pegasus wrote: I've been here since 99 when I discovered BTNG. I live in Texas and going to the Cooler was like being back with the people I grew up with. We grew up in the same Ohio culture were passionate about our teams in spite of the fact that they have been mostly bad. I'm 63 years old and I moved from Ohio in 1980. I got to experience the Browns in the glory years. Watched Jim Brown his entire career. The Indians and Cavs stunk in most of those years but you could always look forward to the Browns having a chance at the playoffs.

When I found the Cooler there were many regulars. There seemed to be a lot more respect for fellow posters. It was like discussing your passion for the Browns with friends. Even though I met only a few posters in person at the Browns-Cowboys Travel Game during Winslow's rookie year, I always felt I was among friends. I teared up when we lost  some of those friends like Bullhocky and followed Reverb's valiant battle with cancer.

It was more than football. It was a Social Network site built around  a common passion, that I usually started and ended each day on. I've seen some familiar names recently that I haven't seen in a while (Harley D - where have you been?) and I know some of you longtimers had to change your names as the board has changed. I miss Barry as (Art Bietz).

The tone of the Cooler has changed. When you tell the truth about the Browns sucking year after year there is always a bunch of sheep out there in rose colored glasses that will tell you to go away and not post.  How dare you express an opinion that a 4-12 or 5-11 team sucks. If you were a "True Fan" you wouldn't say things like that. In the old days - opinions were respected here. Personal attacks became tedious to read. I used to love the original Rant and spent time there. The home for the most outrageous personal attacks and not for the thin skinned.

It's probably true that we will never get the old cooler back, but I will keep coming back. Maybe Chud will be the catalyst to finally bring the old spirit back by just winning.

Chopper9 wrote:
I lost my own wife just 6 weeks ago myself, so guess I am feeling a bit melancholy for the past.
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Sorry to hear that man.

Chopper9 wrote:
I lost my own wife just 6 weeks ago myself, so guess I am feeling a bit melancholy for the past.
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Sorry to hear that man.

otto1946 wrote: Personally, I hate authority and conformists. The original Cooler was ALL inclusive..whether you were a troll, Mevins, Hankkk...I rolled with enjoyment. It was fun. Hell, we had stupid threads that were very amusing that went on and on for 100's of pages about nothing. I used to laugh so hard I'd spit coffee on myself. Things were not so anal that you can't do this or that or get banned, deleted or lectured.

If anyone remembers my past... I used to only post with pictures, few words...my own form of art to make people think...?
l
Some of my favorites were "What I learned in the Cooler" the rants, the Friday posts.

I miss Bullhockey he was awesome. I think many more of our ranks passed away. I lost my own wife just 6 weeks ago myself, so guess I am feeling a bit melancholy for the past.

Now that we are T-less, maybe it is possible to bring back the Water cooler to its former glory?

I mean Jesus...WE are Browns fans...tradition, loyalty, insanity are the reasons we do this.

Go Browns!

otto1946 wrote: Personally, I hate authority and conformists. The original Cooler was ALL inclusive..whether you were a troll, Mevins, Hankkk...I rolled with enjoyment. It was fun. Hell, we had stupid threads that were very amusing that went on and on for 100's of pages about nothing. I used to laugh so hard I'd spit coffee on myself. Things were not so anal that you can't do this or that or get banned, deleted or lectured.

If anyone remembers my past... I used to only post with pictures, few words...my own form of art to make people think...?
l
Some of my favorites were "What I learned in the Cooler" the rants, the Friday posts.

I miss Bullhockey he was awesome. I think many more of our ranks passed away. I lost my own wife just 6 weeks ago myself, so guess I am feeling a bit melancholy for the past.

Now that we are T-less, maybe it is possible to bring back the Water cooler to its former glory?

I mean Jesus...WE are Browns fans...tradition, loyalty, insanity are the reasons we do this.

Go Browns!

I only lurked back then, and mostly still do now

I wasn't around for the Mevins posts, and saw some of the Hankkk in the archives (WOW!)

But those "What I learned this week in the cooler posts" were must reads every single week. It was amazing.

