Believe it or not, yes, we did have the pirate already. We even had Bob on there too.
But a bit of back-story for those of you not as old as Ruski. Ruski was one of the original posters when the Pub was in its first incarnation. When the server was changed, and the Pub moved homes, quite a few of the "old guard" didn't make the transition for one reason or another. So time passes, and new people join, but the old guard still mention some of thier fromoer chummers. One of the "lost" was Ruskiface the Pirate. When Ingo desiced to expand our Smily d-base, he put the pirate one on there in honor of Ruskiface the Pirate. Several months later, when Ruskiface the Pirate was in a motorcycle accident, he suddenly found himself with loads of free time. He started posting again with his shortened handle of Ruski, and loe, he entered the Pub once more, the first patron with a readymade Smily waiting for him.
After that, Bob the zombie got his name, and the rest of us started getting custom smilies for high post count. He didn't start the smily revolution, but he certainly started the trend of high post-count reward.
Gabriel, Historian, Violent Smily :gabe:
