Goodbye threads may be a necessary evil at times. I think I've told this story before, but what the hell...
I used to visit an editing community for a bloody long time, learned all about the Internet and all there. Had some good times posting and chatting there, and getting to know some of the folks there. Then at some point, I got bored with it. Too much anger was thrown around at times, memes becoming some insufferable, people trying their damn hardest to project a fake personality... feh, I just upped and left. Didn't make a goodbye thread or anything, just left. Have to admit that it was a bit difficult not to visit the daily forums and chat room, but I was quite happy that I left.
Then a few years later, I get a call from an unknown number on my mobile. I still don't know how they managed to, but one of the English blokes there had managed to get my number and gave me a call to see wether I was still alive. Apparantly, the lot of them had assumed that I had died somehow. So I visited the site, and to my utter surprise, there was a memorial thread dedicated to me. One of the forum visitors had apparantly found a newsclipping of an accident that had happened near a city I used to visit back then, and they deduced that I had passed away.
The memorial thread was... interesting... humbling... and downright creepy. Kind of like being at your own funeral. Also made me realise why I decided not to get too involved with online communities.
All that, just because I hadn't posted a goodbye thread.