I am ambivalent in my feelings toward him.
He was, by his own account, some kind of a super duper wealthy guy who somehow made zillions of dollars all the time while simultaneously spending every waking moment running his forum. He supposedly had houses all over the world and yet ran his forum on a "free" forum site. He posted a "goodbye cruel world" message that hinted about his imminent demise and then stuck around for weeks, months and even years.
The thing that really irritated me about him was that he turned his forum over to the very worst sort of people (way, way before he vanished) who then terrorized anyone who dared speak bluntly about darn near anything. I got tired of that nonsense pretty quick and I will be forever grateful that IDP acted to create "itsaboutfreedom" at the same site, "proboards." As some of you know, those very same people continued to harass us at our new site. (Now, to be fair, we did perform some mischief of our own...more about that below.) They helped to create a situation that could get us thrown off of the proboards site and then reported it to the proboards staff. There is a line between mischief and viciousness and they crossed that line. Meanwhile, the allegedly dying nano stood by and watched all that happen...he allowed us to be relentlessly tormented on his site to the point where we walked out. He allowed shameless bullies like "FloridaITGuy" and "ChicagoGabriel" to defacto run the place and stomp on our expression.
So...I was not and am not enamored of "nano." I thought that he was full of sh*t with his undocumented (and over-the-top ridiculous) claims of wealth and fortune that bordered on delusions of grandeur. The thread about his soon to be dead condition was annoying to say the least and may have been a type of Munchausen syndrome...who really knows?
I wish him no ill but I have no respect for him either. He did not run his forum well...hence, our exit.
Now, about our mischief on his site: I would have to consult with BigAlSouth to help collect the memories on what exactly we did. I know that BAS and I conspired (via PMs) to poke the "conservative talk" forum in the eye a bit after we left to join IAF. I do know that I did not
directly do anything there (and that was because when I left CT I immediately deleted my account...I burned my ships when I came to the new world) but I did conspire with BAS and others. I know that one of the things we did was to tease those who stayed behind about nano's imminent death...sort of a
"General Francisco Franco Is Still Dead" kind of a thing (long after it was obvious that he wasn't going to die anytime soon)...asking if he was dead yet and if he was still drinking a gallon of Southern Comfort a day...sarcastic and satirical but not out and out vicious. Nothing that would cause actual damage to the CT site. They could have just banned everyone. And they did. But then they got our IAF site wiped out and that was just plain nasty.
That's the way I remember it going down, anyway. BAS may want to edit my memory with his own. If IAF was still around I could consult my PM archive but, alas, due to CT's attack, IAF is forever down the toilet and all the threads, posts and PMs are lost forever.
ChicagoGabriel is currently hanging out with Raptavio at a very liberal forum called America's Debate. He is as condescending and obnoxious as ever. I have no idea where FloridaITGuy is...he may be one of the three left at CT but I wouldn't know since I have not been there in years.
nano killed his forum by acting (eventually) like an ass to his members. When IDP set up this place we decided to not let that happen here and I believe that we (mainly IDP...it is his site, after all) have done a good job of allowing it to be what it wants and needs to be.
Speaking for myself, I am proud of our members, the content that they provide and their dedication to hanging out here when there are so many other places that they could go.
I will give credit to nano for having CT as a bridge from PLF to where we are now. But that's as far as it goes.