When did you get YOUR name out?

[Cross_+_Flame]

I figured out today that I first registered my AOL screen name (not this one, my personal one) 10 years ago. I was a sophomore in high school, and my family had moved to a new town, and I discovered AIM. We had a 28.8 modem, soon to be upgraded to a flashy new 56K modem. Ah, those were the days.

So, 10 years of interacting on the internet, beginning as IMs between individuals, whereas now kids' first foray into the internet is MySpace or other wide-broadcast sites, where you don't know who is receiving your messages.

Perhaps the better idea for internet education is to force youngsters to get involved in interpersonal one-on-one conversations like AIM or messaging. They learn the ropes, then move on to the wide broadcast stuff.

Anywho, when did you get your name out on the net and involved in more than just email? What kind of medium was it?

Technology marches on...

[returntorest]

Technically speaking, I suppose it was in '94, on a field trip to ORAU. Room of a few dozen PCs, my entire 4th grade class, and my dad saying the internet was going to revolutionize the world (or something like that.) I chatted with someone in Denmark or something. *shrug* Been a looooong time.

For sustained contact, I "made my name" in '98. A board or two on yahoo and another Christian one of some sort. Yahoo messenger along with this.

I did start in a "wide broadcast" way, I guess. But wide then wasn't nearly as big as it is now. That said, it's mostly in narrowcast, in IMs or email, that I've gotten, well, creeps.

[Cel]

Mine was only about five years ago at the most. When I got my new computer and was using walmart connect. Good lord that was a horrid experience lol. First screenname was Bspock7 lol. Don't ask cuz I seriously have no clue why I chose that.

[tryptophan]

I am not exactly sure what you are asking. I think the first time I got onto the internet was sometime in the mid to late '90s on a library computer. I read movie reviews that linked from a search engine. As a freshman and sophomore in high school, I was taking keyboarding and computer applications, so I searched some things on the web (back in 1999). There were also some times when I saw people on the internet. Then, our family finally got a computer with internet in 1999. I registered with with imdb.com with my e-mail name although I was never very active. I became a part of this lovely community in 2004. I finally broke down about two weeks ago and joined Facebook. I then had to change my name because I discovered that Facebook doesn't allow false names. So, technically, my name has only been on the internet for 3 days.

[ezrinjaz]

Aside for using computers for homework, I guess it was Fall 1997. My first semester away from home, and my roommate had free internet through the university. I frequented msn chat and ICQ at the time. I was "dirtyd" at the time.

[UMSonOfMan7]

Hmm...my primary e-mail account I've had for over six years now, but the email name that graces that account was created probably back in the fall of '98 when I started using AIM. So not quite eight years yet.

[grant]

I was on local BBSes in 1993, always as something long ending in "grant" (The Flying Fists of Master Grant was a long-time one, as was Grantzilla, King of Monsters). Some of them subscribed to FIDOnet, so I think I can say I was on the internet before there was an internet. (I know that's not really accurate, but still. Let me brag.)

At around the same time, I was known as 72634,1031 on CompuServe, which was both email and forums. I joined a writers' group on there that I think became the only one that lasted more than a couple weeks. (Went on for over a year.) I went through a couple transformations on CompuServe, all brought about by the company, not my choice. First thing they did was change the comma to a period: 72634.1031. Then, it became XX6somethingsomething@compuserve.com, then @cs.com, and then they evaporated, but by then I had a yahoo account.

[jonesy]

Well I got my first Hotmail and Yahoo accounts with my name in '99, and in 2000 I got a domain with my own first name.

[WiredSpirit]

ICQ was my first medium. I was 9 or 10 when we first got the internet and the whole family was on ICQ, even my grandma. Now most everyone has switched to MSN and I use AIM most frequently. I used it to keep up with people I met at summer camps, in college, I even still have some people I haven't seen since high school on there. One old friend from high school is married with a baby on the way.

[kiwimac]

I have been on the Internet since the early 1990s. Always kiwimac.

[PastorFreud]

When did AOL start up? I joined the third month of their existence. The didn't have AIM at that time. AOL was just my gateway to use BBS systems of that day.

I used to have a 286 computer that I used with a 1200 baud modem, but I also had kaypro computer with an adapter that you would hook to an actual telephone. I never signed up for any services with that, however. The screen was about 8 inches and had green dots. ASCII was all it could display. I printed to a daisy wheel printer, then I upgraded to a dot matrix printer. Times sure have changed.

[jonesy]

Yes, I remember my first access to the internet was actually through a board which AOL later bought up, compuserve. That was my first access to the internet. Back then though, you were more of an account number than a name.

[mike12345]

I think I first got a number from ICQ sometime around 1995. Shortly thereafter I registered a name with Yahoo and spent some time chatting in a Yahoo Christian room. It was new and seemed like fun at the time, though now I have little patience for online chatting. I still keep in touch with a couple of friends I met from my first time spent in a Yahoo chatroom though!

[indemnification]

The AIM name, which is the same one I use for pretty much any chat client I ever use, I started when I was 13 or 14, don't remember. I am leaning towards 14 though. It was on AOL. Then we got rid of AOL but I kept the name for AIM, whenver that came about. The name I use on this site was started whenever I joined here. The name I use on other sites, started whenever I changed my name on [acronym="Christian Forums or Cystic Fibrosis"]CF[/acronym] a few months after I joined there.

[jamila]

I feel so left out. I don't really use AIM or anything, though I do have a name there, which is the same as my email. Most of my friends aren't on it or anything similar, so there's no real point. Got my email address SO late, basically when I started college in 1999, though I could have had one much earlier.

Sigh. Maybe I'm not living up to my potential.

[WiredSpirit]

I remember when ICQ numbers were only 6 digits.

Anywho, our first ISP was SPRYNet. Remember them? I think they became MindSpring and then eventually Earthlink. Sometime around then we switched to a local provider.

Back in the mid-90s a local start-up company started offering broadband and cable television. The regular cable company didn't offer it until a few years later. They were putting up new cables, and it made us mad because the houses across the street got serviced like a year before we did. They left little fliers on your door when their service became available.

My mother still has that service. When I moved out I went with the regular old cable companies service because they were offering a better price at the time. I'm glad I did, I get much better download speeds than she does.