The internet has changed a lot in the twenty-odd years since I went on line; and FORKNI-L was already an old list then.
Go back to 1992 or so, and there were very few people with an internet connection. Fans didn't consider potential job implications since the World Wide Web was in its infancy. Hard to believe now, but there was no Google. Also a lot of people got on the net through their university and, in that era, would automatically assume their parents would be out of all computer-related loops. Fans back in the mid-90s were just trying to find like-minded people for discussion and fic. And why not use your own name with friends, right?
Nowadays, the assumption that people one meets on line—even on fannish sites!—are automatically potential friends does seem incredibly naïve. Still, here we are, whatever our usernames, chatting about ourselves in the Snowflake Challenge.
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Go back to 1992 or so, and there were very few people with an internet connection. Fans didn't consider potential job implications since the World Wide Web was in its infancy. Hard to believe now, but there was no Google. Also a lot of people got on the net through their university and, in that era, would automatically assume their parents would be out of all computer-related loops. Fans back in the mid-90s were just trying to find like-minded people for discussion and fic. And why not use your own name with friends, right?
Nowadays, the assumption that people one meets on line—even on fannish sites!—are automatically potential friends does seem incredibly naïve. Still, here we are, whatever our usernames, chatting about ourselves in the Snowflake Challenge.