I've long believed that many banned ex-posters returned in that so-called "Class of '04" you're referring to while a flurry of activity was going on. I've encountered probably half a dozen or more "new" posters who joined around the time of Rathergate who posted messages to me as if they knew me from past threads, even though I'd never seen them before and they joined a few days or weeks earlier. One of them from early 2005, I soon found out, was some joker I had reported sometime in the previous year for posting neo-nazi material on several "Smokey Backroom" threads. He was promptly dealt with as he should've been, but many disrupters from the Class of '04 are not and it has drastically changed the posting composition of this forum from what it used to be from '99-'03.
Well, I'm relatively new, so I didn't get to know you...now it looks like I won't have the opportunity. So sorry to see you go. Too bad we have such idiots in this world. I said in another thread that there are people who not only are miserable themselves, but try their best to make everyone else miserable. They get some kind of perverse pleasure every time they succeed. What kills their fun is when you ignore them, pretend they don't exist. Trouble is that most of us feel we have to defend ourselves against such attacks, and that's what these types count on. What we have to remember is that most of those who know you well -- your true friends -- won't believe the hate spewed by these ignoramuses.
What has worked for me is not to permanently exile myself from boards/chatrooms where things have gotten out of hand, but rather, to just take a temporary leave of absence. Right now, I'm on a temporary leave from another political board where a few have made life unpleasant for many of the regulars. At some point, I'l probably go back there, but it has been good for my mind, body and spirit to take a breather.
Anyway,wherever life takes you, goodbye, good luck, good health and a long and happy life. :)