Internet nerds

[erniebufflo]

So, clearly, as active forum participators, we're all giant Internet nerds. Heck, one time my hubby and I had a fight in which he accused me of having an internet double life. My question is: how deep does your internet nerdery run?

I've been on forums since I joined the forums for Relevant magazine (a Christian magazine) in college. But my real major nerdery was being a big giant Jezebel.com commenter. I once made the top 25 most active commenters there, and was voted worst comment of the day twice and best comment of the day once. Then they changed the commenting system and all us "OG Jezzies" fled, some to spinoff blogs and others to Meebo chat rooms. I pop back in now and then, and have met some of my Jezzie friends IRL.

So, spill it: I wanna hear about your other internetting.

[ruby412]

I've never been active on a message board until TB. However, I did yet the yahoo email address for my full maiden name, which was a VERY common name. I've always been proud of that one - scored it right when Yahoo came out. Bet lots of my name twins wonder who I am!

(I now use gmail. Obviously!)

[Deleted]

I started my internet life on various sites and settled on TAPS and then SUAD and several pregnancy sites that I was banned from and ended up here.

ETA: This all began in 2000

[erniebufflo]

Sept 19, 2012 15:53:31 GMT -5 ruby412 said:

I've never been active on a message board until TB. However, I did yet the yahoo email address for my full maiden name, which was a VERY common name. I've always been proud of that one - scored it right when Yahoo came out. Bet lots of my name twins wonder who I am!

(I now use gmail. Obviously!)

This reminds me, I have been thinking I should lock down the girls' names on things like Gmail and Twitter and maybe domain names too. Is that weird?

[TrudyCampbell]

Honestly, TB was the first place I became an internet nerd but now I am so much more open to it. I want to chat with more random creepy strangers!

[charlielove]

Back before the dawn of time, (1995?) I was on an active poster on The Onramp chat room. I was 13. I will be 30 in less then 2 weeks. So, definitely an internet nerd.

I started actively posting on The Nest's Fashion & Beauty board in '07, met some awesome ladies, that board started to stink, so we jumped ship and made our own private board (is this sounding familiar?) and we still have an FB group now.

I don't know what Jezebel is?

[Deleted]

Sept 19, 2012 15:54:34 GMT -5 erniebufflo said:

This reminds me, I have been thinking I should lock down the girls' names on things like Gmail and Twitter and maybe domain names too. Is that weird?

I already set up gmail for Wyatt. I dont think there will be many out there, but I wanted him to have it.

[ruby412]

Sept 19, 2012 15:55:42 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Sept 19, 2012 15:54:34 GMT -5 erniebufflo said:

This reminds me, I have been thinking I should lock down the girls' names on things like Gmail and Twitter and maybe domain names too. Is that weird?

Not weird! I think it's a good idea! I might do it too, now that you've mentioned it. Or actually, probably not, b/c there's probably already someone out there using those sites with her name.

It's not weird at all! I've already created V's gmail address. She got her full name too. :-)

I write to her from time to time. I send her pictures and wrote to her about my pregnancy and her birth story. I got the idea from the Google Chrome commercial called "Dear Sophie Lee."

[erniebufflo]

Jezebel is a snarky womens' interest site. I became a commenter right when it first started in 2006 or 2007.

[thedahliharpa]

I did IRC chat in highschool. My SN was "Beast" LOL. I met up with a girl once and then got really scared she would kidnap me and felt super awkward.
I didn't do any social internetting again until TB where I lurked for a long time before I started posting on the AP board in 09.

[TrudyCampbell]

Violet already has a gmail address. BUT I had to add her freaking middle initial because someone already had her name. GAH!

[ruby412]

Sept 19, 2012 16:03:44 GMT -5 TrudyCampbell said:

Violet already has a gmail address. BUT I had to add her freaking middle initial because someone already had her name. GAH!

LOL. I know your last name, and it's not the same as ours, so it wasn't us!!

