Greetings and Salutations

As the head priest, treasurer, custodian, and sole member of The Elevated Church of the Good Bean I hereby bless this forum. May your carafes always be overflowing with Nectar of the Good Bean and your jitters never interfere with important tasks like driving or performing delicate surgeries.

<sip>

Wazzup?

*looks suspiciously*

What did @jack bribe you with to interest you in WF?

I think this is akin to the first Borg-Federation encounter.

"For right now you're just raw material to them. Since they are aware of your existence..."

"They will be coming..."

Look, you fucking started this.

Welcome.

I had beans for dinner.

Haha! I just told you guys where I came from. Did I tell you to launch an offensive?

<*looks (mostly) harmless*>

It wasn't Jack, to be fair.
You can thank (or blame) Grimmy and his obscure reference to this place for piquing my interest.

Thanks for the warning.
Are any of the windows in this joint *not* painted shut?

Just in case.

What happened to your name?

I'm a memorial. The original croaked, from all indications.

Mostly harmless? Flashback! I remember that weirdo from TNZ.

I don't know that person or what a "TNZ" is.
I picked up that phrase from Douglas Adams' 'Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' series of books; first as the Guide's updated description of Earth then as the actual title of a book in the series.

TNZ is/was the no-holds-barred area of the message forums at TrekBBS. Many banned people migrated here.

Yes I am mostly harmless in my old age.

Thanks for reminding me

I believe most of us mellow to one degree or another.
That's not even a guess or shallow observation... it's six decades of personal experience.

If it helps (I know it helps me) think of it this way:
Mostly harmless still means there's a chance one could get harmed if one fucks around too much.
The key to keeping folks in line is never letting them know for sure where that boundary is.

I don't know if it's mellowing, or distilling things down to what's really important in life.

Functionally they're probably the same; I vote they be considered interchangeable.

As Miyamoto Musashi's adage goes "It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war."

Steph Curry agrees!

Yes very good.

Finally, it's nice not to be the only Castle dual anymore!

I hope that was meant humorously but I don't know this "Castle" of which you speak so it's difficult for me to tell.

I'm not anyone's dual.
I haven't even *had* a dual in ...decades? It's not really my thing.
I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam.

Even when I've adopted a new nym (Vitriol, Trollsbane, Garraty_47, etc.) I've always been upfront about who I am. It's easier than trying to pull off a different persona which, as I've admitted, has never been my thing.

I've uploaded/poasted YouTubes so even just using a photo that wasn't actually me would likely be instantly debunked so... meh.

Anyway- this "Castle" person; are they cool? Was that a compliment?
I mean depending on the size of the potential increase in status I suppose I could let you believe I'm that person, if you really insist.

I'm nothing if not flexible.

You know castle from BFF and TBC and it's not much of a compliment round here and a bit of a running gag that any new accounts that join here are him after his numerous attempts previously to regain access to this forum..

Though I don't believe he's bothered in quite a long while at this point.

But I can vouch for what it's worth he's his own unique poster and a pretty easy guy to get to know given the chance.

Oh?
I don't recall a "Castle"... would you happen to know which nym(s) he uses in those forums?
If he's a regular contributor I probably have interacted with him and just don't recognize him as "Castle".

And yeah I've seen the "every new account must be someone's sock puppet" game at other forums; it can be amusing to watch but I'm generally disinterested in playing. It's more fun for me to treat all new members exactly as they present themselves and it has the bonus of avoiding the embarrassment of false accusations if they really *are* new. Being constantly on guard against duals/socks seems to me like a bit of a buzzkill and I'd much rather be entertained, even if it means getting "trolled" by an imposter now and then.

Well said.
Now which dual are you again?

Last time I was around those parts I think he was using the moniker CourierSIX or something similar.

Anyway, have a look at some of the other forums and see what you think.

Personally I'm glad you signed up.