MetaFilter

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.

I can be heard on Podcast 13.

I have returned to MeFi after a long vacation on the "frontpage of the internet." From my post on MetaTalk:

If you look at my web history, I started on Slashdot, Fark, and Plastic.com (a name no one remembers) until I could finally get a Metafilter account. This was back when Metafilter only allowed like 10 signups a day, so I kept clicking until I got in.

Then around 2010, I went to a new job, and everyone was on this site called reddit. I was hooked: so many links and pictures and jokes and news stories! And they did things that get mentioned on Colbert and raised money for charity! I amassed 30,000+ karma commenting on everything I could.

Now it's 4 years later. Reddit is now known for leaking celebrity nude pics, harassing people it thought were the Boston Bombers, MRAs, whatever the hell "GamerGate" is, subreddits about "cute" corpses and upskirt shots, and being generally shitty to women and any minority. The site pushes for "freedom of speech," but is pretty much admitting it cannot afford to piss off racists and sexists and awful people because they would lose too much readership.

It's now gotten to the point where I'm embarrassed to say I heard about something from Reddit. It's time to come back, Metafilter. I never should have left you.