[TrudyCampbell]

Sept 19, 2012 16:05:47 GMT -5 ruby412 said:

Sept 19, 2012 16:03:44 GMT -5 TrudyCampbell said:

Violet already has a gmail address. BUT I had to add her freaking middle initial because someone already had her name. GAH!

LOL. I know your last name, and it's not the same as ours, so it wasn't us!!

Hahaha can you imagine!? I'd actually kind of love that. My husband told me I should email the other Violet C. and ask her to give it up for a small fee lol

[charlielove]

OH! AND I had an internet boyfriend at the age 13. Like, on a chat board. He was Canadian!!

[maccalovah]

Don't know if anyone knows what ICQ is (basically, like an old school IM program), but I met a guy on there when I was 18...he lived across the country, so I bought a plane ticket without telling my parents, and went down to meet him. Aaaaaand, eventually moved in with him.

Rock on, internet nerds.

[ruby412]

Sept 19, 2012 16:09:36 GMT -5 maccalovah said:

Don't know if anyone knows what ICQ is (basically, like an old school IM program), but I met a guy on there when I was 18...he lived across the country, so I bought a plane ticket without telling my parents, and went down to meet him. Aaaaaand, eventually moved in with him.

Rock on, internet nerds.

Aaaaand, you win.

[ruby412]

Sept 19, 2012 16:08:00 GMT -5 TrudyCampbell said:

Sept 19, 2012 16:05:47 GMT -5 ruby412 said:

LOL. I know your last name, and it's not the same as ours, so it wasn't us!!

Hahaha can you imagine!? I'd actually kind of love that. My husband told me I should email the other Violet C. and ask her to give it up for a small fee lol

I like your husband's style!

[Deleted]

Sept 19, 2012 16:09:36 GMT -5 maccalovah said:

Don't know if anyone knows what ICQ is (basically, like an old school IM program), but I met a guy on there when I was 18...he lived across the country, so I bought a plane ticket without telling my parents, and went down to meet him. Aaaaaand, eventually moved in with him.

Rock on, internet nerds.

SCANDALOUS!!!!

[maccalovah]

Sept 19, 2012 16:12:23 GMT -5 dragonflybelle said:

Sept 19, 2012 16:09:36 GMT -5 maccalovah said:

Don't know if anyone knows what ICQ is (basically, like an old school IM program), but I met a guy on there when I was 18...he lived across the country, so I bought a plane ticket without telling my parents, and went down to meet him. Aaaaaand, eventually moved in with him.

Rock on, internet nerds.

SCANDALOUS!!!!

Haha, it totally was....My little 18 year old midwestern self moved on down to New Orleans to live with an internet boyfriend...Definitely cemented myself as the black sheep of the family with that one, heh

[erniebufflo]

Sept 19, 2012 16:09:36 GMT -5 maccalovah said:

Don't know if anyone knows what ICQ is (basically, like an old school IM program), but I met a guy on there when I was 18...he lived across the country, so I bought a plane ticket without telling my parents, and went down to meet him. Aaaaaand, eventually moved in with him.

Rock on, internet nerds.

I do remember ICQ! You had numbers instead of screen names at first, right?

We got AOL in the very early 90s. I remember loving to play some sort of Babysitters Club game? I still sorta wish Gmail would tell me "You've Got Mail!" My first AIM screen name was "ilovemysax" because I was a naive band nerd. Got weird spammers for that one.

Also: my family was like a Nielsen family for Microsoft. They sent us this thing called Microsoft TV to test, which I swear was an Xbox precursor. It connected our TV to the internet, and it had its own remote and keyboard. This was in like 1999, before most people had DVRs, and it did digital recording and stuff. I have no idea if they ever sold them. They certainly didn't catch on, but now I see similarities in Xbox Live.

[maccalovah]

Sept 19, 2012 16:21:01 GMT -5 erniebufflo said:

Sept 19, 2012 16:09:36 GMT -5 maccalovah said:

Don't know if anyone knows what ICQ is (basically, like an old school IM program), but I met a guy on there when I was 18...he lived across the country, so I bought a plane ticket without telling my parents, and went down to meet him. Aaaaaand, eventually moved in with him.

