• MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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    I was born in 81, so I get lumped in as a millennial AND a gen-Xer AND an 80s kid AND a 90s kid… Anyone I try to have a discussion with assumes I’m wrong because I’m either too young or too old to understand. People older than me think I’m a most leftist bleeding heart liberal that has ever existed, but people younger than me think I’m a hard line conservative half the time. Quite frankly it’s exhausting.

        • ettyblatant@lemmy.world
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          If you wanna get real pedantic about it, millennials are considered to be FROM 1981 to 1996. I was born a few years after you, and I get called an Elder Millennial. Which always makes me imagine those Teletubbie Elders and they’re bad ass.

          ETA: I don’t think you can ever escape the “you’re too young to understand” crowd of GenX haters. I caught that shade too, which is extremely boring and rude lol

      • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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        Every night but apparently wishes don’t actually work no matter how many innocents you sacrifice or how perfect your binding circle.

    • Brocon@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Born in 80. Share the feeling. We are called xennials. And it’s unnerving… sometimes.

        • Brocon@lemmy.world
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          Superior… Well. I don’t miss the smell of smoke everywhere. But I do miss the slower news cycle. And not having to grow up with any media that try’s to tell me everybody is everybody’s enemy.

        • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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          How about the part where only we so accurately can gauge how shitty the internet has gotten in the last 15 years. I don’t consider superior life experiences a benefit when they only serve to remind us what was lost and can never be reclaimed.

    • samus12345@lemmy.world
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      You probably started remembering stuff in '84 and were 9 in '90, so you qualify as both an 80s and 90s kid.

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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      Honestly I’d argue it was the sweetest spot to live in, we came home with the street lights and didn’t have to go through metal detectors at school.

      The only problem is literally no one younger or older than us cares that we struggled with the boomers for longer than anyone. Millennials call me boomer, boomers call me millennial. Fuck all of you I remember what the world was like before popups.

    • wick@lemm.ee
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      Yea I was probably too young to remember anything of the 90’s. Probably my earliest memory that feels like a part of my “kidhood” is being annoyed that 9/11 interrupted my morning cartoons. Even then I wouldn’t consider that part of my core childhood memories. But who knows, maybe there are people with vivid memories of themselves living their best life as a 5yo in 1999.

  • Codilingus@sh.itjust.works
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    My favorite I’ve heard is a friend made the distinction of Elder Millennial: Old enough to remember life pre-internet, young enough to still be relevant.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        Only because everyone else does shit at voting. There’s only 75 million boomers left in the US, and millions of those are too bedridden or too mentally incapable to vote. There’s a lot more people in the 18 to 60 crowd than there in in the 60+ crowd.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      83 here. We’re a bridge generation.

      We were in high school by the time the internet really started picking up, but we’re exposed to tech early enough to learn it.

      We also had much jankier software. I’m finding that the kids coming out of college now in non-tech fields are less tech-literate than 10-20 years ago because all the smart devices they’ve grown up on just do everything for them.

      • oo1@lemmings.world
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        5 months ago

        exposed to tech early enough to learn it.

        translation: playing doom instead of doing schoolwork.

        • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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          Fun story. I took Latin the first year my school offered it as a second language, and they were required to offer any language a minimum of 3 years for the students who started it because it 3 years was required for some diploma programs.

          After the first year, the teacher quit. So for the second year they hired a new guy who they were very excited about. He used to teach Latin on a live satellite broadcast to high schools and colleges, which was a huge deal to have accomplished in the 90s.

          Well, it turned out he basically read scripts and has assistants give him answers when students called in questions to the hotline, and he didn’t actually know how to teach Latin.

          But the class was taught in a computer lab because some of the other Language classes has software for exercises.

          And that’s how I spent the entirety of Latin II playing Starcraft.

          • oo1@lemmings.world
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            5 months ago

            haha cool. best we had was an incompetent information systems teacher (pretty sure he was in the masons) who was never in the room. Anyway someone managed to sqiurrel simcity away somewhere on some of those PCs.

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              I can’t really comment on the comparative merits of doom vs scool wrork. I’d need a time machine to get some more experience with the latter.

              My only datapioint is that I passed the exams, so doom must have some teaching ability.

              I shoud also credit wing commander 3 (with pixellated luke skywalker in the fmv cutscenes) - that was also a big part of my gcse revision plan.

      • VerdantSporeSeasoning@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        As someone working at a college–yup. A lot of students don’t know how to log out, or find save files. Where would they have learned it, though? You never log out of mobile devices.

        • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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          I guess you don’t really explicitly save files in a lot of cases on mobile, huh. Hell, even when you do, they just magically save to some predetermined directory somewhere the vast majority of the time. “What’s a file system?”

