posted
The forum is still there, but I don't think anyone's posted since Kama and I wished the Tick a happy birthday. Haven't seen him in ages, though.
Noem, you're making me blush. Posts: 3956 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
I tried two e-mail addresses for Tick and got no response from either (though I also didn't get the e-mails bounced, so maybe he just doesn't like me), and I haven't seen him on AIM (probably has me blocked there, too). I miss him.
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Sharpie, thanks for your throughts on this. I like your sixth grade analogy, but I'd like to share how I see it.
From my perspective, it's not a bunch of kids who have been together for years and don't know you; it's trying to go back to sixth grade again long after you've gone on to junior high. When I began here, the most prolific posters (to my recollection) were Bob, Ralphie, aretee, David Bowles, Slash, Leto, Strider, Leonide, aka, Eddie(now known as Lalo), Frisco, JaneX, Papa Moose, and Belle. A lot of those people are gone altogether, and a lot of them are still around but they lurk a lot more and post a lot less. So I come back to sixth grade and it's full of all these new kids, who know each other the way you say, but not me. Some of them remember me, some of them think I'm vaguely cool, perhaps, but I'm an outsider, and it's somewhat creepy that I want to come play with the sixth graders. The people with whom I shared the most intimate details of my life are no longer around, and I lack those bonds with the people who are. Things I thought I had demonstrated a long time ago about my character are things the new sixth graders don't know about me. I find that people don't know when I'm joking, or they perceive aggression from me when none is intended. (I remember one time when I posted a thread lampooning the recent rash of "Hatrack has gone downhill" posts, and someone took me seriously and suggested I leave Hatrack! There was a time, I believe, when nobody would have wanted to see me leave.)
(Which is why the next time I hear a rant about how Hatrack is not welcoming to newbies--and I'm not describing your thoughtful and insightful post here, but rather something else I see from time to time--and about how "we oldbies" are cliquish, I'm gonna rip that dumb n00b a new one.)
And Anna, this is why I think a lot of us feel comfortable in the other boards. A lot of those people who stopped finding Hatrack welcoming still post over there, and they are moderated by our friends. I have no complaints about the modding over here, but there are certain rudenesses I see over here that I don't think I'm as likely to see elsewhere, because the mods are active in their own forums. These other forums can't recapture what Hatrack meant to me, because they are splintered. But I can go there to talk to some individuals with whom I shared that period of Hatrack, and that is comforting.
My own analogy for Hatrack was not sixth grade, but undergrad dorms--of course, a way cooler (to me) set of dorms than any university ever possesed. It was like dorms where we were all just as intelligent, and shared the same interests. Being on AIM used to give me a very realtime sense of this, because I could have conversations with my fellow jatraqueros that were more immediate. But if you go back to your old college dorm a year or two after leaving the university, well, you see what I mean.
(Actually, I got this sense more on ParaChat than on AIM. AIM is so passive you can go hang out and never say two words. Nobody went to ParaChat unless they really wanted to chat. But ParaChat is a relic, now, so that is neither here nor there.)
I'm afraid this is going to come off as a bitching about Hatrack post, or a Hatrack ain't what it used to be post. And you're all welcome to tell me to get the hell out if I'm so negative, but that truly is not how I mean this. I think Hatrack still is these things, just for a different bunch of people now. For a couple of years or so, I got so much out of Hatrack that it hurt me to the brink of tears to start to realize I was an outsider. Through Hatrack I have come to know a broader spectrum of people than I could hope to know well otherwise. I have made some friends that I think the world of, and at least one who seems to like me as much in return. There are so many ways Hatrack has enriched my life, and I can't do otherwise than to look favorably upon the place.
-o-
By the way, Sharpie, I still play Scrabble, and, sadly, most of the Hatrackers who did have gotten bored with it. I would love to play with you any time.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Actually Icky, my quitting of playing scrabble had everything to do with sleep deprivation and nothing to do with being bored with it.