Rock on, internet nerds.

I do remember ICQ! You had numbers instead of screen names at first, right?

We got AOL in the very early 90s. I remember loving to play some sort of Babysitters Club game? I still sorta wish Gmail would tell me "You've Got Mail!" My first AIM screen name was "ilovemysax" because I was a naive band nerd. Got weird spammers for that one.

Also: my family was like a Nielsen family for Microsoft. They sent us this thing called Microsoft TV to test, which I swear was an Xbox precursor. It connected our TV to the internet, and it had its own remote and keyboard. This was in like 1999, before most people had DVRs, and it did digital recording and stuff. I have no idea if they ever sold them. They certainly didn't catch on, but now I see similarities in Xbox Live.

Yes! I still remember mine: 145816! Omg, how sad...Also, can't believe that was 15 years ago...I feel old now.

[mimivee324]

The only other MB/forum that I have been a part of was for Grey's Anatomy. I joined in 2006 I think? Not sure. But either way, while I am not still a member of the board, I continue to be IRL friends with 7 fantastic ladies from the board. We talk almost daily on gmail. Four of them were able to make the trip to come to our wedding! And I also am friends with a number of other members on FB.

That's as crazy as I get

[silverjm]

I remember being in my first chatroom in 1996, but I can't for the life of me remember the name of it. I definitely participated in some drunken sex chat with random strangers in college. I was on the Knot long ago the first time I planned to get married. I met both that guy and my husband on Match.com

[Regina Philange]

Do you guys remember "the park"? I forget what it was called. My friends and I always used to go on in middle axhi bit it was super creepy and I think it turned into mostly cyber sex and I was young and it told freaked me out. My one friend was sososoo into it. After that the only actual forum was the bump. I don't openly talk about the fact that i post on forums. Except to my husband of course. I love talking to people like me though and it's such a breath of fresh air.

[Regina Philange]

Middle school.

[erniebufflo]

Sept 19, 2012 17:27:23 GMT -5 Regina Philange said:

Do you guys remember "the park"? I forget what it was called. My friends and I always used to go on in middle axhi bit it was super creepy and I think it turned into mostly cyber sex and I was young and it told freaked me out. My one friend was sososoo into it. After that the only actual forum was the bump. I don't openly talk about the fact that i post on forums. Except to my husband of course. I love talking to people like me though and it's such a breath of fresh air.

I'm open about Twitter since it's kind of a big part of my life, but I tend to just say "my friend said" when quoting forum people, because most people don't get it.

[claralou]

I was a loooooooongtime lurker on Jezebel. I only posted a couple of times, but ended up meeting some of those ladies IRL during the 08 DNC in Denver. I'm still friends with a couple of them on Facebook.

TB was my first message board, but I met my husband on MySpace. ( officially. We never actually tell people that:)

[erniebufflo]

Sept 19, 2012 17:56:35 GMT -5 claralou said:

I was a loooooooongtime lurker on Jezebel. I only posted a couple of times, but ended up meeting some of those ladies IRL during the 08 DNC in Denver. I'm still friends with a couple of them on Facebook.

TB was my first message board, but I met my husband on MySpace. ( officially. We never actually tell people that:)

Fun! I was super jealous that Jezzie commenter PoliticalPartyGirl got to work that DNC. She even met HillDawg.

[christidee]

I have a blog, but it is entirely private. In high school I liked the aol chat rooms.
I also had a photo posted on hot or not.

[browneyedhunni85]

Sept 19, 2012 17:56:35 GMT -5 claralou said:

I was a loooooooongtime lurker on Jezebel. I only posted a couple of times, but ended up meeting some of those ladies IRL during the 08 DNC in Denver. I'm still friends with a couple of them on Facebook.

TB was my first message board, but I met my husband on MySpace. ( officially. We never actually tell people that:)

I met my husband in a chatroom. We never tell people that either. We just say that we met at a park and technically we did! It's just something we don't feel others need to know about and we don't want to be look down upon because of it.