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      I don’t think it’s special to be a 90’s kid, and nothing to really be proud of and everything. But when someone born in 98 or 99 says they are a 90’s kid… That’s even weirder. You were just barely aware of your surroundings for this “glorious years”.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        90s kids got some pretty unique stuff. We were around pre and post internet. We lived through the yo-yo resurgence. We had the absolute golden years of American kids cartoons. We grew up as kids without cell phones, but were still young enough to be tech literate. Last generation that grew up with “come home when the street lights come on”, and we remember 9/11.

        • littleblue✨@lemmy.world
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          American “kids” cartoons? Pfft. Have you already forgotten about Liquid Television? That shit was so clearly by stoners, for stoners that even MTV knew it wouldn’t fly in any other time slot than post-midnight, but maaan was it glorious! Sifl & Ollie, Ren & Stimpy, Aeon Flux, The Maxx, Big Head, and so much more! (fuck Beavis & Butthead, the inbred cousin that made scrote-cheese like Howard Stern marketable? Hard pass.)

          • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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            Ren & Stimpy spent it’s beginnings and all but it’s last season on nickelodeon at like 7 in the evening. You’d watch it, rugrats, and Doug, plus re’runs through the week. Now kinda like Rocko’s Modern Life, maybe it shouldn’t have been a show targeted at 10 year olds, but it was.

            MTV’s other liquid shows like Big Head and Aeon Flux were never targeted or made for kids to watch. You were a 90’s teen/young adult if you were meant to be watching those shows.

            • littleblue✨@lemmy.world
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              Apologies, I misremembered that fact about Ren & Stimpy. Might’ve been mixing it up with other clearly “for stoners, by stoners” content (not unlike Rocko’s Modern Life). Additionally, “teen/young adult” is a kid — unless you’re a GOP politician/priest, and it’s “90s” not “90’s”, while we’re splitting hairs. 🤪

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      I think that’s only because you had more time to accumulate 90s memoribilia. If they had siblings born earlier, they would have been born into 90s hand-me-downs, molded by it.

      I mean what parent would buy a tamagotchi when it was culturally relevant for a 3 year old unless they were swimming in cash. But they’d buy one for an 8 yo and the 3 yo would grow up with it.

  • Bunnylux@lemmy.world
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    1992 here and I never really think of myself as a 90s kid. All the things I remember happened in the 00s.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      i mean that’s what “X kid” means. usually if you were born in a decade you’re the next decade’s “kid”.

  • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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    That’s ridiculous, 1995 and up kids still remember CRT monitors, weird ball mice, green glow in the dark toys/hats/shoes, VHS tapes, polaroid cameras, all the girls on TV having a perm, etc.

  • BigBenis@lemmy.world
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    1993. What I know about the 90s is what I learned about it once I achieved self-awareness well into the 2000s

    • qarbone@lemmy.world
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      You didn’t gain self-awareness until after the age of SEVEN?! What the actual hell? Are you ok?

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        Most people have only vague memories before they’re 5 or 6, so that’s not so uncommon. I, an elder millennial, have lots of memories from before I was 6, but only because I have a big life event that happened when I was 6 that marked a “before time” and “after time” allowing me to easily place memories before or after the age of 6. All of my memories from the “before time” are vague and hard to place at specific ages except for a specific few that I can place due to houses I lived in at the time and what my parents told me.

        I wouldn’t say I wasn’t self-aware in the “before time” but I definitely don’t remember it as well as what came in the “after time”. I’m sure that is what the above poster is referring to.

    • iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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      December of 94 here, same. All of my memories of that time have nothing to do with the trappings/culture of the decade outside of my Disney VHS tapes and the bean bag chair I watched them in

    • rImITywR@lemmy.world
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      Old enough to play Ocarina of Time when it came out.

      Or at least old enough to play it at your cousin’s house and ask your mom for it for christmas because you really wanted it but she wouldn’t buy it for you because she was in full 90’s helicopter parent mode and thought it looked too scary. I’m sure that’s a universal experience.

      • Snailpope@lemmy.world
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        This

        Still remember staying up till midnight on new years watching my brother play, he said I could have a turn in the morning. I did not get that turn in the morning.

        • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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          I’ve been playing it on a PC emulator recently and it’s still really fun. The controls take a bit getting used to, but it’s great other than that. If you never got a chance to get your turn growing up, I highly recommend checking it out.

          • rImITywR@lemmy.world
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            Even better than an emulator is Ship of Harkinian, a full source port to modern PC hardware. It has tons of graphical and QOL improvements, built in randomizer, modern controls if you want.

