I joined the WELL in 1987 when I was in grad school and had to get a computer. I saw an ad for the WELL in a magazine published by some friends about the Grateful Dead, and thought it would be fun to check out. Right after that I met someone at a party who was on the WELL and had an extra 1200 baud modem she was willing to lend me. Little did I know that it would change my life completely. I've met people through the WELL who are my dearest, closest friends. and some of those early WELL office parties stand out in my memory as being pretty wild times. I'm surprised that I wasn't at the one in the video, because I went to every WELL office party from the time I joined in June 87 until about 1992. Guess I musta been out of town....:-)

I remember at one early party tex took me into the VAX room and when I saw the machine I said, "Wow, we're all *in there*!" To someone who was completely alien to the world of computers until I joined the WELL, it was a strange universe. But I like people and that's what kept me coming back to the WELL: the human connection. The information was great but for me that part was secondary. I liked the part about forging a new social frontier. I liked the part about when someone was in trouble, the whole community banded together to help. I liked the part where people shared their vulnerability and (mostly) good things would happen. I even liked the part where people shared their vulnerability and bad things happened.....not that I would wish it on anyone, but it was so fascinating to watch the community get sucked into a vortex of miscommunication and misperception because of the limitations of the medium as it struggled to regain its equilibrium. When there was a thrash, it seemed like the world was going to end! and yet, here a lot of us are, still--actively contributing and making new friends.