As you may know, my current stay at Bedlam by the Schuylkill is not my
first hospitalization for psychiatric reasons. In fact, it's my ninth.
Two of the prior stays were at Friends Hospital in Philadelphia, the
nation's first private mental hospital. (Fun fact: Its original name was
"The Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the use of their
Reason.")
Well, 1998 was one of my stays at Friends. Before I was discharged, I
collected e-mail addresses from several of the other patients, in order
to keep in touch with them. This seldom happens, because I rarely get a
reply to my e-mails.
Today I got one from Leslie, who said that today she came across the
e-mail I sent her in 1998. She wrote that she felt inspired to write me
and see how I was doing.
She said she'll never forget what a good friend I was to her while we
were at Friends, that I made a difference in her "(no longer quite so)
crazy (no longer a) teenager's life," and that I was "one of those
all-too-rare true friends who understood how difficult it is to face the
challenges we faced." And she thanked me.
I guess it really is true: you never know what impact you can have on
other people's lives.
I wish I remembered more about her than that she is (was?) a Smashing
Pumpkins fan.
I'm going to write her back anyway, to let her know how much I
appreciated her e-mail.
--
D.F. Manno | dfm...@mail.com
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man零 oldest exercises in
moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification
for selfishness. (John Kenneth Galbraith)
Might as well wait ten years.
--
Blinky
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project --> http://improve-usenet.org
Found 5/08: a free GG-blocking news *feed* --> http://usenet4all.se
>I received a e-mail today answering one I sent in 1998.
>
snip
>I'm going to write her back anyway, to let her know how much I
>appreciated her e-mail.
I already know are brainful and interesting, but keeping the same
email address all these years is REALLY impressive.
Boron
Is it that unusual? I seem to have had this email for nine and half
years. Before that I was thefac...@ibm.net. Checking foogle
froups the last post under that name to the usenet was November 98.
So I guess I got this one in December or January 99. While I was
looking that up I noticed Charles Dimmick had the same email at least
as far back as 2001. The rest of you zombies, I'm not sure about.
Jon M
My gossg.org account only dates from 2001 or 2002. But my 1998
address is still valid. Since I wasn't sure whether I wanted to be
locked into a high-speed account with @home or my local telco, I got a
forwarding address and used that when I subscribed to @home. That
forwarding address has since been forwarded to shaw.ca, rogers.com,
bellsomething.ca, and yahoo.
--
Tomorrow is today already.
Greg Goss, 1989-01-27
The email address I use here is the only one I have ever used. It is
approaching its thirteenth birthday.
--
Nick Spalding
Really? I have one which is 12 years old and is still active. I
mainly forward my other mail accounts to it, but I access it every day
and some mail addressed directly to it arrives from time to time.
Well, there is still a fair amount of spam, but that's dropped way
down. Last year, the filters blocked 72,000 spams. This year, I'm
running at only about 1% of that. (I think one of the forwarded
accounts was the mail culprit).
Mike
My email address from 1992 is still valid
In the last decade I have gone from neighborhood dial-up to telco
dialup to cable. That necessitated 3 basic email changes here at home.
I have kept several hotmail and yahoo addresses for years, but I use
them for toss-aways and public mail, not at-home sorts of things. I
don't even think of them as "real" email addresses. Perhaps that is
the difference.
Boron
> Really? I have one which is 12 years old and is still active. I
Even though my Hotmail address dates back a good while, I think it's
unusual as well. I think the newsgroups probably skews the data towards
longer email address lifetime.
With a quick count, I counted that I've had about 10 email addresses in
10 years. The Hotmail one seems to be the longest-living.
7 of those addresses are now defunct.
<snipped story>
That's lovely, Dom. Especially coming now.
Lisa Ann
Hmm...I've had mine for a long time also...and I got it because I was tired
of changing email addresses everytime I changed ISPs (which seemed to be
frequently in those days.) I don't know exactly when I got this one - but
it was prior to 2001, since I had it when I left Eddie. (Also he wondered
why I used "stalnaker" instead of "hellwig" for my vanity address. So that
leads me to believe that it was probably 1999 or 2000.)
Lisa Ann
I've stuck with the same ISP since they have always given excellent
service through several changes of ownership; they have always run an
excellent text-only news server. The present owners are British Telecom.
--
Nick Spalding
September, 1999 prolly. Assuming you don't move domiciles, what are
reasons for changing eddresses.
