I mentioned to Jilli (who I knew only casually at the time) on learning that she liked Buffy that I missed reading the Buffy stuff at Salon, now that it had gone pay, and she told me where to find you.

I used to lurk at The Bronze, but was too freaked out to ever delurk there. One day someone mentioned a couple other boards they frequented (I think it was Allyson), and I went looking for them. I lurked here for a while and really liked the community, so I delurked.

How did people find us at WX anyway? Did we leave a trail of crumbs from TT or did we just come up on Buffy searches?

I found the Buffistas because of cross-over Bronzers. I knew about it from Allyson and Kristen (and they may well rue the day...) but do you remember Julie? She only posted a little (and maybe not always under the name 'Julie'), but she lurked a lot. When Julie lurked, she used to link me to shrift's posts, and other funnies. The Buffistas are a sticky group, no matter the URL, and I got stuck.

I lurked for a long time first though, because fallout from Tara's death, and from over-exuberant 'attempted-sex' Spuffies, at my old haunts, had left me starving for good Buffy conversation. The broader fandom was a particularly ugly place, during BtVS Season 6. The Buffistas were foamy.

MiracleMan, Emily and I go waaaaaaay back. Even scattered to the corners of the country, we still kept in touch regularly. I remember Emily came back to Michigan for a con once and I remember her talking about this show called "Buffy," how in the recent season finale Buffy had had to kill a guy named "Angel," and how she wanted to talk about it with people on a thing called a "Buffy Board," and I'm pretty sure she mentioned something about Salon Table Talk. I knew Salon, but had never ventured into the TT area. Then it went pay.

I started watching Buffy the very next season, from the start of S3, and was instantly hooked, but it would be several more years before I finally asked MM and Aimee to guide me to where this Buffy Board thing was. I'd asked once or twice before but hadn't acted on it.

I knew they talked to interesting people, and that they had been turned on to the "board" by Emily, but I had other things I was doing online. I generally found a new posting board every year or so, growing bored or irritated or whatever. I spent a lot of time fighting with Creationists, then got bored with that. Then I spent a few years going through a Tolkien posting board or so a year, before moving on to the next thing.

Then I just ran out of posting boards and needed something to read online, so I bugged Joe and Aims again for this Buffy thing. In previous answers, they had given me strange, hard to remember addresses, that didn't overtly seem to have anything to do with Buffy.

This time when they answered (the January before the LA F2F, I think), they said "Oh yeah, the address is www dot buffistas dot org."

That was easy to find and remember.

I think I lurked for about five minutes before diving into the three day silverware discussion.

Yeah, you joined up just a little bit before I did Sean.

I was, like, fate or something.

SA and bon and Herself and Fay are all people I associate with WX delurking. I remember bon revealing a picture of her face one bit at a time. I remember the first picture Ple posted was a high school picture of herself.

Fay and I were talking about this this morning, actually, how we'd both come about 'round the WX days. Ah, icons. She said she remembered mine, from some high school picture, all fadey around the edges; which is better than I can do because I can't remember any. Herself was my gateway in--we were talking about fic and she sent me a link to the board and thus I appeared.

(PS Merry Christmas Eve!)

I'm not sure how I feel about Sean being the embodiment of fate.

t evil grin

Megan- I am so sorry about Jimmy! I always loved hearing you talk about him and seeing pictures on lj.

I am also leaping to post that I have slacked the first time I did regular Secret Santa- and my gift for my Santee will be coming next week rather than, you know, tomorrow. I just barely got my family done in time!