Sweeties, most of you are wee babies still.
Late 2001 I was lurking on the internet looking for spoilers for the final episodes of Voyager (strange to think of a time when you where not blasted with the infomation weeks before the episode aired - let alone in this case, six months after the fact!)
I came across TrekToday from a simple AltaVista search (yes, now that IS OLD) and eventually entered the forums. I had absolutely no idea what forums where frankly and I honestly thought all this chatter was actually semi-professional (okay that one didn't last that long!)
I registered under another username November 2001 but wasn't really that active - heck, several weeks after registering I moved to the otherside of the world from Melbourne, Australia to Salt Lake City, Utah. I think I got to about 170ish posts prior to calling it quits with that name.
In Feb 2002 I registered this name - mainly because I didn't like the old name and frankly, I never have been a big user of psydonyms - I have always like my own name or playful varients of it. I didn't mention it to anybody - cause this was the height of paranoia on the board with trolls and multiple IDs and susannah and Lisa took no priosoners in their moderation style and even a hint of a former past username life would've had Katie's modding stick slam down hard on you.
I became a moderator barely six months later (I'm still not too sure why - but I think it was too do with being a Janewayite - a big plus when the board was ruled by Lisa). I wonder if I still hold the record from registering to becoming a mod? (not counting the initial start up crew in 1999 of course!)
I always had a hands off approach to moderating (read - too lazy to bother about reading the threads half the time) but thankfully Trek Lit was a polite forum mainly and other then one certain annoying poster who I successfully got banned through some very machiavellian tatics on my behalf, it was a pretty peachy forum more or less.
Still after several years (even convincing The Powers That Be to put on a second mod to help me with my 'workload'), I had to admit I had even less interest in Trek Lit then I started with and got moved to a short (but very enjoyable) stint in The Neutral Zone (was that the name of the place? I really struggle to even remember!), then sometime maybe four years ago, it was time for me to accend to a higher level of existance and leave the boards forever.
I will be honest here - my interest in Star Trek has only ever been passing. I enjoyed Voyager - but I will even admit it doens't really hold up to repeat viewing. I never had huge interest in most of the other series (But I learnt how to fake it!). What kept me at this site was the people and forums like Misc and SF&F and the Lounges. It was the interactions that I enjoyed with everybody here.
But one moves on, one gets a real life, but I still have fond memories of the place.
Heck I do visit sometimes.
BTW... I LOVED the 05:31PM thread. I am sure it still exists out there somewhere. It was my first big major 'event' on this board, and it felt so fun (and naughty) to be posting on the thread that wouldn't close!
