This is topic What did you enjoy about the Hatrack of years ago? in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Darth_Mauve (Member # 4709) on :
 
For me it was learning what PC meant. Mr. Trump and many of his followers rail against PC speech and PC culture. They complain that PC or Politically Correct speech is a muzzle that gets in the way of people speaking their minds.

Talking with people here who disagreed with my point of view was done in a PC way...Polite Conversation. This is how my mother taught me to act. If people didn't want to be called by a certain phrase or descriptor, we avoided using it. What harm did it do us? None. What did we gain, we gained adversaries who listened to what we said.

And I listened to what they said when they spoke to me in an honest but respectful way.

I changed my opinions when I was shown they were wrong. I changed other opinions by showing politely and calmly when they were wrong.

When people started ranting and stopped listening is when I left. My opinions would not be changed by their ranting, their electronic yelling and name calling. I could not change their opinions since they refused to listen. It became a race to see who could turn the cleverest phrase or the most scathing remark. It became a test of petty rudeness.

My mother didn't raise me to be rude, or petty.

I look forward to a return to PC--Polite Conversation.
 

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Posted by PanaceaSanans (Member # 13395) on :
 
This is beautiful.

I hope to converse with you in a polite manner.

And I really look forward to reading more answers to this thread! (I'm not really entitled to write here.^^)
 

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Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
 
Yeah, I'd have to agree.

I started on Hatrack when I was but a wee lad at the tender age of 20. I thought I was a pretty fully formed, rational, thinking, breathing human being. But I had a lot to learn about how to debate/discuss in terms of listening and responding to what people have to say. And I had a lot to learn about how to formulate and communicate my own thoughts and positions on things. I learned it was okay to change my mind as well.

So, what I enjoyed most abut Hatrack was the stable environment and group of people who let me learn all those lessons (hopefully not too much at their expense). I also appreciated the exposure to so many divergent points of view. Hatrack was almost never an echo chamber, there were always a diverse array of opinions.

Hatrack was always self-correcting too. Someone might go out of bounds, but they either reined themselves in, or were reined in by the community's natural sense of order and fairness.

We still have the building blocks of all that, but not enough, I think, to achieve critical mass (at the moment).
 

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Posted by Jacare_Sorridente (Member # 13443) on :
 
All of the above responses made Hatrack a good place, but the fast-paced response rate back in the day made it fun to check back frequently. Things feel much more leisurely now than they were a decade or so ago
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
The context was quite different. It was a place of the times. There was no Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, or Pinterest. There were personal blogs, true (remember MySpace?), but without aggregated sharing sites, there was no way to easily promote a blog or have individual posts go viral. You were pretty much stuck with boards for online discusssion, and the internet was still the internet, so wading through jackassery was a pain.

Something about this place -- something about Card's work -- brought some pretty special people together. There were search engines good enough to find author websites, there was a lot of great stuff in recent print by Card, and there was a drive to talk about it. And so wending your way here got you to a writing collaboration section, to a section about Card's writing, and to the seething carnival that was Books, Films, Food and Culture (though I think it was Books, Food and American Culture back then, or something like that). The great part was that the writing drew in people from all walks of life who just enjoyed good stories -- thoughtful, dense, nuanced, lively, and character-driven.

Card was the writer "of the terrible choice," as one reviewer wrote. He put characters you cared about in untenable positions, and we had to go with them. And we were in untenable positions in our own lives, sometimes, and so we went with each other through them. There was moderation (not a given back then), but more importantly, there was self-directed moderation. People worked hard to keep the place open to discussion of differing viewpoints. We were human with another. We cared, we teased, we laughed, we supported. We listened.

Several very interesting people attended a Writer's BootCamp with OSC, including Slash, who was a kind of charismatic force unto himself. (He co-wrote the Expanse series with a friend, and it's now on the SyFy channel. That was initially based on a online game played with forum members elsewhere, but that's another story. Back then he was just this guy with an office job and an unforgettable way with words.) Anyway, Slash decided you were only "real" as a Hatracker [ScottR later coined Jatrequeros] if you were at BootCamp or had your existence physically verified by someone there, or who have been verified themselves. So there became this interest in meeting in person, which was Not Done back then. There are pictures of one of the early meetups with everyone attacking someone (can't remember!) so they could prove her family right that internet people were out to kill you.

