I remember that chat had a black background, and you could type in a user name and log in, no registration. There was a scheduled time (Wednesday evenings at 7:00 I think)to encourage chat participation.
I know that I moved in May of 1998. I started taking summer classes, then went back to school full time in fall of '98. Shortly after I started school, I went to the library (I didn't have a computer then) and looked up Wheel of Time on Google. I was directed to wotmania and was there ever since. I mostly just read the theory posts. Then my parents got a computer with dialup and I would go to chat on their computer. Aside: Napster was a big deal then. (Holy crap!)
I got married in '02, had a son in '05. He just turned 9 years old.
Oy, trip down memory lane.
I remember the black background and scheduled chats. That goes way back! Napster was a big deal then. I remember when I first got broadband and was utterly amazed by the fast file transfers and unlimited supply of free music. Oh, and AIM. Come to think of it, wotmania was my gateway to lots of new ways to communicate. My first text message was from a wotmaniac in Oz. Yep, trip down memory lane.