I've seen a lot of posts lately about how things "aren't the same anymore" around here. A lot of depressing statements have been made about how people aren't as friendly or how our numbers are declining. "Well good!" I say!

I for one prefer the community we have now to what we had years ago. I still "lurk" and visit the page at least 20 times a day looking for new posts. Sure, there aren't as many new posts, but that actually makes it easier for me to keep up. And if you do a search for the REALLY old threads, as a group, we were a lot less empowered with our empegs. We had no Hijack, no way to update logos on the player, no way to download mp3s or backup content. Repairs involved expensive shipments to the UK. We were flooded with rude RioCar owners who paid $200 for a $1200 player and were pissed off that their cable needed replacing.

And yeah, it's tempting to say "lots of new software isn't the same thing as a friendly community" but we wouldn't have any of that software if it WEREN'T for the community. The empeg guys would have quit doing releases if people weren't interested (and knowledgeable enough to do beta testing) and going to meets. I assume HiJack did all that Mark Lord wanted it to do about 200 versions ago, but he kept adding features as people suggested them. Jemplode would have never evolved nor would Palantir been created.

Heck, even the guys from empeg didn't offer any solutions when some of us hit a wall by having too many mp3s. But just a few months ago, someone made a script that let me fix my player in about 5 minutes.

And those updates are still happening. We have someone making kick butt animations for our boot logos, someone FINALLY about to make a button kit. Memory cards coming. And the fact that these things are coming to a community that is 1/2 the size it used to be actually means more than it would have years ago. A person would have more of an incentive to make a button kit when the costs could be spread out across a larger base.

And there is true "community" happening too. Just last summer, in the heat of all that election muck, a fellow board member was VERY kind enough to drive to someone's house, pick up some speakers (big) I bought off of eBay then drive to the UPS store and have them boxed up and shipped to me. Just a month ago, I had several people suggest meeting up with me, the Off Topic whiner (as some have said), for coffee as I was in town for a concert (unfortunately, my living arrangments during my stay prevented any time to do this). I even get about 1 email every two months asking for tips on putting an empeg into a WRX. I imagine all of us have stories of kind things we have all experienced or done that wasn't visible on the BBS, but was a result of it.

I even got better advice here than on any Tivo board on how to hack my Tivo! Loren even burned a few CDs for me and mailed them to me for free! Another member and I have mailed eachother empeg stickers, Netgear switches, you name it. And they weren't even trades - it was just a matter of each one of us having stuff we knew someone else could get more use out of. All within the last few months.

I'll take empegbbs.com the way it is thank you!