SoapZone Community Message Board

SZ means so much to me too - (and thanks for the shout out, hee) - so many people from here I consider friends. Everyone was here for me when my dad was sick and when he died (13 years ago now), when I found Mr. Kris, when I had Jack. Coming here has always been like coming 'home' even when we argue (man do you remember the knock down drag out fights before there was a political board?) or when there's scammers around (oh look a heifer!).

I've cried when we've lost members, rejoiced at everyone's accomplishments, sent packages (and have been sent packages) to members. Momrobare made me a BEAUTIFUL blanket for Jack when he was born. Wahoo sent me a ton of maple themed treats one year after going to a maple festival. I think that I have only met two SZers in "real life" - Sherri in NYC a couple of times, and sheltiesong/sheltie, who wasn't a frequent poster over here on the community board but who I ran into in another online space (SW fandom) and we met in person at cons a few times - back in 2010 I stayed at her house a few days up in MA after going up for a union convention. I really feel like I'm forgetting someone else - one of my biggest problems as I age is I made a bunch of friends online over the past 30 years on the internet and I ended up 'friending' so many on Facebook and now I get confused as to where I first met people. And I sometimes can't remember their SZ name vs. their real name, LOL.

And yes, 30 years online! I'm pretty sure it was spring semester 1994 when my friend sat me down in front of a monitor in the computer lab and said "You need to sign up for an email address." After that I immediately found usenet groups - I know I posted on rec.arts.tv.soaps a bunch, and as I remember it the first thing I ever posted was on rec.arts.comics in response to someone denigrating Rogue, my favorite X-man LOL.

I joined SZ when Port Charles started - back when this was Port Charles Online. I think I officially joined at the end of 1997 or beginning of 1998 - I was in grad school at the time and when a new soap started I decided that I wanted to be in on it from day one. I'd watched AMC and OLTL for years but I actually never have watched General Hospital (and I watched some of the CBS and NBC soaps too). I to this day have only watched the Nurses Ball episodes, and a few episodes with roommates back in college. Anyway, I loved PC and talk about fights with the Matt lovers (I was a Chris fan - Chris&Eve 4ever!!!!). I had one friend here named Nycht who also loved Chris, and we would write the hyperfictions, always trying to make Matt look bad and Chris look good (I wrote a ton of Chris fanfic too). I remember when Jeff took down the one hyperfiction we'd been writing on, I asked him to send it to me because we'd put so much time into it and it's probably still on an old hard drive somewhere. Nycht and I used to chat on AIM every single day - sadly she kept changing her username and there was a period where I wasn't online very much and she changed it again and I was never able to track her down again (she'd long stopped posting here).

Anyway I'm rambling, but I love you all and I am so happy to be back!!!