Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

The WELL is 15 years old! 

Come join us in celebrating this anniversary milestone...
  

    
Happy birthday!
  

    
Happy Birthday to the Well!  Ever since I joined in 1991, the Well has
held my interest.  I've logged on every day for almost nine years except
for a few days now and then when I've been camping in the backcountry or
recovering from major surgery.
  

    
Hooray to The WELL!

I've been on The WELL for six years, since February 1994.  I came to The
WELL to meet other artists who are interested in computers (g acen! g
arts!) and I also got involved with the folks who populate the WELLmuse.

Some of the highlights of my time here include ringing in the New Year --
including the fabulous Year 2000 -- with friends in The WELLmuse from
diverse time zones!
  

    <scribbled by komet Fri 4 Sep 20 16:44>
  

    
This place-cum-community has been through 15 years, two changes of
ownership, a progression of platforms (PDP to Sequent to Sun) and
operating systems (BSD to I-don't-remember-what to Solaris), an interface
bifurcation, enough buzz to stir up every hive for miles around, about a
gazillion words posted, the arrival of many fine and articulate folks and
the departure of some of them, enough flame wars to keep us a little
unsettled, and enough sanity to make it okay again.

Happy Birthday!
  

    


In September, it will be 10 years for me.  And, like <autumn> (I remember
when she was <judithb>!), I have checked in almost every day of those 9.5
years.  Scary, really.


HBD, WELL!
  

    <scribbled by silly Mon 9 Jul 12 16:01>
  

    

Here's to the next 15 and the next!
  

    
While innocently surfing on the Well's birthday today, I regretfully
let an old email virus loose. This was first described on this date in
1988 in a posting to Risks Digest
<http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/6.53.html#subj1>.

As I noted in that message, the virus doesn't affect your programs or
data files. Instead, it causes other people to send you electronic
mail.

The virus entered its "teen years" today, as virulent as ever.

Please accept my most sincere and humble apologies for any harm this
virus may have caused you.
  

    
Oh oh!

I joined The WELL in 1990 and supported it without posting much until 1994.

Then I found myself with some free time and in need of a new community.  I dove in!
I found smart, funny, kind people from many professions and stayed.

In 1997, The WELL began supporting *me* as Helpdesk Representitive!

Happy Birthday!
                        
  

    
Blame <minow>!

<gary> has a good memory!  Yes, I started on the Well as <judithb>, but when
<judyb> and I began getting each other's mail, I changed my username.
  

    

The WELL changed my life.  And I'm ever so glad.
  

    
What Roberta said. Going on 12 years for me, now.
  

    

In contrast to most the WELL is, for me, quite literally a virtual
community. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and while this can sometimes make
my sense of connection to the WELL feel somewhat tenuous, with all these
references to people and places in some other continent, the distance is
also part of the appeal with the WELL acting as a kind of mutant news
source. And then there are the opinions and humour and other postings from
certain individual WELLperns which are a joy to read. And not to forget
those postings which are not, from my personal perspective, a reading joy
but which contribute to the ambient textual texture. And speaking of text
one of the most unique aspects of the WELL is the archiving of past
conversations which can sometimes lead to fresh banter, sometimes merely
constitute a great read- it's a bit like walking into a bar which was
formerly a famous hangout  only it is typed text which lingers rather than
the smell of cigars.  It's an idea junkhouse, amongst other things, and
virtual home to more than a few fascinating people.
  

    
Couldn't resist!  ;-)
  

    
I rather fancy this one.
  

    
<minow> that risks alert is classic in every sense of the word.
  

    
I am now in my eighth year as a member of this community. It's been an
amazing ride. I've laughed my ass off at some of the funniest conversational
threads I've ever run into. I've wept tears of shared pain and grief when a
fellow community member committed suicide. I've developed crushes on various
WELL members' brains from time to time, and been mad enough at others to
want to smack them silly. All virtually, of course.

For those who might wonder if it's "real," I say Yes! It's as real as
talking  on the phone, as real as exchanging hardcopy letters, as real as
the emotions that course through all of us. You can't touch your emotions,
you can't measure them, weigh them, draw them. But they're real and true,
just like The WELL.

So I'd like to thank The WELL for being here, for making me laugh and cry
and rant and rave, for introducing me to a whole new world of communication.
  

    
The WELL totally changed my life - gave me a new career, gave me a
godmother for my baby, introduced me to some of my best friends, hooked
me up with writing connections. When I finished college, I wondered if
I'd ever again have that feeling of day to day connection with a group
of people I wanted to talk to all the time. And that's exactly what I
got when I got online. Six years and counting....
  

    

I've been here almost eight years, having logged on for the first time from
<reva's> home office in May, 1992.

Has the WELL changed my life?  Hmmmm.  In 1992, I was about to move into my
house in Cherry Hill, NJ.  I was married and working at a nuclear power
plant in Salem, NJ.

Unless something significant changes in the next two months, I'm now living
in the Bay Area (thanks to a job I got through a woman in WOW), with my
life-partner <dlee> (whom I met f2f when I responded to his post in the News
conference about the death of his fiance), and working at one of the more
interesting .com companies in the Silicon Valley.

Yeah, I guess you could say the WELL has changed my life jest a leetle.
  

    
It's changed my life more than a leetle.
  

    

The Well....well, I can't say it *changed my life, but it certainly has
added to it!  I was dragged into the Well, oh, what, I donno, maybe five
years
ago by a colleague and her husband after fine conversation at a Berkeley
restaurant whilst I was visiting them during a conference.  (I'm an east-
coaster.)  Mr. Jereva said, at the end of the evening, "So, your against gun
control, against the death penalty, and don't have an ethical problem with
cannibalism.  We need you on The Well."

I've been helped by friends here through tough times, and have celebrated
wonderful times.  I now have more friends and family in the Bay area than
I do here at home!

Happy Birthday, Well!