Five years ago, I decided to reapply for a bungie.net membership since I forgot my password. I never posted on that old account, and mostly lurked through Halo 2 gamertags to see how my opponents were doing. Times changed, and I decided that I wanted to voice my feedback and share maps for Halo 3. Five years ago this site looked very different. Most of you probably remember it, though. The blue grid background, the Avalanche Christmas background, the ODST site update, the Reach site update, and now bungie.next. Generally when people make their 5 year threads, they talk about how the community has changed and ask for people to voice their feedback about how the community could improve. I'm a different man and have a lucky opportunity to have my five year bungie.net birthday come around the time of a site update. So why don't we discuss that? For starters, I'd like to point out the notification bug. Whenever I log in, it tells me that I have a PM. While in reality I've already checked that PM. I generally have to check a PM twice if I want the notification to go away. It's not just PMs either, it's general notifications. I had to check multiple times on a user replying to my comment. With those out of the way, let's get on to what I think is done well. I like the tagging system. I have noticed that many of my fellow community members think it is too close to Facebook or Twitter. This may be the case. But I don't like them because I use both Facebook and Twitter. I like them because they allow me to sort what is relevant to me and what isn't. One of the reasons why my activity the past year or so has been that there is rarely anything relevant to my interests being discussed. I had a few private groups that I visited regularly and that was about it. I have more reason to come, now that it is easier to find my interests. Now an aspect that I don't like is people tag spamming their thread. I was searching #halo3 earlier this week, and a few threads popped up about feedback that had nothing to do with Halo 3. I have a few ideas for solutions to this issue, one of which is to set a limit on how many tags can be applied to each post. I like the ability to follow and hide users. I'm a fairly easy guy to get along with. Even if we have our differences, I acknowledge them and generally shy away from those or maybe try to compromise. But there are some people that are impossible to converse with. In the past I would simply leave the thread, never to return. Now I can that user. I can also hide the zoo joos of the world if I need to. I also look up to some well-respected posters. If I know someone to post interesting viewpoints, I will follow them. I'm hoping to see more posters on bungie.net that create well rounded arguments, converse with them, and maybe even follow them. Now let's get on to my suggestions; I have quite a few. I'll start off with something minor: the warning splash when you click on a not-bungie.net site. It stays up after you've clicked confirming that you wish to visit it. It should disappear after any click in the box. The next one is a big one. Reply order is something that is incredibly confusing the first time through. Eventually, I've grown accustomed to, but I can see some not so patient users leaving. I propose a preference pane, similar to Halo.Bungie.Org. In the Pref Pane, you can select how the forum topics are organized, how the threads are organized internally, and how the threads look in the forum listing. The last one wouldn't apply here, due to the high volume of users here compared to HBO. But the choice in how the threads look internally is a handy improvement to the current bungie.next setup. You can either have them be threaded (like they are now with reply threads) or compressed (how things used to be). Both formats have their advantages and disadvantages, and it seems unlike the Bungie way to force their vision unto their community. I would like to see a return of the message center. Conversations are a welcome sight, but having them limited to the dropdown is cumbersome. I would like a page, where I could scroll through with each user I have a conversation with. Include a little reply icon or make the "envelope" appear unopened like another popular forum I post on to know if I've replied to said message or not. And again, fix the notification bug. Thanks for dealing with me for five years, community. If you are reading this and you don't know who I am, maybe it's in our Destiny to meet.