(always loved that line from Boris Badenov)

Anyway, since this forum has and will attract people from both the "old" and "new" ET, plus of course lots of others, I thought it would be interesting to have an "introductions" thread where people can say something about themselves, when they first started with ET or Linux or whatever.

So chime in, if you're so inclined. What led you here?

One request: Please don't reply to posts on this thread. It'll be a lot more readable if we just keep introductions here.

Well as you know I have been around since almost the very beginning of ET. The Mac vs PC thread first drew me in and I never left... well until the crappy forum software change anyways.

From there I moved on to the original Manicgeeks forum for a short time, then over to The Collective and now here.

I really hope we can make this place like the old ET was. (thumbup)

I'll get the ball rolling.

I first discovered and joined ExtremeTech in early 2001. I was a pretty active member of ET for several years, then found myself drifting in and out for a few years, especially when the politics and religion became really heated at ET.

When the Prospero boards went away, pretty much so did I. I did contribute a bit afterward, but I felt that the lack of threading support in the new forum made it hard to follow. I was too spoiled by the BeeHive-type forum.

I've also been an intermittent member of The Collective. I was also a fairly active member of the original ManicGeek that wrburns started up to "replace" ET when ET left Prospero, and currently Aurora's ManicGeeks that was started to replace ManicGeek when Burnsie decided he needed to move on.

I also run a pretty much unused BeeHive-based forum called "Random Electrons" (www.randomelectrons.net) which is more of a social discussion board. That was actually started based on Jim's intention at one time to shut down The Collective. Jim changed his mind and very few people moved over to Random Electrons, but it's got a few fairly active members so I keep it running.

I was lurking the PCMag forum right about the time that ET was formed. I think I was even a PCMag subscriber at the time. Weren't there a few ExtremeTech magazxines shipped with the PCMag? I'm not sure. Anyway, ET and the likes of waynesworld, Evers310 and Our beloved?(do we really love him?) Jim Lynch were the impetus for me trying Linux. I was hooked and have been using it ever since Jim did a review on SuSE 8.0, I think. When ET left Prospero I left ET and headed to ManicGeeks. I now hang out at Aurora's forum.manicgeek.com. Ii've dropped in to The Collective from time to time, but was never a regular and so was kind of lost.

I was freelancing back around 2001. I felt that the economy for freelancers wasn't getting particularly good and I wanted to get into a full-time gig. I contacted Michael Miller who was EIC at PCMag.

He mentioned that Ziff was going to be doing forums on their sites and might be looking for community managers. So I went to New York for an interview and the rest is history.

I initially was just going to do ExtremeTech's forum but then they gave me PCMag's too. And I was glad to get it. What they didn't know and you guys probably didn't know was that the idea of somebody else running PCMag's forum at the time sort of irked me.

I had done it back in the ZiffNet days on CompuServe and had transitioned it to the web. So if anybody was going to run it, it was going to be me damn it! ;-) B-)

8 years was a pretty darn good run, if I do say so myself. :D

Edit: Just also wanted to say welcome to all of the new folks introducing themselves in this thread. Very glad to have you with us! :-)

PhilHill. An entirely fictional birdbrain, created by me, found the ET forum quite a while ago. My former recreational habits make it a bit hard to remember exactly when, but it was the best thing I ever found on the 'net. (Well, except for that one site about Rhonda Fleming...)
But, I digress,... I eagerly followed the fray, and it helped me immeasurably over the years. In return I, a former machinist and luthier from north of Chi-Town but now living near SIU, took to trying to amuse the forum with stories of the misadventures of Mr. Hill because I felt I wasn't qualified to contribute with advice on the harder problems or deeper discussions.

Then came the great ZD debacle, and I changed my address to Manic Geeks like many others.

Burns did a great job for awhile, but his life called him elsewhere, and I was lucky enough to see Aurora's post about ManicGeeks Tech Forum and I once again found a new home, Thanks.

I have not always been able to post with the frequency that I like, due to my responsibilities in caring for my parents. (Both in their declining years and saddled with Alzheimers) But that has changed now and they are in the capable hands of others, so I should be able to visit much more often here and there. ( Just remember, I gave you fair warning)

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Wow it takes me back again.

Back not too long I guess after ET started up I read a review on a linux distro and happened into the forums. I stayed and stayed and even won the last post wins thread if I remember correctly from the first versions forum software.
I went to Burns Manic Geek then Manic Geeks and The Collective and Newbies Linux and in the middle of all the Jim started NASCAR Fury and I got to help and it was great.
I learned alot from Jim during that time about moderation and getting the content not only into it but in ways that got your members attention and would spawn discussion. Alas after a change to the new version of Beehive we had to start over just as it was picking up and the hiatus killed it. ( Maybe someday we can bring it back. )

I also hit Random Electrons at times too even though it has been a long time.
ET started it all this big group of tech nuts that we are and even though ET is in the past it is good to see we are all still here and going towards the future.

Geez you guys have been around a bit.

Anyway i found this site while mucking around on the net looking for some more linux sites. Thought it was interesting , not too much about linux but im sure the entertainment value is quite high though.

If you guys are really into linux i would be interested in what you have got to say. I really dont want to have any flame wars with windows diehards, thats increasingly becoming boring at least around the time i turned 12.

I guess that I should weigh in here too. I was poking around the PC Mag site right around the time that ET was formed and found Extreme Tech. I was not the first one there, but I probably joined very close to those of you were there in the beginning, and it was almost certainly in June 2001, because at the end of June that year, I was downsized from my job, and it took me until August 2005 to get a full time job back in technology!

In the late Fall of 2001, Ralph Glanz pitched an idea to Nick Stam to have Ralph and I write a four distribution comparison and call it "Linux: The Time is Now!" That was one of the most interesting projects I have been able to do, it was fun, and I got paid for it, plus I was given a Dell Dimension 4100 (which I still have), so that I could test software and continue being an active forum contributor.

I am also very active at Newbies Linux, John Fish's site, and USALUG, Dave Crouse's site, and both are great places for Linux enthusiasts. I visit quite a number of forums and contribute to them on a moderately regular basis, sometimes quite frequently, other times sporadically, depending on which projects I am working on at the time.