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What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.

Loooooong time lurker (since 2000)

h0p3y (pr. hopey) is a (1337) version of a nickname given to me years ago by a friend. it's a riff on my last name.

Been online since 1984 in one way or another - got my first (150 baud!) modem (for my Commodore64!) for Christmas when i was 15.

In 1993 i got my first internet connection through Toronto's first publicly accessible ISP (called io.org)

I worked in digital print production at the time, so i had some computer chops - so when the w3 lurched to life in '95 i figured this thing might catch on, I ran out and got a book on how to write this HTML stuff.