We were doing the hard things together, you see? We were meeting up, when you didn't do that. We were pouring out reams of discussion with opposing viewpoints, which you didn't do back then. We were vulnerable and brave, and there weren't other ways to explore that. Not much, not back then. That gave an undiluted intensity to the conversations here. And we had people with conservative viewpoints, and people who came out as gay, and moms and dads, and teenagers, and this -- carnival. Magical.

But there were people who joined with the express intent of taking it apart. (This was directly admitted by some later.) We tried to pull them into the fold, but you can't make someone want something they don't, and that sort of community was not what they wanted. Other things happened, really rough things Terrible. OSC went through little spurts of being active on the forums, but then he and Katherine lost Charlie-Ben, their son. Some political affiliated forums and online columns began. There were some unexpected positions taken, and although there was never, ever any pressure directed to the forum members or the forum itself -- this forum has always been provided as a resource without interference except when strictly necessary -- some people became quite uncomfortable.

There were a few schisms. 2000 happened (Bush vs. Gore in the US), and this place was as passionately divided as most of the US-related internet sites. It was really awful and painful. We recovered. But then there was 2004 and the re-election, and the intensity of the emotions was super-high for many. I don't think the forum recovered fully after that point -- we started talking about the decline a lot then. Also by then the internet had opened up, and soon there were other places to talk without as much complication. We knew each other, too, and so we reached out to one another -- some to the extent of starting and paying for their own forums.

And we changed, Panacea. We'd been knocked about a bit by life, we were (some of us) less able to overlook some profound disagreements associated with this place, and we wanted something else. For me, coming back here with any regularity would be like trying to fit back into my kindergartner Winnie-the-Pooh nightgown: it wouldn't fit, and it would feel weirdly garish and inappropriate, a'la Baby Jane. There was nothing wrong with that nightgown -- my goodness, my mother made it for me, and I loved it. It was perfect for me. Now I wear one handmade from Pucci silk, and the color and shape are different, and I am different.

Still love that nightie. Still have it, and still look at it sometimes. If I find someone it fits, I would happily turn it over to them, if they liked. Or I would hope they find their own one to cherish.

This sounds condescending? I worry. I think it sounds like saying this is a juvenile place. It is not. It is not naive or inexperienced to love it or want to be here, not in the sense usually meant, but I do think it required us to come to it with openness, vulnerability and passion, and that isn't always going to be possible. Maybe it will for some of us again, but I think it would be like returning to a boyfriend from long ago -- even if you valued what you had, and even if it was wonderful, you might not find a joyousness together anymore. That has to be okay. It has to be okay for people to change and move on. It's what people do -- we are never static, not any of us.

And it has to be okay to come back, and make new friends, too, if you like, and to turn the electricity back on, and hey, is that the smell of fresh cookies?

Peek-a-boo. It's all good.

Be well, y'all.

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PS: So what I enjoyed was who I was back then, and I loved how the peculiarities of context in time and online space made this place a perfect incubator for who I wanted to become. [Edit: didn't realize DM started this thread. Hi, Darth!] I don't think you can recreate what it was that I loved here, but you can make your own. Please -- any of you -- do that if you want to. I'd love to see it grow again.

PPS: Oh, my. I was just remembering Telperion fleeing Hurricane Katrina, and I was trying to get my credit card information to him because I think he could not access the bank? And the towers coming down on September 11 -- I was delivering babies, and racing back to the cafeteria television in between, and connecting with people here on the cafe terminals. And staying up all night playing Halo with Slash while his wife plied us with pitcher after pitcher of margaritas, and meeting Christy and Tom at the Madison zoo in winter, and all of it.

I go through periods of deleting my online presences. (I am so sorry, Jake! Your patience is boundless.) I was never able to purge all of this -- there was too much of me here.

[ September 01, 2016, 08:43 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]
 

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Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
 
Noemonicon I, we held knifes on Suneun. That was in 2005, though, and already a sakecon, not a hatrackcon.

OMG, everyone looks so young.

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/fiazko/49306788/in/set-1070638/
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
It all blurs. SO old.

Oh, good lord, I am standing right behind you, ElJay!

celia. Oh wow. Raj looks devillish but so innocent, too. (He isn't. I know. That, too, was a surprise.) Becky and PsychoTriad, of course without shoes.

Edit: And a young Noemon!

[ September 01, 2016, 08:33 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]
 

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Posted by PanaceaSanans (Member # 13395) on :
 
Thank you for what you wrote, ClaudiaTherese. You cannot know how much I appreciate your willingness to further my understanding - and not merely cognitively - of what happened and why.

quote:

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Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese:
This sounds condescending? I worry.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese:
That has to be okay. It has to be okay for people to change and move on. It's what people do - we are never static, not any of us.

