RAFgenerations: Defining the Passage of Time

The other day, Broken asked me if I had seen passing generations of RAFians, and it gave me pause for thought. Sure, we've nearly all of us seen wave after wave of newbies arrive and build their own positions in our tight little society, but what defines where one wave, one generation begins and where it ends?
Perhaps we should be watching not only those who join but also those who leave us, even if they only leave temporarily. There was a time when RAF was startled to see both Tyler and me gone for more than a day at a time, and now it seems almost commonplace for us to be absent. There was a time when Zues, Ellimist, Toomin, Touquie, Ash, and Terenia frequented the board with great consistency, and now we hardly hear from them. It seems that for every two or three waves of newbies that arrive, two or three of our longest-standing veteran members drop off the map a little bit.

Let's just hope that this trend is not a permanent thing, neh? I don't know about you, but I miss all my old Classic RAF buddies. Sure, I love newbies, but RAF sorta' loses its RAFishness without the Classic members.