While I'm not at the Olympian levels of scrabble that you are, I'd love to play with you and Sharpie sometime, on a weekend, when sleep doesn't matter.
But I agree with you. There's a transition phase when people come and go, and there were several points when I nearly stopped posting because my friends had mostly stopped - the first and most memorable being when anne kate started posting considerably less often.
Fortunately for Hatrack , I decided to stay anyway. This is sort of an extended family to me - just like my friends in the dorms and then apartment buildings and wards in college were. A few stayed the same, but most of the players there changed often as well. Don't laugh, but for someone as transient and committment-phobic as I am (used to be?), staying at Hatrack was a really big deal.
quote:I still play Scrabble, and, sadly, most of the Hatrackers who did have gotten bored with it.
Sadly, I was one of those who got tired of Scrabble. I'd like to play again sometime, though. Just not three or four games a day. Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
Oh, please! You newbies who first met everybody at Endercon kill me!
The original group of real people were those who attended the very FIRST hatrack picnic in L.A. the summer of 2000. Namely Jacob Porter, Dean Latour (Dean), Mike Cross (moonflower or Perfect Gentleman), Richard Berg, Brian Worth, sarfa, a seven foot green scaly lizardnewbie named Slash the Berzerker, and myself. That was the one and only occasion upon which realness was conferred from scratch. All subsequent realness comes from face to face meetings with one or more of those seven, or those they've infected with realness. Obviously, only those active on hatrack at the time are potential carriers.
There were subsequent SoCal parties that Slashy, Deany, and Mikey attended which conferred realness upon Papa Moose and others, who then carried it to Endercon where it grew to epidemic proportions.
Only one real person is needed to carry the infection. Other groups of six or more hatrackers who know each other in real life may have temporary provisional real status conferred for a period of up to one year, after which if at least one of them doesn't meet someone truly real face to face then they revert to unreality.
I expect that all of the various shindas and gatherings had at least one real person among them, but it's probably best to check. Endercon had the Mooses, who were real from earlier SoCal gatherings. Wenchcon had katharina from Endercon. The PacNW gathering with Narnia, Death of Bees, Bernard, Zotto, and so on... didn't that one have Hobbes who went to Endercon? Jaiden and Pod went to Endercon and later met Amira and also the eastern Canadian contingent (twinky and BtL).
Here are my questions: Is the CFC real? Icky? How about the Provo clump? Well, Nathan went to Wenchcon so that would seem to connect that one in. I think realness can infect people backwards in time. I don't see any problem with that. The Bloomington clump has at least provisional real status, by dint of being so large. Has it been infected with true reality yet? I know there was a gathering with rivka (at least one). Did that one have the Mooses or someone in attendance which would make it really real?
This seems to cover everyone. Who got left out?
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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We are real. Bob has met with several other clumps, we have met Ela and family, who were at Endercon, ditto for Leto, whom Cor and I have met, along with the old New Jersey clump. And Cor and I have met Papa Moose and the SoCal bunch.
posted
Members of the Bloomington Clump have met Hobbes at the OSC-Signing so their status isn't provisional.
In a reverse twist of fate, I guess I, one of the latecomers to the greater IL-WI-IA-IN clump, have made Tom Davidson real, since I am a carrier since I met Hobbes. Though there might be another strain of infection coming via Dana via Bob_Scopatz.
posted
I think I became real following the first Wisconsin get-together. I can't remember if you were at that one, Anna, but it included Dana (who would not yet have been real, either), CT -- who, following WenchCon, should have been, and at least two people who had become real at EnderCon.
Consequently, pretty much anybody who has met anyone in the Midwest clump is real.
posted
i've posted more in the past three days than i have in the past three months put together. hatrack cycles for me. sometimes i have time for it, sometimes i don't. sometimes the topics interest me, other times i have too many things going on for me to even try to care. there's people i miss, but most of them are cyclical, too. eh, i don't worry about it. i first registered in dec 1999, and i guess if i've hung around for almost five years i'll probably never completely drop off the radar. i think hatrack has been a positive force in my life Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
I guess I'm "real" too since I went to a get-together at amka's place, and there were a couple of other jatraqueros there, though I'll de damned if I can remember what their names or handles are.
