OT: Hey Old Timers, Had a Question

[Boylanca]

Hey, this is Boylanca. I used to frequent the Draft and Trade boards all the time. Now, It's probably once a month. But yesterday I was thinking about things, and I vividly remember something real interesting that happened on these boards maybe 4-5 years ago. It was at the old boards, before these were even invented. I only caught the tail end of it. But apparently there was a young girl who used to play with everyone here all the time. She then caught a disease and had to go to the hospital, where she had her grandpa writing updates on how the girl was doing. Everyone seemed to be real close with this girl. Well after a month or so she passed away and her grandpa said she was going to be buried (or creamated) by a lake (which he gave the name of). He didnt want anyone to give gifts or come to the funeral. Well one person started to question its legitamacy and got bashed by a lot of people here. He called the lake and they said they had no burials planned. Then some research was done where they found a couple internets frauds that pretended to be some girl who died to try to get sympathy and money from people.... Oddly enough this girl had the same name. The board then became split about 50/50. Half believed they were apart of a scam for the past 2 years, and half who believed the girl really existed... and those people pointed out that the other frauds used much shorter time periods and this girl's grandpa specifically said "no gifts or money please"


I was wondering if anything more ever came of this. It was one of the wierdest things i'd ever encountered. The thread of it was growing pages by the minute. Basically just curious if anyone still remembered, and if any conclusion was drawn or if I missed anything.

Again, if you started playing here within the past 3 years, you're probably too new to remember. This happened during the old days of TSN, when it was still a small fantasy sports company.

[JKolak]

oh on not the "Nicole" story :roll: :roll: :roll: .....was it real or was it fake? Where is Play By The Rules (Bickel's Bombers) when you need him?

It was a pretty hot and heavy topic for a week. You seem to remember a lot about it. It place in August 2004.....ATG I was alive and well then. I remember playing "Nicole" in a 2002, 2003, ATGI and Back to the 80s leagues.

It was Dobak's Bombers, who used to play ATG I a lot, who questioned her existence. Things took off from there. A number of the old-timers who frequented the boards, who are now gone from the game like Penngray, took sides. I even took a poll...The majority consensus was that "Nicole" did not exist and was someone's creation.

In fact Bobby, one of the great guys and great gamers of ATG, wanted to run a tournament in her memory after she was reported deceased. His "Good People" Tournament was in response to the whole "Nicole" matter.

[Loobee]

I like JKolak was around in those days and played in several leagues with the infamous Nicole. I remember it did get quite heated on here about the whole subject though. The whole Nicole thing did actually make me decide to take a step back from this game. Not just myself but other noteables I have spoken to and that includes Penngray and other fanatics that hardly play anymore like MichaelA. Its sad but controversy like that sure can create alot of problems for people.
Loob

[JKolak]

Loob makes a good observation. After "Nicole" I posted less on the boards and pretty much "retired" from them after the 2004 presidential election. The Nicole matter really split the StratOMatic community apart with the Yes/No, Heads/Tails, Yin/Yang factions at each other's throats for a week. Finally it was, if I recall correctly, Arryl Tremaine and 45Beach who posted that we should put the matter to rest and move on with playing the game.

[ugrant]

Interesting observations being made here. I used to post quite often on that old board until about the same time frame, although I was never part of the Nicole lunacy (although I did read the saga as it unfolded).

There were some folks on that board that seemed to thrive on drama and confrontation. I think the Nicole posts brought a lot of that stuff to a head. It was enough to make me throw in the towel on both the game and the boards, at least until the 1969 game came out. By then the old board was dead and I had to figure out how to use the new one.

[Boylanca]

wow, so all that sort of tore this board apart? Thats too bad. I remember the whole thing like it was yesterday. Hard to believe that really was 4 years ago.

[durantjerry]

I remember the differing viewpoints, but didn't know it was something that caused some to leave. I do recall that one guy wanted to create a seperate part of the boards(like the bullpen except totally devoted to the girl) just to post about this girl. I posted that it was perhaps one of the dumbest suggestions that I'd ever heard and was promptly told I was a A-hole. I think the divisiveness factor is being somewhat overstated though. Didn't Penngray really stop playing because he had just bought a new house, had a family, played a zillion teams and probably had a big job(a guess based on his creation of the draftsite) as well as many other things to do in his life. I seem to recall him playing long after that went on.

[Loobee]

DJ, I should of probably put my thoughts into a better context. The Nicole thing was not the only reason that some of us cooled off on strat for awhile but it did really bother alot of people here that got wrapped up into the whole story and then the mess that followed with the name calling between guys here. Sorry if what I had meant was not properly expressed. I will never be a writer lol!
Loob

[geekor]

Well it did that saga was the reason the bullpen was created, to get that crap out of the main som fourm after people like me who had no care for it one way or the other were sick of seeing 10 threads about it at the top. So something good did come out of it.

[durantjerry]

I remember someone was trying to carry out a law enforcement - type investigation to get to the bottom of it.