            And to the people that like to say “MM iS beTTeR”, they just released 2 Ship 2 Harkinian.

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              That’s actually what I’m playing it on! Sorry, I’m a nerd, but not enough of a nerd to distinguish between an emulator and a port. But yeah, the QoL stuff is nice. For example, you can have it respawn you where you left off rather than back at the starting area every time you continue your game.

              I haven’t seen anything for modern controls though. I might have to poke around.

              Edit: This video explains some of the good settings to try out. Free camera is mentioned near the very end. https://youtu.be/IPFb5iCMaBY

      • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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        “No mom, it’s not scary at all!”

        redead scream

        Edit: ReDead! Took me a long time to remember what those scary mofos are called!

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      That’s the memes opinion. I’d shave off a couple years more. Roll it back to like 91. You don’t get to be a 90s kid if you were only 6 or 7 when it ended.

      • expr@programming.dev
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        I was born in '90. Some of my most cherished memories as a kid are playing 90’s video games: Donkey Kong Country 1-3, Super Mario World 1-2, and later, the revelation that was the N64. I didn’t get to watch a lot of TV, but when I did I loved 90’s cartoons like Dexter’s lab and Arthur (and Mobile Suit Gundam Wing whenever I could catch it, though that was exceptionally rare)

        I vividly remember people stockpiling for Y2K and my mom turning on a radio to listen to the reports of 9/11.

        I’m definitely a 90’s kid, and so is my brother who is a year younger than me ('91).

        • rdrunner@lemmy.world
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          Oh God, Y2K. My dad was in the Air Force and his unit was responsible for a big base’s networking. My dad had to go into work that night as they expected the entire base’s network to just erupt. We were all so worried about it and then … Nothing happened at all, he was home by 2am.

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            I don’t really know what all the common folk were expecting. All that shit was being updated for several years to be ready for 2000. I think it was just a combination of the thrill of things possibly going haywire, along with still being a general ignorance among a large portion of people about computers and programming.

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          You sound like you’re arguing against me and reinforcing what I said at the same time. I said roll back being a 90s kid to like 1991. You’re saying you and your brother born in 90 and 91 are 90s kids. So did I?

  • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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    To me, being a Millennial to me means you remember 9/11. If you don’t, then you’re Gen Z.

    The Oregon Trail generation might remember Challenger and the fall of the Berlin Wall and Rodney King, but not Reagan being shot.

    • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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      What if I don’t remember 9/11 (because my teachers and parents deliberately didn’t tell me what was happening) but remember the Oregon trail?

    • dumbass@leminal.space
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      Just got off the landline with the Gen X Council, turns out you haven’t payed tour dues in 10years, so they’re going to have to revoke your card until payments have been sent.

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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        I’ve never considered myself Gen X. I’m think I’m among the earliest scouts of the Oregon Trail generation. Definitely don’t remember Reagan getting shot.

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      I don’t think you understand how child culture works, frankly I doubt you have even the slightest grasp on how normal culture works and Wooohooo let me tell you child culture is a hell of a lot more complex and nuanced.

      The media of our formative decades is what classifies us as the decade kid we are, and that only happens for people who live through the period old enough to contextualize abstract thought but young enough to be a separate social group than the adults.

      So no, kids born in say 95 doesn’t fall into that impressionary period for being a ‘90s kid’ and all the rancid pedants like yourself that are milking this meme for clout are actively damaging the discourse.

      Not that you care, none of you are actually here to advance knowledge or discussion. The internet was a mistake and I regret every cable I laid to help build it.

  • rowdy@lemmy.world
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    ‘95 here. Never heard anyone my age claim they were a 90s kid. Sis is ‘93, I don’t think she considered herself one either.

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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      I think the best marker for what ‘decade’ someone’s childhood exists in is to have people list the media that stuck with you as a kid.

      I see the ‘90s kid’ cutoff being the prevalence of Spongebob Squarepants, it aired in 99, so kids hit their formative years watching it if they were born early 90s and beyond making them ‘00s kids’. It’s like stratigraphy for media. Actual 90s kids were already too old to adopt him en masse so their media was Ducktales and Rescue Rangers, preceded by the generation raised on Bugs Bunny before they removed the bigotry, and the generation before that Mighty Mouse and Pink Panther.

      As usual there is always some bleedover, for example I’m part of the beginning of the Ducktales era yet still have a great fondness for Pink Panther which was already in reruns before I was born.

    • nexas_XIII@lemm.ee
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      But this specifically is calling out getting the title of millennial, why would you expect gen X to be a part of the meme?

