I miss opebo. Derek in his 2010 iteration was also a pretty amusing troll.
Wasn't he a pedophile? Am I thinking of someone else?
Opebo? Yeah, probably. He was an American expatriate in Thailand who was on this forum for 11 years (2003-2014), until he was banned for posts on another forum where he implied he'd frequented underage prostitutes. In some of his earliest posts, before moderation on here was really a thing, he also expressed support for NAMBLA.
But, I mean, it's the Internet. You don't have to interact with people on here face-to-face, and he provided interesting analysis of things in the United States and was an invaluable resource on all things Southeast Asia. His writing was funny and insightful, he'd been part of the community for over a decade, and he was banned for things done on another website rather than rule-breaking here. No reason to get rid of a guy like that.