Old friends

One of the joys of the internet is that it allows people of any interest and location join and share ideas and gossip online.

I first got into forums in the mid-90s, through an online magazine called Salon. It’s a free-thinking title, with some very good writers and the forums were full of people largely of my ilk. I made some good friends, and even the occasional lover, on there and gained some valuable insights to boot.

It was a cartoon in the New Yorker that coined the classic phrase “On the internet no-one knows you’re a dog”. It’s true that I’d never met most of the people that I chatted to online and it’s possible that among them there might be an axe murderer or two. But when you converse with people online for a number of years they have to be very good at covering those traits up consistently.

Thankfully I’ve found not one of them to be angry loners with collections of skins in the attic; in fact most have turned out to be exactly who they said they were. It’s been a real bonus on my travels to know that if I went to New York, San Francisco, Florida or Seattle, that there would be a local who could show me around and share a good meal with.

Once Salon started charging for forum use the crowd split and shifted to new sites. Most went to Worldcrossing and I tagged along. But about four years ago work commitments and a lingering feeling that I should be putting more effort into offline relationships led me to drop out.

But with the move I decided to get back online. Seeing as I know less than five people in San Francisco I figured it wouldn’t hurt and besides, curiosity got the better of me. So yesterday I went back, and to my delight a lot of the old crowd are still there. There are few things in life better than catching up with old friends and I’m looking forward to doing just that.