Jan 16th, 2001: When It All Began (22 Years Ago)

[Hannibal]

Congratulations, to everyone!

I realize this place is essentially a 'ghost town'; forgotten by most, save a few. But this place is still a strong representation of what it means to write! We joined together under the idea of writing and getting our ideas out of our brain and into some kind of consumable media for others.

This place has been a harbor for doing just that, for 22 years at this point.

If this place were a person, it's old enough that it would be able to legally buy itself a drink at a bar. That's wild to think about considering when it was started by parch, none of us could do that. At the time, most of us had just barely been driving! And here we are - with a 'thing' that we've contributed to at various points of our lives for twenty two years. Some years, activity flourished - others, there was none. I imagine our lives were the same - some years very active and others went by without so much as a whimper of anything exciting.

22 years of words, thoughts, feelings all laid out in text.

I can't help but think back to what a different person I was when we first started this. I imagine we were all different people; everything was different! The internet was a vastly different place, we were wildly younger individuals. I have vivid memories of getting together with machinery and parch and all of us talking about the potential of this very place - excited with the idea of meeting more people in person as well as through the computer, through Word & Voice.

We have lost members along the way. We've lost family, friends. We've gained families, we've gained friends. We've created families. We've all done things in our lives and experienced a lot in the last 22 years - but we've always had this place as a harbor where we could relax, open our mind and let our fingers put to words what was on our brain.

Twenty two years of that freedom, here.

29 posts in 12 years - from the time of our 10 year celebration, to this our 22nd year. Three contributors: Parch, Machinery, Hannibal

Pieces added by Parch: 17

Pieces added by Machinery / thenewrant: 7

Pieces added by Hannibal: 5

Here's to many more of the same!