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If by "you guys" you mean Teawater, then yeah...
And I guess I pick this up occasionally too, but even then I mostly work on my own projects and don't do much in the way of research.

lol, sorry.  What kind of projects are you working on?  Or are you keeping them secret so the vultures don't pick at your baby?
And it seems even Atrius is in the same boat as you, so ... heck.  I guess the main thing you guys have in common is that you're each working towards your own thing.  Or am I putting too much pressure on you?

I expect the reason "Sala" left was just because he (she?) realized he was too committed to this community--perhaps even too dependent on it, in terms of what he did on a daily basis (it's the same with anyone if they find themselves checking the same forum on a daily basis, or even multiple times a day).  And so he freed himself (I apologize if I'm assuming too much.  I mean to make general observations, and don't claim to know the specifics of you and your friends).

Salanewt (a guy, by the way), left for other reasons.  As a person who considers himself in the know on this sort of thing, I will inform you that Sala left not because he felt trapped, but because he felt like he wasn't needed.  Also, he was pushed away slightly, by who or what I won't say.  Regardless, Sala still produces stuff that gets put up here occasionally, just doesn't do it himself.

Your other ideas are fine, by the way...  Also, I officially have to thank you for proving I'm not the only person who knows what NaNo is.

So this is in reference to the mysterious group-project that blew up?  I'm reminded of that phrase from the old "wonder years" tv show, that sometimes you need to grow apart, to grow together.  It's cool that he's still active, and his stuff's getting recognized over here.

[challenge dungeons]

Dark Dawn's pretty easy.  I guess easy enough that you didn't *need* to use all that customization potential Golden Sun gave you, and so the game sort of devalued one of the best things about Golden Sun.

And it's true that when I first played Golden Sun on the GBA (emulator), the customization in Golden Sun probably was over my head, so I wasn't able to appreciate it.  And in Dark Sun I didn't need to use it, so I probably didn't fully appreciate it there either.

But I stopped played Dark Sun after I beat the main campaign, and I know there are a bunch of challenge dungeons still out there for me to find.  Did those not provide you the challenge you wanted?

---
@ the reference to "depth":  So I guess you're into the roleplay thing, which seems to be pretty sophisticated across the various Golden Sun groups.  What makes Golden Sun roleplaying cooler than, say, Avatar the last Air Bender roleplaying?

I believe they changed their passwords to something they wouldn't know in an effort to keep themselves out of their account.

Woah. Sounds like the stuff of legends.  What happened?

I don't think any of them posted in this thread, so I didn't have a chance to look at the numbers under their user names.

yup, cloning's the idea.  Like fighting Dittos (the pokemon).

Clearly you guys are still hacking.  And as an outsider, I'm glad you guys exist.  So rock on.

If one was to think of how the site would change or evolve or whatever, clearly it'd just have to get better at doing what it does, and not try to be something it's not.  A quick google search found that "the Golden Sun Adept's Refuge" already sprung up to do the other info/roleplay stuff some members talked about.  So what are your coding related goals?  I may not be here for much, but I can at least provide some conversation.  And I'm genuinely interested.

As a hobbyist coder, I'd say people sometimes code in spurts.  And spurts are easier to commit to than lifestyle choices.  And I think stuff like Adept's Refuge is basically a lifestyle choice.  I expect the reason "Sala" left was just because he (she?) realized he was too committed to this community--perhaps even too dependent on it, in terms of what he did on a daily basis (it's the same with anyone if they find themselves checking the same forum on a daily basis, or even multiple times a day).  And so he freed himself (I apologize if I'm assuming too much.  I mean to make general observations, and don't claim to know the specifics of you and your friends).

What I propose is that you make it ok and even EXPECTED that people only come to the site in X-month.  So it's an intense, but limited commitment.  There's a reason why we have that month where people are challenged to start and finish a novel; to code a game in XX-hours; to make a movie in XX-hours etc.

So... here's an idea.  A sort of tradition you can do on Aprils' fool, or on Halloween, or some occasion when it's in season to play tricks.  Make it an event where you go into a rom, and make one small but funny change.  And include a tutorial on how to do it.   This could result in a single blog post, or whatever.  Better yet, a youtube vid.  But essentially it's
(1) An excuse for people to tune in, once a year,
(2) where they'll see what you do, and be reminded of hacking,
(3) be shown how to do a simple hack.

