Well here we are, seven years later. Hard to believe that I'd be here still, after all this time. I joined this website back in 2007 on my first account, looking up stats for a friend. That account has since been auto-deleted and here I am on this account, my second but staying account. Sure, I've taken a couple breaks here and there for months on end, but I've more or less been a part of the Community here for 7 years. I've watched Bungie grow from being, not a small, but more intimate company, to the giant and seemingly carless collective it is now. But that's a story and a side of complaints for later. We're up here right now for other reasons. Sure, I've never been a significant part of the Community, but I like to think I've done my fair share. If this Bungie Community was a hockey team, I'd probably be the 3rd line wing, but frequently sent down to the minors. I've never been featured in anything Bungie-related, save one Halo 3 screenshot contest shortly before ODST as a runner-up (taking Halo 3 screenshots was one of my favorite parts about the game), but that's about it. One time I had hosted a Community Carnage back in Reach, which was an absolute blast, but that was Community-run and related. Well, on to why I joined I guess. Back on this day seven years ago, I picked up my own Xbox 360 and a copy of Halo 3. I saw in the pregame lobby something about a place called Bungie.net, which sounded vaguely familiar. I visited and signed up under the scrubby, obviously 13 year old name of st3althsniper22 (I still use it as my Unique ID if I haven't since changed). Pretty much from the get go I liked what Bungie was doing here. A simple, professional looking layout (seriously, go to halo.Bungie.net and look at how much nicer it was visually) with lively private groups that had their own hierarchy's. A "progression" system of sorts with different colored title bars. It was cool as shit. Then in 2010, this funny little game called Halo Reach came out. Now, it had my attention. I thought, "there's no way this can go wring. Its based on the TFoR book, right?" Boy was that off. Bungie took a steaming crap over their previously established canon and made a mess of multiplayer, introducing randomness in bloom, slowing movement speed for Sprint, breaking map design and flow with Jetpack, and delaying games with Armor Lock. But those are complaints long dead for a game that is the same. But it does bring me to the Reach Forum, which was about as toxic and hateful as the Destiny Forum is now. Basically imaging more alts and less rational thought, coupled with a few less "nerf x weapon" threads (but replaced with "nerf y ability"), and a lot more flamebait threads. Anyway, it was crazy and a total mess. But the mods were diligent in locking appropriate threads and banning users. Halo 3 Forum, I must say, really wasn't all that different. It was slightly better though, with a more obvious ranking system ingame to help filter out genuine complaints from crybabies. Although there really weren't all that many. This brings us the the Community Forum. A quiet, slower moving and more tightknit family that I discovered in 2009. Here, there wasn't any hostility, just some friends poking fun at each other at a pace slower than most other forums. I fell in love with it almost immediately, moving my full-time posting activities here. It was easy to make a couple posts, walk away for a couple hours, and catch yourself back up in a few minutes. I met a couple friends through the Community, who have helped make my experience interacting with others here good to look back on. Y'all know who you are. But the Private Groups i joined. Oh man were these top-notch groups run by top-notch people. Most of which, sadly, have felt the winds of time rake their toll. The first group I ever joined, Major League Pics, was incredibly active for a long time and helped me to shape my game in screenshots. It even had been chosen to be featured in a BWU and get its week to shine on Bungie Favorites, but it had unfortunately died a couple weeks before we would've had our spotlight as the leader left and everyone lost interest. Another important group to me was Mythic Photographers. The guys there were all genuine people and eager to help new members learn the ropes (several of them had been featured in BF more than 3 times for their pictures). I was having a blast. It too saw a sharp decline in activity, shortly after Bungie ceased control of the Halo IP. Some great memories though, and our chat is sometimes posted in. Many of the other groups I've joined have been fun little things and ways to mess with friends, and I can't for the life of me remember most of them from years past. The two I have mentioned before stick out the most though, sorry. Of course, now I'm probably posting more in the Mythic (best) Member group chat mostly though. Absolutely fantastic group of the best people on site. Blue bars are best bars, after all. Well, that about wraps it up. Seven long years on this site, my brief history on discovering the forums, and a jigsaw puzzle of timelines. Hopefully some brave soul will be able to bear through my ramblings and see this. You're all great and I hope one day Bungie rediscovers itself, and becomes the developer it once was, with all the various web team members (and ninjas) posting their snarky, but funny, replies to threads all over. Instead of just Deej, Cozmo, and sometimes DrBunsenHoneyDew (spelling?). Peace (for now).