So There

January 5, 2009 8:03 PM

Do you have something to say, but never had the chance to? Founded in late 1997 and originally published August 15th, 1998, So There has stood as a testament to your daily lives for over five years.
posted by cjorgensen (26 comments total)

Who the hell, on the Internet today, has something to say but a lack of chances to say it?
posted by Bokononist at 8:13 PM on January 5 [2 favorites has favorites]

2009 - 1998 = 5?
posted by ALongDecember at 8:22 PM on January 5

stood as a testament to your daily lives for over five years.

sorry, should have been

2009 - 1998 > 5.
posted by ALongDecember at 8:23 PM on January 5

Well, it IS over five years. About six over, in fact.
posted by yhbc at 8:27 PM on January 5

Yeah, I cut and pasted that from their about. I also emailed them about it.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:28 PM on January 5

THE INTERNET: Older Than Five Years Old.
posted by pwally at 9:17 PM on January 5

Though you'd never guess that from the level of discourse.
posted by Abiezer at 9:23 PM on January 5 [2 favorites has favorites]

Over five is the new over 9000. It's because of the recession.
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 9:24 PM on January 5

Hi! I've been stalking you for a few years now. I sit outside your apartment and take pictures. I just thought you'd like to know that I'm blogging about you now. You should check out my website, it's called SoThere.com; also, that underwear makes you look fat.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:22 PM on January 5

For this kind of torture, I like grouphug.us.
posted by hanoixan at 11:25 PM on January 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

I don't know why I expected to find my name on there, or to find any of theirs. I should have remembered there's no internet in Hell.
posted by emelenjr at 12:04 AM on January 6

from August of 1999 comes this nugget:

Isn't amazing how time flies so quickly? I don't know about you, but I think so. It seems like it was just yesterday when I was daydreaming my way through English class, drifting through thoughts of you- when I dreamed of that day. August 27th- it was a day I knew would never come. I think down in my heart I always wanted it to though.

It should have been our sixth month anniversary of being together. I remember back in March, thinking, "I wonder if we'll be together in August. It seems like a long way away." And it did. It still does, even though it's already passed. I don't feel like I'm here anymore. I don't feel like I'm living my life.

You saved me so many times. Without you there, I feel as though I'm lost all the time. Like I'm just wandering around, trying to find a place in this big atmosphere we call earth. Isn't it funny how I say "this atmosphere called earth" as though it's a place I've been, not my home? Things like that are funny. Not really. You've always been my biggest weakness. Even when we were together, you could always get me to change my mind about something. (With the exception of Britney Spears.) It seems like a long time ago. Maybe it's just because we haven't really talked in a long time.

I don't know.

I was crushed when you said it wasn't working. I knew and know that it never could have, I just wished it had. I don't hate you. I couldn't. I think I miss you though. I wonder sometimes if you miss me too. Everything seems to be out of my grasp... that's how I always looked at our relationship. I had you, but I didn't. You were too far away. It was like something you wanted so badly that you could taste it, but you knew you couldn't have.

Tricks are sick like that.

I'm always yours. Part of me, at least. You know that though.

And that, I think, about sums it up. A site full of comedy gold tin.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:38 AM on January 6

I remember seeing this site back in 1999.

Who knew the internet was full of so much angst? Oh. Teenage girls. That's right.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 4:21 AM on January 6

I wouldn't have traded loving you at that time for anything, even a giraffe.

WIN.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 4:21 AM on January 6 [3 favorites has favorites]

Ew, icky, rinse it off me. I don't want to hear about the deep, meaningful feelings of people I know, let alone a bunch of anonymous twits.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:34 AM on January 6

That's OK. I've been used to being SILENCED ALL MY LIFE.
posted by exogenous at 5:47 AM on January 6

I have nothing to say, but I'm not going to let a little thing like that stop me.
posted by malocchio at 6:18 AM on January 6 [1 favorite has favorites]

The fucker that spawned that mawkish, wah wah, look at my pain but admire my depth BULLSHIT together is sooooo dead.

http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=sothere&tld=com
posted by fatfrank at 7:28 AM on January 6

"The fucker that spawned that mawkish, wah wah, look at my pain but admire my depth BULLSHIT . . . "

Getting mad at emo only makes it stronger. It feeds on it, like zombies feed on brains.
posted by Flipping_Hades_Terwilliger at 7:48 AM on January 6

Seems like sothere would be perfect for this crowd. I didn't expect you all to hate it so much. Ouch.

But hey, once this thread is closed you know where you can go.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:42 AM on January 6

But hey, once this thread is closed you know where you can go.

Dude, I am so there.
posted by From Bklyn at 11:41 AM on January 6

I thought the graphic design was cool.
posted by cjorgensen at 12:38 PM on January 6

I've posted no less than 4 letters there over the past few years. Very cathardic. *shrugs* At least it was for me anyways. I've also had about 3 or 4 responses and/or letters written back to me. Less cathardic. I like it more when I get the last word, I suppose.
But then, I listen to Dashboard Confessional, Amberlin, The Get Up Kids, and many other emo bands in the 60,000+ albums I have (thank you Napster, thank you Bittorrent). I'm still waiting for the genre of music that I can't find one thing about it I like. My typical playlist goes from Chris Crofton to Jealous Sound to Miles Davis. I blame it on working in record stores for 10+ years. Also, I'm usually pretty sad for no good reason at all.
posted by Bageena at 1:37 PM on January 6

<pedant status="just relieved you didn't use the word 'closure'">

cathartic

</pedant>
posted by eritain at 7:18 PM on January 6

I can see the appeal behind the site. Kind of a literate post secret sort of thing. I am also impressed by the longevity. It is a bit on the sentimentality side, but I didn't mid so much. It does take a bit of mining to find all the gold, but some of the letters can be quite moving, funny, charming, etc.

I do agree that the need for the site, at a time when everyone and the blog has a dog that this might not be as interesting as it once was, or even serve as great of a need, but I still found value.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:31 PM on January 7

It's pretty far over on the sentimentality side or at least, in all fairness, the dozen or so posts that I read. The lay-out is good though, easy to read, navigate and etc - big ups to whoever designed it - it's just the content didn't do it for me.

I remember a couple (five?) years ago stumbling across a ... livejournal(?) I think it was livejournal page from some late-teenage girl in Michigan - she was not popular, she worked at a drug store running the photo processing machine, and she spent all her time complaining about the stuff that makes up life: boys, lack of boys, work, lack of money, drudgery and dis-enchantment with school, whether to go to college when she can't afford it, going to shows. And most sad her mom falling behind on the mortgage and getting them foreclosed and etc. Never mention of a dad. Like a dope I never saved any of it, but her writing was clear and honest and her story both banal and not. I think I read her page, periodically, for six months, to the point where summer was starting and she was wondering what to do about this confluence of no-work no-school no-boy but mom settled and the girl/young woman was living at friends'. It was rather insane to be reading the dispatches from this persons life with no other involvement than the observing of it. I decided that though it was compelling, I did not want to participate. It was not quite like watching a train-wreck, but there was something about it that was not straight.
It's a crazy development, how many lives we can see into at a time.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:49 AM on January 8