Ok, since I have read the last two pages and have read 5/8 about a dozen times, can someone tell me what it is?
Also, Bosk, how do you know Mikes doesn't read this board? Did he tell you that? Just curious.
The answer to #2 really only makes sense in the context of the answer to #1, so...
The official DT forum was originally at DT.net. Because Mike had his own forum, he didn't really follow what happened at DT.net. Toward the end of that forum's existence, it had basically split into 2 factions. People who generally were DT fans posted mostly on the DT-side while people who generally didn't like DT anymore and didn't care about the band posted more on the GD side (picture a forum that was organized very similarly to this one). There were definitely people who did both, but I'm just giving the simplified version. In a nutshell, there was some anti-DT sentiment, more on the GD side than anything else, and the forum admin had become withdrawn and wasn't running the site at all. A couple of people close to Mike gave him a lot of misinformation and a completely distorted view of how "anti-DT" and how completely "lawless" the forum had become. Mike told Itchy, the forum admin, to take control and fix it or to pull the plug. Rather than roll up his sleeves and address the issues, Itchy shut the forum down. A new forum was set up at DTF.com by some former forum members, and we all migrated there. The anti-DT faction eventually took control, pulled the plug yet again, and converted DTF.com to what is now fiveeightforums. Again, I'm overgeneralizing, so anyone who is a 5/8 regular, please don't get in a huff. But basically, there is a huge anti-DT sentiment there, the band is regularly bashed, and it has a reputation for having extremely loose rules. Which is fine if that's the kind of forum you are looking for. But in terms of being a DT forum, it is anything but, and does not in any way reflect positively on DT. So, I set up this forum and the DT fans migrated here.
Mike doesn't really know that entire history. What he told me indicated he is really only aware that DT.net went downhill, and eventually became 5/8. He wasn't really aware that there was a huge pro-DT faction (I hate using that term, but for lack of a better word, it works) that had continued and set up shop here (which is ironic, since we are the largest online DT community).