you can start anew.

Maybe I should play FreeSpace for old-times sake. It's been a few decades.

I think that's a good idea.

I couldn't get a confirmation email. I saw you guys had trouble with that recently but it's still not working for me fyi. That being said, I'm good to let the old account rest.

[Scourge of Ages]

Welcome back, jd/Nostalgic! Thanks for sharing about your life, it's always good to hear from people. A lot of the casual chat has moved to our discord server, if you're into that and also weren't already aware.
And you also make me want to reinstall FS2 and finally finish Blue Planet or something. It just has to fight against the rest of my backlog, lol

[Shivan Hunter]

Yo, jdjtcagle! I remember you from my early days on HLP and my lurking days before that!

I will never recommend that anyone leaving an abusive relationship find the strength to forgive their abuser and take him back... instead I will recommend you play Inferno: Nostos and Inferno R2 and BTA2 and Exile and New Path and Reunion and Scroll of Atankharzim and Ribos: The Aftermath and BP: Chanticleer and Solaris and anything else I missed and Derelict (because you can't go wrong with the classics )

As goob mentioned, check out Knossos.NET for all your modding needs these days, it's much better than the old launchers and handles downloading mods and dependencies and basically everything - just browse for anything you might like, download and play

[Mobius]

Hi there, I definitely remember reading your nickname in a number of threads! I see you're wondering whether you should play FS again - well, my recommendation would be a solid yes. There are plenty of new releases (as Shivan Hunter just reported, Inferno R2 came out!) and high quality content from the past few years. Give it a try.

[Mongoose]

Welcome back! I definitely remember you from the old days.

[kode]

Good to see you back jdjtcagle. If you want I can help you unlock your old account. Or you can start anew.

Maybe I should play FreeSpace for old-times sake. It's been a few decades.

I think that's a good idea.

I couldn't get a confirmation email. I saw you guys had trouble with that recently but it's still not working for me fyi. That being said, I'm good to let the old account rest.

Yeah, I would say there's some problem with delivering email still, I was trying to do a password reset instead of launching the old browser and looking at the password manager there, but never got a mail sent.