As far as cliques go. . . I feel that I post more on Ornery and nauvoo than here because here on hatrack I largely feel ignored. Too many people or something. I used to frequent illuminatingdarkness.com back when it was focused more on Morrowind, and even after it switched to focus more on anime I still went for quite a while. It was a fun little board with not too many people on it, so it became a conversation, instead of what seems to go on here -- about 5-6 of the "big names" start going around and around and if anyone else (like me, for example) interjects a post into the mix it is simply ignored. Or if it's not ignored it's dismissed.
At least -- that's my perception. I must get some responses, since I have 900 or so posts, but. . . .I largely feel ignored and no longer bother to post much, since my perception is that I'm going to be ignored anyway, so why bother?
Posts: 1323 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
there's this weird blank space between jon boy's posts and hobbes. is hatrack buggy, or what?
honestly mags, most you're not ignored. just because someone doesn't "hear hear!" or "oh my heavens that is ridiculous!" after someone's post doesn't mean that people are skipping over your posts and that you are a nonentity. there are a LOT of people at hatrack. everyone's going to feel ignored at some point, and unless you go zap-flashing around just for the sake of being noticed, chances are you will feel like you don't exist. heck, for the past year until this week i have felt totally invisible at hatrack, but i hardly care. if i have something to say i say it, if i want specific feedback i'll ask for it if at first no one responds.
but then again if you don't feel like participating, i doubt anyone's going to hold it aginst you. honestly i think sometimes people put too much emotional stock in these message boards. grow some beans.
posted
Magson - it is kind of like the floor of the stock market. That's why you get people who decide to make all their posts in bold with no punctuation in order to stand out. I think everyone gets ignored at first. I do remember that when I first came to Hatrack, anne kate took me under her wing. I think I used to try and get TomD mad at me to get noticed, too. Not that it worked. People are STILL using that particular method.
I really think it's a matter of being stubborn and paying attention to other people. And being stubborn again. And puns.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
Joe, you continue to show why you are one of my favorite Hatrackers. You pretty much took exactly what I'm feeling and put it into words in a way that I couldn't. I miss my newbie days. For that matter, I miss the days when my job was new and exciting, and I miss my old college dorm and high school (even though I hated it at the time) and summers walking back and forth to my best friend's house and Boy Scout camp and all of that. Sometimes I miss it so much that I feel it as a physical sensation. I still enjoy many of the things that remain in my life, though, as well as many things that are new. I often wonder how this time in my life will look to me five, ten, twenty years down the line. I guess that's just life, eh?
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
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I think you'd have to meat a real Hatracker, but they have to be so mind-numbingly drunk that they think they were dreaming.
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
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quote:So I come back to sixth grade and it's full of all these new kids, who know each other the way you say, but not me. Some of them remember me, some of them think I'm vaguely cool, perhaps, but I'm an outsider, and it's somewhat creepy that I want to come play with the sixth graders. The people with whom I shared the most intimate details of my life are no longer around, and I lack those bonds with the people who are. Things I thought I had demonstrated a long time ago about my character are things the new sixth graders don't know about me. I find that people don't know when I'm joking, or they perceive aggression from me when none is intended
quote:And Anna, this is why I think a lot of us feel comfortable in the other boards. A lot of those people who stopped finding Hatrack welcoming still post over there, and they are moderated by our friends...But I can go there to talk to some individuals with whom I shared that period of Hatrack, and that is comforting.
quote:For a couple of years or so, I got so much out of Hatrack that it hurt me to the brink of tears to start to realize I was an outsider. Through Hatrack I have come to know a broader spectrum of people than I could hope to know well otherwise. I have made some friends that I think the world of, and at least one who seems to like me as much in return. There are so many ways Hatrack has enriched my life, and I can't do otherwise than to look favorably upon the place.