I still laugh everytime I do the p90X ab ripper workout at home. Amazing how those threads always took on a life of their own, still the only OT I can remeber that never got moved during the season.

CanadiansforBrowns wrote: You have to get the people back. There is no substitute for intelligent conversation. Lift their bans, offer them a free 3 month sub and apologize.

The other board should not be merged here. That place is what it is and if you brought that conversation over here the old gang wouldn't be likely to come back. Direct the quality posters to this space and keep your fingers crossed.

chirodawg wrote: Can anyone tell me in a factual way why T dog was so detrimental to this board. I'm seeing a lot of venom being spewed but not really sure why. I know YBD has always had something stuck in his craw but I'd be interested in hearing from some of the rest of you. From my perspective I saw Tdog add a lot of content o these boards.

I think at one time there were accusations T was using ghosts (didget) and having issues with the WWR folks over there. I do know didget was a decent poster.

winker died as well :( Some like buckoff10 and a few others like BW used to be on the main boards but are now just WWR (itself now a combo of the Rantatorium and WWR).

YankeeBigDog wrote: You want this to serve a purpose?  Gee, there's a new concept.  You mean not being agenda driven like someone made it?  Are you guys going to listen this time, or like the last time just going to let posters comment because your mind is already made up?  And don't tell me there was never a doubt about the cooler being split.  I know what went on in the moderator forum at the time.  There was never any doubt that after the moderating god announced it that it was going to happen.  It's like the "open quarterback competition".  Simply lip service.

So much for that...

Okay, I'll give it a shot... quit being so anal.  Quit thinking you can control the conversations.  All you need do is look to the political spectrum.  Politics weren't allowed.  But then the god could post one, or he'd let one stand until someone disagreed with him.  That's about as hypocritical as you can get.

Then we'll go back the the Babes Forum.  Couldn't have one.  It was contradictory to what the site was all about and you couldn't talk the moderator god out of 86ing it.  But look at the Watering Hole today and see who starts the weekly features.  Again, slightly hypocritical or not?

the guy flat our ruined this place.  Plain and simple.  And no amount of deleting comments that  state it or point it out are going to change the man's legacy.  He may have initially asked Barry to create the place, but after Barry turned it over to him, he ruined it.  AFAIC, that will always be his legacy.

The weekly features by talented posters such as Seadawg, GMD, Skeeter's travellouges, High Noon Humpday, Bold Predictions, KC's Rib bone posts, Foose's Sunday Morning sermons.  The only one that still exists is Friday Musings and that only occasionally.  Think about it, where would those even be posted today?

And Otto, very profoundly sorry for your loss.

Good post, although without T, then maybe change can take place! (It is ironic today is the inauguration, but I digress).

I remember lurking on the CL forums (two horizontal boxes with scrolling, and ads in the right side) and then seeing some prelim msg boards on the Wayback Machine about JuJuan Dawson, Hill, etc. and many were high on James Jackson. I mean, even average baseline posters going PF on attributes of these players. It is a miracle Butch did as well as he did!

Even in '99 and '00, I remember the team splitting with Pittsburgh, who was good when we played them, but not great. But a win's a win, and for the first two years, splitting with Pitt was better than 4-12, 0-6 or 5-11, 1-5 with the win vs. Cinci.

Memories always seem to add to what wasn't really there or true.  Much of the same now was there too.

What has made things seem worse is the sucky product we have had to endure year and year.  When you have been as bad as we have and disappointed by players, coaches & owners as long as we have been it fuels fights and less tolerance.  Everyone has a short and bored fuse.  Less positives only mean more negatives to fight about. 

We are also more desperate which adds to how quick we pin our hope to some and want to hang others.  You think the fighting and insults are bad today?  The Tim Couch days here were brutal.  I ought to know   Just like winning cures a teams problems, I guarantee that winning will make this place a whole lot more fun too.  Lets see if we can other wise might as well get comfortable because it won’t be changing here anytime soon.

Tree wrote: Me

Chopper9 wrote:
I lost my own wife just 6 weeks ago myself, so guess I am feeling a bit melancholy for the past.
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Sorry to hear that man.