[CROSS-POST FROM GENERAL] Site lost its touch when Steve left

[CROSS-POST FROM GENERAL DISCUSSION TO M.A.L.A.K.A.S. - per Con_K request]

Boys. I have been thinking about this for 8 months. The site has lost its touch since Steve left.

me and Mrs B were going through old threads last weekend. The way Steve answered a question, you knew there was 50 years of knowledge behind every line. The 240D taxi paying school fees. The 250SE through Yugoslavia 89. Folegandros. The mou-na-ree at the end of every answer that meant he had already done the thing he was telling you how to do.

I am not complaining about anyone here. Billy carries the technical authority, Hugo carries the formal market knowledge, Con_K carries the moderation, Boonie carries the heart. But there was something about Steve that all of us together do not replace.

This is not a vote. This is not a request for anyone to do anything different. This is just saying it out loud because it has been sitting in my chest.

Steve woulda known what to say here. He always did.

I think about this often.. the honest answer is that Steve was the one person who made the forum feel like a kitchen instead of a workshop. The rest of us are good at the workshop. None of us are the kitchen..

Mumma Jo carries a small piece of it when she posts. Con_K carries a piece of it in how he moderates - never with a hammer. But you are right that the room is different now.

What we owe Steve is to keep the room a place he would still want to walk into. That is the only thing.

Cross-posted from General with my approval. The forum is allowed to grieve out loud and we should not pretend otherwise.

The old room is still there. The forum is still here. We carry him. That is the work.