And it has to be okay to come back, and make new friends, to, if you like, and to turn the electricity back on, and hey, is that the smell of fresh cookies?

I'd love to see it grow again.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese:
And so wending your way here got you to a writing collaboration section, to a section about Card's writing, and to the seething carnival that was Books, Films, Food and Culture (though I think it was Books, Food and American Culture back then, or something like that).

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CT, if I recall correctly (which I very well may not), it was Kama who made a thread with a request to change the name, as the forum participants and conversation had grown beyond just American culture.

Also, hi!
 

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Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
 
Great posts here. Here's my hope:

That this place serves a new group of admirers as well as it served me (and several others, obviously) now and into the future. I'm extraordinarily find of my time here, and very nostalgic.

I am not here frequently now, but who knows what the future may bring. But, even if a bunch of old timers come back, it will still be a new time and a new batch of folks. We've all changed anyway. Can't really recapture a moment in time, but...it's entirely possible to maintain a community here and that's a huge aspect of what it made great,whenever it was great.

All it takes is good, interesting people acting kindly toward each other.

All the best.
 

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Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
 
I've already posted on this elsewhere, but stepping in to say I love CT.

That is all.
 

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Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
 
You know, on reflection, perhaps the best thing that Hatrack did for me--out of all the good things it did for me--was that it introduced me to CT, who remains one of my favorite people in this entire world.
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
Good lord, you're breaking my heart, you all.

Rough day, stiff upper lip, and then -- kindness. Oh, god, don't make me want Hatrack again!

Hugs all around.

(((Chris)))
(((saxy saxy)))

Strider, you are correct. (((Strider))) (((Bob)))

And oh, Panacea. Panacea. Fist-bump and a big hug to you as well. Do you know my favorite quote about medicine, doc? Well, one of two. "Medicine is a ringside seat on humanity." I have the cite somewhere.

You are doing the ringmaster job up proud.
 

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Posted by Magson (Member # 2300) on :
 
And after 5 attempts at remembering my password since I haven't posted in years.....

I liked it for many of the reason already stated. It was still early days on the web, social media didn't really exist yet to pull me in that direction, there were a lot of people here actively discussing all sorts of interesting topics. So much so that you really had to be sure to look at page 2 and 3 of the main forum becuz threads got pushed down so quickly at times.

And above all, we talked *to* each other, not at or past each other. We didn't just spout off talking points and "rah rah my side" crap, but actually learned where we all were coming from. We didn't agree, but we could accept disagreement as valid, and still be friends.

I drifted off when the yelling, insult, and echo-chamber got going. The topics were almost all political anymore, not the more fun general things or "oh cool look at what I found" and whatnot.

TBH, the only reason I came here today was becuz I've been reading Uncle Orson Reviews Everything for a long time and enjoy those columns, but the rhinotimes site has been down for a month, yet the columns still show up on the front page here, and on a whim I clicked into the forums for some nostalgia. I dunno if I'll ever come back to check this thread again. We'll see, I guess.
 

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Posted by PanaceaSanans (Member # 13395) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese:
Rough day, stiff upper lip, and then -- kindness. Oh, god, don't make me want Hatrack again!

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quote:

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Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese:
And oh, Panacea. Panacea. Fist-bump and a big hug to you as well. Do you know my favorite quote about medicine, doc?
"Medicine is a ringside seat on humanity." I have the cite somewhere. You are doing the ringmaster job up proud.

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You do have a great heart, CT.
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
I think one of the most fun things about the Hatrack community of long ago was that if you were chatting in a fast-paced chatroom and tossed out a reference to anything, no matter how geeky, like some old science fiction, classic lit, movie, whatever, then someone would pick it up and run with it. It was so much fun! I had never had a community before that got my jokes like that. I'd never been in a group of people who read everything.
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
TATIANA.


(Panacea: Ok, magical. Definitely.)

How do, love?
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
Doing great, CT. It's good to see you again. Every time I drive down to UAB I think about you being in med school there and wish we'd known each other then. How are you?
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
I am, hmmm, wiser and older. A redhead now, in truth. Feeling good about my skillset and toolbox. Still making lots of mistakes -- half of life seems to be running back and forth and readdressing things.

I'm happy for the most part. A lot more quiet joy and a lot more self-knowledge, but everything's a bit half-kinked and off-kilter. I'll be coming back to the States for awhile and doing locum tenens (short-term work), I think. I need to be untethered.

