Where were you 10 years ago?
On 26 May 2003, Icrontic.com was wiped off the web at the ripe age of 2 years old. But then a funny thing happened: community trumped digital bits. Where were you when the world rebooted?
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I was one of 4 forum moderators for the Folding@Home category on original Icrontic, which was ground zero for our community in those days. I'd been a member for about a year and a half, but only really gotten involved about 6 months prior. After we regrouped as Short-Media, I was made a super moderator. It was more important and a bigger accomplishment to me than landing a job.
I still have no idea what snapped in my head that day in May that made me decide that saving an online community I'd never met anyone from was the most important thing I was going to do that year. That summer I used Linux for the first time, learned how websites worked, and helped run my first non-Scouting event (a digital video camp for high school students). It was basically the perfect setup, and completely changed the course of my life.
I live in an 1899 Queen Anne mansion in the City of Detroit
Because...
I needed to host Icrontic and they helped me fix it
Because...
I've lived in Michigan for 6 years hosting Icrontic events with Brian
Because...
I moved here in 2007 at Brian's suggestion
Because...
Brian and I were running the site together and I was here all the time anyway
Because...
I spent a lot of time working on the site until I became a co-owner
Because...
I was deeply invested in the community
Because...
I made it my mission to regroup the community in 2003
Because...
I was on Icrontic a ton because I had the time & bandwidth for it
Because...
I was employed at college for summer
Because...
I was offered a job by the college's technology trainer
Because...
I decided to take all of his software training courses during my first year (very few did)
Because...
I had time to kill because my courses were unbelievably easy
Because...
I took an intro to C++ in high school
and...
The two classmates who convinced me to take C++ are the same ones who told me about Icrontic.com.
Life is weird.
You live in a 1899 Queen Anne mansion because you were convinced to learn C++.
Yeah, life is weird.
In 2003 I was still in High School, gaming on a Dell. Games of choice were probably Elder Scrolls III and Delta Force: Black Hawk Down (online). I also had very long hair and no beard, which is now reversed.
I don't miss 10 years ago. I like now. You have all made this place amazing over the years. The site has matured with the community. <4
collegehigh school for me. New opportunities and all that.EDIT: apparently I need to go back.
http://icrontic.com/discussion/748/good-to-be-home#latest
•I lived in an apartment in Oceanside, CA
•I worked at a local beach gift shop
•I had been married to a Marine - who was in Iraq – for 8 months
•I was starting to think about maybe having a baby when my husband came home
•I only had 6 piercings
•I only had 1 tattoo
•I still had both kidneys
•I weighed 125 pounds
•I had very curly hair down to the middle of my back
•I went line dancing twice a week
•I had two cats
•I drove a 1990 Honda Accord
edit - And I played Sims Online nearly every night from 8PM until the server reset at 2AM as I stayed up in hopes my husband would call from Iraq.
edit edit - in 2010 I was introduced to Icrontic by @ghoosdum's ability to work it into every other sentence (even during Bible study) finally decided to join in 2012 so I could stalk @UPSLynx before we started dating.
Then Icrontic died... and I was lost... then Short-Media rose from the ashes and I was saved.
Literally can't remember much more than that.
I credit three things with helping pull me out of my dire funk: I got a new job as a station manager for a public television station, @CrazyJoe started driving down to my now-too-empty apartment at least once/week to play video games with me, and @Ghoosdum introduced me to this cool tech-head website which had just been founded out of the ashes of a site that he had been deeply involved with previously.
My, what a difference 10 years made.
I live in Los Angeles working for SEGA of America
because
I broke into the gaming industry while working at THQ
because
I got a job there due to a recommendation by @sledgehammer70
because
I had met him on Icrontic years ago during Pandemic press events and
because
I was qualified for the gig thanks to my 2 year experience working at AMD
because
I had made AMD friends while writing for Icrontic and
because
I was living on @ghoosdums couch in California
because
I was encouraged by Icrontic to move and pursue my dream
because
I had written for Icrontic for four years about high technology and gaming
because
@primesuspect had asked me if I was interested in joining the staff
because
I had written two long-winded posts when I joined the site
because
I had discovered the site while playing TF2
because
my brother and @UPSKingpin made me join this server they had found that was full of awesome people.
My timeline also forks - I'm dating @momofrose in 2013 because I was going to @ghoosdum's church in 2010 and he introduced us because I was living on his couch. There was a 2 year gap there, again made possible by all of that which happened before me.
Crazy life. Dat Icrontic.
Been 8 years clean this month.
In all seriousness, though, I was just thinking about my high school experience. 16 was a tough year for me. I was overweight, bookish, and weirder than I needed to be. Years of studying psychology would later clue me in to the fact that this was just one of my many defense mechanisms.
Dan introduced me to Icrontic about 2 years ago... And I couldn't love you guys more. Because no matter how weird I am, there is a group of grown men here who gather to watch My Little Pony, and that's so much weirder.
Because of Icrontic, I...
Got seriously interested in computers.
Met @Primesuspect, the most influential person of my adult life. Soon met @lincoln, a not-at-all-distant second top influencer in my life.
Went to my first LAN.
Wanted to contribute more than posts.
Took a chance on writing articles.
Made that my afterhours job.
Did it every day for five years.
Got hooked on Twitter.
Got recognized by key people at big companies.
Got hired by one of those people.
Got my dream job.
Moved to another country.
Came back regularly and met the lady of my dreams.
Made my closest friends.
Found gaming buddies each and every day.
Got hooked on smartphones.
Became the happiest I've ever been in my entire life.
Fast forward 7 years
Found Icrontic through some real life friends, hearing about TF2 with Icrontic inspired me to purchase and install a graphics card and install it in my old ass computer.
I found some of the greatest people in the world and game/chat/pony with y'all errey day.
I go on a yearly pilgrimage to at least one IC event per year now, and enjoy every minute of it.