Long Time On The Internet

I am appearing on a panel at Southern Connecticut State University tonight, talking about blogging. What expertise could I have?

Among the subjects I hope they touch on are the permanence of things placed on the Internet. Stay something stupid… do something stupid… it lasts forever. Who can live through that scrutiny?

I needed a good, practical way to demonstrate what I’m talking about, so I searched for my first recorded Internet comment. As it turns out, it was from 15 years ago this coming Sunday.

Comments: Gated by NETN…@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

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Message-ID: <921111123853.2b436aed@WCSUB.CTSTATEU.EDU>

Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ingrafx

Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 12:38:53 -0500

Sender: “Information Graphics”

From: F…@WCSUB.CTSTATEU.EDU

Subject: RE: examples, please

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Please… more on the UIUC thunderstorm simulations.

Geoff Fox

The message itself was sent on Usenet, a network of discussion groups. Back then it was a large part of the net. Today, it’s a repository for tech discussions and porn… not necessarily in that order.

Pithy, right? It was my response to a previous posting. Obviously, I wasn’t satisfied with the depth of information available.

As unimportant as this posting was, it’s been saved. Today I am glad it wasn’t a flame or curse filled rant. I had no clue it would live on beyond that moment.

Parts of my life aren’t pretty. I went places and did things I’d rather not remember. I’m glad the Internet didn’t start archiving my stuff until I was past 40!