What's up in your world? And are you going just by "Tatiana," or as the marshmallows are being roasted over the fire, is it okay to remember you by other monikers?
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
Tatiana of all my names is the most me, but I still answer to ak or aka too. I'm glad to hear you're happy, whether tethered or un-. The times of quiet joy are the best treasure, aren't they? And lately I'm blessed with a lot of them. My son's healing well from his brush with mortality earlier this year. Your colleages at UAB did miracles for him. Meanwhile I'm delighted to give up my travels and be a homebody, watch the birds, cuddle the cats, read a lot, and sleep. I'm Bilbo at Rivendell, and it's lovely. =)
 

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Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Tatiana:
I had never had a community before that got my jokes like that. I'd never been in a group of people who read everything.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ElJay:
Noemonicon I, we held knifes on Suneun. That was in 2005, though, and already a sakecon, not a hatrackcon.

OMG, everyone looks so young.

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/fiazko/49306788/in/set-1070638/

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Panacea, if you're interested, in the back row, starting on the viewer's left, that is (going by screen names, since that's primarily how you know us) Psychotriad, kwsni, CT, ElJay, twinky, Pod, Jaiden, and Noemon (Jake, mostly, now). In the front row, again from the viewer's left, is celia60, Suneun, and fiazko. The picture was taken on the front porch of my house.

[Edit - and I still have all of those knives, come to think of it]
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
Do you still have lemongrass in a pot on the front porch?

What a lovely day.
 

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Posted by Jake (Member # 206) on :
 
Not this year, but I do have a long narrow planter of ginger going, a bunch of kii noo chilies, and my kaffir lime plant.

And yeah, wasn't it? It's weird to think that that's the only time we've physically met.
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Tatiana:
My son's healing well from his brush with mortality earlier this year. Your colleages at UAB did miracles for him.

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quote:

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I'm Bilbo at Rivendell, and it's lovely. =)

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That's a bit of all right, right there.
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Jake:
And yeah, wasn't it? It's weird to think that that's the only time we've physically met.

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Surely not. But yes, I guess you're right. Funny about that, eh?

I've always thought of you as the person I wanted most to be like when I grew up. I'm so happy things seem to be going well for you. It was a rough go, but now there is Kristy, and the house is holding together, and you just keep on being the very Noemonest Jake there ever was. Wonderful.
 

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Posted by Jake (Member # 206) on :
 
That's interesting; I've always felt the same way about you. I guess that shouldn't surprise either of us, eh?

And yeah, things are generally going well. Things aren't perfect, of course, and I'm definitely a bit more battle scarred than I was when I was younger (I honestly think that when I was recovering from my divorce, a coping mechanism that I employed on a subconscious level was to damage my memory ((not through drug use or anything; just through force of will). Because if you can't remember things, the memories can't hurt. It's improved a lot, but it)still isn't what it once was, and there are times when I'll reach for a story and discover an empty spot on the shelf), but I am generally happy these days, and more comfortable in my own skin than I would have told you would ever be possible when I was, say, 20.
 

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Posted by PanaceaSanans (Member # 13395) on :
 
Thank you, Jake. I was indeed interested.

[ September 04, 2016, 09:15 AM: Message edited by: PanaceaSanans ]
 

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Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Tatiana:
Tatiana of all my names is the most me, but I still answer to ak or aka too.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese:

quote:

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Originally posted by Tatiana:
My son's healing well from his brush with mortality earlier this year. Your colleages at UAB did miracles for him.

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Is this a story for the telling? Regardless, I am glad to hear there was good news in the end.

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quote:

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Something about this place -- something about Card's work -- brought some pretty special people together.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Tatiana:
Strider, I totally think of you as Strider without any LotR connection whatsoever, too.

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Here's a dirty little secret. I first started adopting the Strider moniker when I was a kid and had attempted to read Fellowship. I fell in love with the name, but, at the time, failed to fall in love with the book. I stopped reading the book so early that when a friend of mine made an Aragorn reference in response to my making of a Strider reference, I had no idea what he was talking about!

I used the name when I had to enter a name for video games or computer games, I used it for my D&D characters, and basically for anything I could that required a pseudonym. It was only years later that I read the whole LOTR series, and by then, 'Strider' was mine, was me. When I registered at Hatrack many people commented on how they liked the name, and it always took me a second to remember, "Oh, right, Tolkien!"
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 

quote:

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Discovering a kindred mind is a glorious feeling.