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          I’m not trying to start shit, but wouldn’t all people who were 90’s kids start the council at the same time due to how time flows?

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            If we are adopting the ‘media culture’ view, then you need to at least be around 6 to start making the abstract connections necessary to make lasting memories about media.

            So in 91, some ‘90’s kids’ are turning six and able to effectively even be cognizant of a council, whereas some 90s kids are yet to be born.

            Or all generational cadres are made up arbitrary bullshit but if you watched Ducktales AND Rescue Rangers, and knew bugs bunny when he was still racist, then it is likely you and I will have a lot more in common than 90s kids who knew Spongebob and Blues Clues.

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                For you maybe, for me that’s fighting words.

                NONE of you has had to deal with as many years of boomer bullshit as I have. NONE.

                You think shit’s bad for you now? Imagine turning 50 and being in the same economic position that all you millennials whine about. At least the economy has a chance to recover before you retire. None of my cadre have that kind of time left.

                Some older GenX did make their wad before things got bad but literally the 3rd month of my IT career when the dotcom bubble burst.

                If I could say to you what I really want to say, I’d get banned. If you’re brave enough come to my sub and reply to what I’m about to post.

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                  For you maybe, for me that’s fighting words.

                  Then you are the source of most of your frustration.

                  You think shit’s bad for you now?

                  I didnt say anything about anything.

                  If you’re brave enough come to my sub and reply to what I’m about to post.

                  Lol okay tough guy.

                  Chillout this is a meme thread. No one is talking shit about Boomers, Gen X, Millenials or Zoomers. It’s a comically inoffensive meme.

                • Laser@feddit.org
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                  Dude, relax

                  At least the economy has a chance to recover before you retire. None of my cadre have that kind of time left.

                  Don’t worry, it won’t; the issue is not with what people associate with economy, that one is booming, just look at how the market is developing. But the wealth pools at the top and there’s no political will to change that.

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      Bro stealing the remote from your little brother who was watching doug to watch MTV was not being a 90s kid. You had punk rock, give us something.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      Yeah, but as a member of Gen X, we’re the last to be able to own property.

      Swings and roundabouts, innit?

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        Sure that’s possible for older GenX.

        Xennials like myself had barely a few years (in my case months) before the dotcom bubble ruined our one generational leg up.

        If I had been smart and dumped IT and went back to school for writing, I’d probably have a house, but stupid autistic me wanted to fucking be a computer person…

        • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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          Tech pays just fine. Maybe not as much as being a lawyer, but there are people who make £50-100k per year working in tech as programmers, engineers, or professors. That’s a reasonable salary for most of the country. I know there are people in America making way more, though that does have to cover health care.

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            Not if you were caught in the middle of Florida when IBM and everyone else pulled out from the dotcom crash, flooding the entire state with thousands of career IT people WITH FUCKING IBM ON THEIR RESUMES and you are a naive little autist with literally zero support fresh out of college.

            Sure there are parts of the world my experience would have landed me a living wage.

            Not in florida in the 90s. I never broke the equivalent of £30k till I crawled out of that humid hellhole.

            I never recovered and people never seem to tire of dismissing it all as my fault.

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              You’re talking about things that happened in the 90s. If you are still struggling now 3 decades later because of that then I have to question if you are the problem. I know people about my age (I was born in 2001) getting mortgages working in tech without even a proper computer science degree, just doing desktop servicing and repair. There have been some rough times recently with people getting fired after the pandemic ended and with the AI boom. However there have also been new opportunities thanks to AI. I am getting funded to do a 3 year PhD with a 19K a year bursary thanks to AI hype. If there is an AI bust that just means more jobs for regular programmers as companies realize that replacing them with LLMs wasn’t a good idea. If not then anyone who can make or work with AI models is quids in.

              I have never worked in or been to America so I have no idea what has or hasn’t happened in Florida before I was born, nor do I care. Given that was three decades ago you shouldn’t really care either. If it’s that big of problem can’t you “move state” since America is supposed to be so big and diverse? For me to leave the UK which is much smaller I would need to go through immigration. There are booms and busts in all markets and always will be until we can overthrow capitalism.

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              5 months ago

              I was in the same place experiencing the same thing, hell we probably ended up working together doing trivial jobs surrounded by people grossly overqualified. Things did end up better eventually for me, sorry to hear it didn’t for you. We got the short end of the stick there for sure.

  • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Born in '72 here. What is this attention to generations and acknowledgement of existence you speak of? Your words are strange and foreign to me.

    • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Don’t you have a mortgage to pay off? Hush hush to work, and leave the internet to us. Doesn’t matter if you were in some usenet mailing groups already, when most people couldn’t type on a keyboard.