The Passing of a Lounger

[[wcip]Angel]

My first thought when I saw the title of this thread was "Not Pete." This is the first time I've found his presence remotely disappointing.
...

My reaction as well. (Also, kudos to a post that managed to turn that frown upside down).

I won't repeat what everyone else has so eloquently said about our dear friend, except to say he will be missed.

I liked him, as much as you can like any "internet person"... Pete made sure we knew there was a real life character behind his posts. In the few discussions where we disagreed, I was never able to counter his arguments, as I'm sure there were very few who could. But despite those few occasions where we didn't see eye to eye, I always had tremendous respect for the poster - and for the man.

Found a passage in the thesis I wrote about the language and communication conventions here on the LL:

As in oral conversation, the level of formulaicness in forum posts varies. While some users are consistent and compose their forum post utilising the same structure over and over, for the most part, forum posts have no requisite formula. The users “Pete” and “Kylearan” from The Lurker Lounge are two of the few people who remain consistent in structuring their replies. Their forum posts are made up of the following features (in order): general greeting (“Hi,”), quoted passage, comment, general signature (“- Pete”). Of the 20 forum posts Pete contributed to the present study, thirteen are structured in this manner, six simply omit the quote, and the final post follows the same pattern as the initial thirteen, but has an added comment between the greeting and the quoted passage. However, although Pete is consistent in his use of this structure, it is not a universal one, and very few users demonstrate the same level of consistency in their forum post structure.

My thoughts go out to his friends, family and his wife, Magi.

PS: Pete, thanks for the "Rock Band" drum kit peripheral you bought and shipped over the Atlantic for me. It brought hundreds of hours of joy into my life. I never knew I'd see that kind of kindness from a complete stranger. That was you.