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quote:

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I first started adopting the Strider moniker when I was a kid

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quote:

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Originally posted by Tatiana:
I told it on facebook while it was happening, so if you're interested you can friend me there and go back and read it. I think maybe since he also was occasionally on hatrack, I'll respect his privacy here. But thanks for asking.

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I will do that. I'm avoiding Facebook because of family right now, but I will sort it when I get there.

Meanwhile, the good news is that it ended with good news.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jake:
That's interesting; I've always felt the same way about you. I guess that shouldn't surprise either of us, eh?
... but I am generally happy these days, and more comfortable in my own skin than I would have told you would ever be possible when I was, say, 20.

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Yes. And I am so happy to hear that, Jake. There's not a lot we can ask out of life in the end. That's a brass ring to reach for, right there.

quote:

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Originally posted by Icarus:
. . . well in order to create a terrible choice you have to acknowledge that there is value in both sides, and that there are pitfalls on both sides. So people from all different walks of life and all different outlooks could be drawn to Card's works at the time and not see demon-like caricatures of themselves.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese:
I am, hmmm, wiser and older.

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i am hmm ... older
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
I wandered over from Nauvoo for a more nuanced political environment where I could discuss things that mattered to me with more understanding all around (it is not always easy being a nonconformist liberal Mormon.) I stayed for the community of people who might disagree but were polite about it and really wanted to hear the other side,and meanwhile had a ton of fun chatting about books and movies and music together (and many shared my taste enough to get great recommendations.) When the community was forced out by shouting angry people who didn't have an interest in that listening- and when they started refusing to "take it to Ornery"- I was no longer safe here. I could speculate on what drew such a crowd but it's pretty well covered above.

We have all grown and changed since I left for sure. Luckily being able to stay in touch with many on other platforms means in large part we have grown together enough that I still feel connected. And when we meet in person it can be so amazingly magical still.
 

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Posted by Olivet 2.0 (Member # 12719) on :
 
Wow. I am feeling the nostalgia.

I was new to the internet, and the internet was still relatively new as a social space. I came here and chatted and played. I messed up, and was forgiven. I learned things. I changed my mind on things, sometimes, because reasoned argument won me over. Even when it didn't, I understood people's reasons for being wrong ( ).

I met people in real life without whom my life would be completely different. I literally have lunch with former Jatraqueros at least twice a month. A person I met here (Uprooted) helped me find a job when I moved back to Atlanta. CT pretty much saved my life when I had a spinal fluid leak after a spinal tap. Slash and CT wrote me letters of recommendation that helped get me into the Odyssey Writing Workshop in 2014. (He and JennyGardener made me "real" at that writing class thingy, I think.) I've traveled places just to meet people I "met" here.

I threw three WenchCons for the LotR movies, and met people in person for the first time who are still very dear to me.

Two MARRIAGES came out of WenchCon II, with a current total of three children--One of whom I babysat last month when his mom had an appointment.

This place was (and always will be) super important to me. Even though I was perhaps not always my best self here, people made the effort to bring me around when I was a jerk. It was an important thing, to me, to see this happen and to help make it happen for others. That's a life skill, y'all, and every day I'm grateful for what I learned here.

I just don't see it happening again. Not for me, anyway. I hope it does happen again, with new people, but the same commitment to kindness, compassion, and reconciliation.

It's great to see all the old names in this thread. Like a reunion of sorts.

I'm on Facebook, sometimes SakeRiver, though it's been a while. Look me up.
 

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Posted by The White Whale (Member # 6594) on :
 
This is a nice thread.
 

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Posted by JanitorBlade (Member # 12343) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by katharina:

quote:

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Originally posted by Tatiana:
I had never had a community before that got my jokes like that. I'd never been in a group of people who read everything.

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I swear this is how my husband fell in love with me. We were aquaintances who were chatting after a Sunday School class, he made a passing reference to "the greatest thief in the galaxy", and I said, "You mean the stainless steel rat?"

He gave a wild stare filled with joy, grabbed my shoulders, and kissed my forehead. I felt a zing all the way to my toes. He cited that moment in his wedding toast as when for him I changed from random pretty girl to a serious possibility. Discovering a kindred mind is a glorious feeling.

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This story made me smile so much.

Just yesterday I used ursine and recalcitrant in back to back sentences and it didn't even phase Katherine. We actually don't share a ton of common hobbies, and our personalities are quite different. We also have very different POVs on many topics. But we really love each other, we enjoy sharing what one is passionate about with the other. And we have since developed more things we both love to do together.

