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.

It doesn't stand for "you have been" anything - it stands for "Your Humble & Beloved Commissioner", the tagline I have used in dang near every report, poster, email and letter I have done for the fantasy football league I've been running for eleven twelve sixteen * long years now - the phrase has become so all-encompassing that it mutated long ago into shorthand, so "Your Humble, etc." is just as recognizable to me and my family and friends as is "H&B", "the Humble and Beloved", and of course "YHBC", to the point where the four letters are the first only thing I think of when prompted to enter a name or whatever.

I'm also a long-time Mefi lurker, and if I may be allowed one more fantasy reference, my years as a commissioner having to deal, firmly but not harshly, with a disparate pack of me-first yabbos has really made me appreciate the job Matt has done with the site and holding the center without being either avuncular or dictatorial. It's a very hard job, and it's always good to see it done well. So good, in fact, that I've been itching to put my two cents in, and, well ... okay, I'm also feeling very guilty (and unworthy) at having lurked and watched for so long that I finally (dare I say) snuck in the back door.

Sorry. Good to be here, but I still feel unclean, even though the first button I pressed was the 'donate' one - and I encourage any other self-respecting sneaks to do the same.

Carry on, I'll generally just be on the sidelines, watching.

okay, I'll shut up now.

4/11/02 - More addictive than crack, indeed.

4/12/02 - On mathowie's word that it's not open to the world at large, I've now displayed my e-mail address to all you bastards. God help me.

6/8/02 - Real vacation. Back in a week.

6/26/02 - You bastards. Now you've made me actually start a weblog.

8/11/02 - Shh. I'm playing Fantasy Football now. Be vewy, vewy, quiet.

9/16/02 - Okay, I mean it now - but trust me, I'm not going away mad. I do need to modulate my MeFi and do some other things, one of which is running the GFL (Gnational Football League - you haven't heard of it?), and the "Metafilter Contribution Index" thingie is a good self-motivator to do so. I'll be around, and I'll be back. Maybe even before my damn ratio drops below 4.00.

1/7/03 - Going down slowly!

3/1/03 - I am currently nursing a broken leg, and so will not be piping up with my usual annoying frequency.

12/19/03 (or, really several weeks ahead of that date) - I have (kind of) retired from MetaFilter. Thanks for listening!

4/9/04 Oh, all right. "The magic cookie to authenticate me as a MeFi user is DELETED NOW"

Happy now?

9/27/06 Wow, I haven't updated this thing in a while.

11/16/06 img= "www.foo.bar.bye_bye.jpg"

8/8/07 This is a pretty old profile at this point, as things go. I really haven't changed anything from the day I first snuck in, except the strikeouts in the text and the dated additions at the bottom. If I had had the skilz back when it was possible, I could have had one of those neat custom user pages that are only grandfathered now. But I didn't, and I don't.

11/12/07 My "Occupation" blurb used to say "I'm a lawyer, and a politician. Trust me." I was on the local Town Council for eight years, but last week I lost my bid for re-election to a fifth term. I've never been ousted before.

* 8/21/08 This is the 18th year in a row I will be running the Gnational Football League as the Humble and Beloved Commissioner. If I had had a kid instead, it could vote now.

5/28/10 - I forgot to edit this thing last year, and I did want to memorialize the fact that since last June, I have been the Master of Montgomery Lodge, A.F. & A.M., which is a pretty neat thing and which I am very proud of, even though our website isn't really all that great.

2/12/15 - I got upset with myself a few years ago and while I originally left in a huff I quickly decided to "brand new day" myself. I have been participating as Curious Artificer (it's a Masonic reference) since October, 2010, but now I think I would rather go back to this, original, identity. It is me, after all. Oh, and I also finally changed my profile picture.