This site needs to be re-focused on something. Whether any of us want any part of it after that is another matter. As I see it, this is originaltrilogy.com, a site about the original versions of the Star Wars films. It could be argued that the "original" in OT.com could also just mean the original stories which would then also include the SEs since it is essentially the same story, but we all know that's not why this site was created. I first signed the petition here (and joined the board) when I saw a signature at another forum about Han shooting first (actually he's the only one that fires, but that's just semantics). At the time, I wanted a high quality version of the original Star Wars on DVD and it was nice to talk with others who had the same wishes. A lot of great things came out of it. A high quality version of the almost complete mono track emerged. Fan made LD-to-DVD conversions were coming out regularly. We all had one goal uniting us and it was nice. The result? Lucasfilm released the ultimate LD master-to-DVD conversion. It's not quite what we wanted so the battle goes on...
Since that happened I haven't been here much. Star Wars was out, looking as good as it possibly could given the horrible circumstances. What could be done? Not much it seems. Now when I come to OT.com I see people making their own versions of Star Wars with CG special effects. Wasn't this site created to get the originals back and to leave the CG out of it? It's a slap in the face to those of us who came here originally to sign the petition asking for the true original films and spend hours explaining and discussing the differences between the various versions of the movies. I know I came here to try and make a difference and right a cinematic wrong. Now I come here and see, "This is the way Lucas should have changed the movie". That goes against the very core of why I joined and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. It goes against the founding principle of this site and legitimizes what Lucas has done to the films. Not only that, it sends the message that the fans want things changed and think that it's alright. Maybe some do, but this site should not be part of that mentality.
I think this site needs to get to a hard line stance of "it's the original or bust". There are tons of places on line to discuss the SEs. There's even a place to discuss your own fan edits (though if you're a fan why would you want to change it?). But where is the site exclusively for the original Star Wars? It used to be originaltrilogy.com.
And yes, we should still all be petitioning and working to get a high quality version of the original movies released. The current DVDs aren't anything close to acceptable.
Neil