The shared memories and in-jokes seem to really glue us together.

I miss her so much, but just a few more days...
 

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Posted by Parsimony (Member # 8140) on :
 
There was a time in...2004? Maybe? When a friend and I were traveling through, and ak offered to let us stay at her house for a weekend. We did, and, as payment, I sang songs and played my guitar in her living room.

She did not try to kill us in our sleep, for which I am thankful. She did take us to some sort of community center or something where we played ping pong on an old warped table.

I still frequently see the friend who came with me on that trip, and he still can't believe I convinced him to stay at an Internet stranger's house in a strange city in exchange for a song. Frankly, neither can I.

--ApostleRadio
 

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Posted by Jeni (Member # 1454) on :
 
The people.
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
Oh, but Apostle Radio, what about the terrible danger I put myself in by having you? Did you think of that? Nah, my grandminions are all marvelous people, as has been proven many times. =D

Your friend was a non-hatracker, and was a little mystified at our weird shared interests, as I remember. I felt proud that I could dig out one old skool rap CD to play for him when he said he liked rap. Y'all were good sports at letting me beat you in an ancient game of original Trivial Pursuit, too, as I recall, which I was able to win by dint of my advanced age.

That ping pong table was terrible! I can't believe they even still kept the thing there. Someone must have folded laundry on it in the off-hours or something. That's the only way to explain it. That was hilarious! The singing and guitar playing deserved a better ping pong table, no question.

It was a fun weekend, as all hatrack gatherings I've ever hosted or attended have been. I can't remember now but I hope the Gamecocks beat Alabama that weekend. Boooo hisss Alabama!
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
Another thing that was great about the olden days is that if you ever had insomnia or something, you could get into hatrack chat and there would be a party going on for your amusement and company. Any time of the day or night, any day of the week, it didn't matter.
 

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Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
 
Well said, CT.

There definitely was a change in the tenor of discussion at one point, and some schisms within the community - which led many of the posters I enjoyed engaging with to leave for other fora.

This also coincided with the rise of social media and smartphones, and OSC's increased voice in the political arena... so there were really a lot of factors that changed the landscape. At this point, it's sort of like Sam and Frodo coming home and finding the Shire a very different place.

Some of the things I remember from way back:
- Such a high level of discourse and respectful argument that I once printed off a few threads to discuss in a classroom setting
- Popping into late night chat
- Scrabble (with Icarus and others)
- Long back-and-forth conversations with Tresopax
- The Four Horseman thread (I still think my entry of Procrastination should have been included... but hard to argue with TomDavidson in the 4th slot, lol)
- Playing a halfling barbarian in one of Slash's email D&D campaigns (later hosted on sakeriver)
- Briefly running my own email D&D game
- Waiting for Chris Bridges to post his next article
- Keeping up with the saga of Russian adoption

And offline:
- Meeting so many folks at the inaugural Boot Camp (the Cards, Slash, Olivet, JohnKeats, Jenny Gardener, miss tammy, etc)
- Slash showing me around Portland when I went out there to visit
- Meeting up with Olivet when I lived for a hot minute in Atlanta
- Crashing at OSCs house on a drive back from Atlanta to NJ
 

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Posted by Jeni (Member # 1454) on :
 
Tatiana - That is what I miss most frequently when I'm bored. No one uses AIM anymore, maybe it's time they bring back parachat I always knew who you were!
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
Jeni, you always knew! I never could figure out how you did that! =)

I can remember chatting on parachat, and then on ICQ where each person got their own box and you could see each keystroke that other people typed as they were made. We could only have maybe 4 people chatting at once or it got to be too much to keep up with. Were you around then? Then the AIM chat era came and that seemed to last a long time. I think I still have an AIM client I could try.

Hah! I'm there. Somehow I must have set it up to default me to that chatroom. And I have 200 people on my Buddy list and not a single one is online. Time travel!

Dang, I had forgotten, but AIM was totally a better chat server than instant messenger or Skype. We should revive it! Of course, AIM doesn't have the pick-a-new-name-every-time-you-log-in feature that was so much fun in parachat.