--
charles
I've never really had any service problems, but when I could get
higher dialup speeds or eventually broadband, I went for it.
My original ISP was owned by someone I knew and he was terrific and
provided great service and I kept the account open until it just
wasn't practical any more.
Boron
Changing providers.
Boron
I started out with a 14.4kb/s modem and worked up to 56k. When I got
around to broadband I had already shifted my phone account to BT so it
made good sense to go with their broadband in a combined deal with the
phone which gives me free landline calls to anywhere in the UK or Ireland.
This meant I could stay with IOL.
> My original ISP was owned by someone I knew and he was terrific and
> provided great service and I kept the account open until it just
> wasn't practical any more.
I didn't know Barry Flanagan before I signed up with IOL but got to know
him pretty soon after as the whole outfit was him and a couple of other
guys with all of whom I dealt on a first name basis. For the first couple
of years Barry ran an open house day once a year to which customers were
invited and maybe 200 turned up. He hired the premises of some
English-teaching school of which there are many in Dublin, got in some
guest speakers and laid on small eats. We got to know the staff and a
good few of the customers face to face. It grew too big for that and then
he sold out to some outfit whose name I don't recall but who didn't make a
mess of it. It was sold on a couple more times before BT bought it,
surviving in good order throughout.
--
Nick Spalding
I've maintained my account at email.com for that very reason -
although I now forward that to gmail for archiving important stuff.
Sometim4es your provider gets bought up by another provider who makes
you change your address. (And sometimes they don't.)
Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.
I've been using Gmail for almost 4 years now. I hope it lasts and my
Gmail address is the one I die with.
I wish email had been set up more like domain names. With a domain
name it doesn't matter if you switch who's providing you the service.
The registry just points to the new site and the process is
transparent to the user. It's too bad there wasn't an email address
registry set up at the same time.
--
Opus the Penguin
You're a teapot. And you reek of wombat. - N. Jill Marsh
see www.mail.com
You can get your...@vanitydomain.com for hundreds of values of
yourdomain. You can read your mail using their web interface for
free, or have it forwarded for around $20 per year.
Or you can use Microsoft Office Live and get a free domain name, with
free POP email and a free web page - or stay with gmail - it has a lot
going for it as well.
In 1995 or 1996, my provider was bought by a company trying to build a
nationwide ISP presence for business. For a two week period, the
provider refused to renew memberships. My annual renewal fell into
that brief period, so I had to find another. Thus the email address
that I'd held since the founding of domain addresses was discarded.
My next ISP cut me off when their anti-abuse software misfired. They
did this on the friday before a long weekend. I started looking for a
better answer. I think I joined @home in 1997. But since I wanted
the flexibility to move around later, I got a friend to set up a
forwarding address via a personally-owned domain that he held.
That forwarding address was changed a couple of times, most recently
to a Yahoo address in 2003. I still pick up my mail from there.
1986 or so: uunet!rsoft!mindlink!a80
1988 or so to 1996: a...@mindlink.bc.ca or greg...@mindlink.bc.ca
(mindlink.net or dogbreath.com also worked)
1996 to 1998: gg...@direct.ca
1996 to 2003: go...@bcrail.com
1998 to current: gossg@mindl**.com
2001 to current: go...@gossg.org
The mindlink.bc.ca emails were turned off for good in 2006. If my
renewal had fallen outside that two week period, I would probably have
had the same address from 88 to 06.
I bought gossg.org mainly to provide a stable email address, even
though I already had a stable address through my friend's vanity
address. I've hung a minor website, and host my resume, a friend's
resume and some pictures that I wanted to show on livejournal on it,
but it's mainly there to host the email address.
Why have two registries when you can have the one for $15 a year or
whatever the registry portion costs?
Oh, I know there are services that will allow you to do this. But
back when most of us were just finding out about the Net and getting
started, it didn't occur to us to seek out email portability (if it
was even available back then). Whereas, people registering domain
names got automatic portability without needing foresight and without
having to decide if it was worth the extra bucks.
Maybe it wasn't feasible to set email up the same way back when URLs
were young. Or maybe no one thought of it, and I wish they had.
--
Opus the Penguin
One of us is confused, and this time it might not be me. - groo
That's really neat. What a nice feeling it must have given you. It's
always heartening when people let you know you have made a positive
impact on them, no matter how many years later they tell you.
And I'm sorry that this wonderful thread-beginning devolved into an
email-address-longevity dick-waving contest. Jeez. Of all threads to
get hijacked off into the weeds....
