May 2003? Surely I remember you going on about contention in a rational, if a bit contentious (at the time) way prior to that? I'm absolutely certain that I'd had a long hard look at your posts on AG back then and decided you weren't some passing nutter ranting on about something
Then again I wasn't taking PMs on AG so I suppose we never really talked back then - it was absolutely obvious who I was (email addy, Nominet whois etc) then though so I assumed anyone who wanted to get in contact with me would. Icarus and/or The Caretaker would normally have passed most things along.
Ah Eve, the best game I have EVER played. Get out to 0.0 and no rules apply bar exploiting broken game mechanics. None. Yours truly was a "gentleman" pirate (Space Invaders) then a pirate hunter (Reikoku) then a dog of war (Evolution) who killed anything that moved. I had industry alts that sold replacement ships to the same people I'd just blown up - happy days
It was (still is) a game for intelligent people and the devs still seem to recognise that as there hasn't been TOO much dumbing down to the lowest common denominator as in LOTRO/WoW etc etc. Its the only online game I'd ever consider playing again but I won't as I know it'll consume 24+ hours per week.