I'm going to be spending Friday evening with a bunch of people I met online from the Lookout Landing and USS Mariner blogs. It's a different kind of community, because blog comments have to be at least kinda-sorta baseball-related (the link gets tenuous in the game threads during blowouts). But it's still a community, and one that's really come together only in the past 2-3 years.

I've been online since 1990, which I think makes me beyond a dinosaur. I'm more like a trilobite. But the only major change I've seen in the nature of online community is that back in the day I was an unusual netizen for not being a professional geek of some kind. Of course, I'm not on MySpace or anything like that, so it could be there are changes I'm not seeing, but my online community experience now doesn't feel that much different from my early 90's listserv and usenet days. It's a way to reach out across the miles and find more kindred spirits than if I was limited to my physical community.

I love the term " squishy enthusiasm"!

JZ, I must have missed that article you're quoting--where can I read that?

I've been online since 1983. Anyone remember Fidonet?

Does anyone have a trusted source of online vitamins? I need to take about 400mg of B2 per day, and I can only find that in one place nearby. Mail order would be simpler.

Hmm. Is it mail order because you mail your order or because they mail you what you ordered? I guess it's enough of a grey area that it's not a rapid anachronism like "hang up."

I've been online since 1983. Anyone remember Fidonet?

I was on BBSs that were a part of Fidonet, but I don't think I ever used it myself.

Anyone remember Fidonet?

Yes! Though I only got on it to get to the Internet. I got online in '87, but I didn't quite realise I was online.

Uh, not that I thought all those other people were in the next room or anything. I just never thought of "online" as a thing.

I remember knowing of fidonet, mostly. Y'all are old.

I sincerely expected criticism about my writing, and some of me as a human (like being described as needy or whiny or a variety of issues I'll cop to...and the reviewer does describe me in those terms which I'm cool with), but I weirdly never expected the subject matter to be criticized as obsolete/archaic.

I'm also sort of floored by the amount of criticism I've seen about the book, by people who haven't read the book.

Uh, not that I thought all those other people were in the next room or anything. I just never thought of "online" as a thing.

One of the first BBSs I was on was The Well. I remember being a little amazed, thinking, "My computer is connected to a computer in San Francisco. I'm using my computer to communicate with other computer users, most of whom are 2000 miles away."

This was in 1991.