So it's really just PR, and maybe you'll have a good time brainstorming what simple hack you want to do.  And maybe people like Sala would feel just fine dropping back in for a little bit, just to say hi.

And if you have enough people who actually hack, eventually you could even make a challenge of this, to see who can provide the funniest hack.  Because the goal is humor and "viewer's choice," one wouldn't even have to be a great hacker to compete.  All you need is a quick way to show off your hack.  And nowadays one could do this quickly and cheaply with a gif maker.

quickly scouring your GBA ASM thread:

GBATEK
MOV
LDR
STR
B, BL
BLE, BEQ, etc.
THUMB
ARM
ASM hacking
DS (I assume this was the Nintendo Dual Screen)
GBA (it's been long enough that people don't know what this means anymore)
PC (may as well be throrough)
RAM
ROM
hex
VBA (the emulator, I think)
VBA-SDL-H
lr (r14)
rtt = run to thumb

etc. Man, I think it's just better to provide links to people who've already done this stuff.

Did a google search for "GBATEK," and scanned this thread.  Still can't follow much.  While I can't ask that you guys make tutorials for noobs, I'd say you're not doing yourselves any favors in terms of recruitment.  In your OP, could you link to an index of acronyms, and perhaps to some starter sites?

Side question:  From reading above, it seems that the main changes people are making are with parameters (attack, defense, etc).  Have you been able to add and take away djinn from the game?  Or give enemy attacks to players?  It might even be neat to come across a bunch of enemies who, at the time of battle, have the exact same stats and abilities as the players.  Are these things which are ultimately possible through hacking?

Still not sure what "social hacking" is.  The links just left me confused.  I get that it really has nothing to do with the GSHC, but sort of on topic:  Have you guys ever done coding jams? Or hacking jams, as the case would be?  Where you all get together in a real or virtual space, and do some coding/hacking with company around?  I bet that'd increase your own hacking output, provide social pressure among the community to hack, and also facilitate learning and problem solving, since you'd have each other right there to ask simple questions too, or to get help from when you're stuck.

Yeah, this site was more active back in the days Salanewt, Charon, and Role/Rolina were actively on.... But now, none of those three seem to visit anymore? (If at all.)

-It has been stated that Charon does not ever want to return to her account. (I think she changed her password?)
-Salanewt left permanantly as well. (He changed his password as well.)
-Rolina ... (Some stuff happened (offsite, I think) that pretty much killed her enthusiasm for most things GS-related.)

Woah, that sounds like a lot of epic drama.  Who were these guys and what happened to them?  Did they have to change their passwords because you social-hacked them?..  How the heck would you know if they changed their passwords anyway?  You don't know my password do you?  Because that would be kind of embarrassing...

So I guess the most important thing about Open-sourced projects is documentation.  I don't do this in any way, shape or form myself, but out of curiosity,

(1) have you ever used something like GitHub?  I think it's like DropBox for computer code.  Projects have their own forums and wikis, and are geared towards sharing open source stuff.

(2) have you shared documentation documents on stuff like Google Drive, or Microsoft's SkyDrive?  I think those would be easier way for smaller teams to collaborate, in comparison to stuff like wikis.

Truth be told, though, I don't know what these editors do.  If I were to guess, I imagine all data is basically stored in text files (or files which can be opened in text editors), and your editors basically change stuff in those files.  I suppose you've got a thread somewhere on hacking 101?

[you liked about it, personally]

Probably the art and music?

Is that specifically what you liked about it, personally, compared to other games?  I do believe it seemed to have rounder images, and brighter designs.  The pseudo3D of the battles also made it stand out.   I'd say the graphics are perhaps the most ambitious I had seen on the GBA outside of GunStar Heroes. But most fans don't stick with something because of the flashy graphics, I assume.  What made you stay with it?

