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.

First initial, last name. Metafilter at the time was open for signups for about 30 seconds at a time, I didn't want to use any of the usual handles and didn't have time to conjure up a new one.

I started using the internet off and on in about 1997. It didn't take over my life until after college, 1999 or so.

I don't remember exactly what I saw that changed my initial preconceptions about it (I think I expected a vast MUD)... but I remember being impressed by some of the first art I saw online. And being able to research without heading to the library...