GREAT post idea Cord! Been feeling a bit of nostalgia myself lately, wondering where it all went.
I am, however, highly disappointed in not getting an honorable mention in DF's post.
I joined, I think, about a year after DragonFire, as I remember the 16 year old twerp being my section director, and Ricun was deputy section leader, but was never around from the time I joined.
I found Avian initially by doing a search for a group that was associated with the old X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter game. For whatever reason, I ran across Avian instead, and I hadn't even heard of Star Wars Galaxies at the time, and honestly I think I only had a vague understanding of what an MMO was.
After lurking for a couple weeks and posting now and again, asking questions about this new game that was to come out "sometime soon," (which turned out to be about 2 more years), people like DF, Mantison, Arindel, Cyrus, X2, Vor, Romsuiag, Angus, Ravage and Orbital made up the tapestry of the very colorful Avian Tech & Trade Association that I soon became a part of. The mythology of "the founders" that was long gone by the time I got here, was an intriguing backstory, told in revered whispers, to this family that I had found.
The politics of Avian at the time was what really interested me. The section system that we had then created a great friendly "sibling rivalry" among the sections that gave us all something to do besides sit and twiddle our thumbs until beta went live.
I eventually ousted my former master in true Sith style (apologies DF!), and became the Section Leader for S6, which of course was then and always has been the most distinguished section in Avian. I kept DF on as my subordinate to keep him in his place.

Together we made quite the administrative team. We published the greatest weekly status reports known to man. Good lord we were dorks.
Another fond memory from back in pre-release days was the RP forum where Vor and Angus and several others crafted some of the greatest fan-fiction I've ever read. Vor had his story of his character's rise into existence that was told in such a that it made you really believe that this guy really was an alien. And of course, every so often you would get another installment of the "Smuggler's Blues" about Angus and his lady-ship, telling the story of a struggling smuggler's challenge to scrape by and deal with the pain of life. There were others too, but those are the ones I remember most.
I remember all the planning, and the excitement leading up to beta, and then release. I remember running around the big cities selling crafted starting pistols (whatever they were called) for outrageous prices, simply because they had a different name, like "Talon's Super-duper Raygun of Death" or some crap like that. Ahh... those were the days.
I, like the others, could go on, but that's what I remember most from the "good ole' days."