Today is, as you've probably heard, Ninjo day. Ninjo was, for those of you who weren't around way back then, a super nice, helpful staff member here on BZP. The years have dulled my memory of him a bit, but the fact I remember that much just from his username should tell you something about how awesome he was.

And then today I found out his name was Matt.

It's crazy, you know? The way the universe kind of piles up coincidences. Let me explain.

Around the time I left BZP in '04, I joined a little Advance Wars forum that, though now defunct, I'd rather not name since the domain has been squatted on and repurposed to advertise. For the next few years, I was a pretty active member of the site; frankly speaking, it's probably part of the reason I never really went back to BZP much. I made a lot of friends, made a few horrible comics, ran some contests, I think even RPed from time to time. So, that probably sounds familiar to a lot of you.

One of those friends was a brilliant guy who went by Shade. Shade was funny, helpful, nice, and just an all-around great guy to hang with. I won't say everyone liked him, because there's always internet drama and grudges, but for the most part he was well-loved by the community, even though he held no staff position.

In late 2006, the admin of the forum vanished. Nobody could get in touch with him, and to this day I don't think anyone really knows where he went. The bills for the site of course quickly piled up, and it was looking like our little community was going to vanish.

Until Shade stepped in. He and another member, JoJo (who would later become his girlfriend), pooled their money and opened a new forum for us. Shade was a fine admin - he didn't put up with trouble, but he was still the same awesome guy as always. I have fond, fond memories of playing Blockland with him.

On September 19, 2008, Matt, alias Shade, my friend, was murdered in his flat. Jo discovered his body. He was 20 years old.

I can't explain what those next few weeks were like for those of us who were still around. Without going into details, a few more seedy members of the British press tried to paint it as another "videogames cause violence" case. I cannot describe the way I feel about those journalists without losing several proto points. Fill in the blanks yourselves.

All of us were beyond blindsided. If you do your homework here, it won't be too hard to find our site, still running with a few members. You can find our tribute page to Matt; it does better to explain how much he meant to us than I could. I myself don't really go there much these days; I believe its active members are largely RPers, and that was a group I never really got all that much into. But I haven't forgotten all the good days back then, and I haven't stopped being a little bitter over the fact such a wonderful guy was taken from us so early.

Rest in peace, Matt. And Ninjo - Matt - wherever you are, I hope you know how important someone like a good admin can be to his forum's members, even years later.