Unless you're myr, I guess, but then your font and color give it away anyway.
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
Oh, we even had a thread on the forum that said "hey, I'm in chat if anyone wants to come and, like, chat"
 

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Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
 
I posted about this elsewhere several years ago, but I still feel the same way.

quote:

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It's late, and I'm home for Thanksgiving, and I can't sleep. So:

I started reading Orson Scott Card's books for two reasons: one, because my brother had read Ender's Game in class and recommended it to me; and two: they were near Tom Clancy's and Michael Crichton's books on the shelf at my high school. I devoured the shadow series as much as I could, and at least one of the books makes mention of Hatrack River. At some point I wandered over here and lurked here for several months. At the time the forum had had a serious spam issue and wasn't accepting new members. Someone - I think Primal Curve? - offered any lurker the use of this handle around Christmastime 2002, and I snatched it up. So the name "James Tiberius Kirk" actually has no significance to me: I didn't make the Star Trek connection until much later.

I guess that means I've been here about a decade. I hadn't thought much about that until now.

When I joined Hatrack was kind of a refuge to me, because I was going through a weird time in my life. Some tough things were happening at home, and I'd always been sort of a news junkie and I was trying to make sense of the world. I was thirteen or fourteen, and at the time there were actually quite a few Jatraqueros about who were within my age range.

I spent most of my early days lurking and trying not to angst all over the forum. I started out on the Other Side because I was intimidated by the types of discussions you all would have over here in what was the Books, Films, Food and American Culture subforum before the switch. I saw it as a community of adults, sharing adult opinions, on important topics. When I finally started reading regularly it began to shape my thinking in a lot of ways. Though I could reliably expect a debate between, say, Dagonee and TomDavidson on any contentious issue, I learned that people don't always fall into neat little "conservative" and "liberal" boxes. (That said: I do think there was a much larger conservative presence on Hatrack at one point, especially before the 2004 election; by 2008 it was gone.)

I remember being impressed by how so many of you were willing to let your "real lives" intersect with your online ones - that was something I always remained cautious about, even to this day. I couldn't imagine sharing as much of my life with you as some of you have in your landmark threads (and I've read a lot of them, believe me.) So you can imagine my surprise when some of you started getting married to each other and having kids [Wink] The old Hatrack gallery let me attach faces to all of your names, and the mental images I have from some of you are drawn from that photoset. I guess everyone's aged a bit since then.

Hatrack introduced me to a few of early online hangouts. TomDavidson introduced us all to NationStates around the time I arrived, and I played for a little while. I learned about AnsibleMOO and my favorite video game Homeworld here.

I enjoy most everything about Hatrack River. I remember how you all made me laugh on days when I really needed it, even if you all didn't know it. This being Thanksgiving, I think it's appropriate for me to say that I'm thankful for you all.

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Posted by Jeni (Member # 1454) on :
 
Tatiana - I will not tell you my secret method of guessing you were you. Sorry But you're right, parachat was more fun than aim chat for many reasons. Also a different group of people showed up there. (Random: Remember the night of the P-ness?)
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
Hahaha Jeni, the night of the P-ness was hilarious. I didn't even get the pun for hours. Letting us pick our own names each time we went in meant parachat let *all* of us show our P-ness, if we wanted to. That was fun!

Jeni, I would specifically pick names that didn't sound like me, just to fool your recognition algorithm, whatever it was. But I never could. One by one I would identify and remove little personal quirks like my angle brackets for actions. <<<hugs>>> But you'd still get me almost immediately. What is it about a person's self that triggers our recognition of them through such a narrow bandwidth as text? It's something deep that gets at who we really are, I think. It's a great mystery that we were constantly exploring through parachat.

And I was terrible at guessing people, myself. I always felt that was some kind of personal failing. But it was kind of fun too, in a way. One night Tresopax and I had a long and interesting conversation we never would have had if we'd known who each other were. It's like we humans kind of start stereotyping each other in our heads according to our earlier impressions, and that squeezes us into smaller and smaller boxes. Freed from our regular screen-names, we are our full selves again, with all possibilities open.

Whenever I *did* happen to recognize someone, I'm not at all sure how my brain did it. I would notice that one chatter or another was speaking in someone's voice in my head when I read their words. That's how I'd realize it was them, hearing their voice mentally in my head. A deeply subconscious process, in my case, at least. The identity game was endlessly interesting!

[ September 11, 2016, 05:13 AM: Message edited by: Tatiana ]
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
JTK, That was a touching post. I think hatrack was a refuge for many of us. I'm glad we were able to be that for you, too. Letting our real lives intersect with this place was something that happened with every heartfelt post and every shared joke, all along. Our real selves came through, I think. Maybe even moreso than at work or school or home, even. So traveling to meetups (originally called hatrack picnics), seemed an ordinary logical thing.

