Just about everything we talk about now, we discussed back then. Many might think things are relatively new, but a lot of those topics are 20 years old at this point.
In my opinion, all cuemakers who do anything with low squirt (low deflection) cues owe a lot of their information from the discussions and work from RSB. Of course, Clawson and Alan McCarthy and Steve Titus deserve all the recognition, but the dissecting and dissemination of "what makes a low deflection (squirt) cue" information was through RSB.
Specifically:
Thomas Wayne - Rosabelle Believe post. This, IMO, was the start for most of us on the understanding of squirt. Some of us just didn't think about it, but when Thomas disclosed what happens when a cuemaker reduced the tip-end mass, then the rest of us science guys took it and ran.
Ron Shepard - Everthing You Always Wanted to Know about Squirt, but Were Too Afraid to Ask
Bob Jewett - for everything scientific and engineering, but for squirt, his work on the Jacksonville Experiment answered everything for this mechanical engineer
Jim Buss - also Jacksonville, but for making the loaded cue to show how mass severely trumped any other notion on squirt
Ken Bour - for being just super inquisitive and super curious about such things
Pat Johnson - for being super critical and forcing posters to backup their claims.
Etc.
And yes, even me. I was one of the few mechanical engineers in those discussions, and I've used that information for the last couple of decades discussing with many cuemakers on what all is entailed and why for a lower squirt cue.
I only wish DrDave had been into the internet in those days. I think his presence may have made the discussions progress more quickly from a mechanical engineering subject matter expert point of view. But alas, he was several years late to the party. But, he's certainly made up for lost time and more.
Mike Page - what more can I say about this genius? He gave us the game of FARGO (named by Pat Johnson with a nod to Mike's town), and now he's given us the FARGO Rate and FARGO Billiards. Back in the RSB days, he was a simple Professor of Physical Chemistry who loved to play pool. In other words, a perfect RSBer.
Additionally, all the discussions with Hal Houle started on RSB. So any of today's discussions on aiming methods, CTE, 90/90, etc., that was all smashed out long before the web-based forums. I still use what Hal taught me, long before these DVDs have come out.
Backhand English was also completely discussed to death during those years. It wasn't until Colin Colenso's video after web-based forums started that those who didn't understand BHE got a visual of what we were discussing.
And I suppose finally, the concept of cue collecting, although most of us really weren't into that, guys like JimBoCt were the first to highlight on the internet that crazy underworld of cue collecting and cues as functional art. A lot of you (and you know who you are) owe a lot to guys like JimBoCt, as much as you'd hate to admit it.
That's a quick summary. I've met many people in the pool world, and many of my longest acquaintances and friends have been through RSB.
Freddie <~~~ reminiscing, but going forward