Jeannie
>I didn't know Barry Flanagan before I signed up with IOL but got to know
>him pretty soon after as the whole outfit was him and a couple of other
>guys with all of whom I dealt on a first name basis. For the first couple
>of years Barry ran an open house day once a year to which customers were
>invited and maybe 200 turned up. He hired the premises of some
>English-teaching school of which there are many in Dublin, got in some
>guest speakers and laid on small eats. We got to know the staff and a
>good few of the customers face to face. It grew too big for that and then
>he sold out to some outfit whose name I don't recall but who didn't make a
>mess of it. It was sold on a couple more times before BT bought it,
>surviving in good order throughout.
The annual Mindlink picnic continued as a tradition long after the
retail business of Mindlink was important to the company. Through a
few sales, an employee buyout and other transitions, Mindlink (known
to many as "Columbia Internet" (named after the LRT station where they
had offices at the time) eventually evolved into Cable Rocket who
specializes in installing, managing, and supporting internet service
for small town cable TV companies.
But the annual picnic for customers, former customers, and staff
continued long after it made marketing sense.
> On Jun 4, 4:09 pm, "D.F. Manno" <dfma...@mail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I guess it really is true: you never know what impact you can
>> have on other people's lives.
>
> That's really neat. What a nice feeling it must have given you.
> It's always heartening when people let you know you have made a
> positive impact on them, no matter how many years later they tell
> you.
>
Yeah, it's good to hear you getting some positive reinforcement Dom.
> And I'm sorry that this wonderful thread-beginning devolved into
> an email-address-longevity dick-waving contest. Jeez. Of all
> threads to get hijacked off into the weeds....
>
Speaking of weeds, the ones out front by the steps have ridiculously
long roots. There is no way to pull them up by hand.
--
Opus the Penguin
Nothing on earth would make me do more research on this. - Veronique
***
LOL, Jeannie, this is AFCA. *Every* thread drifts at some point. (How else
did "Payday Lending Part Deux" evolve - er, bad pun - drift into a
discussion of evolution and Intelligent design?)
And I'm not shaking my dick (I'm somewhat deficient in that department), but
I guess I could be accused of a little butt waggling.
Lisa Ann
>Jeannie (hpje...@yahoo.com) wrote:
>
>> On Jun 4, 4:09 pm, "D.F. Manno" <dfma...@mail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I guess it really is true: you never know what impact you can
>>> have on other people's lives.
>>
>> That's really neat. What a nice feeling it must have given you.
>> It's always heartening when people let you know you have made a
>> positive impact on them, no matter how many years later they tell
>> you.
>>
>
>Yeah, it's good to hear you getting some positive reinforcement Dom.
>
>
>> And I'm sorry that this wonderful thread-beginning devolved into
>> an email-address-longevity dick-waving contest. Jeez. Of all
>> threads to get hijacked off into the weeds....
>>
>
>Speaking of weeds, the ones out front by the steps have ridiculously
>long roots. There is no way to pull them up by hand.
My hands are chapped and the usual lotions aren't working.
Boron
The antibiotics I took over the past week had an adverse effect on
my intestinal flora.
> Sometim4es your provider gets bought up by another provider who makes
> you change your address. (And sometimes they don't.)
That happened to me, in quite a quick succession. First it was MCI as
MCI2000.com, then MCI sold their internet service when they merged
with Worldcom. So it became Cable & Wireless, CWIX. They forgot to
bill their customers, so that went on for about a year, until they
ran out of money, and were borged by Prodigy.
I think that's how it went.
Some biotics I must have taken had an adverse effect the previous
week.
Oh, I know, I know, but I saw Dom's original post and saw the number
of replies and got all interested. When I found out most of the
replies were "neener neener I've had my email address longer than you
have" I was doubly disappointed.
You know, like when you walk into the house and smell cinnamon, and
get all excited thinking someone's baked cinnamon buns, only to find
out that it's merely a candle in the bathroom attempting to overcome
someone's results of last night's burrito feast. You should have
expected it, since really you're the only one in the house who bakes,
but it's still a disappointment.
Yeah, like that.
Jeannie
still pleased for Dom, though
Same here for RoadRunner, which got turned over to Comcast for some
legal reasons which I never paid attention to.
--
QueBarbara
A friend had an email account at the WELL early on. They might be
defunct now, I'm not sure. She might still be active there.
> But the annual picnic for customers, former customers, and staff
> continued long after it made marketing sense.
