11 years I've been on this site. The big games of the year when I joined this site were GTA: Vice City, Animal Crossing, Zelda Wind Waker, and Neverwinter Nights. At the movies, it was Men in Black 2, Star Wars: Episode II, LoTR: The Two Towers, and Spider-Man. The White Stripes hadn't even released Elephant yet. I wouldn't meet my wife for another year. Our son was 11 years away. Sean was called Spooky and still posted on the boards and chatted with members. s5 and Olivia were big presences on the site. I hate to be that guy, but SG's really gone downhill in terms of community. There used to be prom. There used to be active boards. There used to not be "hopefuls". There were only a few dozen SGs, and they actually participated on the site beyond spamming friend requests and their latest sets. Everything used to be centered around Portland. If I had to put a finger on it, the "jump the shark" moment was when SGHQ moved to LA. The site became MUCH bigger then in terms of media exposure. Much more professional. And it lost the close-knit community feeling it had in the beginning.
Part of it was that in 2002 "social media" was still a new thing. There wasn't Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Friendster was pretty much the only game in town, for pete's sake! Myspace hadn't even started yet! And SG was actually a legitimate contender as a social networking site to adults who were into cool shit in those days. They didn't have many alternatives.