I was reading Eric Mayer's journal and noticed in one of the comments that someone had asked Eric how long he'd been online. Eric hadn't answered yet (as of 11:18 am today, that is...) but I thought it was an interesting question.

My own first experience with the internet came in the early 1990's when I joined Prodigy, free, for three months. I didn't leave for quite a long time. Prodigy was a fun service, not too expensive, and there was some interesting content there. I don't remember much about it anymore, except that I located some message boards there, namely one called the Stephen King Club and another called King-Horrible? Both were fan sites (regardless of the name of the second, it was mostly populated by King fans), and I met tons of people thereabouts. And not just online either. I met a young lady on the SKC who I later traveled (to Louisiana) to meet, and we began a long-distance relationship. I was serious, but when push came to shove, she didn't want to leave her home, and there was no way I was leaving MY area...not with my dental practice growing and all of my family and friends still living around the area. The relationship ended with less than a whimper, she simply quit returning my calls (or answering them). (I suspect that she reconnected with an old flame and it was easier to ignore me than to reject me...)

I met others from that message board. One year we tried to plan our own Stephen King conference. Went so far as to book the hotel in Chicago (I think we reserved a couple of rooms and a block of guest rooms at the old Bismark Hotel.) It fell through in the end for lack of committments to attendance, but we finally did do a meet at Starved Rock, and we had people fly in, and drive in from as far away as Ohio. Most of the people who attended were from the Illinois/Iowa/Indiana area, however. But many of us had never met in person. I also met up with others from the boards over the course of various vacations I took. I made a point to meet some of the people for dinner.

Prodigy did something to tick us all off - I think it was something like a pretty big rate hike - and we looked for another online home. And we found Delphi Internet Services, a text-based bbs where we went through a few locations until we settled into our own Custom Forum called The Book and Candle Pub. The Pub is still there, though not nearly as active, and most everyone who used to frequent it is gone except for a select few. I first met Keith Snyder there, around the time SHOW CONTROL came out. (I acquired his cassette tape PERSEIDS at about the same toime, too.) The Pub was one of the busiest forums on Delphi, and as such Delphi asked us to become an official Delphi forum. I was conference coordinator, arranging visits from authors and others in the business, putting together forum message board posts on their background and online interviews, and running live chats with a variety of authors, including Janice Young Brooks (Jill Churchill), Dr. Bill Pomidor (a mystery author), David Feintuch (a SF author), Jack Chalker, and many others. (I still have the trove of files containing these online chats and forum posts.)

Alas, things change - the Pub slowed down, losing participants, and my life changed dramatically as I got married (to someone who doesn't understand the appeal of online interaction at all) and had kids, and the internet changed, and I didn't keep up with it. (For example, I don't know how to do these entries in HTML and don't have a dedicated HTML publishing program - and I don't even know WHAT it is I need!)

So I still participate on Delphi, at the Book and Candle Pub and their SF forum. I also participate on some sports message boards on AOL, and on the Disney fansite, Miceage.com. And then of course, here at Journalscape, where I am still trying to figure out this "blogging" thing.

How far do all of you go back in your online "existence"?

Have a great day!