Wow, Icky, I empathize with so much of what you said. I don't think I could say it as well, and if I tried to express it, I'd probably get people mad at me anyway.
I am beginning to feel as though I don't really belong here, much, anymore.
And I hope you have more than one friend among Hatrackers, Icky. I certainly consider you one of mine. Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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It's so interesting how people perceive things differently. Icky and Ela, I always thought of you two as being with the "in crowd." By the way, I like you both, whether you're in a clique or not.
posted
Mag, heck, I'm STILL largely (not completely) ignored. I think it's mostly a matter of timing and posting style. It only bothers me occassionally, mostly I just state my case and not worry too much about it, assuming no response is tacit approval, or at least tolerance
posted
Bok, I don't ignore you. As a matter of fact, your very name makes me happy. Everytime I see it I say to myself, "Boke - E - Non!!!" to the tune of the Pokemon cartoon. Sad, but true.
posted
Actually BannaOJ, my wife realized she can't take care of the kids on her own and they are on their way to UT right now. She still expects them to be returned at the end of the summer for some reason though. . go figure.
Once the custody situation is all done, then I'll know. For now, I have no plans on moving there, since my reason for moving was to be close to the kids. If my stbx ends up the "custodial parent" (which I doubt she will, actually, in spite of the bias toward mothers -- too much evidence against her being, IMO) then I will still move to IL. But. . .that bridge won't be crossed until it's come to.
Edit to add: Bok, that's largely my attitude also. I post, and hope someone gets something from it. I'm not looking for validation or anything, it just would be nice to actually have the post acknowledged every . . oh. . . say 1 in 20 rather than the current I don't know, but it doesn't feel like even 1 in 20.
Of course, I also tend not to post on the "fluff" threads, so if I say something, I generally regard it as important, and so that colors my view too.
posted
Sometimes I post things and people say "ha ha!" or words to that effect and I'm all like, "They like me! They really like me! I feel so validated!"
Then I realize how sad it is to get my feelings of validation from a (mostly) annonymous internet forum and get depressed and further question my own self worth.
It's a lose/lose situation. There's nothing anyone can say/not say to any of my posts that won't send me careening off into the pits of dispair. Think about THAT they next time you laugh at me.
posted
I think i was told i was real already since i meet sandy , john at endercon. and broke a few camera's, who accidtently got pictures of me. and i'd like to say im very sorry about that. ;O)
[ June 11, 2004, 06:27 PM: Message edited by: Chris Kidd ]
Posts: 513 | Registered: Oct 2001
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quote: Then I realize how sad it is to get my feelings of validation from a (mostly) annonymous internet forum and get depressed and further question my own self worth.
This particular disease is more wide spread than you'd imagine.
I've been diagnosed with it a time or two.
Posts: 3771 | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote: I have made some friends that I think the world of,
Note the conspicuous use of plurals.
(((Ela)))
(What I was saying was that a lot of people had impacted my life deeply--but it's not for me to say what my own impact has been. Don't doubt my own high opinion of you.)
I definitely consider you a good friend, and I hope to see you again sometime soon.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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It's okay, Icky, I wasn't feeling insecure or anything. Just wanted to make sure you know that I consider you a friend. Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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It looks like Hobbes is a major Typhoid Mary of realness. Can we call him that? Typhoid Hobbesy?
Posts: 99 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I bet I've met the most Jatraqueros of anybody who wasn't present at Endercon. (And oh, how I regret missing that.)
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I became real about a year ago (a bit more, neh?) when I met the already-real Ralphie, Pop, Mooselet, and LadyDove. (the saxons were there too, but that was when they got infected as well)
Didn't I meet up with Dana before the first Midwest gathering? Certainly before the second. . . I think I may have made her real, and by extension, the rest of them. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
rivka, there had already been two Midwest gatherings when I met up with you. And I'd met Bob, Papa Moose, and Mooselet already, so I'm pretty sure I was already real.
Edit: Am I the only person who's met Bob_Scopatz, Papa Moose, CT, and Tom D.? And do I get extra real points for that?
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