In fact, I'll confess that while I started to play Golden Sun on the GBA (circa maybe 2005-6), I don't believe I played much past the first giant tree (isn't that like the first dungeon or something?), it seemed to light for me, and I passed it up for other RPG-ish games, like the two Summon Knight, Swordcraft story games, which I played through completion.  This was all via emulators, though, which makes games easier to pick up and put down (compared to if you bought a physical copy).  I hadn't played video games in a while, and so I was essentially going back to see what my nerd friends were talking about.  No joke:  My first RPG ever was via NES emulator, and it was Breath of Fire.  Played it through completion, and that basically began my quest to check out other games in that genre. Admittedly, this was sort of nerdish passion, rather than leisure, and so it's true I'm more of a general gamer than an RPG-fan.  And given that, I imagine there's stuff about Golden Sun that a straight-up RPG fan might like that I just didn't get.  Hence my questions on this forum.

Regardless, the difference between me and you guys is that you guys think Golden Sun is pretty special.  And I want to know what you see in it.  I'm really asking about your very own, very personal tastes.

No, I agree that Golden Sun doesn't bring much to the table in terms of lore or mythology. It does take some creative swings with some of the boss and summon designs though.

It's not an objective question.  It's a personal one.  Are the bosses and summons things you looked at and say "huh, neat"?  Which were your favorites?

... overall the aesthetics are very well done.
... the special places seem more special.
I also like how the player's combat abilites are integrated into puzzles, and how the Lost Age had pretty long, mazelike dungeons. Actually, I think I have to say that the dungeons are what I like most about the world.
BUT
I tend to pretend Dark Dawn doesn't exist.

(obviously the quote is edited a bit)

So, I don't quite understand why you don't like Dark Dawn, when Dark Dawn seems to kick the first three things you mentioned into overdrive?  There's some great cinematic stuff, and the burning pirate village, with the grandma?  That definitely had a sense of character to it.  And I tend to compare the out-of-battle game play much to the Legend of Zelda (DS) series, at least as far as the puzzles go.  While the world and lore didn't impress me much (the same way the original Golden Sun didn't), the production value seemed top notch (the same way the original Golden Sun did).

Disclaimer:  Late in the Summer, I picked up Dark Dawn for the DS (lite) and played through the main quest.  It's the only Golden Sun game I played through to completion, but that's probably due to the fact that I had a physical copy of it, and I haven't emulated anything in a few years.  That game's also what reminded me of the Golden Sun series (after all these years), and what eventually led me to be curious about your fandom.

Personally, none of the lore or mythology really hit me.  All the references seem more or less random, and don't form into anything greater than the sum of it's parts... Basically, GS is really glittery, but the depth of the world doesn't hit me in the way that other titles do.

So is it the game play?
The sentai character elements?
The collectible djinn?

Of is it actually the lore and mythology?  What am I missing?

So why do you still around?  What are your personal projects?

I think ghost trick is completely incomparable to The World, so I'll leave it aside unless people want to talk about it.

My favorite thing about World Ends was the level slider, where you could keep your level artificially low and increase the difficulties and rewards of the game.  I thought was genius.  Have other games done that?

Whoa, grave dig.  I just really played Terraria for the first time a few days ago.  Haven't crafted much, but I've killed maybe a dozen Harpies and found a floating Castle with a household on it.  Took me a while to get used to the controls.  I'm wondering if I should abandon ship and just get on StarBound, which I think are the creator's next project.  It's in early access on Steam.

played TWEWY and GhostTrick recently.  But on the DS.  Haven't played the iOS stuff.

What kind of stuff do you guys expect to talk about?  Are you trying to get a buch of people to get the latest TWEWY Remix so you guys can play together?

What kind of games are you working on?  And how does that tie into this community, or into your hacking?
(feel free to direct me to another thread if that'll be easier for you)

Hi, I'm mostly here with questions about your community.  On Steam I noticed a version of RPG Maker going for <$20, and so I wondered if technology and access to tech has reached a point where it's easier to cobble a game "from scratch," rather than to hack.   Or do the current cheap tools on the market not provide you will all the tools you want, such as an easy way to program all the various psionic powers on the overworld map?

I also understand how hacking could be fun as a hobby, the way people still mess around with radios and the like.  So is that a main motivation of people in the group, or is that just a main motivation of the founder and care-taker of the forum?  Essentially, what keeps the hacking work going?  Is it that you can apply the same hacking skills to a variety of different games, and so it's not just about hacking Golden Sun, but about hacking other games as well?

And it's been forever since Golden Sun's been current (though I recently played Dark Dawn).  What keeps you interested in it after all these years?