And of all the friends originally made online that I later met in real life, they all were still themselves. After about 5 minutes, I would totally even forget that we hadn't known each other in 3d all along. It's because that other dimension, the important dimension, not a spatial dimension at all but one of the heart, had always been there. Like Saint-Exupery said "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
 

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Posted by Jeni (Member # 1454) on :
 
It is somewhat of a subconscious process for me as well, but one I am for some reason naturally good at (similarly I destroyed at the Guess the Author game to the point of being accused of cheating). But with you most of the time it was the names you would pick out. If I recall they were frequently emotions or other abstract things. (Or perhaps I just said "Hi, Anne Kate" to EVERYONE who entered the room? )
 

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Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
 

quote:

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What did you enjoy about the Hatrack of years ago?

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Bob Scopatz
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
Bob is gentle, genial, gruff, and ingenious. He's a bear of a guy with keen insight into human nature, traffic safety, the turn of a pun, and what your favorite ice cream dish says about you. I love his voice, both written and audio. He's a great dad and a great friend, and one of the most amazing women I know thinks he's pretty cool, too.

Rennaissance man, indeed.
 

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Posted by Eduardo_Sauron (Member # 5827) on :
 
I found some nice friends here. Life took a toll and I do not have the time I once had come and annoy you with my bad english.
I see Tatiana is still around. We did chat a lot using AIM. Thinking about it takes me waaaay back.
 

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Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
 
Yay! Eduaro_Sauron is back!!! Now we're really rockin! How are you?
 

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Posted by stacey (Member # 3661) on :
 
The lurkers still lurk...

I was 15 when I found this place, and still can't quite let go. I've just turned 30. I finished high-school, uni, started career, had babies, changed career, had more babies, got married, changed jobs and still have continued to lurk in the background of Hatrack. Once upon a time I tried to be active, it didn't suit me. And so I lurk, and watch, and follow and sometimes wonder why an American news story that is big in NZ, is not being discussed on Hatrack. Is it not as important as the Kiwi media think it is? And then I remember that Hatrack is not what it once was, and am disappointed - I was looking for intelligent commentary! And yet, I continue to lurk and will probably do so till the end of days.



/lurkerout
 

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Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
 
Hey Stacey! Am I remembering correctly that you're tt&t's sister? Raja (twinky) & I are coming to NZ at the end of the year, & he tried to let her know but didn't have a good email anymore. I think he sent a PM on sake as a last resort. Anyway, we'll be traveling through the country the last week of 2016 & first week of 2017, mostly to visit his family, but if you're interested and we're passing anywhere near you we'd love to meet up for a drink/coffee/whatever with either of you. (If this is super weird, of course, no worries. I just still like meeting people from here when I travel, and it will be my first time there!)
 

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Posted by stacey (Member # 3661) on :
 
You remember correctly. Awesome that you are coming to NZ! I will let tt&t know ☺
 

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Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
 
Cool, thanks!

I am pretty excited.
 

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Posted by PanaceaSanans (Member # 13395) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by ElJay:
Raja (twinky) & I are coming to NZ at the end of the year... I am pretty excited.

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I will be in NZ slightly later than you (middle of Jan to beginning of Feb 2017), and I am very excited. What do you have planned? Maybe we could exchange ideas?
 

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Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
 
Well, I doubt you'll want to meet all of Raja's half-brothers and family friends, and that's most of what we have planned so far...


 

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Posted by Parsimony (Member # 8140) on :
 
AK,

Yeah, my friend was a non hatracker, non book reader, non musician, non everything. I'm still not sure why he is one of my best friends to this day. He was in my wedding though, so I guess I've got to keep him around.

Myr is always orange and black, I remember this. Anyone know how she is doing these days?

I regret that one time several of us were supposed to meet up in Atlanta for something, I don't remember what, and I was unable to attend at the last minute. I was supposed to be splitting a room with T Smith.

Weird to think about all this stuff years later. That was before graduation, careers, serious life events, marriage, kids...

--ApostleRadio
 

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Posted by Jeni (Member # 1454) on :
 
Myr posts examples of her amazing photography skills on Facebook occasionally.
 

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Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
 
I bump into Myr every couple of years on T here in Boston. She's doing fine.
 

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Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
 
I dug up some old alts for a joke post last night, ones whose "recent posts" spanned back to 2003. Since Panacea's Gambit™, I hadn't actually done anything like that. Just seeing some of the old names (some of which returned, many of which haven't) was quite overwhelming!

In line with the thread topic then, I had enjoyed, and apparently forgotten, just how much fun we all had.
 

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