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'm Kevin Bryan, and I've been reading Metafilter for a decent bit time; I remember back when there was a somewhat centrist political viewpoint and posts would, at most, have 10 or 20 comments.

I'm pretty much in the center politically, possibly a bit Libertarian. I voted for the Democrat for Governor and the Republican in Congress. Politically, I'd say I'm pretty close to Colin Powell on a lot of issues. On many issues, I'd rather the government not get involved at all.

It's not a matter of what you should do, but a matter of what you should be able to do.

I'm studying Economics and International Relations with a focus on East Asian business. I speak Spanish decently and am learning Mandarin Chinese. I currently live in Boston.

As for Metafilter, here's how I feel about it right now, in January 2002: If fold_and_mutilate is not the most fundamentalist guy posting, then the user base has really gone out of wac. If Scott Ritter, Noam, Alternet and Z Mag, which are all *very* extremist viewpoints, are posted without an eyebrow raised, then something is wrong. I'd also, as much as I like politics, like more of the posts about "interesting" things on the internet that used to be found here. And I'm grateful to Matt for providing all of this for free, of course.