I say "officially" because we actually started posting back in July, 2000... but the official opening date was September 1, 2000...
(We liked to get an early start!)
Wow! Over 21 years ago...
Now this baby has grown up... and can do all the things it couldn't do when younger... (Watch out mama!)
Actually, I just want to look back...
In 2000, the world wide web was like the wild west...
A pretty unruly place!
Facebook wasn't even a glimmer in Mark Zuckerberg's eye...
In fact, a childhood friend of mine was running a start up out of San Francisco called "BookFace" ! (*) (She should have hung on to that website!) In fact, I visited her in San Francisco in 2000... She had around 30 employees at that point...
(Unfortunately, it crashed in the dot-com crash that came shortly afterwards...)
Nowadays, the world wild web has been "tamed" by the big corporations... Facebook (including Instagram), Google, Twitter, Amazon, Apple... have "silo'd" everyone into their own little controlled worlds... Where they are the big bosses, and everyone else are the serfs...
(I have friends who keep getting temporarily "banned" by Facebook's algorithm... sometimes for just making jokes that are a little risqué. Need any other evidence that on Facebook, everyone not named "Zuckerberg" are all his "serfs"?)
Yes, the wild west is still out there... But most people are bowing to the overlord masters who want to control you more and more...
Mark Zuckerberg has been talking about creating the "metaverse"... A place where we can live even more of our lives... And of course, continuing to live even more squashed under Zuck's big fat thumb...
I hope the future doesn't come to that, personally... I've always had a hankering to "beat the system"...
(That's one thing Gordon and I have in common!)
I like it a little wild!
But... there's still a lot the "little guy or gal" can do...
And that's what we're all about here...
What the ordinary person - who may not have a billion-dollar bank account - can still do to beat the "big guys"... (and yes, it's still possible!)
You have to choose your battles!
Congratulations to us all here... We're 21 !
- Dien
P.S. Here is a link to the first post I could find on "opening day"...
http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=207
P.P.S. We'll be sharing some of the great posts from the last 21 years over the coming month!
(*) Here's a Bookface media release from the time - so you can confirm what I'm talking about!
https://www.infotoday.com/It/jul00/news16.htm