So far I haven't gone hunting through old Natters for Gus posts. I suspect it might happen during slow spots at work tomorrow, though.

I'm not very good at letting some stuff go. But I want to revisit the genesis of tvtropes. Curses.

I'm glad the topic of him led to a good discussion, smonster.

But I want to revisit the genesis of tvtropes.

It evolved, in part, from my long standing desire for The Encyclopedia of Lost Pop Cultural Tropes. Which was a different idea but got us off onto the notion of viral bits of narrative which recur in little protein strands.

Random quote from a kindergartner talking to his father about his pregnant mother:

"Today was mommy's due date...but she didn't do anything."

Do you remember which thread, bout when, Hec? Was he a natterer?

I've been reading through some old Natter threads, because I can't turn my brain off from math mode, and it seems to have decided that Gus is something to solve. I'm pretty convinced that he was actually from Wisconsin. Don't know about anything else, though.

I wasn't here when the Gus thing went down, so need a shortcut for perspective: was it the equivalent of say, finding out that a Vortex or a NoiseDesign or a Sarameg wasn't real? I mean, in terms of how involved he was on the board? I can see how that would be jolting and bewildering.

Do you remember which thread, bout when, Hec? Was he a natterer?

Awww, jeez. I'm probably only crediting myself because I remember my angle on it. You could search on "Lost Pop Cultural Tropes" and see if that hit anything. Or even just "tropes."

He was really into Firefly and I remember a lot of conversations there. When he did post in Natter it was definitely late shift, so I was still up on the West Coast but there were only a handful of folks regularly around.

About when? Well, see when his account became active I guess. I remember him coming on wanting to talk about Firefly. Firefly started in 2002. He wasn't in the original threads, so I'm thinking 2003?

I mean, in terms of how involved he was on the board?

He was somebody who had short, intense bursts of appearing and then disappearing. He tended to talk with late night/West Coast folks. He was smart and funny and flirty. (I remember him always calling aurelia "golden one" among other things.)

Nobody ever really had an issue with him on the board at all. He was quite popular in a way. But doubts crept in as he kept dodging and avoiding contact with the other Wisconsinites/Chicago folks.

Also, his story just seemed somewhat fantastical.

He was gone for a long absence and came back with his story of the monkey bite causing an infection which had caused severe neurological damage.

Thanks for filling me in!

You could search on "Lost Pop Cultural Tropes" and see if that hit anything. Or even just "tropes."

Yeah, I was just trying to avoid downloading thread after thread over the two-three year period. I can kinda cap it because he gives a (now-defunct) link in UnAmerican, but I wasn't sure if it was Natter or Minearverse or what.