Post by William the Bloody on Aug 9, 2004 18:18:51 GMT -5
1) HOW DID YOU FIND THE SOULFUL SPIKE SOCIETY?
I am Vlad. You all found ME! *wink* Seriously, since I am a founder, I sorta always have been here. But, we started before we were the S3. We started as a little thread created by Alexandra on the ScoopMe! board for Spike-enjoying miscreants to get away from those bullying ScoopMe BtVS Episode posters.
How did I find ScoopMe? Well, I was actually searching for stuff on Firefly, which was on its perhaps 4th or 5th episode. Using a search engine (probably either Altavista or Hotbot) I tumbled to ScoopMe. I have been a Buffy and Angel fan since their respective very beginnings, and when Firefly was canceled, I found myself lurking more and more on the BtVS episode discussion thread, and then on the All Things Spike/JM. I noticed they posted a lot in between eps and the discussion was the rollicking but intelligent sorta fun I have always enjoyed in chat and post boards. I found them aproxmiately during the "old" Part 3. I began posting there when, at that point, Rob and I were the only ones demonstrating the Y chromosome *grin* That was somewhere around the "old" Part 6, which can be found in the ScoopMe archives, saved by so many and so diligently reassembled by Patti, eg, Nan and others.
For those of you interested in the long version of the beginnings of hte S3 , feel free to drop by the following link to the FAQ.
www.soulfulspike.com/membersavatars/faq.htm#origin
2) WHERE DID YOU POST BEFORE JOINING THE S3 AND DO YOU STILL POST THERE? IF NOT, WHY?
I have been traversing hte internet since the only folks out here were me and Al Gore. I remember that night, so long ago, Al and I were tossing back a few brews at a little pub and he says to me..."Vlad, wouldn't it be great if folk were able to have a free exchange of thoughts and information in such a way as that it was almost instantaneous, indeed just liek you and me sitting and talking here." And I said... "Al, you know... if we could only come up with a uniform computer language..." Well, the rest is obviously history and I am still convinced that JAVA kid was sitting at the table next to us.
Okay, seriously, I have been out here a long, long time; like since around '93-94. Many chat sites, messengers, and so forth (I had a 6 digit ICQ number!...unfortunately, I rarely used it back then since none of my friends had one and eventually lost my password.) My biggest chat sites were the now-defunct Geocities (before bought and the scrapped by Yahoo) and AT&T. There were others. Big places, little places. Voice sites like HearMe and webcam sites. They came and they went. Some were special places populated by special people and I still occasionalyl email or message a few of them. But never have a I met a group of people as special, warm and intelligent as the S'cubies that have come together at this place. But I no longer post anywhere other than here and usually only visit other BtVS sites for "news" and to check up on the competition. *wink* The only possible exception to that is I infrequently catch up and really rarely post on Fireflyfans.net.
3) WHAT DID/DO YOU WANT TO FIND HERE?
a place to post about the Jossverse
a place to talk about my life
a place to share my talents
a place to make friends
other (be specific)
a place to post about the Jossverse
a place to talk about my life
a place to share my talents
a place to make friends
other (be specific)
Well, isn't that the $64,000 question? As at least a partial architect of this place, I want it to be all of the above. Reading through your assorted comments, it does strike me just how really close so many of you have become. It really makes me feel proud and somewhat awestruck that in a way, my co-workers and I have touched so many lives. Even if you aren't close friends with me, it is partially because of our efforts that you are together with each other.
I truly believe we have the largest group of intelligent Joss-ian posters anywhwere online. Thinking over the last nearly 2 years, I have a hard time thinking of a topic that hasn't been discussed! Then of course, someone will make a point or have a thought that jsut sorta blows me a way because not only have I not considered it before, but none of my fellow S'cubies have either. That is a great feeling!
I don't talk that much about my life. That's just me. But I know that many of you do, and I know that many of you have had some really hard times in the last two years. And I know that many of you have been helped by having your "friends" there to talk, commiserate, and give advice. Truly, we seem to have someone here that knows something about everything! If you can't get the answer here, you are gonna find someone to point you in the right direction.
OKay, you guys see my "talents" everyday *L*. Sometimes I wish you didn't. But it is really nice to have a place where I can feel comfortable showing my ineptitudes with language and art and not be embarrassed because I am not "great." You learn by doing and you can't learn without feedback, and everyone here is jsut so generous with their praise and their constructive criticism both. I understand why so many "authors" have cropped up here. It's because they feel welcomed.
Finally, I have made some really wonderful friendships here. And I hope to make many more as time goes by. I had an absolute blast at S'cubiefest. I can think of no other time in my life that I have met so many "strangers" (but you all really weren't) and LIKED them all. We all came from different places, different walks of life, different philosophies, but somehow, through the magic of BtVS and I like to think also the magic of the S3, we came together. For a few magical days we WERE the living embodiement of what our posting board is. Someone mentioned that they hoped we had another S'cubiefest for them to either enjoy or be envious about. I do too! So, who's gonna plan the next one? *GRIN*
And really, truly finally, I want to add a thanks to Patti for creating this thread. I know she did it primarily as a way for us to sorta guage where we are going next with the board and site, but jsut reading how happy everyone is and how much they love the site is a really, really special present to those of us that go to long effort to make it a fun, sometimes exciting, always interesting place. Thank you all!
Vlad