Picnics don't need external reasons to make sense. It's built in.
I was with Wimsey back then, the other major ISP in town in the early
1990s.
--
bill
remove my country for e-mail
And it's still quite something he's had his email addy for so long.
Myself, I blush as I enter camsoccer AT att.net since 1999, when I was
37 (I'm not old--Dennis).
Has it been brought up that the no longer teenager still has the same
acct, or access to those emails?
Mr C
I think that the Mindlink picnic continued into the 2Ks. I was at the
first Mindlink picnic in the co-founder's front yard under the
airport's flight path back in 86 or so.
> Has it been brought up that the no longer teenager still has the same
> acct, or access to those emails?
This no longer teenager has all his emails sent and received back to 1996
which was when I upped the disk size on my old 486 machine from 100MB to a
whopping 500MB. Before that I had to keep deleting stuff. For mailing
lists I keep a minimum of a year's worth in this instance of Agent and
have a separate instance into which I archive them about once a year. Both
instances are copied into another machine.
--
Nick Spalding
>This no longer teenager has all his emails sent and received back to 1996
>which was when I upped the disk size on my old 486 machine from 100MB to a
>whopping 500MB. Before that I had to keep deleting stuff. For mailing
>lists I keep a minimum of a year's worth in this instance of Agent and
>have a separate instance into which I archive them about once a year. Both
>instances are copied into another machine.
What is the reason for keeping emails sent and received that date back
to 1996? Do you read through them sitting in front of the fire on
cold winter nights?
Les
Evidence, plotting, and revenge.
--
charles
>Evidence, plotting, and revenge.
I think he may not be the kindly old gent that he projects in his
postings.
Les
Keeping it for DNA evidence!
For usenet we have Google Groups but for mailing lists we have to keep our
own archives. The non-list stuff just goes along for the ride.
--
Nick Spalding
> "Jeannie" <hpje...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
>> On Jun 4, 4:09 pm, "D.F. Manno" <dfma...@mail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > I guess it really is true: you never know what impact you
>> > can have on other people's lives.
>>
>> That's really neat. What a nice feeling it must have given
>> you. It's always heartening when people let you know you have
>> made a positive impact on them, no matter how many years later
>> they tell you.
>>
>> And I'm sorry that this wonderful thread-beginning devolved
>> into an email-address-longevity dick-waving contest. Jeez.
>> Of all threads to get hijacked off into the weeds....
>
> LOL, Jeannie, this is AFCA. *Every* thread drifts at some point. (How else
> did "Payday Lending Part Deux" evolve - er, bad pun - drift into a
> discussion of evolution and Intelligent design?)
Yes, but this one drifted with the first reply.
--
D.F. Manno | dfm...@mail.com
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man零 oldest exercises in
moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification
for selfishness. (John Kenneth Galbraith)
> And it's still quite something he's had his email addy for so long.
It's a yahoo.com account. I use it for online merchants that I think
might spam me and for people I don't want to have my personal address
right away. The fellow patients fall into the latter group, of course.
> Has it been brought up that the no longer teenager still has the same
> acct, or access to those emails?
Her address is a title of a Smashing Pumpkins song ("Medellia Of The
Grey Skies"), so if she's still a fan it makes sense she'd still have it.
I've had the same email address since the mid-'90s. When we went over
to high-speed internet through our cable company I started paying our
old dial-up $25/year to keep my old address. Just a lot easier.
Dana
>In article <g29jse$52k$1...@news.datemas.de>,
> "Lisa Ann" <lisa...@stalnaker.com> wrote:
>
>> "Jeannie" <hpje...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>
>>> On Jun 4, 4:09 pm, "D.F. Manno" <dfma...@mail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> > I guess it really is true: you never know what impact you
>>> > can have on other people's lives.
>>>
>>> That's really neat. What a nice feeling it must have given
>>> you. It's always heartening when people let you know you have
>>> made a positive impact on them, no matter how many years later
>>> they tell you.
>>>
>>> And I'm sorry that this wonderful thread-beginning devolved
>>> into an email-address-longevity dick-waving contest. Jeez.
>>> Of all threads to get hijacked off into the weeds....
>>
>> LOL, Jeannie, this is AFCA. *Every* thread drifts at some point. (How else
>> did "Payday Lending Part Deux" evolve - er, bad pun - drift into a
>> discussion of evolution and Intelligent design?)
>
>Yes, but this one drifted with the first reply.
AFTER the nice comment, though.
Boron